What are the key features of laboratory experiments?
- control over variables due to artificial environment
- experimental group vs control group
- this allows cause and effect relationships to be established
What are practical issues to lab experiments?
- the artificial environments aren’t equivalent to real life
- can’t be used to study past events
What are theoretical issues to lab experiments?
- small samples
- hawthorne effect
- expectancy effect – if the researcher expects an outcome then they may unconsciously influence behaviour
Ethical problems for lab experiments?
- informed consent
- harm to participants
What are key features of field experiments?
- takes place in the subjects natural settings
- those involved do not know they are participating
- the reseaching isolates and manipulates one or more of the variables to see the effect
What is an example of a field experiment?
- Rosenthal and Jacobson – the teacher expectation one
What is the comparative method?
- a thought experiment carried out only in the mind of the sociologist
- sometimes referred to as a natural experiment
- relies on re-analysing secondary data but is designed to establish cause/effect relationship
What are key features of questionnaires?
- written answers to pre-set questions
- answers may be closed or open ended
Practical advantages of questionnaires?
- quick cheap and able to achieve large samples
- no need to train or recruit interviewers
- data is easy to quantify, particularly with pre-coded questions
Practical issues with questionnaires?
- data is limited and superficial
- could have to involve incentives
- no guarantee of identity (v)
- low response rate (r)
- inflexible
Theoretical advantages to questionnaires?
- reliable
- objective
- detached
- can test hypotheses
- produces quantitative data
Interpretivist criticisms of questionnaires?
- can’t obtain valid data about the meanings of actions
- no rapport
- subjective interpretations
Key features of structured interviews?
- similar to questionnaires
- questions are usually closed and therefore pre-coded
Practical advantages of structured interviews?
- fairly quick so can cover a larger number of people cheaply
- good for straightforward info
- easily quantified
- inexpensive
What are ethical issues to structured interviews?
- relatively few
- some may feel pressured to answer
- informed consent needed
- sensitive issues
- confidentiality but not anonymity
Theoretical advantages to structured interviews?
- reliable
- quantitative
- objective
- representative
What do Feminists believe about structured interviews and questionnaires?
- Graham – questionnaires and interviews give a distorted view of women as questions and categories are determined by male researchers
Key features of official statistics?
- produced by the government or other official body
- major source of quantitative data
- often used for policy making
Practical advantages to official statistics?
- free source of large amounts of data
- individuals are compelled by the state to be a part of the data
- comparisons can be made between groups
- conducted at regular intervals
Practical issues of official statistics?
- governments have a motive
- may be mismatched due to differences in data collection
- state definitions don’t match sociological ones (homelessness, truancy)
- state definitions change over time
Theoretical advantages of official statistics?
- reliable
- social facts
- patterns and trends
- representative
What do interpretivists believe about official statistics?
- cicourel – stats are merely social constructs that represent the labels officials attach to people
- hard stats – more valid and unable to manipulate (birth and death rates)
- soft stats – less valid and compiled against less rigorous definitions or subject to interpretations (suicides determined by coroners)
What do Marxists believe about statistics?
- deny that they are objective facts
- merely the outcome of labels applied to individuals
- designed to serve the needs of the powerful
- part of the ISA
What is an A03 to Marxists view of stats?
- not all stats support the ruling class (showing class inequality)
