research methods

Question 1

positivism

Answer 1

treat humans as objects that can be observed, measured and counted in the same way as natural phenomenon

Question 2

quantitative data research

Answer 2

expressed in numerical form
- objective
- representativeness

Question 3

interpretivism

Answer 3

weber - people are active conscious beings with free will
- social constuction

Question 4

interpretivism characteristics

Answer 4

• ethnographic
• rapport
• verstehen
• qualitiative data
• primary methods

Question 5

positivist criticism of interpretivism

Answer 5

unsystematic and unstructured
- ethnographic research is hard to judge
- difficult to replicate

Question 6

verstehen

Answer 6

an empathetic understanding of situations in the way that participants do

Question 7

researcher imposition

Answer 7

bias towards the researchers thoughts and interests

Question 8

influences on research topics

Answer 8

1. social problems
2. interests and values of the researcher
3. current debates in academic world
4. funding
5. access to research subjects

Question 9

primary data

Answer 9

carried out directly from the sociologist within the community

Question 10

secondary data

Answer 10

previously collected and published

Question 11

practical factors

Answer 11

• cost
• time available
• subject matter of research

Question 12

ethics -BSA

Answer 12

1. no deception
2. privacy of subjects
3. subjects aware of research
4. protected from harm
5. no illegal or immoral behaviour
6. no harm to researchers

Question 13

hypothesis

Answer 13

informed guess that the researcher thinks might be true

Question 14

operationalisation

Answer 14

turning an abstract idea into somethinbg measureable

Question 15

random sampling

Answer 15

entails selecting subjects randomly from a sampling frame

Question 16

systematic

Answer 16

pickign a subject at a regular interval within the frame

Question 17

stratified

Answer 17

divides population into smaller frames and uses another method within each subframe

Question 18

non random sampling

Answer 18

deliberately targeting specific groups that soicologists want to study

Question 19

quota sampling

Answer 19

decides how many of each subframe should be included

Question 20

purposive sampling

Answer 20

allows researchers to pick who they think fit the nature of the research

Question 21

opportunity sampling

Answer 21

makes the msot of situations where research population is most likely found

Question 22

snowball sampling

Answer 22

gaining access to a group is difficult - using connections of one person

Question 23

volunteer sampling

Answer 23

advertises for research subjects

Question 24

detecting bias

Answer 24

• pilot studies can find misunderstandings
• respondent validation invloves feedback on if the data was interpreted correctly

Question 25

social survey

Question 26

longitudinal survey

Answer 26

studying the same group over a long period of time

Question 27

longitudinal survey problems

Answer 27

- drop out rate - attatchment issues - expensive

Question 28

questionnaires

Answer 28

closed and open questions asked to respondents

Question 29

questionnaires benefits

Answer 29

- non time consuming attracts participants - straightforward questions bring desired data - reach larger samples

Question 30

questionnaires problems

Answer 30

- bias in leading questions - different interpretations - low response rates affects validity

Question 31

structured interviews

Answer 31

closed questions where passive interviewer cannot deviate from the set questions

Question 32

structured interviews benefits

Answer 32

- conducted quickly - better response rate

Question 33

structured interview weaknessess

Answer 33

- infelxible - fail to capture change - reserarcher imposition

Question 34

secondary data

Question 35

official statistics

Answer 35

data collected by government such as ONS or Census

Question 36

unofficial statistics

Answer 36

quantitative data collected by non governmental organisations

Question 37

statistics strengths

Answer 37

- easy and cheap to access - positivist preferred - large representative samples - trends can be identified

Question 38

statistics weaknesses

Answer 38

- not a complete picture of sociological problem - political abuse - socially constructed

Question 39

content analysis

Answer 39

media products such as adverts are used to identitfy how social groups or situations are portrayed

Question 40

content analysis strengths

Answer 40

- cheap - comparitive methods - reliable

Question 41

content analysis weaknesses

Answer 41

- time consuming - personal and political views - subjective

Question 42

ethnography

Question 43

unstructured interviews

Answer 43

guided conversation with infornal structure

Question 44

unstructured interviews strengths

Answer 44

- qualitatie interaction - flexible - researching sensitive groups

Question 45

unstructured interviews weaknesses

Answer 45

- researcher has to be selective - difficult to categorise - fewer particiapants - less representative

Question 46

group interviews/focus groups

Answer 46

investigate dynamics of groups - children feel comfortable - dominating personalities

Question 47

semi structured interviews

Answer 47

closed and open questions adding depth and detail

Question 48

observation

Answer 48

non participant and participant

Question 49

non participant observation

Answer 49

researcher observes an acitvity as a detached entity

Question 50

non participant strengths

Answer 50

- detahced observation means its objective - not influenced by researcher views

Question 51

non participant weaknesses

Answer 51

- observing artificial behvaiour - observers make personal judgements

Question 52

participant observation

Answer 52

sociologist immerses themself in the activity

Question 53

overt

Answer 53

the subjects know the observer is a soiciologist

Question 54

covert

Answer 54

sujects arnt aware of the sociologist

Question 55

participant observation strengths

Answer 55

- researcher sees perspective of group - validity - respondent validation

Question 56

participant observation weaknesses

Answer 56

- researcher effect - attachment - breach ethics of safeguarding

Question 57

mixed methods

Answer 57

triangulation methodologial pluralism

Question 58

triangulation

Answer 58

combining research methods to verify validity of research findings

Question 59

the case study

Answer 59

detailed and in depth examination of one particular case or instance of something using methodological pluralism

Question 60

methodological pluralism

Answer 60

combining different research methods in order to build up a full picture

Question 61

methodological pluralism

Answer 61

1. official stats show how many are unemployed 2. media products assess impact of unemployement 3. questionnaire assess local experiences 4. unstructured interviews for qualitative data 5. direct observation of interactions in job entres