research methods

Question 1

types of content analysis

Answer 1

• formal (quantitative)
• informal (qualitative)

Question 2

Gatlung and Rouge’s news values

Answer 2

• Extraordinariness
• Threshold (big size events)
• Unambiguity (simplicity)
• Personalisation
• Negativity

Question 3

2 types of official statistics

Answer 3

• soft statistics
• hard statistics

Question 4

4 types of interviews

Answer 4

• structured
• unstructured
• semi-structured
• group

Question 5

2 types of experiments

Answer 5

• lab experiments
• field experiments

Question 6

2 types of variables and what are they?

Answer 6

• independent variable (changed by the sociologist)
• dependent variable (usually what we study)

Question 7

7 types of questions

Answer 7

• Closed ended
• Open ended
• Yes / no
• Multiple choice
• Multiple options
• Scaled question
• Other questions

Question 8

8 practical factors

Answer 8

1. personal interests
2. personal characteristics
3. cost
4. funding
5. time
6. access
7. opportunity
8. relevance

Question 9

5 ethical factors

Answer 9

1. informed consent
2. confidentiality & privacy
3. effects on participants
4. vulnerable group
5. covert issues

Question 10

8 Theoretical factors

Answer 10

1. bias
2. objectivity
3. reliability
4. representativeness
5. genealisability
6. validity
7. verstehen
8. theoretical view of society

Question 11

John Scott - 4 ways of assessing documents

Answer 11

1. authenticity (is it what it claims to be?
2. credibility (is it sincere?)
3. representativeness (is the content similar to the one found in similar documents?)
4. meaning (isn’t it misinterpreted?)

Question 12

4 types of random sampling and what are they?

Answer 12

• random (using randomiser)
• systematic (every Nth name on the list)
• stratified (divide people by characteristics and choose randomly)
• cluster (people devided into groups and random sample of these selected)

Question 13

5 types of non-random sampling and what are they?

Answer 13

• quota (specific number of particular types of people)
• snowball (meeting more and more people through people)
• purposive (targeting specific individuals you wish to sample)
• volunteer (people who wish to participate
• opportunity (choose people based on how they look like)

Question 14

who argued social human behaviour should be studied in the same way as natural science?

Answer 14

Auguste Comte

Question 15

what is hypothetico-inductive method?

Answer 15

conduct a research and then induce the hypothesis

Question 16

what is hypothetico-deductive method?

Answer 16

conduct a research to prove the hypothesis

Question 17

what is imposition problem?

Answer 17

forcing into boxes

Question 18

3 types of questionnaires

Answer 18

• self-completion
• postal
• interview

Question 19

types of observations

Answer 19

• participant observation
• non-participant observation
• structured observation (sociologist has a number of categories and record how they occur)

Question 20

what is interviewer bias?

Answer 20

when the interviewer might ask leading questions

Question 21

3 types of documents

Answer 21

• public
• personal
• historical