Research Methods

Question 1

What are practical issues that affect Research Methods?

Answer 1

• Factors affecting the Sociologist as they carry out the research
  
  • Time and money
  • Personal Skills
  • Gaining access to group

Question 2

What are ethical issues that affect Research Methods?

Answer 2

• Moral issues and guidelines that the Sociologist should follow
  
  • Informed Consent
  • Right to withdraw
  • Confidentiality
  • Psychological harm

Question 3

What are theoretical issues affecting Research Methods?

Answer 3

• Factors affecting the outcome of the data and what it achieves
  
  • Representativeness
  • Verstehen
  • Validity and Reliability 📈📉

Question 4

What is Positivism?

Answer 4

Sociologists that prefer objective and quantitative data. They use macro research to look at trends/patterns.

Question 5

What is Interpretivism?

Answer 5

Sociologists that prefer qualitative and valid information. They want to gain verstehen with their participants to give them an understanding.

Question 6

What key terms should be considered when discussing questionnaires?

Answer 6

• “Right Answerism”: Respondents changing their answers to what they feel is correct and not what they think is correct
• Leading Questions: Questions that encourage you to give a specific answer

Question 7

What are the 2 studies of Questionnaires?

Answer 7

• The Census: a legally required questionnaire
• Connor and Dewson: were investigating working class university choices, 4000 sent to 14 unis

Question 8

What are the positives of the Census?

Answer 8

• Legal requirement raises response rate
• No deception
• Representative of the whole population

Question 9

What are the negatives of The Census?

Answer 9

• Not time efficient to send and collect
• Answers aren’t confidential to the govt
• Sometimes not taken seriously (Jedi as a religion in 2001)

Question 10

What are the positives of Connor and Dewson’s Questionnaire?

Answer 10

+ No need to train interviewers
+ Data was processed by computers because of closed questions

Question 11

What are structured interviews?

Answer 11

Conversations with standardised (pre set) questions. The interviewer is given strict instructions

Question 12

What are the 3 key studies of Structured Interviews?

Answer 12

• Young and Wilmott: they researched 933 people’s extended family in London, using standardised questions to limit alternative answers
• British Crime Survey for England + Wales: Since 1981, it asks participants their experiences of crime over the last 12 months. 75% of 40,000 people took part
• Goldthorpe + Lockwood: Oxford Mobility Study, categorised 10,000+ men, most were “service class”

Question 13

What are unstructured interviews?

Answer 13

Guided conversations between the interviewer and interviewee

Question 14

What are the key studies of Unstructured Interviews?

Answer 14

• Dobash and Dobash: used 8hr unstructured interviews with domestic violence survivors and found the main trigger was challenging male authority
• Dean and Taylor Gooby: Used 90 min unstructured interviews with claimants about their experiences of unemployment. Inappropriate questions were removed

Question 15

What are Group interviews?

Answer 15

Multiple individuals having a conversation with the interviewer

Question 16

What is the example of Group Interviews?

Answer 16

• Willis: Learning to labour

Question 17

What are Participant Observations?

Answer 17

• When a researcher takes part in the target group/ sample activities
• Can be overt or covert

Question 18

What are the 3 Covert Participant Observation studies?

Answer 18

• Laud Humphreys: was a “watch queen” for gay men
• Griffin: investigated racism by dying his skin and hair black
• Patrick: was a teacher that was invited to a young gang, fled after 3 months

Question 19

What are the 2 Overt Participant Observation key studies

Answer 19

• Venkatesh: spent 18 months spread across 7 years with a Chicago gang, saw illegal acts but also saw a sense of community
• Barker: observed the Unification Church and concluded that it wasn’t a cult, contrary to popular belief

Question 20

What is a Lab Experiment?

Answer 20

• An investigation that took place in an artificial environment

Question 21

What are the 2 key studies of Lab experiments?

Answer 21

• Milgram: told participants to increasingly shock another volunteer taking a test
• Mayo: investigated factors affecting work productivity (e.g. lighting, heating)

Question 22

What are Field Experiments?

Answer 22

Investigations set in their natural environment

Question 23

What are the 2 key studies of field experiments?

Answer 23

• Rosenthal + Jacobson: Spurters
• Rosenhan: Investigated patients that were labelled as schizophrenic but stopped showing symptoms

Question 24

What is Secondary Data?

Answer 24

Information gathered by another researcher

Question 25

What are Official Statistics?

Answer 25

Data produced and provided by the government

Question 26

What are the 2 key studies of Official Statistics?

Answer 26

- **Durkheim**: looked at the link between suicide and religion (England > Italy) - **Public Statistics**: collected for govt policies (e.g. census used for no. of houses)

Question 27

What are the 3 types of Documents?

Answer 27

- Personal: written for their own purpose - Public: accessible and well known - Historic: written in the past

Question 28

What are the 2 Key studies of Documents?

Answer 28

- **Hey (personal)**: Wanted to investigate school girls' relationship, used notes and swapped diaries - **Anne Frank (historical/personal)**: wrote a diary about her experiences as a Jew during the Nazi regime

Question 29

What are the 2 types of Content Analysis?

Answer 29

- Quantitative: looking at how many times a word/phrase is repeated - Qualitative: unpicking underlying meanings