Flashcards
Research Methods & Examples
Cards in this deck (15)
- 1Sampling- Has to be representative of the population
- Population doesn't have to equal whole of society, but rather subgroups e.g. women.
- Using a representative sample of women allows sociologists to make generalisations about wider society.
- Townsend Et Al (1978) - poverty,
2,700 adults from the population of London, 30 out of 755 wards
= a representative sample whereby they could make generalisations from it. - 2Sampling Frame (what is an important thing to remember?)- Sampling frames have to include every member of the survey population otherwise you run a risk of sampling bias (in that some groups are overrepresented and others are underrepresented.)
- Is a list that provides information about everyone in the population from the sample is to be drawn. - 3Example of an Observation (Covert)- James Patrick (A Glasgow Gang Observed)
- Teacher at a school, Tim offers him the opportunity to join in with gang life under the pretence that he was Tim's best friend.
- Meets on 12 occasions between October 1966 and January 1967
- Has to be accepted into gang, appropriate dress wear and age.
- Goes to Library, gets involved in Criminal Activity, unable to keep up pretence, and not get directly involved with action of gang. - 4Ethnography - Anthropologists such as MEAD (studied Gender Roles in tribes & how they differed, learned language and joined community)- Long term, writing about a way of life.
- Participant Observation/Observation is preferred method.
- Study primitive cultures.
- Favoured by anthropologists, but has more recently been integrated into Sociological Research. (Focus on Industrial Societies) - 5Informal Interviews - an example of:Ann Oakley (1999) - From Here To Maternity (intensive interviews with 66 mothers)
- Sample of women due to give birth at the same hospital. (so as not to confuse the main research aim) - 6Social Survey- The Census
- 7Example of an experimentMillgram (1965) - people response to obeying orders, and to what extent they will do.
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) - self fulfilling prophecy - 8Examples of a Field Experiment- Rosenhan (Mental Asylum) - wanted to test the hypothesis that 'Psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane/insane'
- Sissons (1970) - Man in Bowler Hat and Suit and Man in Labourer Clothes asking for directions (peoples' responses to him taking into consideration the actor's apparent social class.) - 9Example of the Experimental Method:Mayo (1973)
Chicago Electricity Company
Workers responded to his presence, rather than the changed variables of lighting, length of breaks etc. - 10Content Analysis - example of:GUMG (Glasgow Media University Group)
- Bad News Study
- Miners Strike coverage
- Used both quantitative (counting how many times words were used to describe particular social groups) and qualitative (interpreting the meaning conveyed to the viewers) methods. - 11Personal Documents - examples of: What is the sociologists name who quoted this?- Diaries, letters, photos, memos, biographies etc. (Plummer 1982)
- 12Examples of a Case Study & Life History/Novel- The Dispossessed provides a valid insight to the experiences of a society at the time E.G. The Dispossessed is hailed as one of the most thorough insights into the effects of Capitalism, Communism and Anarchism ever written.
- 13Historial Documents - an example of:Wilmott's Study of Family Composition (went to church records to assess how Industrialisation had shaped the structure of families from classic extended to nuclear or alternatives over time)
- 14Ethnomethodology - what is the name of the sociologist who conducted the 'What If' experiment?Garfinkel
- 15What did Garfinkel hope to achieve?Shed some light onto the taken for granted assumptions about basic human interactions and certain social situations, through impromptu experiments. (students acting as boarders in their own home)
- Valuable insight into interactional basics, but not very valid way of testing complex social relationships.
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- Flashcards on Research Methods & Examples , created by merryreindeer on 11/06/2014.
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