QUANTITATIVE - field experiments and questionnaires

QUANTITATIVE - field experiments and questionnaires

1. field experiments

   • it takes place in the subject's natural surroundings
   • those involved do not know they are the subjects
   • Brown and Gay (1985) sent a white and a black actor to interviews for the same post. the actors were of different ethnicities but matched for gender, age, qualifications.
     • they are more natural and valid for real life, however now have less control
   • critics argue they are unethical as the subjects don't have knowledge or consent
   • the comparative method
     • 'thought experiments' - does not involve the researcher actually experimenting on real people at all. works by identifying two groups that are alike in all major resects except for the one variable we are interested in. the compare the two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect.
     • Durkheim's (1897) classic study of suicide which relied on analysing official statistics
     • it avoids artificiality, it can be used to study past events, it avoids the ethical problems of harming or deceiving subjects

2. questionnaires

   • close ended
     • respondents must choose from a limited range of possible answers that the researcher has selected in advance . they are pre- coded 'yes/no/don't know.'
   • open-ended
     • respondents are free to answer however they wish, in their own words,
   • practical issues in using questionnaires
     • STRENGTHS: they are quick and cheap way to gather large amounts of quantitative data widely spread. no need to recruit and train interviewers. data is usually easy to quantify
     • LIMITATIONS: data is often limited and superficial. adding to cost when including a prize draw to persuade respondents in. with postal and emailed questionnaires can never be sure if the respondent received it. or if the intended resipient completed the questionnaire and not someone else. very low response rate. inflexible, once finalised no going back.
   • theoretical issues in using questionnaires
     • positivism
       • hypothesis testing
         • questionnaires can establish correlations becuse they yield quantitative data about the links between different variables. once the correlation has been established, we can construct a hypothesis about its possible cause
       • reliability
         • if nother researcher repeats the research using the same method, they should gain the same results. positives like this becuse it allows a scienctists findings to be checked and confirmed or falsified by others
       • representativeness
         • findings can be generalised. they are large- scale and they use representative samples
       • detachment and objectivity
         • unbiased, the scientists own subjective opinions and values must be kept separate from the research and not be allowed to 'contaminate' or affect the subject matter the the research findings in any way.
     • interpretivism
       • detachment
         • we must use methods that involve us closely with the people we research so that we can gain a subjective understanding of their meanings
       • lying, forgetting and trying to impress
         • validity relys on the willingness and ability if respondents to provide full and accurate answers
           • schofields (1965) research on sexual behaviour of teenahers, inreply to the question 'are you a virgin?' one girl answered 'no, not yet'. whether she did not understand ir was simply being mischievous, lacked validity
       • imposing the researcher's meanings
         • closed and open ended questions