Flashcards
sociology
Cards in this deck (18)
- 1Research MethodsRevision
- 2primary and secondary dataprimary data is information collected by sociologist themselves. eg : social surveys, PO, experiments.
secondary data is information that has been collected by someone else . eg : official stats, documents. - 3Quantitative data Qualitative dataQuantitative data refers to information in a numerical form. eg ; official stats. Positivist
Qualitative data by contrast gives a feel for what something is like. eg : unstructured interviews.
Interpretivists - 4Practical issues- time and money
- requirements of funding bodies
- personal skills and characteristics
- subject matter
- research opportunity - 5Ethical Issues- Informed consent
- confidentiality and privacy
- harm to research participant
- vulnerable groups
- covert research - 6Theoreticaltheoretical refers to questions about what we think society is like and whether we can obtain an accurate truthful picture of it.
- validity
- reliability
- representativeness - 7Samples and SamplingThe basic purpose of sampling is usually to ensure that those people we have chosen to include in the study are representative or typical of the research population, including all the people we have not included in the study.
- 8The sampling FrameThis is a list of all the members of the population we are interested in studying.
- 9Sampling Techniques- Random sampling were the sample is selectee purely by chance
- Quasi-random is where every nth person in the sampling frame is selected
- Stratified random the researcher first stratifies ( breaks down) the population in sampling frame by age etc
- Quota the population stratified and then each interviewer is given a quota of say 20F and 20M which they have to fill with respondents who fit these characteristics. - 10Experimentswhat ?
who , and why ?
Evaluation : - 11QuestionnairesWhat ?
who , and why ?
Evaluation : - 12—
- 13InterviewsWhat?
who, and why ?
Evaluation : - 14Group Interviews and Semi-structured interviews- Group In :
- Semi-structured In : lie in between these two extremes. each interview has the same set of questions in common , but the interviewer can also probe some information. - 15Participant ObservationWhat ? where the researcher joins in with the activities of the group being studied. this can be either covert where the researcher goes "undercover" or overt where the researcher's true identity is made know.
Who , and why ? Interpretivists would tend to use PO as it gives a first and insight into the social interactions and behaviour f the group studied.
Evaluation : However positivists would reject PO due to its lack of reliability s it can not be standardised or replicated. - 16Strengths of overt and covert POObserve people in their natural setting and gain valid data (T)
Subjective involvement means insight and verstehen can be gained (T)
Can study behaviour of groups over time (P) - 17Weakness of overt ad cover POCan only observe small groups so can not generalise findings (P)
Positivists argue that PO is not scientific. As it based on one researcher's interpretation it can't be replicated (T)
PO can be time consuming and expensive (P) - 18StudiesJames Patrick ( 1973) Patrick's overt study of a Glasgow gang can be used to illustrate the issue of 'getting in' as he was close to the boys' age are gained access through the gang leader 'Tim'. Getting out was a problem for Patrick as he had to leave the gang abruptly due to violence.
Maurice Punch (1979) Punch's overt study of Amsterdam police can be used to illustrate the problem of 'getting in' as the police officers only let Punch see certain aspects of their activities n patrol. it also shows the issue of 'staying in' in terms of going native as he starting behaving like a police office.