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| Frage | Antworten |
| What do positivists argue research should be? | Scientific, objective and quantitative |
| Why do they argue this? | They argue there is a measurable objective to social reality |
| Give some examples of standardised methods of research preferred by positivists | Official statistics, structured interviewsm, questionnaires, structured observation |
| What do positivists use the data they obtain to make? | Generalisations and cause-and-effect relationships |
| How do interpretivists disagree? | There is no objective social reality |
| What do interpretivists want to find out with the research they conduct? | Meanings |
| What open-ended research methods do interpretivists prefer? | Unstructured interviews, participant observation, personal documents |
| What do such methods of research allow the researcher to gain and how? | Understanding by experiencing the groups life style for themselves |
| What are the 3 key concepts sociologists use to judge the usefulness of a research method? | Reliability, representativeness and validity |
| For a method to be reliable, it must be _________ | Replicable |
| What does reliability mean using? | Standardised forms of research |
| What can a reliable piece of data be used for? | Systematically re-testing hypothesis about social behaviour |
| What can't sociologists study every member of the group they are interested in studying? | There are usually too many of them |
| What do the characteristics of the sampled group need to be in order to the data to be representative? | The same as those of the wider group |
| What does this mean the sociologist will be able to make on the basis of evidence from the sample? | Generalisations about the wider group |
| Why do positivists emphasise the need for representativeness? | So they are able to discover general patterns and make general cause and effect statements about social behaviour |
| What does 'validity' refer to? | How authentic and true data is |
| What is the difference between primary and secondary data? | Primary - collected by the sociologist themselves Secondary - already been collected by someone else |
| Give some examples of secondary sources of data? | Official statistics, historical documents, business records, media reports, personal documents |
| What are the three main factors that influence a researchers choice of method? | - The methodological preference of the researcher - Practical aspects - Ethical concerns |
| What are the two methodological types? | Positivists and interpretivisits |
| Which one prefers data to be scientific, objective and quantitative? | Positivists |
| What do intepretivists prefer data to be? | Qualitative, unstructured, valid |
| Give 2 examples of research methods preferred by each type | Positivists - questionnaires and official statistics Interpretivists - unstructured interviews and participant observation |
| How many factors are there surrounding the practical issues of a research method? | 7 |
| What are these factors? | Time - money - source of funding - personal factors - research subjects - research opportunity - personal danger |
| TIME | Some methods take more time than others - e.g participant observation takes more time than social surveys |
| MONEY | Money can affect the number of researchers (training), the number of respondents (incentives) and the amount of research time. Some methods such as postal questionnaires are cheaper than others. |
| SOURCE OF FINANCE | Research sponsored by government, business etc reflects the concerns of these funding bodies |
| PERSONAL FACTORS | Researchers may have careers, families etc so may not be able to do lengthy research |
| RESEARCH SUBJECTS | Some groups such as criminals are less open, so structured research methods are not appropriate |
| RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY | If a research opportunity suddenly appears, the research may have little/no time to prepare lengthy questionnaires or interview schedules |
| PERSONAL DANGER | Methods involving direct contact with a research group such as participant observation increase the possibility of danger to researchers |
| What are the three ethical factors? | Consent, confidentiality and effects on research subjects |
| Why must researchers gather informed consent from their research subjects? | The effects the research might have on them - it is wrong to manipulate of mislead people |
| Research subjects have the right to _________ | Anonymity |
| What does this mean about the research subjects when the research is published? | They should not be identifiable |
| Give one reason why this may be hard to achieve | If the group studied is small |
| How may the research subjects be affected by sociological research? | Research findings can be used by political groups in the media in ways that may damage the research subjects through embarrassment, harassment etc |
| How can practical, ethical and theoretical factors be interrelated? | Collecting qualitative data produces practical problems such as gaining trust and access Collecting quantitative data creates practical problems such as sampling frames, distribution of a sample etc |
| What is triangulation? | Combining qualitative and quantitative methods of research so that the strengths of one balances the weaknesses of the other |
| What 5 factors affect a sociologists choice of topic? | Practical factors Funding bodies Society's values Theoretical perspective Chance |
| PRACTICAL FACTORS | Some topics may not be easily studied, e.g high level political decision making |
| FUNDING BODIES | Funding bodies will only fund for topics they consider to be important Governments are much more likely to fund research that links to their policies |
| SOCIETY'S VALUES | Society's values change and the interest in particular topics and issues moves with them |
| THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE | A sociologists theoretical perspective is likely to influence their choice of topic e.g feminists are likely to study gender issues |
| CHANCE | Sometimes sociologists find themselves in a potential research situation by pure chance e.g hospitalisation as a result of illness gave one researcher the opportunity to do a study of hospital ward |
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