Research Methods

• Open questions


   Allow respondents to answer however they want

  Generate: qualitative data

  E.g. Who are you most likely to obey and why?
• Closed questions


  Restrict respondent to a predetermined set of responses 

  Generate: quantitative data 

  I would always obey a teacher's request. yes/no
• Qualitative data


  Words

  Rich in detail or description, usually in textual or narrative form
• Quantitative data


  Numbers

  Numerical data, measurements of quantity or amount
• Structured Interview


  pre-set order of questions - quantitative data and qualitative data
• Semi-structured Interview


  There is a schedule of questions that should be answered but researcher has freedom to follow up on some responses - more qualitative data than quantitative data
• Unstructured Interview


  Questions are open and structure is flexible - qualitative data
• Random Sampling


  This is when a random method (names out of a hat, number generator) is used to select a sample from a list of the whole target population.
• Volunteer/ Self-selected sampling.


  This is when a research project is advertised with a poster, newspaper ad etc, and interested people approach the experimenter to become participants
• Opportunity Sampling.


  This is when the experimenter makes use of a sample already gathered for some other reason.
• Stratified Sampling


  This is where participants are identified from a list of the whole target population, but experimenters seek to acquire a precise representation of that population (proportional). For example, 3% 18-24 years old, British Caribbean; 5 % Buddhist, Male etc
• Strengths of Random Sampling

  • everyone has an equal chance of being selected
  • easy to gather participants
  • no experimental bias
  • low bias
  • can be checked mathematically for bias
• Weaknesses of Random Sampling

  • can randomly be biassed
  • under and over estimation 
  • might refuse to take part 
  • a perfect list is almost impossible
  • unlikely to get access to everyone who was originally chosen
• Strengths of Opportunity Sampling

  • easy to gather information 
  • ethical - asking to take part
  • good sized sample can be obtained far more quickly than a volunteer or random sample
• Weaknesses of Opportunity Sampling

  • can be biassed and might not represent all of the population because a certain type of people will already be gathered. 
  • experimenter bias - approaching certain people
• Strengths of Volunteer/Self-selected Sampling

  • people will take time to fill in the questionnaire because they have volunteered themselves 
  • ethical 
  • less likely to drop out
• Weaknesses of Volunteer/Self-selected Sampling

  • only a certain type of people will volunteer (volunteer bias)
  • may take a long time to get a big enough sample size
• Strengths of Stratified Sampling

  • very representative of the target population 
  • free from experimenter bias
• Weaknesses of Stratified Sampling

  • very time consuming + difficult to actually get
  • participant may not want to take part - biases sample
• How to Calculate a mean

  To calculate this, you add up all numbers and divide by number of numbers
• How to calculate the mode

  This is calculated by putting similar scores together, and counting which one occurs the most frequently
• How to calculate the median

  This is calculated by arranging scores in order and finding the middle value
• How to calculate the range

  The range is the a measure of the spread of a set of scores, shown by the difference between the highest value and the lowes
• How to calculate Standard Deviation

  This is the measure of the spread of data around the mean. The higher the value the more variation in your scores.
• Aim of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient

  To find out whether there are gender differences in obedience by 

  comparing male and females responses to a questionnaire gathering both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Procedure of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient

  • Gather 26 students in a year 8 form
  • send them a questionnaire with open and closed questions
  • Open questions = Have you ever disobeyed someone? and why?
  • Scale = Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree
  • Closed Questions = Yes or no
  • 10 Questions
• Quantitative Data Results of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient

  To scale scale questions data Strongly agree = 5 to strongly disagree = 1

  
• Qualitative Data Results of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient

  We analysed our qualitative data  by using thematic analysis by overall having a quick look at the answers and writing down 5 themes that they could link to and then made a talley of each qualitative answer under the theme they linked to to try and make a conclusion of to why students have disobeyed and to see if there was a gender difference in the results.
• Conclusion of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient (Quantitative Data)

  From my quantitative data working out it showed that boys were more obedient than girls as boys had a mean of 27 and girls had a mean of 24.6. However, the girls obedience rate had a range of 25 whereas the boys range was only 11 which could show that individual differences can also affect obedience.
• Conclusion of my practical Investigation to see which gender is more obedient (Qualitative Data)

  My qualitative data from my open questions also showed that boys are more likely to have a justified reason for disobeying if they do and girls tend to disobey because they don’t feel like doing something or they think that themselves are right.
• Conclusion of my practical Investigation to see which gendr is more obedient (Ordering Question)

  However, my ordering question showed that boys are least likely to obey a teacher whereas girls are least likely to obey older family members. This shows that boys are more likely to disobey a person with legitimate authority which doesn’t support my other results and may make the findings partially unreliable.
• Themes I made for my thematic analysis of my practical investigation into which gender is more obedient

  ‘Didn’t want to do it’, “thought it was stupid/harmful”, “disobeying school rules” and  “Thought that themselves was right”. Ithen looked at all of my responses and made a tally of each person and put them under one of these. Then I looked at my data and found that males tended to have a legitimate reason for disobeying such as “It was harmful what they were being asked to do” whereas females tended to either say “they just didn’t want to do it” or they thought that themselves were right”