Research Methods

• What are practical advantages of questionnaires? (2)

  - Quick & cheap way of gathering large amounts of data

  - Easy to quantify data
• What are practical disadvantages of questionnaires? (2)

  - Low response rate can distort results

  - Brief information limits amount gathered
• What are ethical advantages of questionnaires? (1)

  - Even if there are intrusive/sensitive questions, they're under no obligation to answer them
• What are ethical disadvantages of questionnaires? (1)

  - Researchers don't always gain informed consent and make it clear that they don't have to answer every question
• What are theoretical advantages of questionnaires? (3)

  - Reliable (can be repeated0

  - Objective (unbiased)

  - More representative
• What are theoretical disadvantages of questionnaires? (1)

  - Not valid (in depth) as they're snapshots of one moment in time
• What is an negative example of questionnaires?

  Hite's study- sent out 100k questionnaires but only 4.5% were returned
• What are practical disadvantages of experiments? (2)

  - Impossible to control all variables in complex society

  - Only suitable for small sample sizes
• What are ethical disadvantages of experiments? (2)

  - Informed consent is difficult to get from vulnerable groups

  - May cause harm to participants
• What are theoretical advantages of experiments? (2)

  - Reliable- effective experiments can be replicated by other researchers

  - Objective
• What are theoretical disadvantages of experiments? (1)

  - Hawthorne effect- people change their behaviour when they know they're being observed
• What is a positive example of experiments?

  Milgram's experiment-

  - Told participants they were assisting in an experiment about learning & they had to give an electric shock when they learner got a question wrong

  - 65% were prepared to give 450 Volt shocks

  - Positive as it showed obedience to authority and showed how experiments can be effective
• What are practical advantages of interviews? (2)

  - Training interviewers is quite easy & cheap

  - Can be quick (structured)
• What are practical disadvantages of interviews? (2)

  - Time consuming

  - More costly than questionnaires
• What are ethical advantages of interviews? (1)

  - Very few ethical issues
• What are ethical disadvantages of interviews? (1)

  - Interviewee may feel unable to withdraw consent if there's sensitive topics
• What are theoretical advantages of interviews? (2)

  ~ Structured are reliable

  - Unstructured are valid
• What are theoretical disadvantages of interviews? (1)

  - Inflexibility (structured)
• What is a positive example of interviews?

  Young & Willmott-

  - Researched extended families in East London & out of 987 people, only 54 refused to be interviewed

  - Showed that interviews are effective as people are more likely to agree to be interviewed
• What are practical advantages of observations? (1)

  - Allows observer to ask questions an insider couldn't (covert)
• What are practical disadvantages of observations? (2)

  - Gaining access to groups may be hard

  - Has to win the trust of the group which may take a lot of time
• What are ethical advantages of observations? (1)

  - Avoids deception & consent is gained (overt)
• What are ethical disadvantages of observations? (2)

  - Immoral to deceive people (covert)

  - Researchers may participate in illegal or immoral activities
• What are theoretical advantages of observations? (1)

  - Very valid- sees people's real behaviour (covert)
• What are theoretical disadvantages of observations? (2)

  - Not very reliable- people won't act the same way again

  - Risks creating Hawthorne affect (overt)
• What is a negative example of observations?

  Pearson's study of football hooliganism-

  - He met up with fans in pubs before and after matches and studied their behaviour

  - He didn't live in the area, so couldn't study observe them in a non-football context

  - He engaged in violent and aggressive behaviour whilst at matches with the supporters

  - Shows that observations are negative and cause more harm
• What are practical advantages of official statistics? (4)

  - Often free

  - Allow easy comparison between groups

  - Huge amounts of data available

  - Show trends over time
• What are practical disadvantages of official statistics? (1)

  - Collected for the government so may be no data available for the sociologist
• What are ethical advantages of official statistics? (1)

  - Very few ethical issues
• What are theoretical advantages of official statistics? (2)

  - Very reliable as they're standardised

  - Representative due to massive sample size (census)
• What are theoretical disadvantages of official statistics? (1)

  - Not valid (especially crime stats) as crimes are under reported & meanings aren't represented
• What is a positive example of official statistics?

  Durkheim- Statistics are valuable
• What is a negative example of official statistics?

  Atkinson- Lack validity & are socially constructed

  - Represent labels that people have
• What are practical advantages of documents? (3)

  - Sometimes only surviving source of evidence from the past

  - Often cheap

  - Quick
• What are practical disadvantages of documents? (1)

  - Researcher may need special skills to understand documents
• What are ethical disadvantages of documents? (1)

  - Data from personal documents may be shared unconsentually e.g. Anne Frank's diary
• What are theoretical advantages of documents? (1)

  - Valid as it's in depth & rich qualitative data
• What are theoretical disadvantages of documents? (2)

  - Marginalised groups less likely to be represented

  - Not very reliable
• What is a negative example of documents?

  Anne Frank's diary