Research Methods Key Concepts

• Validity

  How truthful and in-depth data is
• Reliability

  Whether data can be replicated to achieve the same result
• Quantitative

  Data which is numerical
• Qualitative

  Data which is descriptive and word-based
• Positivism

  A methodological approach which favours scientific methods
• Interpretivism

  A methodological approach which favours qualitative methods
• Social fact

  A statement about society which is objectively true, generalisable across society and impacts on individuals. Durkheim tried to establish "social facts".
• Primary data

  Data which is collected by the sociologist first-hand
• Secondary data

  Data which already exists and is analysed by sociologists
• Social desirability effect

  When participants answer questions or act in a way which society would deem as "good" or acceptable
• Sample attrition

  The number of participants who drop out of a study
• Interviewer bias

  The impact of an interviewer's opinions, beliefs and values on the interview process and the way participants answer
• Interview schedule

  The list of questions prepared for a structured interview
• Rapport

  A trusting relationship between researcher and participant
• Operationalise

  Making a concept measurable
• Sampling frame

  A list of names of potential participants
• Survey population

  The total cohort the researcher wishes to investigate
• Representative

  When data can be generalised to the whole survey population. When a sample reflects the characteristics of the survey population.
• Subjective

  When a piece of research is influenced by bias, values, beliefs and experiences
• Objective

  When a piece of research remains free from bias
• Malestream

  A Feminist critique of Sociology for being done by men, about men and for men while ignoring women as sociologists and subjects for research
• Hawthorne effect

  When people change their behaviour because they know they are being watched
• Verstehen

  When the researcher can empathise with the participant