3.1 - Quantitative Research Methods

Cards (14)

  • Who are quantitative methods favoured by?
    • favoured by positivists because they are objective and numerical
    • data can be cross examined to generate cause and effect relationships and generalisations
  • What are lab experiments?
    • test hypothesis in controlled environments, where researcher changes the IV and measures effect of DV
  • Strengths of lab -
    1. Highly reliable - the original experiment can specify precisely what steps are followed
    2. Can easily identify cause and effect relationships
  • Weakness of lab -
    1. Artifical - does not reflect real life behaviour
    2. Hawthorne Effect - may change behaviour if they know researcher is present
    3. Unrepresentative - small scaled experiment
    4. Would be impossible to control ALL variables (may be some confounding variables)
  • What is a field experiment?
    • takes place in the real social world, whereby the sociologist either creates a situation or adopts a real life situation for their research purpose
  • Strength of field -
    1. less artificial - field experiments are set in real world situations
    2. high validity (no hawthorne effect)
  • Limitations of field -
    1. Ethical issues (lack of consent)
    2. Less control over variables than lab experiments
  • What are official statistics?
    • collected by government officials. This method is favoured by positivists because data is quick, cheap and easy to obtain
  • Advantages of OS -
    1. Practical - cheap and easy to obtain
    2. Allows researchers to cross examine and establish cause and effect relationships
    3. Easy to compare - collected at regular intervals
    4. Representative/reliable - compulsory to fill out
  • Weakness of OS -
    1. the government collects these for their own benefit which can be misinterpreted by sociologists
    2. unreliable - census pps may make mistakes
  • Strengths of questionnaires -
    1. Practical - questionnaires are cheap/quick to obtain
    2. Quantifiable data/representative of a geographically widespread research sample
    3. Reliable - questionnaire can easily be replicated
    4. Limited ethical issues - respondent is under obligation
  • Weakness of questionnaires -
    1. response rate - postal questionnaires have a low response rate
    2. Low validity - people may be more willing to lie
    3. Unrepresentative - more willing to answer
    4. Interviewer is not there for follow up questions
  • Strength of structured interviews -
    1. Practical - training interviewers and administration is easy and cheap
    2. Representative - can reach a geographically wide research sample
    3. Results are easily quantifiable (coded answers)
    4. Reliable - structured process
  • Weakness of structured interviews -
    1. Lack of validity - people may lie or exaggerate