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Practical and ethical issues in sociological research - Coggle Diagram
Practical and ethical issues in sociological research
Practical issues
Choice of topic and method:
studying some things may be harder than others
topic: GCSE results easy to measure, but anti-school subcultures hard
method: questionnaires easy to conduct, observation hard
Time, money, staff, training and safety:
funding & sponsership
gov is biggest funder of research
universities, voluntary groups
Space and facilities
Access and gatekeepers:
access to a sample frame and locations physically e.g. confidendial
Sampling:
representative sample (can be sample frame shortened to representative)
Random sampling, randomly select from sample frame
Systematic sampling (quasi random), sample frame pick every Nth person
Stratified sampling, split sample into male & female (for example) and if 55% men, 45% female then take 11 men and 9 women
Opportunity sampling, without a sample, randomly looking for people
Quota sampling, "go find 11 men", no sample frame, hard as you have to identity people
Probability sampling:
Non-probability sampling:
Cluster sampling, no sample frame, clusters from each geographical area
Snowball sampling, identity one in hidden group and hope to identity another then another
Pilot studies:
test run on small scale, helps avoid practical waste of time
Processing data:
quantitative or qualitative
surveys easier, observations harder
Theoretical issues as a practical challenge:
sociology people looking at variables and causations (what the is the variable causing the other variable, dependent causing independent)
you must formulate a hypothesis, otherwise going in blind
one you've got a hypothesis, you must operationalise the concepts & variables (turn clear and measurable, but hard to do for some things e.g. ethnicity)
Ethical issues
Choice of topic:
sociologists supposedly target 'problematic' groups, are you demonising these people?
Consent:
informed consent, tell everything, but causes practical issue that may invalidate behaviours
unethical for deception & dishonesty
post-hoc consent, after study consent, if you inform them then they say no then you've wasted time
covert research, undercover for research, deceptive, people may withdraw consent afterwards
some groups like children cannot consent so need consent of carer / parent
Privacy and confidentiality:
keep answers confidential unless someone in danger etc, legal requirement to protect them
anonymity, protects people no personal details, removes privacy issues, if mention something serious cannot tell police, fake names for schools etc
Effect on participants:
emotional harm, must guarantee right to withdraw from study, need to be sensitive & aware of participants and what you are putting them too
children and vulnerable adults, possible secondary victimisation
Wider societal impact:
will your research add to stigmatisation of groups / organisations
try avoid exposing sensitive issues
unintended impacts, problems you may create by being insensitive or not thinking
Obligations to sponsors and funding bodies