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In-depth Research Methods - Coggle Diagram
In-depth Research Methods
Case
Studies
Detailed investigations
of
a specific thing
e.g. one person, one group, one institution or one event
One particular kind is the
life history
, which studies one person's whole life
Examples
Willis's
(1977) study of one group of boys in a school
Venkatesh's
(2008) study on the organisation and impact of one criminal gang
Interpretivists
like case studies because they can provide very
detailed data
, and they give the researcher great
insight
into the subject under investigation
Positivists
dislike case studies as they
aren't representative
of wider populations, and so they can't be used to make accurate generalisations because of the
small sample size
Focus
Groups
A
small sample
, perhaps fewer than 10 people
They're
put in a room together
, and asked to talk about a particular issue or try to answer a specific set of questions
The discussion is
observed by a researcher
Because it's more like a
natural conversation
, the subjects may feel
more able to express themselves
than if they were speaking
directly to an interviewer
Sometimes the focus group is
left alone
and a
video camera
or
audio recorder
is used to
record the discussion for later analysis
Sometimes researchers
stay with the group
and
take part in the discussion
- they use the focus group to conduct a
group interview
Longitudinal
Studies
Done at
regular intervals
over a
long period of time
They're often
large-scale quantitative
surveys, and they tend to be used by
positivists
Some studies like the TV programme Seven Up! are more
qualitative
Strengths
Can
analyse changes
and
make comparisons
over time
Can study how the
attitudes
of the sample
change
with time
Weaknesses
Hard to keep contact
with the sample, which may make the study less valid
You need
long-term funding
and you need to
keep the research team together
Hard
to recruit a
committed sample
who'll want to
stay
with the study
Rely on
interviews
and
questionnaires
which might not be
valid
or
reliable
Ethnography
Studies
The
scientific description
of a specific culture by someone with
first-hand experience
of observing that culture
First used by
anthropologists
to study
traditional societies
They joined the community, learnt the language, and noted their observations
It's based on small-scale fieldwork that tends to produce
qualitative
data
It's
valid
because you can study behaviour in
natural settings
Can use ethnography to see what a whole
community
get up to, or to find out just one
individual's life history
Can use all sorts of methods to get
primary data
, including
case studies, focus groups
and
longitudinal surveys
and observations
Researchers may also analyse
documents
such as
diaries
and
letters
, which are
secondary data
Strengths
In-depth research
which gives
inside knowledge
about a community
Get a
valid
picture, but it relies on the
researcher's interpretations
of what people do and say
Weaknesses
It's
difficult
to
make generalisations
from small-scale research, and it may not be
reliable
It's difficult to
reproduce