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Research methods - Coggle Diagram
Research methods
Unstructured interviews
Rapport and sensitivity-
can build a rapport/sense of trust and this makes it more possible for the interviewee to answer truthfully, useful for sensitive topic
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Checking understanding-interviewee that does not understand the questions, can be explained or follow up question
Exploring unfamiliar topics-
some sociologists might not have a clear hypothesis and this can determine what their aims are and develop initial ideas
Practical problems-
time and sample size-hard
to get a big group
training-need sociology background as need to ask follow up question (valid)
need interpersonal skills and this helps to establish trust/rapport
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Reliability-
each interview is unique with own questions so impossible to replicate and compare findings
Quantification-
answers are not pre-coded and hard to count up , no quantitative data so not useful for establishing cause and effect relationship
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Structured interviews
Practical issues-
training is straightforward and cheap
and quick ,and gain factual info from a large amount of people= easy to sort
Response rate-
usually has higher response rate compared to questionnaires and this is due to face-to-face aspect
Reliability-
easy to standardise and control them and allows them to make sure that they are conducted the same way- provides a 'recipe'
Validity-
Close-ended questions and researcher needs to provide pre-set answers-unvalid
very little freedom and may not be able to explain the question~no data
false data as they may lie/exaggerate
Inflexibility-
theere is no freedom and questions will be drawn up in advanced-does not reflect the researchers concerns
SNAPSHOT- taken from one moment of time-society changes
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Questionnaires
Practical advantage -
quick/cheap means of getting large amounts of data from large numbers of people
no need to recruit/train people to collect the data (online)
easy to sort out especially with close ended questions and processed quickly
Reliability-
when researched repeated, can use the same questions with same order
with online questionnaires no researcher can influence their answer
can allow comparisons, by asking same questions at different group/ time
Detachment and objectivity-
they are a detached/ unbiased method as there is no personal involvement with the respondent
Representativeness-
if you can collect from a large number of people it can be representative of the wider society
tend to pay more attention and then can make accurate generalisations
Ethical issues-
may ask intrusive and sensitive questions but do not need to answer them
the can guarantee their anonymity and do not have to answer
Practical problems-
fairly brief and individual would not complete long questionnaire
and might not have been completed
Low response rate-
some not bothered to do or return the questionnaires and the returning answers are different for those who didn't- unemployed return, fully employed don't
Inflexibility-
once questionnaire is finalised they are stuck with the questions-and cannot be changed
Questionnaire as snapshots
give picture at only at the time questions are answered-society always changing
Detachment-
there in no direct contact between sociologist and respondent-not close= not valid
cannot know whether respondent and researcher interpret the question the same way
Lying, right answerism-
problems of validity created when they give answers that are not frank -try to please the researcher than tell truth
Better for the researcher to observe for themselves