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level: Research methods

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Research methods

Question	Answer
Macro approaches focus on the large scale of whole societies,micro approaches on small-scale social structure	Micro/macro approaches
the idea that when action occurs another always follows because the latter is caused by the former	Causation
A statistical relationship between variable that expresses a level of probability	Correlation
Approaches that start at the level of the individual,focusing on small-scale phenomena	Interpretivism
Basic agreement on a set of shared values	Consensus
Disagreement between groups with different interests	Conflict
An approach based on studying society in a scientific manner	Positivism
Information and facts that take a numerical form	Quantitative data
Prejudice that distorts the truth when research is influenced by the values of the researcher	Bias
The researcher do not allow their values or feelings to influence the research	Objectivity
A list of questions used in social surveys	Questionnaires
The systematic collection of information from a sample	Social surveys
Mini version of full scale study designed to test it's feasibility	Pilot studies
A theory at the start of a research	Hypothesis
All those to whom the findings of the study may apply	Survey population
A list of members of the population from which a sample is chosen	Sampling frame
When the findings about a sample can be said to apply to larger group of people sharing their characteristics	Generalisability
When each person has an equal chance of being selected	Random sampling
When the sampling frame is divided by gender or age	Stratified sample
Dividing how many people with what characterisitics to involve in the research and then identifying them	Quota sampling
When one respondent puts the researcher in contact with others	Snowball sampling
Information and facts that cannot be presented in numerical form	Qualitative data
An interview in which the questions ate standardised and the replies codified to produce quantitative data	Structured interview
The effectiveness of the research in generating consistent data	Reliability
The extent to which a research method measures what it claims to measure	Validity
Free form interview method objective is to get respondent to talk about whatever they feel is important about a topic	Unstructured interview
A respondent is encouraged to talk at length about a particular subject	Semi-Structured interview
Involve respondents discussing about a topic as a group	Group interview/focus group
Intentional or unintentional effect of the way that the interviewers asks questions	Interviewer bias
How relationship between researcher and respondent may bias respondent and may lead to invalid data	Interviewer effect
Lack of objectivity,the researchers view influences the approach taken	Subjectivity
Experiments taking place in a closed environment where conditions can be precisely controlled and monitored	Laboratory experiment
Changes in people's behaviour that result from their knowledge of being observed	Hawthorne effect
Experiments that take place in the natural setting of the real world	Field experiment
A form of comparative analysis that tracks changes among a representative sample over a period of time	case study
A research methid used for the systematic analysis of media texts and communication	Content analysis
Extent to which the characteristics of a sample population accurately reflect those of the target population	representativeness
Information collected by a researcher	Primary data
Already existing data	Secondary data
Non-numeric data that expresses the quality of a relationship	qualitative data
The subjects of an experiment.the researcher changes different variable to test their effect on behaviour	experimental group
No attempt is made to similarly manipulate the control group	Control group
Research method focused on identifying groups that share broad similarities	cross-sectional survey
The study of cultural meanings embedded in media forms, used to explore and interpret hidden meanings embedded within texts	Semiology
The expression of a society's collective will which bears down on an individual,shaping their beliefs and behavioural choices	collective conscience
The argument that because human have conciousness they make free and informed choices about their action	Free will
Combining research methodologies in ways that allow them to complement each other and to improve research reliability and validity	Methodological pluralism
Based solely on the values of those making a decision	Value judgement