Social Research Methods

    Planning a research project and formulating research questions
    What can you do to ensure your physical safety during your research?
    This is an unpleasant aspect of doing research, which cannot be ignored. Unfortunately there are many situations nowadays where a researcher is exposed to danger. Being aware of possible risks might make us think again about the particular type of respondent we planned to interview or the situation we planned to place ourselves in. “Tips and skills” on page 86 makes disturbing reading but does contain practical advice, including the use of personal alarms. At least make sure you carry a mobile phone so you can call someone and be reached by them. The research activity can be enormous fun as well as richly satisfying, but there is a downside.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 86, 87
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Ethnography and participant observation
    What is the name of the role adopted by an ethnographer who joins in with the group’s activities but admits to being a researcher?
    These terms come from Gold’s (1958, cited on page 433) classification of participant observation roles. These range from ‘complete participant’ (a covert role) to ‘complete observer’ (an overt but unobtrusive role). The ‘observer-as-participant’ role has the main emphasis on observation but is more intrusive into the activities of the group. Finally, the ‘participant-as-observer’ is fully involved in the group’s activities, but because they adopt an overt role, the other members are aware that they are being studied.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 433-438
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Social research strategies: quantitative research and qualitative research
    The constructionist ontological position suggests that:
    The two main ontological positions in the social sciences are ‘objectivism’ and ‘constructivism’. Whereas the first considers social phenomena to exist independent of people somehow, the second position considers them as a product of social interaction, in a constant state of revision. Answers (b) and (d) state the objectivist viewpoint and answer (a) gives the constructionist position. Both positions have merit when we come to a consideration of how concepts can be operationalized. In more recent times, researchers have come to question their own impact on the development of meaning in a social sense, to the point that research of any type can be argued to affect the nature of the research object, so that we can never research a social phenomenon without altering it. This kind of thinking has come to symbolise the ‘post-modernist’ approach.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 29
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Focus groups
    Why have feminists argued that focus groups successfully avoid “decontextualizing” their participants?
    The focus group method has been seen to be compatible with a feminist sensitivity for various reasons. One of these is that this technique recognizes the participants as individuals who are part of a wider social network, rather than abstracting the “respondent” as an object of study. Obviously the focus group meeting is a contrived setting for discussion, even with “natural” groups, but its great advantage is that the individual is seen as operating within a social context, so the study is of the social construction of the self, preferred by many feminist researchers (see Wilkinson 1999, cited p506).
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 520
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Sampling in quantitative research
    The findings from a study of young single mothers at a university can be generalised to the population of:
    The findings of research based on random sampling of the population can be fairly applied to the population as a whole, but only to that population. This means that we must be very clear about the population we wish to study before drawing down the sample. There may be superficial resemblances between various populations but there may be substantial differences as well. We simply don’t know until we do the research. It is better to claim for your findings only that which can be defended, because this will earn greater respect for you and your work.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 193, 194
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Social research strategies: quantitative research and qualitative research
    The qualitative research strategy places a value on:
    We expect all research to be carried out according to the highest quality standards, tested for validity and reliability and subjected to ethical considerations. Some research studies numbers of things, like their instances and frequencies of occurrence and the relationship of some things to others along these dimensions. We call these studies ‘quantitative’. ‘Qualitative’ studies, on the other hand, study the reasons people do the things they do, how they feel about that, their general likes and dislikes. The problem is that quantitative studies frequently are interested in how many people feel the same way about something and qualitative studies might want to show what percentage of respondents indicated particular feelings, for example. The real difference between them is more likely to be found in their underlying research orientations, with quantitative approaches being associated with positivism and objectivism and qualitative approaches linked to interpretivism and constructionism.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 32, 33
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Documents as sources of data
    Which of the following is not an example of an official document?
    Official documents can derive from the state or from private sources, and may or may not be available in the public domain. They contain information that is produced in the course of the everyday work of an organization or other official agency, and have not been produced for the purposes of social research. There can be an issue of credibility with these documents, stemming from the purpose for which they were produced. Detecting the nature of the bias in this documentation can be a rewarding research pursuit.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 552-554
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Using existing data
    The large samples used in national social surveys enable new researchers to:
    Secondary analysts can selectively study a subgroup of the original sample. For example, within a random sample of the general population, you might decide to focus on married women under the age of 30. The ‘General Lifestyle Survey’ (GLF), one of many large data sets shown in Table 14.1 on pages 316 and 317, is one such national survey. Arber and Gilbert (1989, cited on page 310) isolated a group of elderly people from the 1980 GHS (the forerunner of the GLF) for a study on disability. Their suggestion is to use secondary analysis as an important adjunct to other quantitative methods.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 310
    Author: rikazzz Comment