Summary Research methods starting points

Experiments  Right answerism, problems of validity, may lie/ give dishonest
Laboratory answers
- researcher manipulates variables  Impose researchers meaning through word choice/ options in
- Theoretical closed questions
 Can establish cause and effect relationships - Practical
 Reliable, can be replicated  Quick and cheap, large sample population
 Detached method  Easily generalised
 Positivists  Don’t need to train/ recruit loads of researchers
 Reduced representativeness as small scale  Easy to quantify
 Hawthorne effect, artificial settings alter behaviour  Data tends to be limited or superficial
 Can't explain behaviour with cause and effect as humans have  Cannot be sure who answered with postal forms
free will  Low response rate, few answer and return forms
- Practical  Inflexible, can't ask follow up questions
 Impossible to identify and control all influencing variables - Ethical
 Hard to investigate large scale social issues  No obligation for ppts to answer questions
- Ethics  Gain informed consent by ppt answering questions
 Lack of informed consent Structured interviews
 Deception, used to avoid demand characteristics - Theoretical
 Harm e.g. Milgram  Reliable, can be standardised and controlled
Field experiments  Invalid, produce false picture, restrict answers, little freedom to
- Natural surroundings, those involved are often unaware clarify meanings
- Theoretical  Social interaction so risk of influence
 Valid as no influencing variables  Researcher has already decided what’s important,, inflexible
- Ethical questions
 Deception - Practical
 Lack of informed consent, would have to get consent from  Trainings is inexpensive
parents as may enforce negative stereotypes  Can cover large numbers of people
Questionnaires  Easily quantified
- Theoretical  Higher response rate
 Reliable, close ended can be repeated to get same findings - Ethical
 Online/ postal have no researcher influence  Imbalance of power
 Allows for comparisons  Feminists say they treat women as subordinates/ isolated
 Hypothesis testing, can find cause and effect individuals rather than in the context of oppression
 Objective method, minimal involvement with researcher Unstructured interviews
 Representative - Theoretical
 Don’t produce fully valid picture as only a snapshot  Unreliable, can't be standardised
 Detachment, can't gain valid picture, don’t know how ppt  Not representative as too time consuming to do large groups
interpreted question  Give valid data as can investigate what is important to ppt