Sociological Objectivity and Research Principles

When carrying out sociological research, it makes sense to adopt a similar approach: choose a research topic and then select the most appropriate method of collecting ______.

Research methods do not have a clear, single and straightforward ______.

Sociological research is surrounded by theoretical beliefs about both the nature of the social world and how it can be ______.

When collecting data, a researcher has to make initial decisions about factors such as what counts as ______.

Should the research test a hypothesis or simply report what ______ say?

When deciding how to carry out research, sociologists need to confront and resolve a range of theoretical questions relating to choice of ______ and research method.

According to Dunican (2005), fitness for purpose reflects how well the chosen research method is suited to the __________ of study.

Venkatesh's study illustrates the importance of selecting a research method that is well-suited to answering the issues posed in the __________ question.

Quantitative methods are useful when the researcher wants reliable data to establish __________ relationships.

Participant observation may involve years of __________.

Questionnaires are generally cheaper than in-depth __________.

Ethical considerations apply to choices about the type of research being done, such as whether it is ethical to study people without their __________.

Legal considerations can be a particularly significant factor when research involves observing or participating in __________ behavior.

Venkatesh documented the lives of black residents in a small area of __________.

The amount of funding available may directly influence a researcher’s choice of __________.

Practical considerations are important in the conduct of __________ research.

To avoid an ethical dilemma, for example, a researcher may choose to avoid immersive methods such as participant observation when studying ______ behaviours.

A researcher should gain the informed consent of those being researched in order to avoid ethical questions about the conduct of the ______.

Safety The physical and psychological safety of everyone involved in a project is an important aspect of the research ______.

Some types of research involve methods, such as covert participant observation, that require deep involvement with ______.

A researcher must take care not to cause upset or distress to potentially weak (vulnerable) people at the ______ of the study.

A researcher not prepared for this type of involvement will, therefore, choose an alternative ______.

Sociological researchers try to keep to a code of ethical ______.

At its most extreme, unethical behaviour here involves things like the researcher deliberately making up (fabricating) ______.

Unethical behaviour here covers how others in the research process are treated and refers to things such as: ______.

Experimenting on people who do not know they are being studied, or causing them ______: in Milgram’s (1974) study of authority.

Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research methods reflect the ______ being studied

Laboratory experiments have very low ecological ______

Covert participant observation has much higher ______

Qualitative methods such as participant observation and unstructured interviews are usually thought to have higher ______

In surveys and other quantitative research, respondents may give wrong ______

Reliability refers to how effective a research approach is at collecting consistent ______

Reliability can be improved by standardising the research ______

Quantitative methods are often regarded as ______

Qualitative methods such as participant observation tend to be low in ______

Objectivity is a particularly significant ______

To establish sociological knowledge, data is collected and then analyzed or tested ______

The data collected and presented is 'value- free' – it has not been influenced by the values, beliefs or prejudices of the ______

The best we can do is recognize the various points at which values potentially intrude into the ______ process

Research participants may be influenced by the personal views and values of the ______

Decisions about the method of research used are influenced by ______

Ethical questions arise about whether a researcher should be held responsible for the purposes to which their research is ______

Values inform a researcher’s beliefs about how best to achieve ______ and validity in sociological research

Different sociologists have different ideas about the respective value of ______ and qualitative data

In qualitative research, respondents may be encouraged to answer in their own words through ______-ended questions

The researcher must make decisions about what data to include and what to exclude from the completed ______

The intended audience of the research may influence topic choice, while Jessop’s (2003) ‘Governance and Meta-governance: On Reflexivity, Requisite Variety, and Requisite Irony’ is perfectly acceptable for an academic audience, it would make no sense to a ______ audience.

If the goal is to test a hypothesis, the topic is likely to be narrower in scope than if the goal is a ______ account.

In the UK, university-based research is overseen and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council which, in turn, is mainly funded by the UK government. The government may want to know more about a social issue, so as to develop better ______.

Interactionists tend to avoid using statistical methods, mainly because they are not trying to establish ______.

A researcher’s beliefs about the reliability and validity of particular methods will also play a part in which approach they choose for their ______.

Large-scale research carried out over a long period of time may be ______.

In the UK and the USA, where government agencies or departments fund social research, it is usual to commission and fund research designed to help ______ make decisions.

A researcher may know what topic they want to study, but it may not be possible to do so. Two of the most important practical considerations when choosing a research topic are: access to research subjects (individuals) their ______ in the research.

Goffman (1961), for example, studied the patients and medical staff in a US mental institution while pretending to be a member of the cleaning staff. However, some argue that such research is ethically ______.

Problems of access and co-operation may also explain why a lot of sociological research focuses on the activities of the ______, people who cannot say no, rather than the powerful, who can and often do resist being studied.

Being ‘over-researched’ can bring benefits to a community but there can also be ______

Most sociological research is carried out in a fairly small number of developed countries, and very little in most of the ______ of the world.

Residents feel that researchers come to gather information that will advance their ______

The research relationship can be one-sided – respondents give their time for no ______

Researchers promise their work will help, but residents feel that this doesn’t ______

Shatila refugee camp is one of the most heavily researched neighborhoods anywhere, having attracted global attention and being close to an ______

Objectivity involves the idea that social structures are real, exist independently of the observer and can be experienced directly or indirectly using particular signs of their existence. Sociological research, therefore, involves ______ – the ability to gradually uncover the principles on which the social world is based.

Discovery is achieved by the researcher distancing themselves from the behaviour being studied. Objectivity requires the researcher to place themselves ‘outside’ the behaviour they are studying – theoretically, if not always practically. Their personal values and beliefs should not influence what they see; they must study the social world as a removed observer. Interpretivists take a different view of objectivity. Where positivists sees a single reality that can be discovered through systematic research, interpretivists argues that there are many realities, expressed through the various ways in which people see and understand the social world. This world is not something ‘out there’ waiting to be discovered. It exists only as interpretations people make (how they understand behaviour). It follows, therefore, that the aim of social research is ______ understanding.

The researcher’s role is that of an objective channel through which individuals ‘tell their story’ to uncover how and why people see the social world in particular ways. Because of the nature of what they study, it is often harder for sociologists to be objective than it is for researchers in the natural sciences. Interpretivists argue that sociologists should be open about their values, rather than claiming to be able to put them aside in their research, others can then judge the extent to which they have succeeded in doing this. Representativeness refers the extent to which the research findings apply to a larger population. Representativeness is the ability to generalise observations made about one relatively small sample group to the much larger target population it represents. This is possible if the key characteristics of the respondents in the sample are the same as those of the larger population – that is, if the sample is an accurate ______ of the population.

The importance of representativeness can be illustrated by the example of postal questionnaires. Response rates for this research method are almost invariably low, which can create problems in two areas: There is an increased chance of sampling error created by an unrepresentative self-selected sample (a sample that ‘selects itself’ – those who bother to reply). Survey-based research based on an unrepresentative sample will lack ______. The findings of the research cannot be validly generalised to the target population.

Sociological research is also complicated by people’s awareness of both themselves as the object of research and their relationship to others, such as those carrying out the research. It is further complicated by the fact that different sociologists see the social world differently. Human relationships have an ethical dimension, and this extends to the way we believe we should study human relationships through research. For some sociologists, conducting experiments on people without consent can be morally justified because the results of the research may prove valuable. For others, this behavior is both morally wrong and scientifically incorrect because to truly understand behavior we must understand how it is subjectively experienced. Such different views lead to different research approaches based on different beliefs – the most fundamental of which is what we believe ______.

Objectivity involves the idea that social structures are real, exist independently of the observer and can be experienced directly or indirectly using particular signs of their existence. Sociological research, therefore, involves ______ – the ability to gradually uncover the principles on which the social world is based.

Interpretivists take a different view of objectivity. Where positivists sees a single reality that can be discovered through systematic research, interpretivists argues that there are many realities, expressed through the various ways in which people see and understand the social world. This world is not something ‘out there’ waiting to be discovered. It exists only as interpretations people make (how they understand behavior). It follows, therefore, that the aim of social research is ______ understanding.

The researcher’s role is that of an objective channel through which individuals ‘tell their story’ to uncover how and why people see the social world in particular ways. Because of the nature of what they study, it is often harder for sociologists to be objective than it is for researchers in the natural sciences. Interpretivists argue that sociologists should be open about their values, rather than claiming to be able to put them aside in their research, others can then judge the extent to which they have succeeded in doing this. Representativeness refers the extent to which the research findings apply to a larger population. Representativeness is the ability to generalize observations made about one relatively small sample group to the much larger target population it represents. This is possible if the key characteristics of the respondents in the sample are the same as those of the larger population – that is, if the sample is an accurate ______ of the population.

The importance of representativeness can be illustrated by the example of postal questionnaires. Response rates for this research method are almost invariably low, which can create problems in two areas: There is an increased chance of sampling error created by an unrepresentative self-selected sample (a sample that ‘selects itself’ – those who bother to reply). Survey-based research based on an unrepresentative sample will lack ______. The findings of the research cannot be validly generalized to the target population.

Sociological research is also complicated by people’s awareness of both themselves as the object of research and their relationship to others, such as those carrying out the research. It is further complicated by the fact that different sociologists see the social world differently. Human relationships have an ethical dimension, and this extends to the way we believe we should study human relationships through research. For some sociologists, conducting experiments on people without consent can be morally justified because the results of the research may prove valuable. For others, this behavior is both morally wrong and scientifically incorrect because to truly understand behavior we must understand how it is subjectively experienced. Such different views lead to different research approaches based on different beliefs – the most fundamental of which is what we believe ______.