FACTORS INFLUENCING CHOICE OF METHODS

PET

Practical Issues

Ethical Issues

Theoretical Issues

PRACTICAL ISSUES

Practical Issues• Time and Money

• How much time will it take?• Lots of researchers will mean less time• One researcher is cheaper but will take much longer• So time and money are interlinked

Practical Issues• Funding bodies

• Funding bodies may have specific requirements• If the company/department etc. funding the research needs a

particular type of results• If the government needs statistics then it influences the type of

research done

Practical Issues• Personal skills and characteristics

• Different personal skills will make certain research styles easier• How might participant observation be difficult for certain people?• What kind of researcher would be good at depth interviews

Practical Issues• Subject Matter

• The subject or social group being studied may influence the type of study carried out

• For example a male researcher may not be able to carry out participant observation in a female group

Practical Issues• Research Opportunity

• Sometime there is not time to used structured research methods

• For example if a group offered you the opportunity to join them and spend time with them, you may not have much time to organise and design the research

• Other times there may be plenty of time

ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethical Issues• Use the text book page 165 and make some notes on the

ethical considerations of research design.

• Informed Consent• Confidentiality• Effects on participants• Vulnerable groups• Covert Research

Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968• Using page 104.

• Consider the practical and ethical considerations of this research.

• Why did they use the methods they used?• How ethical was this experiment?

THEORETICAL ISSUES

Theoretical Issues

Validity

Reliability

• The following slide has two definitions

• You must decide which title goes with which definition

Theoretical Issues

• A true picture of what something is like.

• Gets as close to the truth as possible.

• Replicability.

• Can be repeated and the same results will be found.

Theoretical Issues

•Reliability

• A true picture of what something is like.

• Gets as close to the truth as possible.

•Validity

• Replicability.

• Can be repeated and the same results will be found.

Which of these do we link with

qualitative data and which with

quantitative?

Answer the question at the bottom of page 165