Summary

Summary Research methods strengths and limitations

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Institution
AQA

Each research method (experiments, questionnaires, etc) is listed in a grid with all of its strengths and weaknesses. Also some sociologists mentioned. Discusses debate between practical/ethical/theoretical.

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Uploaded on August 16, 2024
Number of pages 11
Written in 2023/2024
Type Summary

practical
ethical
theoretical
reliability
validity
strengths
limitations
research methods
interviews
questionnaires
experiments
case studies
observations
covert
overt

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AQA A LEVEL SOCIOLOGY SUMMARY NOTES

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LAB ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
EXPERIMENTS

PRACTICAL  Easy to attract funding  Impractical to observe large scale
because of the prestige of social processes in a laboratory –
science. e.g., whole towns.
 Can take place in one setting  Takes a lot of time to set up and
like any other day job. small samples mean you will need
to conduct consecutive
experiments on lots of small
groups.
 Impossible to control all variables.
 Cannot study the past.

ETHICAL  Can seek to gain informed  Deception and lack of informed
consent. consent – can be argued it is
 Rarely ask ppts to do necessary… Milgram mislead his
anything illegal. ppts on the purpose of the study.
 Findings can benefit society  Right to withdraw – Milgram used
e.g., Milgram’s obedience prompts making them feel
study. pressure to remain in the
 Can debrief. experiment.
 Protection from harm – Milgram’s
ppts sweated, trembled, and dug
their nails into their hands. One
had a seizure.
 Interpretivists may have a
problem with the unequal
relationship between researcher
and participant. The imposition
problem.

THEORETICAL  Controlled conditions allow  Lacks validity – the artificial
researchers to isolate environment does not reflect real
variables – so can precisely life.
measure cause and effect.  Hawthorne effect further reduces
 Good reliability – because validity – ‘please/fuck you’.
of the level of control it is Produces invalid results as people
easy to replicate the exact change their behaviour knowing
same conditions as it is they are being watched.
standardised. Allows for  Small scale and thus
comparisons. unrepresentative.
 Detached method.  Interpretivists believe people have
 Collect ‘objective’ free will and choice, so our
behaviour does not rely on cause

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, knowledge. and effect.

EXAMPLES OF  Milgram – 74% say they are glad they took part.
STUDIES  Zimbardo

FIELD ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
EXPERIMENTS

PRACTICAL  Doesn’t take time out of  Access to some settings will be
people/professional’s time more of a problem to researchers,
as possible to do on the job. for example schools.
 Can be a cheaper way as do  Researcher may have to travel
not need to pay for a lab. which is costly.
 Quicker as don’t have to set  Less control over variables.
up.
 Larger sample size than lab.
 Quantitative – easy to
analyse.

ETHICAL  Debrief  May not be possible to inform
 Confidentiality people an experiment is taking
place in order for them to act
naturally.
 Issues of deception, lack of
informed consent and right to
withdraw.

THEORETICAL  High validity – represents  Lower reliability as cannot
real life in normal occurring replicate the exact same
social settings. Avoid conditions.
artificiality.  Can’t compare to establish cause
 Larger scale settings so and effect.
representative.
 No demand
characteristics/Hawthorne
Effect

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