Theory and methods key terms

Case study

• Research that examines a single case or example, such as a single school, family or workplace, often using several methods or sources

• Questions used in a social survey

• A research method that compares two social groups

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output

Closed-ended questions

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output

• Questions in a social survey that allow respondents to answer as they wish, in their own words

• A primary research method where the observer records events without taking part in them

• Questions used in a social survey that allow only a limited choice of answers from a pre-set list. They produce quantitative data

Comparative method

• In experiments, scientists compare a control group and an experimental group that are identical in all respects.

• A research method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor. This method is often used as an alternative to experiments

• When two or more factors or variables are linked together, e.g. there is a correlation between low social class and low educational achievement.

• An understanding of how another person thinks, feels or acts, achieved by putting oneself in their place.

Content analysis

• A research method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.

• In experiments, scientists compare a control group and an experimental group that are identical in all respects.

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output to find out how often and in what ways different types of people or events appear.

• Research that examines a single case or example

Control group

• An understanding of how another person thinks, feels or acts, achieved by putting oneself in their place.

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output to find out how often and in what ways different types of people or events appear.

• Research that examines a single case or example

• In experiments, scientists compare a control group and an experimental group that are identical in all respects.

Correlation

• A research method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.

• When two or more factors or variables are linked together, e.g. there is a correlation between low social class and low educational achievement.

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output to find out how often and in what ways different types of people or events appear.

• Issues of right or wrong; moral principles or guidelines.

Documents

• There are two types:

  Public documents: produced by organisations such as governments, schools or the media.

  Personal documents: created by individuals and are often personal accounts of events or experiences.

• Questions used in a social survey that allow only a limited choice of answers from a pre-set list.

• A research method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.

• A method of analysing the content of documents and media output to find out how often and in what ways different types of people or events appear.

Empathy

• Issues of right or wrong; moral principles or guidelines.

• A consensus perspective in sociology that sees society as based on shared values into which members are socialised.

• An understanding of how another person thinks, feels or acts, achieved by putting oneself in their place.

• An untested theory or explanation expressed as a statement.

Ethics

• Issues of right or wrong; moral principles or guidelines.

• An understanding of how another person thinks, feels or acts, achieved by putting oneself in their place.

• A sociological perspective and political movement that focuses on women’s oppression and the struggle to end it.

• When researchers are able to generalise from the data they have collected because the results they have collected are true for the larger groups they are researching.

Experiments

• A research method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.

• Lists of questions.

• A laboratory experiment is a test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting (a laboratory) to establish a cause and effect relationship between two or more variables.

• Information collected first-hand by sociologists themselves for their own research purposes.