Theory and methods in context (kirans)

What are laboratory experiments + 3 features?

• Laboratory experiments are a way of studying human behaviour

• Want to establish a cause and effect relationship, have an experimental and control group and replicable experiment

• Takes place in an artificial environment

What are 2 key examples of labratory experiments?

• Milgram’s study of obedience

• Mayos study of worker productivity

What was Milgram’s study of obedience?

• Milgram lied to his participants about the nature of the experiment, telling participants to administer electric shocks to see how willing people are to listen to authority. 65% were ready to administer 450 volt electric shocks, which also caused harm- to participants as they sweat and trembled

• Over 74% of participants said afterwards they had learned something of lasting value justifying the ethical issues such as harm and deception

What was Mayo’s study of productivity?

• Suffered from the hawthorne effect, 5 female volunteers knew he was conducting the experiment so even when working conditions worsened, productivity continued to rise as workers knew they were being watched

What are 2 examples of lab experiments and teacher expectations?

• Harvey and Slating sample of 96 teachers shown 18 photographs of pupils, teachers rated lower class pupils less favourably and used social class labels to pre judge pupils potential

• Charkin et al, Sample of 48 university students each taught a lesson to a 10 year old boy, 1/3 told he was really high performing, another told low performing, another told no information. Those told high performing made more eye contact and engaged whilst low performing did not

Advantages and disadvantages of lab experiements?

• Practical issue, subject matter. Schools are large complex institutions in which many variables impact teacher expectations such as class size streaming etc, difficult to control and measure 1 factor. Large scale processes and institutions cannot be studied on a small scale

• Theoretical advantage, reliability. Replicable due to formulaic experiment approach.

• Ethical disadvantage if participants are lied too or are deceived.

• Theoretical disadvantage hawthorne effect so low validity due to low accuracy.

What are field experiments?

• Takes place in the subjects natural surroundings

• Those involved are usually not aware

WHat is an example of a field experiment?

• Rosenhan’s experiment at 12 California mental hospitals. Said they had been hearing voices, diagnosed as schizophrenic.

• The patient did not act schizophrenic, only labelled as such influencing the way he was treated and viewed by staff.

What is the comparative method?

• Discover cause and effect relationship

• Find 2 groups identical in almost all aspects except for 1 variable interested in, compare the 2 groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect

Durkheims study of suicide

What is an example of field experiments and teacher expectations?

• Rosenthal and Jacobson. ‘Pygmalion in the classroom’

• Research in california primary school called ‘oak school’ where everyone was given iq test as 20% were said to be likely to spurt, not true just wanted to see if labelling influences teacher behaviour

• Turns out after 8 months average pupil progressed by 8 progress points, whereas spurters progressed by 12.

What are advantages and disadvantages of field experiment?

• Ethical issue. 80% of the kids from rosenthal and jacobson’s study may have been negatively impacted, as they received less teacher attention or may have negatively viewed themselves due to lack of progress

• Theoretical advantage of validity, carried out in natural environment where everyone is unaware meaning very high validity

• Practical issue of time, Rosenthal and Jacobson waited 8 months to see a difference. Also takes time in schools to be able to enter due to gatekeepers like headteachers, or legal processed such as requiring a DBS

What are three major differences between studying young people and adults?

• Power and status

• Ability and understanding

• Vulnerability

Which sociologist identified the 3 differences between studying people and young adults?

• Malcolm Hill

Define a document.

• A document refers to any written text such as personal diaries government reports medical record and also include paintings photographs etc

What are some examples of public and personal documents in schools?

• Public documents include school websites, media reports about education and school textbooks

• Personal documents are pupils written work, notes passed between pupils and pupil and teachers diaries

Define public and private documents.

• Public documents are produced by organisations such as government departments schools welfare agencies and businesses

• Private documents are items such as diaries letters photographs

What are 2 examples pf public documents being used to research education?

• Gilborn and his study of racism was able to access a wide range of school documents such as school policy statements on anti racism

• Gerwitz used public documents such as school leaflets on marketisation and education

What is an example of private documents being used in educational research?

• Hey

• Made use of the notes girls passed to each other to understand friendship patterns.

What are the advantages of documents in research?

• Very high validity. Documents can provide important insights into the meanings held by teachers and pupils and can be high in validity. Hey began using interviews and observations but found that notes offered raw insight into girls’ feelings and actions

• EVAL: Documents are open to different interpretation, could lack accuracy

• Time and cost. Education is one of the key services provided by the state and is closely monitored. Secondary data so the sociologist saves time and money.

• EVAL: May take time for sociologist to get a hand for personal documents, for example hey even took notes out of the bin for sociological research

What are disadvantages of documents?

• Ethical issue- No consent for historical data or for personal documents, confidentiality and privacy these individuals do not know where this research goes

• Lacks representativeness. Hey collected 70 notes in an unsystematic way, documents are different to represent all groups such as class ethnicity and gender so generalisations cannot be made- criticised by positivists

Define official statistics.

• Quantitative data gathered by the government or other official bodies

What do positivists argue about official statistics?

• Durkheim argues that official statistics represent social facts in society, which can be used to test hypothesis in society

What is the interpretivist view on official stats?

• Atkinson regards official statistics as lacking validity. He believes they do not accurately reflect the social reality and are influenced by the perspectives and labels of those who create them.

What is the Marxist view on official statistics?

• Irvine argues that statistics are used to serve capitlism and to ruin the imagine of the proletariat. It constantly changes the stats of unemployment, which ignores the harms of unemployment on the working classs

What is the practical advantage of statsitcs+eval?

• Government collects statistics on over 30,000 primary and secondary schools meaning the researcher saves time and money as education is a key service that is closely monitored.

• EVAL: Governments collect statistics for their own policy purposes, which may not align with the definitions of sociologists. Sociologists are really keen on language, social class and achievement but there are limited stats on this

Explain the disadvantage of validity + eval for official statistics?

• Interpritivists question the validity of educational statistics, and argue they are socially constructed. Schools manipulate exam statistics as they face pressure to do well on league tables to receive extra funding.

• EVAL: Schools must also follow anti-discrimination law. This means staff must act to prevent discrimination, harassment and victimisation within the school. This applies to all schools in England and Wales, and most schools in Scotland. Northern Ireland has different anti-discrimination law.

How is the theoretical advantage of representative applies to official statistics?

• All state schools are highly representative as they must complete a school census 3 times per year.

• DARK FIGURE. soft stats not representative