A higher response rate can be obtained if follow-up questionnaires are sent, but this can add to the cost and time. However, some sociologists may choose to use questionnaires as there is no need to recruit and train interviewees thus saving costs. Another reason as to why some sociologists choose not to use questionnaires when conducting research is because of the fact that questionnaires are snapshots of social reality of the time when the respondents answer the questionnaires. This means that they fail to produce valid pictures as they do not capture how people’s attitudes can change over time. On the other hand, questionnaires tend to be used by sociologists as they provide less ethical issues than other research methods.
According to material in item A, sociologists such as Becker claim that teachers label different groups of pupils and treat them unequally. Labelling in education means attaching a meaning to a student i.e. calling them hard working or mischievious. Researchers want to know whether labelling actually happens and how much it affects people's self-esteem and achievement. There are various types of experiments that are used to research this, however comparitive experiments should not be used as we are only studying a group of people in education, not the whole population.
Mr. B. was vulnerable when he was left unattended. Finally, the LPN on duty displayed a dangerous knowledge deficit by ignoring the de-saturation alarm on the oximeter. Improvement Plan Using Change Theory Change theory helps to effectively organize ideas that bring about long-term change. Implementing change theory first requires an identified driving force. In the scenario, Emergency department staff members were likely shaken by this poor outcome of Mr. B., and would be motivated to change to a safer model just to avoid a repeat in the future.
Other alternatives to laboratory experiments are field experiment and the comparative method. Assuming it is possible to create a controlled environment for sociological experiments; there are still many practical issues with experimental methods; firstly there is no possible way for experiments to research past social trends which reduces the range of information available to a sociologist. Secondly, if a laboratory environment has been created for sociology, this could only be used to study limited sample and therefore would not create very reliable data. Finally it is argued that the artificial environment of and experiment would provoke the ‘Hawthorne Effect (Elton Mayo) ‘because if people know they are being studied, they will behave differently e.g. by trying to second guess what the researcher wants them to do and acting accordingly, which would not give very valid data.
Since the conditioned fear lasted after 31 days they claimed it might last for Albert’s whole life. B) From the information gathered about this experiment, it is clearly unethical. Firstly, in the psychological code of ethics it is stated that participants must voluntarily agree to be in the study without being persuaded. This was already an issue as the participant was an infant who obviously couldn’t have an opinion or give consent. A study is also considered unethical if it causes any mental or physical harm to the participants.
Could have been the clothes or the living conditions, a change that could have been made to do the experiment better could be to use normal clothes or have the researchers play the guards. Whether you call it uninformed consent or deception I think this is the most problematic issue in the video. This type of experiment is an important one in the history of social research because it demonstrates how easily one can become wrapped up in research and forgets about the values of the participants. Although because it is sometimes difficult to address social ethical issues you must not choose to ignore
She concluded Brigit might not have done the tests accurately because of the previous reading. Instead of addressing this issue she decided to avoid the confrontation and shoulder the responsibility of retesting everyone. In my opinion passive communication, although avoid confrontation is not effective because Brigit is left unaware she completed the tests inaccurately. This is an injustice to her and the students because she will continue to make this mistake unknowingly. The more effective way to handle this in my opinion would be to ask Brigit to demonstrate how to complete the test and show her what she is doing incorrectly.
Examine the reasons why some sociologists choose not to use experiments when conducting research (20 marks) In scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. The ability of Establishing this relationship is why some sociologists, such as positivists, favour this method of research. There are three types of experimental methods that sociologists may use in their research, Firstly, sociologists use laboratory experiments. Once a Laboratory experiment has been conducted other scientists can replicate it. This makes laboratory experiments highly reliable as they are replicable.
In Milgram's experiment, test subjects were asked to do something that was, on the surface, unethical. Milgram was fascinated by the way people could be persuaded to cause harm to individuals if the instructions came from authoritative figures or those who would be considered credible. Although Milgram's experiment would not be conducted today for ethical reasons, the information derived from Milgram's experiment
Unlike in a field experiment where the participants are completely unaware that they are being observed so it gives more of a natural response, this allows the researchers to gain results with greater validity. In a laboratory experiment, the researchers have to tell the percipients the reasons for the experiment to allow the percipients to give full consent this is due to the ethical reasons such as if the person doesn’t agree due to religion/beliefs, ethnicity ect. Where as, the percipients of a field experiment have to be unaware of the reasons for the research to allow a higher rate of natural answers. This means that field experiments are less ethically agreed with. An example of a laboratory experiment is Asch (a psychologist) who tested the rate of conformity within groups.