In sociology Quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ theories or hypothesis. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observations and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships.
Quantitative data is any data that is in numerical form such as statistics and percentages. In layman's terms, this means that the quantitative researchers ask specific, narrow questions and collects a sample of numerical data from participants to answer the question. The researcher analyses the data with the help of statistics. The researcher is hoping the numbers will yield an unbiased result that can be generalized to some larger population. This can be seen in (Newman 1998:3) who argued that the quantitative approach is used when one begins to test a theory or an assumption and can be a good way to prove or disprove that assumption or hypothesis.
Using quantitative data in secondary research is extremely useful as it allows you to see patterns which have already been established within the sociological research and enables you to use this within your research processes. It also allows for little time to be used in collecting the data as they are already visible and easy to see all you have to do is use them and say why and reference.One problem however of using quantitative data in social research as a secondary source in any research module is that you never know how accurate the information which you are using is and whether or not it is of a large target population or whether a small sample has been used.
The use of qualitative data in primary research is a very useful tool, for showing in statistical form the information which you have discovered. One disadvantage of using this method in primary research is the fact that it takes time, resources and effort to sit through all the information you have found; which can mainly be sought through the use of questionnaires, to collate evidence and data into appropriate statistical forms. However although this takes time it is useful when looking at this because it allows you to conduct new research which could give you more reliable and valid information which you can then use to looked at the secondary data which you initially use to see whether it proves or disproves what has previously done giving more validity to your arguments.
Friday, 17 May 2013
Today we live in a world of impact and engagement where we are encouraged to embrace social medias e.g. face book and twitter, and to communicate in broader ways in which to reach a wider audience. Blogs are used for a variety of different purposes, which can include, promoting a business, to share different views and opinions or generally just to inform society about certain things which are happening that may be of interest.
The birth of the internet has given anyone with access to the internet the opportunity to express themselves through different discourses on a wide variety of different social, personal, political or ethical subjects in which they can use self-expression through a sense of confession.
Foucault suggests that confession is to “Declare aloud and intelligibly the truth of oneself” this can relate to the topic of blogs because it can allow the person to be open and honest about views and opinions with a wider audience, but also leaves it open for them to communicate different feelings about oneself. The ethical point here could be is there a point when these expressions, views and feelings can go too far and lead to victimisation and bullying? Confession at one time in history was seen as something which people would only do too someone that was widely versed in a specific topic, e.g. doctors whereas now self-expression and confession seems to have veered away from this, and is regularly used in all forms of social media and personal social pages that we as individuals and groups have decided to join.
I decided to look at
a blog on football as this is a keen interest of mine. When looking at this
blog there is a clear community element and sharing of similar ideals. The
dialect that this writer decided to use provokes emotion ‘the cold chill’ for
example, when reading the first part of the blog this really stuck out to me as
it suggested that the writer was trying to engage its audience on a personal
level with people who are interested but also not as enthused about the topic,
whereas on the other hand when looking at academic blogs they are far more
objective and loose personal tones, which can sometimes not engage with
‘normal’ people, and are more designed to people with that specific interest.
This is the website that I used:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2012/11/time_for_liverpool_to_start_wi.html#more
The use of
pictures within this blog gives it a nice layout and breaks up the information and
had an appealing effect on the eye which makes you want to read more or even
gives you interest at first.
When looking at
academic blogs my scholars or university lectures the difference between there
blogs and the blog which I found of interest were significant. The academic
blogs were very structured from point to point and topic to topic, with very
formal colloquial language which had a specific meaning and interpretation, whereas
the blogs by less academic people who were trying to distil a sense of community
within their blogs were less structured used less academic and formal language
and were not always as much of a matter of fact, they were left for
interpretation of those who decided to look at the work. For me I much prefer the blogs that were not
all about fact and opinions but those that had more of a personal feeling and
attitude towards them.
review of the semester
This research module for the semester has been an interesting one but also challenging for me from the start. I have never written or even wanted to write blogs and then being thrown into it as a 40% mark on my overall grade this year is quite daunting and very worrying even now.
When writing the blogs even deciding what to talk about has been a challenge for me as I am not very good at putting points across in a way which is of a 'bloggers' nature. As the weeks have gone on I have found that writing blogs has become easier however I am not sure whether they are good enough having looked at a few of my friends blogs, as they seem to have more knowledge and more academic writing styles than myself. Considering up until the start of the semester I had never done blogs I feel that the work I have done on the blogs has been to best of my ability in terms of trying to learn as much about them as I can, even thought it isn't really the kind of thing that I do.
The work and information we have learned during the semester hasn't been very beneficial to me, as I took sociology at A levels, and a lot of the information which we have covered in university classes I already had learned back then. Going over all the information again however was a good recap and reminder of all the different sections of research that you need to know and undertake when engaging in sociological research. This would also be key for when we had to start and undertake our sociological research in groups.
Doing the group work has been my favourite part of this research module, as it allowed us to use all the things we had learned on the module from analysing data to collecting secondary research. Looking into the topics further allowed us to specify and evaluate our research properly. Sometimes though working in a group became quite stressful as people always want things there own way and don't always comply with the overall opinions and views of each other. Despite some of this I enjoyed working within a group and would do it again for another module if I had to.
Completing the poster presentation and blogs will be great for me as I have found some aspects of each quite hard work. Although I am worried that 40% of my marks are based upon blogs because for me I know this is the weakest part which is why I have left them till now to upload because I knew they were not good and didn't want people to see them. I would have preferred personally if the blogs had been worth less like they were at the start however because the whole of the class didn't like how it was divided up it was changed to make it a little more equal.
In whole I have enjoyed this semester and all the tasks we had to do and look forward to continuing my degree further.
When writing the blogs even deciding what to talk about has been a challenge for me as I am not very good at putting points across in a way which is of a 'bloggers' nature. As the weeks have gone on I have found that writing blogs has become easier however I am not sure whether they are good enough having looked at a few of my friends blogs, as they seem to have more knowledge and more academic writing styles than myself. Considering up until the start of the semester I had never done blogs I feel that the work I have done on the blogs has been to best of my ability in terms of trying to learn as much about them as I can, even thought it isn't really the kind of thing that I do.
The work and information we have learned during the semester hasn't been very beneficial to me, as I took sociology at A levels, and a lot of the information which we have covered in university classes I already had learned back then. Going over all the information again however was a good recap and reminder of all the different sections of research that you need to know and undertake when engaging in sociological research. This would also be key for when we had to start and undertake our sociological research in groups.
Doing the group work has been my favourite part of this research module, as it allowed us to use all the things we had learned on the module from analysing data to collecting secondary research. Looking into the topics further allowed us to specify and evaluate our research properly. Sometimes though working in a group became quite stressful as people always want things there own way and don't always comply with the overall opinions and views of each other. Despite some of this I enjoyed working within a group and would do it again for another module if I had to.
Completing the poster presentation and blogs will be great for me as I have found some aspects of each quite hard work. Although I am worried that 40% of my marks are based upon blogs because for me I know this is the weakest part which is why I have left them till now to upload because I knew they were not good and didn't want people to see them. I would have preferred personally if the blogs had been worth less like they were at the start however because the whole of the class didn't like how it was divided up it was changed to make it a little more equal.
In whole I have enjoyed this semester and all the tasks we had to do and look forward to continuing my degree further.
Poster Research progression with three weeks to go
For this blog I will be reflecting on how I am finding the group research project with only three weeks to go. Having participated in group research and presentation before I understand how to work in a group well, however the process is still daunting and still different to others I have done before but having done a similar process before I know how and what to do In order to get the best results possible. When looking at theories and literature I found a piece of work by Seltiz et al who argued that 'research is a way of enabling people to search again, to take another look or find out more' (Seltiz et al 1976). I am enjoying looking and researching all the different theorist around our topic of research as I have a high interest in the genre which we have all chosen to do and is also giving a taster of how to undergo my research when working on my dissertation.
When my group sat down for the first time to discuss what we were going to do we initially came up with different ideas and areas of interest that could be easily research considering we were unable to conduct primary research. From this we came up with out hypothesis and area that we were going to concentrate on, and then started to look at brief ideas and theorists that were key to gaining further knowledge and understanding even though we already had quite a good knowledge on what we were researching. From this we split the tasks up evenly and started to look at further research, which we would collect data and then collate this all together at the end ready to write up on our poster.
Now with only a few weeks left to go before the actually conference where are poster will be looked at, our group has still got lots to do. Having changed our research process and hypothesis we encountered having to look at research a whole new topic. The topic we finally decided to do was 'The societal Factors that cause Female Drug Use' this area of topic is right up my street so will be very beneficial in the long run to do. Our theories which we have decided to use are those of Durkheim, Becker, Merton and Parker et al as these have most relevance to our topic of discussion. The theories and sociological debates that I have researched have just further initiated my interest further and I am really enjoying the research I am looking at and I find I am understanding it very well which will be crucial when trying to collate the information and putting all the information together.
Sitting down and creating the poster and collating our information will be our very last step and we hope to have this finished in the last week possible. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out once it is finished actually getting the presentation over and done with as the closer it gets the more I am not looking forward to it.
When my group sat down for the first time to discuss what we were going to do we initially came up with different ideas and areas of interest that could be easily research considering we were unable to conduct primary research. From this we came up with out hypothesis and area that we were going to concentrate on, and then started to look at brief ideas and theorists that were key to gaining further knowledge and understanding even though we already had quite a good knowledge on what we were researching. From this we split the tasks up evenly and started to look at further research, which we would collect data and then collate this all together at the end ready to write up on our poster.
Now with only a few weeks left to go before the actually conference where are poster will be looked at, our group has still got lots to do. Having changed our research process and hypothesis we encountered having to look at research a whole new topic. The topic we finally decided to do was 'The societal Factors that cause Female Drug Use' this area of topic is right up my street so will be very beneficial in the long run to do. Our theories which we have decided to use are those of Durkheim, Becker, Merton and Parker et al as these have most relevance to our topic of discussion. The theories and sociological debates that I have researched have just further initiated my interest further and I am really enjoying the research I am looking at and I find I am understanding it very well which will be crucial when trying to collate the information and putting all the information together.
Sitting down and creating the poster and collating our information will be our very last step and we hope to have this finished in the last week possible. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out once it is finished actually getting the presentation over and done with as the closer it gets the more I am not looking forward to it.
academic vs non academic blogs
We live in a world of impact and engagement. Academics are encouraged to embrace social media and communicate in new and different ways to broader audiences. More academics should be getting acquainted with Word Press or Blogger, or Tumbler. The world needs to know what’s happening within the academy. If the world is going to grasp what’s happening then our writing needs to be digestible.
Blogs provide an excellent forum, when used well, for informal writing and feedback from peers and teachers. There has been an increasing number of professional using blogs to share specialised news and ideas that they want to share. However more and more students and young people are turning to blogs in order to describe and share there feelings about certain issues or topics.
The problem which arises when thinking of using blogs as a tool of research or for conveying emotions, feelings or suggestions is the problem with ethics. Ethics are often a topic that is hard but essential to try and use when looking at research or even looking at other peoples blogs. Blogs often contain personal and private information that has only been given to one person or sight by consent, however when looking on the internet and finding such work to either cite or use within work often opens up a can of worms. Should it be used? and does it break any Ethical codes of practices?.
Some people would argue that if It is visible for all to see then it should be used, otherwise it wouldn't be out there on the web and once it is placed on there the act of consent has already been undertaken, however sometimes this arises the problem of if someone has written something at a time of distress,being under the influence of alcohol, or if someone has put it on about someone else as a joke or a form of bullying. Once it is written and put on to a site it is extremely hard to remove it.
Others would argue that although it can be seen by a wide variety of society, when thinking of using it within your work without asking permission it could be construed that your are not using correct ethics and should seek permission form the original resource. This would however would use up a lot of your time when you could find other ways of getting similar information which you are looking for or wanting to use.
Ethics are a big part of our lives no matter whether its from using information for an essays, to writing a blog or conducting research these should always be respected and correctly used. Some ethical issues raise more questions than others and are needed with more emotional and very sensitive matters such as researching abuse.
Blogs provide an excellent forum, when used well, for informal writing and feedback from peers and teachers. There has been an increasing number of professional using blogs to share specialised news and ideas that they want to share. However more and more students and young people are turning to blogs in order to describe and share there feelings about certain issues or topics.
The problem which arises when thinking of using blogs as a tool of research or for conveying emotions, feelings or suggestions is the problem with ethics. Ethics are often a topic that is hard but essential to try and use when looking at research or even looking at other peoples blogs. Blogs often contain personal and private information that has only been given to one person or sight by consent, however when looking on the internet and finding such work to either cite or use within work often opens up a can of worms. Should it be used? and does it break any Ethical codes of practices?.
Some people would argue that if It is visible for all to see then it should be used, otherwise it wouldn't be out there on the web and once it is placed on there the act of consent has already been undertaken, however sometimes this arises the problem of if someone has written something at a time of distress,being under the influence of alcohol, or if someone has put it on about someone else as a joke or a form of bullying. Once it is written and put on to a site it is extremely hard to remove it.
Others would argue that although it can be seen by a wide variety of society, when thinking of using it within your work without asking permission it could be construed that your are not using correct ethics and should seek permission form the original resource. This would however would use up a lot of your time when you could find other ways of getting similar information which you are looking for or wanting to use.
Ethics are a big part of our lives no matter whether its from using information for an essays, to writing a blog or conducting research these should always be respected and correctly used. Some ethical issues raise more questions than others and are needed with more emotional and very sensitive matters such as researching abuse.
Group work
For our project we have to create and come up with a research hypothesis and analysis, in order to carry out this piece of research we have been asked to work within a group of our choice. In my group I am working with Jasmine, Tracy and Lisa, we have designed our piece of work and research into a topic that is of interest to all of us so that it is fair, The work has been going okay so far and we are all on the same track and have similar if not the same ideas.
Our biggest problem for conducting this research is that I am the only one who doesn't live in Preston so there are a limited amount of days and certain times which I am able to get together with the girls, In order to get around this I Often research work in my own time so at least when we start to pull it together I will have work to contribute and it also means I am doing something. We have recently changed our hypothesis to make it more structured and have also decided on how our poster will look when it is created.
In the group there is definitely those who have taken control of what to do and how things should be conducted, and others who have less control and a more laid back approach and go with what the majority of the group has decided. This doesn't cause a problem due to the fact that we all are on the same wavelength and have similar ideas. We have already looked at lots of different research and theories for our topic and have some good ideas that relate to what we are looking at doing we just need to focus more on finding case studies and statistics which will enable us to see any correlations, and then relate the theorists to which they most apply.
I am looking forward to once we have found the research putting it together and seeing it all develop ready for our presentation in front of the class, the only thing I am not looking forward too is actually standing up and presenting it in front of the class as I always feel really sick and start shaking as I don't like saying things in front of a lot of people even though I know they will all be in the same boat either before or after we have presented our poster.
Our biggest problem for conducting this research is that I am the only one who doesn't live in Preston so there are a limited amount of days and certain times which I am able to get together with the girls, In order to get around this I Often research work in my own time so at least when we start to pull it together I will have work to contribute and it also means I am doing something. We have recently changed our hypothesis to make it more structured and have also decided on how our poster will look when it is created.
In the group there is definitely those who have taken control of what to do and how things should be conducted, and others who have less control and a more laid back approach and go with what the majority of the group has decided. This doesn't cause a problem due to the fact that we all are on the same wavelength and have similar ideas. We have already looked at lots of different research and theories for our topic and have some good ideas that relate to what we are looking at doing we just need to focus more on finding case studies and statistics which will enable us to see any correlations, and then relate the theorists to which they most apply.
I am looking forward to once we have found the research putting it together and seeing it all develop ready for our presentation in front of the class, the only thing I am not looking forward too is actually standing up and presenting it in front of the class as I always feel really sick and start shaking as I don't like saying things in front of a lot of people even though I know they will all be in the same boat either before or after we have presented our poster.
Poster Conference
Last Monday my group presented our poster presentation. Our main research aim was to try and collect data to see what societal factors influenced female drug taking. some theorists which we looked at were Durkheim, Merton, Becker, Parker et al and others.
During our research we discovered that there were 5 sociological theories which could explain female drug taking these were Anomie, Deviance, Normalisation, Stigmatisation and Labelling. From analysing these theories and theorists we discovered that the Female drug taker was very much under research compared to that of men, although this made the research harder, it would of also give us scope to have conducted primary research to find out more data but we were unable to do this due to ethical reasons. When trying to define an actual theory which best suited our proposed research was hard because all of the theories which we looked at all had elements that suited what we were trying to analyse, If one had to be chosen I would have said that anomie was the most suited to what we tried to discover, I would say this best fitted because the theory argues that if social norms are broken down within society between them and the individual then it produces social alienation, which means that people then only conform to the group that society puts them in,
Our presentation report in class I think went well and our presentation looked professional, I think if we were to do it again we could make sure that everyone has a plan of what they are going to say in written form so that nothing is missing, I think we put are arguments and findings out in a constructive clear and informative manner which was easy to follow and summed up our conclusion clear and concise. Although I was nervous when resenting as this is what I am worst at, I think I managed to cope and get my points across.
During our research we discovered that there were 5 sociological theories which could explain female drug taking these were Anomie, Deviance, Normalisation, Stigmatisation and Labelling. From analysing these theories and theorists we discovered that the Female drug taker was very much under research compared to that of men, although this made the research harder, it would of also give us scope to have conducted primary research to find out more data but we were unable to do this due to ethical reasons. When trying to define an actual theory which best suited our proposed research was hard because all of the theories which we looked at all had elements that suited what we were trying to analyse, If one had to be chosen I would have said that anomie was the most suited to what we tried to discover, I would say this best fitted because the theory argues that if social norms are broken down within society between them and the individual then it produces social alienation, which means that people then only conform to the group that society puts them in,
Our presentation report in class I think went well and our presentation looked professional, I think if we were to do it again we could make sure that everyone has a plan of what they are going to say in written form so that nothing is missing, I think we put are arguments and findings out in a constructive clear and informative manner which was easy to follow and summed up our conclusion clear and concise. Although I was nervous when resenting as this is what I am worst at, I think I managed to cope and get my points across.
Monday, 4 February 2013
Eating Habits and my attitude towards what I eat and why?
As a girl who was brought up in a family where my parents worked long hours and were often away to work early and home late alot of my up bringing was done by my grandparents, where alot of my eating habits and love of certain foods has come from.
When I was younger after school and most times before school I would always be at my grandparents house and they influenced certain habits with eating that I have. My grandma would always make sure once i got home from school i would have a home made meal cooked for me to eat, this was often healthy dinners which included alot of veg, meat and potatoes which is vital for the human body to function effectively and make sure I was healthy. Before I went to school She would always ask me what I fancied for tea, sometimes i would know and other times i would just let her decide.Being so young and being able to decide and have a say in what I wanted to eat and not being forced to try or eat things I decided i didn't like has lead me today to being a very fussy eater, and there are alot of food which I will no eat, for example cheese, bacon, tomato's etc.
My grandparents have influenced my eating habits today, by the way in which I have a routine if i was off school for instance I would have a ten o'clock snack which included a cup of tea and some toast, at 12 o'clock was lunch and i would often have a meal of my choice, three o'clock I would have another drink of tea and maybe a biscuit, at 5 o'clock would be dinner and i would have a home cooked meal eg veg and meat, then at around 7 o'clock i would have what my grandma called super so would be a hot chocolate and some sort of sweets, this routine I still sometimes follow now as a 23 year old lady, but due to having a busier life style with being at university and working I often eat when I get chance or when i feel hungry.
If I could not eat the foods I like then I would starve because I wont eat anything which i don't like the look or sound of, This again i think boils down to spending so much time at my grandparents and being able to choose what I ate, where as at home my parents would often try and made me eat or at least try different foods that they like, however they did this with very little success and I often if not always turned my nose up at the food or just said I don't like it so am not eating it. If someone was sitting next to me eating a food that I don't like or wont eat it does not bother me because everyone is different and has different tastes.
Although I do not follow any religion, I do know and understand that different cultures and religions have different views on foods which they eat and do not, alot of these I find quite weird especially when they say their delecacies are things such as locus, this to me sounds really strange and makes me feel slightly sick as in the society i live in eating this kind of food is not something which is done or heard of which has a big influence on how my food likes and dislikes are from.
As a girl who was brought up in a family where my parents worked long hours and were often away to work early and home late alot of my up bringing was done by my grandparents, where alot of my eating habits and love of certain foods has come from.
When I was younger after school and most times before school I would always be at my grandparents house and they influenced certain habits with eating that I have. My grandma would always make sure once i got home from school i would have a home made meal cooked for me to eat, this was often healthy dinners which included alot of veg, meat and potatoes which is vital for the human body to function effectively and make sure I was healthy. Before I went to school She would always ask me what I fancied for tea, sometimes i would know and other times i would just let her decide.Being so young and being able to decide and have a say in what I wanted to eat and not being forced to try or eat things I decided i didn't like has lead me today to being a very fussy eater, and there are alot of food which I will no eat, for example cheese, bacon, tomato's etc.
My grandparents have influenced my eating habits today, by the way in which I have a routine if i was off school for instance I would have a ten o'clock snack which included a cup of tea and some toast, at 12 o'clock was lunch and i would often have a meal of my choice, three o'clock I would have another drink of tea and maybe a biscuit, at 5 o'clock would be dinner and i would have a home cooked meal eg veg and meat, then at around 7 o'clock i would have what my grandma called super so would be a hot chocolate and some sort of sweets, this routine I still sometimes follow now as a 23 year old lady, but due to having a busier life style with being at university and working I often eat when I get chance or when i feel hungry.
If I could not eat the foods I like then I would starve because I wont eat anything which i don't like the look or sound of, This again i think boils down to spending so much time at my grandparents and being able to choose what I ate, where as at home my parents would often try and made me eat or at least try different foods that they like, however they did this with very little success and I often if not always turned my nose up at the food or just said I don't like it so am not eating it. If someone was sitting next to me eating a food that I don't like or wont eat it does not bother me because everyone is different and has different tastes.
Although I do not follow any religion, I do know and understand that different cultures and religions have different views on foods which they eat and do not, alot of these I find quite weird especially when they say their delecacies are things such as locus, this to me sounds really strange and makes me feel slightly sick as in the society i live in eating this kind of food is not something which is done or heard of which has a big influence on how my food likes and dislikes are from.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
first blog
As a first time blogger i am unsure whether this is how they are supposed to look or whether I am setting it up in the right way. I hopefully by the end of the year will be more comfortable doing a Blog as at the minute it is not something I am interested in doing.
Research interests?
expectations?
what you will find interesting?
Research interests?
- Interested in researching the amount of drugs within society
- who the main drug users are? eg teenagers, men women
- societal reactions to crime within society
- How the working class and middle classes are represented in society
- How police and other goverment agencies are perceived by society
- The link between crime and punishment
- Looking at the educational system for the upper and middle classes, and how these differ from those of lower classes
- Looking at social work and how how it is governed. What they could improve
- Labelling within schools
- Inequality in the workplace
expectations?
- To enjoy the course
- Be able to understand all the learning outcomes and be able to use them
- To learn how to blog properly
- Being able to keep up with new methodological research
what you will find interesting?
- Looking into different research methods and expanding knowledge I already have
- The different views and opinions of people in my class
- Working in groups and Individually
- Doing the actual research and finding information
- Keeping up to date with the blog each week
- Making sure I and adding the things in which are required
- Being able to type information up so that it is cohesive
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