HST250H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Symbolic Interactionism, Grounded Theory, Participant Observation
Document Summary
Secondary data: data collected by people other than researchers. Surveys: used to gather people"s feelings, thoughts and opinions. Participant observation: one would disguise themselves as a participant and undergo the process. Three contemporary approaches in social science: positivist: scientific research like process, interpretive: examines how people makes sense of life, critical: human relations are characterized by conflicting interests. 7 assumptions made by positivism about human behaviour. A positivist approach is most successful when variables are accounted for. Positivism argues that research should be value-free; so there are no biases. Three main sub groups: symbolic interactionist, ethnomethodlogical, and grounded theory. Relies majorly on field study with a focus on participant observation. Wants to have impact on one specific behavior. Its topic deals with something associated with society. Applied research: focus on bringing about specific changes. Independent: acts as the cause in the cause-effect. Control: takes into account between dependent and independent. Intervening: variable that links independent variable with dependent.
