Transcript Week-11

Research with Nonreactive
Measures
Chapter 8
Analyzing Physical Evidence for
Clues about Social Life
• Non-reactive research = research
techniques in which the people in the
study are unaware that someone is
gathering information or using it for
research purposes.
• Four types of non-reactive research:
– Physical evidence analysis
– Content analysis
– Existing statistics analysis
– Secondary data analysis
Analyzing Physical Evidence for
Clues about Social Life
• Unobtrusive measures = non-reactive
research measures that do not intrude or
disturb a person, so they are unaware of
them.
– Limitations of Physical Evidence
• physical evidence measures are indirect
• possible privacy violation
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• Content Analysis
– Content analysis = A non-reactive technique
for studying communication messages.
– Text = In content analysis it means anything
written, visual, or spoken in a communication
medium.
– Content analysis is useful for
• Large volumes of text
• Topics studied “at a distance”
• Content difficult to see with casual observation
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• How to Measure and Code in Content
Analysis
– Coding System = In content analysis a set of
instructions or rules stating how text was
systematically measured and converted into
variables.
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• How to Measure and Code in Content
Analysis
– What do you measure?
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Direction
Frequency
Intensity
Space
Prominence
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• How to Measure and Code in Content
Analysis
– Coding, Validity, and Reliability
• Content Analysis with Visual Material
– visual material communicates indirectly
– visual images often contain mixed messages and
operate at multiple levels of meaning
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• How to Conduct Content Analysis
Research
– Step 1. Formulate a Research Question
– Step 2. Identify the Text to Analyze
– Step 3. Decide on Units of Analysis
– Step 4. Draw a Sample
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• How to Conduct Content Analysis
Research (cont)
– Step 5. Create a Coding System
– Step 6. Construct and Refine Categories
– Step 7. Code the Data onto Recording
Sheets.
– Step 8. Data Analysis
Revealing the Content Buried
within Communication
Messages
• Limitations of Content Analysis
– content analysis cannot:
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determine the truthfulness of an statement/claim
evaluate aesthetic (visual/artistic) qualities
interpret content significance
reveal the intentions of the text’s creators
determine the influence of a message on its
receivers
Mining Existing Statistical
Sources to Answer New
Questions
• Social Indicator = Any measure of social
conditions or well-being that can used be
used in policy decisions.
• Locating Data
– many diverse sources
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
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Mining Existing Statistical
Sources to Answer New
Questions
Verifying Data Quality
– Existing statistics can be limited by
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Missing Data
Reliability
Validity
Topic Knowledge
Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness = when
statistical information is reported in a way that
gives a false impression of its precision.
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Mining Existing Statistical
Sources to Answer New
Questions
Verifying Data Quality (cont)
– Existing statistics can be limited by
6. Ecological Fallacy = mistaken interpretations that
occur when you use data for a higher or bigger unit of
analysis to examine a relationship among units at a
lower or small unit of analysis
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Creative Thinking About Variables of Interest
Standardization of Data
– Standardization = adjusting a measure by
dividing it by a common base to make
comparisons are possible.
Answering New Questions
Using Survey Data Collected by
Others
• Secondary Sources
– General Social Survey = A large-scale
survey with many questions of a large
national sample of adult Americans
conducted almost every year. Data from it are
made available to researchers at low or no
cost.
– Limitations of Secondary Data Sources
• May lack data for your research question
• Validity
• Topic knowledge
Answering New Questions Using
Survey Data Collected by Others
Conducting Ethical NonReactive
Research
• Protect people’s privacy
• Protect confidentiality of data