Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Reactivity
|
the problem that the subjects of social research may react to the fact of being studied; thus altering their behavior from what it would have been normally. Think of the Hawthorne Effect.
|
|
|
The Martian
|
imagine that you were sent to observe some newfound life on Mars. You would probably feel yourself inescapably separate from the Martians. Some social scientists adopt this degree of separation when observing cultures or social classes different from their own.
|
|
|
The Convert
|
delving more and more deeply into the phenomenon under study; running the risk of “going native.”
|
|
|
Symbolic realism
|
the need for social scientists to treat the beliefs they study as worthy of respect rather than objects of ridicule.
|
|
|
Emic perspective
|
taking on the point of view of those being studied.
|
|
|
Etic perspective
|
maintaining a distance from the native point of view in the interest of achieving more objectivity.
|
|
|
Qualitative data are
|
observations not easily reduced to numbers.
|
|
|
Quantitative
|
When we know very little about what we’re studying. We observe it and describe what we see without participating in it
|
|
|
Qualitative types of interviews
|
the qualitative interview is based on a set of topics to be discussed in depth rather than based on the use of standardized questions. A general direction is set and the interviewer pursues specific topics raided by the respondent.
|
|
|
Naturalism
|
assumption that an objective social reality exists and be observed and reported accurately.
|
|
|
Ethnomethodology
|
an approach to the study of social life that focuses on the discovery of implicit, unspoken assumptions and agreements; this method often involves the intentional breaking of agreements as a way of revealing their existence.
|
|
|
Grounded theory
|
an inductive approach to the study of social life that attempts to generate a theory from the constant comparing of unfolding observations. This is very different from hypothesis testing; in which theory is used to generate hypotheses to be tested through observations.
|
|
|
Case studies
|
the in-depth examination of a single instance of some social phenomenon; such as a village; a family; or a juvenile gang.
|
|
|
Extended case method
|
a technique developed by Michael Burawoy in which case study observations are used to discover flaws in and to improve existing social theories.
|
|
|
Institutional ethnography
|
a research technique in which the personal experiences of individuals are used to reveal power relationships and other characteristics of the institutions within which they operate.
|
|
|
Participatory action research (PAR)
|
an approach to social research in which the people being studied are given control over the purpose and procedures of the research; intended as a counter to the implicit view that researchers are superior to those they study; when the goal is to be a resource for the group being studied.
|
|
|
Emancipatory research
|
research conducted for the purpose of benefiting disadvantaged groups.
|
|
|
7 stages to the interview process
|
Thematizing, clarifying the purpose of the interviews and the concepts to be explored.
Designing, laying out the process. Included ethical dimension. Interviewing Transcribing, creating a written text of the interview. Analyzing, determining the meaning of gathered materials in relation to the purpose of the study. Verifying, checking the reliability and validity of the materials. Reporting, telling others what you have learned. |
|
|
Ethnography
|
a report on social life that focuses on detailed and accurate description rather than explanation. The naturalist approach is based on telling “their” stories the way they “really are;” not the way the ethnographer understands “them.” Inductive research as a method of its own
|
|
|
Covert
|
Not openly acknowledged or displayed.Near impossible to get through ethical review. Only acceptable when in Open; public settings?
Ex: Researcher studied secret gay men in wealthy households by telling them he would keep an eye for the door when someone came by while they had sex (he was recording their license plate). He later tracked them down and asked them questions about their secret behaviors. Unethical. |
|
|
Field research is also known as
|
participant observation. Field researchers need not always participate in what they’re studying; though they usually do study it directly at the scene of the action. Is a contradiction; but the tension is its strength
|
|
|
Triangulation
|
The result of using multiple methods to pinpoint one set of findings.
|
|
|
Three possible outcomes of triangulated/multiple methods research
|
Convergent
Inconsistent Contradictory |
|
|
Content analysis
|
when researchers examine a class of social artifacts that usually are written documents such as newspaper editorials; the study of recorded human communications; such as books; magazines; websites; paintings; poems; newspapers; songs; speeches; letters; email messages; bulletin board postings on the internet; constitutions; and laws. Who says what; to whom; why; how; and with what effect? It can study the current time; or draw from archives to study a phenomenon over time or at a historical moment. In communication research; content analysis is well suited to questions of how the content of media might affect those who consume it.
|
|
|
Advantages of content analysis
|
Its economy in both time and money
Allows for the correction of errors Permits the study of processes over a long time All unobtrusive measures; namely; that the content analyst seldom has any effect on the subject being studied |
|
|
Disadvantages of content analysis
|
Limited to the examination of recorded communications. Such communications may be oral; written; or graphic; but they must be recorded in some fashion to permit analysis.
Limited appropriateness. Problems with validity are likely unless you happen to be studying communication processes per se. But the concreteness of the materials allows you to code your data and recode the original documents from scratch; as many times as you want. |
|
|
How to select units of analysis based on research question
|
If individual writers are the units of analysis; the sample design should select all or a sample of the writers appropriate to the research question. If books are the units of analysis; we should select a sample of books regardless of their authors. If you plan on analyzing a body of textual materials; the units of analysis might be words; themes; characters; paragraphs; items (such as a book or letter); concepts; semantics; or combinations of these.
|
|
|
Coding
|
the process whereby raw data are transformed into standardized form suitable for machine processing and analysis. Coding categories are created by taking into account levels of specificity such as nominal; ordinal; interval; and ratio. A book could be erotic; nonerotic; or even ant-erotic. There is also a middle-of-the-road sometimes. Paintings could be representational or not; or you could classify them as impressionistic; abstract; allegorical; and so forth.
|
|
|
Manifest content
|
the concrete terms contained in a communication, as distinguished from latent content, visible; surface content. Has the advantage of ease and reliability; but the disadvantage of validity. Measuring the eroticism of a novel by counting how many times love or other words appear.
|
|
|
Latent content
|
the underlying meaning of communications; as distinguished from their manifest content. This process comes at the cost of reliability and specificity. It also allows for subjectivity.
|
|
|
What presentation of the results best reflects the reality of our findings
|
Ex: percentages—15% of people in Asia have Internet access; but that number constitutes 33% of the global population that is online. Ex: absolute numbers vs percentages—US gives largest amount of foreign aid; but Sweden gives higher percentage of its annual budget.
|
|
|
Measures that describe the center point of a distribution of quantitative data.
|
Mean, a.k.a.; “average”
Median, a.k.a.; “middle point” (used mostly when the mean is affected by extreme scores) Mode, a.k.a.; most frequently occurring (mostly for nominal data) |
|
|
Measures that report how far a set of scores are spread around the center point of the data and across the distribution.
|
#1, Range, distance between highest and lowest scores in a distribution
Ex, 6; 2; 1; 3; 5; 9; 8; 9; 11 Highest number? Lowest number? Distance between them? |
|
|
#2, Standard Deviation (SD), It’s a complicated concept; but the easiest way to think of it is as the "mean of the mean.”
|
Standard deviation measures how much - on average - individual scores vary (or deviate) from the mean score for the group.
In other words; the standard deviation is useful because it shows us how many subjects in the group score within a certain range of variation from the average for the entire group. Knowing this can help us make decisions about how to interpret our results. |
|
|
Advantages of academic advocacy
|
Opportunity to put research into action;
Can do research in service of the community Can effect real change |
|
|
What are the drawbacks of academic advocacy?
|
Navigating different needs; audiences; and ways of doing things
Paradigm and practice differences Can take a very long time to see results (different timelines) |
