Chapter 11

Question 1

Unobtrusive research refers to methods of collecting data

Answer 1

that don’t interfere with the subjects under study (because these methods are not obtrusive)

Question 2

Historical comparative research is “research that focuses either on one or more cases over time

Answer 2

(the historical part) or on more than one nation or society at one point in time (the comparative part)”

Question 3

Research bias Bias that occurs when the preconceptions of a researcher—either intentionally

Answer 3

or, more typically, unintentionally—shape her or his findings.

Question 4

Hawthorne effect A situation that occurs when research subjects, either intentionally

Answer 4

or unintentionally, alter their behaviors because they know they are being studied.

Question 5

Content analysis A type of unobtrusive research that involves the

Answer 5

study of human communications

Question 6

Primary sources

Answer 6

Original sources of data that have not already been analyzed; “raw” sources

Question 7

Secondary sources sources of data that have been analyzed or otherwise tweaked

Answer 7

for presentation by others; “cooked” sources.

Question 8

qualitative content analysis the aim is to identify themes in the text bring analyzed and to

Answer 8

Identify the underlying meaning of those themes.

Question 9

Quantitative content analysis, on the other hand, involves assigning numerical values to raw

Answer 9

Data so that it can be analyzed using various statistical procedures.

Question 10

Physical traces Evidence left by people that tells us something about

Answer 10

their behaviors or interactions.

Question 11

Material artifacts Objects created by humans that tell us something about their

Answer 11

beliefs, values, or norms.

Question 12

Code sheet The instrument used by an unobtrusive researcher

Answer 12

to record observations.

Question 13

Manifest content Content that is most visible, obvious,

Answer 13

or at the surface.

Question 14

Latent content The underlying meaning of the

Answer 14

surface content we observe.

Question 15

Stability refers to the extent to which the results of

Answer 15

coding vary across different time periods.

Question 16

Reproducibility The extent to which one’s coding procedures will garner the same

Answer 16

results when the same text is code by different people.

Question 17

accuracy refers to the extent to which one’s coding procedures

Answer 17

correspond to some preexisting standard.