Chapter Sixteen

Question 1

Content Analysis

Answer 1

An approach to the analysis of documents and tests that seeks to quantify content in terms of predetermined categories in a systematic and replicable manner. The term is sometimes used in connection with qualitative research as well.

Question 2

Replicability

Answer 2

The degree to which a study can be repeated using the same methods.

Question 3

Semiotics

Answer 3

An approach to the analysis of documents and other materials that emphasizes the importance of signs and symbols, seeking out their deeper meaning and exploring their intended effects.

Question 4

Ethnomethodology

Answer 4

A sociological perspective concerned with the way social order is established and maintained through talk and interaction; the intellectual foundation of conversation analysis.

Question 5

Discourse Analysis

Answer 5

An approach to the analysis of talk and other forms of communication that emphasizes the way language can create versions of reality.

Question 6

Coding Manual

Answer 6

A list of the codes to be used in the analysis of a particular set of data. For answers to a structured interview schedule or questionnaire, the coding frame delineates the categories used for each open question. With closed questions, the coding frame is essentially incorporated into the fixed answers from which respondents must choose; hence the term “pre-coded question”.6

Question 7

Reliability

Answer 7

The degree to which a measure of a concept is stable or consistent.

Question 8

Validity

Answer 8

A research criterion concerend with the integrity of the conclusions generated by a particular study. There are several types of validity. When used on its own, validity is usually taken to refer to measurement validity.

Question 9

Observation Schedules

Answer 9

A device used in structured observation that specifies that categories of behaviour that are to be observed and gives instructions on how behaviour should be allocated to those categories.

Question 10

Inter-Coder Reliability

Answer 10

The degree to which two or more individuals agree on the coding of an item; a frequent concern in the coding of answers to open questions in research based on questionnaires or structured interviews.

Question 11

Intra-Coder Reliability

Answer 11

The degree to which an individual coder is consistent over time in the coding of an item; likely to be an issue in the coding of answers to open questions in research based on questionnaires or structured interviews.

Question 12

Constant

Answer 12

An attribute on which cases do not differ, compare with variable.

Question 13

Signs

Answer 13

A term used in semiotics. Each sign has two parts: the signifier (manifestation of a sign) and the signified (the deeper meaning to which the signifier refers).

Question 14

Denotation

Answer 14

A term used in semiotics to refer to the principal and most manifest meaning of a sign; compare with connotation.

Question 15

Connotation

Answer 15

A term used in semiotics to refer to the meanings of a sign associated with the social context within which it operates: a sign’s connotations are supplementary to its denotation and less immediately apparent.

Question 16

Epistemology

Answer 16

A branch of philosophy concerned with what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge is to be acquired; see positivism, realism, and interpretivism.

Question 17

Ontological

Answer 17

A branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of reality; for example, whether social entities can and should be considered objective entities with a reality external to specific social actors, or as social constructions built up through the perseptions and actions of these actors.

Question 18

Positivist

Answer 18

An epistemological position that advocates using the methods of the natural sciences in the study of social reality.

Question 19

Turn-Taking

Answer 19

In conversation analysis, the idea that taking turns to speak is a rule that helps to maintain order in everyday conversation.

Question 20

Adjacency Pair

Answer 20

Two kinds of talk activity that are linked together, such as an invitation and a response.

Question 21

Critical Discourse Analysis

Answer 21

A type of content analysis that brings issues such as power hierarchies, structural inequalities, and historical political struggles to bear on the analyses of texts.

Question 22

Critical Realist

Answer 22

A realist epistemology according to which the study of the social world should be concerned with the identification of social structures in order to change them and thereby counteract inequalities and injustices. Unlike positivism, which is an empiricist epistemology, critical realism maintains that the structures may not be directly perceivable.