Content Analysis

Question 1

content analysis

Answer 1

involves studying human behaviour indirectly by studying communications that we produce
e.g. tv/adverts/newspapers

Question 2

conducting a content analysis

Answer 2

identify hypothesis
create a coding system
gather resources
conduct analysis and record data in a table
analyse data
write up a scientific report

Question 3

different methods of content analysis

Answer 3

sampling: could use systematic (look at every 5th house/page of book); timed (note down event every 30 seconds); randomly identifying characteristics

coding: behavioural categories decided by thematic analysis

type of data: quantitative (counting instances) qualitative (describe examples within category)

Question 4

content analysis: strength

Answer 4

strong external validity as data is in the real world, therefore high mundane realism
large data set of quantitative and qualitative data
easy replication
ethical issues avoided bc no pps

Question 5

content analysis: weakness

Answer 5

observer bias
choosing to analyse particular can be biased by researcher
interpretative bias - researchers may ignore some but pay extra attention to other things