Documents Flashcards
What are Public Documents?
Produced by organisations such as the Government,businesses, charities etc.
Some output may be used for sociological use (offsted reports etc.)
What are Personal Documents?
First person accounts of social events and personal experiences that generally include the writers feelings and attitudes.
(Letters diaries etc. )
What are Historical Documents? (Study)
Can be either personal or public. If we want to study past these are usually the only source of info.
ARIES used paintings of children and child-rearing manuals in his study of childhood
Assessing Documents (4 criteria)
SCOTT argues that when it comes to assessing documentary sources, must use 4 criteria for evaluating
-Authenticity :is it what it claims to be?
-Credibility:Is the document believable?
-Representativeness: Is the evidence in the document typical?
-Meaning: Diff sociologists interpret thing’s different
Advantages of documents (2)
-They allow sociologists to get up close to the social actors reality (rich detailed and qualitative data).
-Cheap source of data + time efficient
Content Analysis
A method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents, it is commonly used in analysing media documents such as the news or advertisements. (Produce/ quantitate data)
Content Analysis
A method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents, it is commonly used in analysing media documents such as the news or advertisements. (Produce/ quantitate data)
Content Analysis Study (TUCHMAN)
TUCHMAN used it to analyse TV’s portrayal of women, and found that women were portrayed in a limited number of stereotypical roles.
Advantages of Content Analysis
-cheap and easy to find sources of material
-Positivists see it as a useful source of objective, quantitative, scientific data.
Advantages of Content Analysis
-cheap and easy to find sources of material
-Positivists see it as a useful source of objective, quantitative, scientific data.
Disadvantages of Content Analysis (1)
-Interpretivists would argue that simply counting up the numbers of times something appears in a document tells us nothing about its meaning