Unit 2 Flashcards
1
Q
survey strengths
A
Quick, easy, lots of data
2
Q
questions addressed in surveys
A
- Personal, factual questions
- Questions about others
- Factual questions about an entity
- Questions about attitudes and beliefs
- Questions about knowledge
3
Q
questionnaire strengths
A
- Cheap, quick convenient
- minimal influence of researcher
4
Q
questionnaire weaknesses
A
- Cannot explain questions or instructions.
- No opportunity to probe.
- Questionnaire can be read as a whole.
- Not appropriate for some participants.
- Greater risk of missing data
- Cannot verify who filled out the questionnaire
5
Q
structured interviews
A
A data collection method (survey) in which an interviewer asks respondents:
- The same questions
- In the same order
- With the aid of a formal interview schedule
6
Q
structured interviews strengths
A
- Promotes standardization in how questions are asked and recorded
- Standardization- reduces response bias, ensures greater accuracy and ease in processing respondents answers
7
Q
structured interviews weaknesses
A
-Expensive, time consuming, interviewer may influence respondents answers
8
Q
standardization
A
reduces response bias, ensures greater accuracy and ease in processing respondents answers
9
Q
advantages and disadvantages of online opportunities
A
- low cost, can be administered many ways
- low responses, skepticism, ruin sample
10
Q
response errors
A
- Distortions in survey results
- Caused by participants providing false or inaccurate information
- Keeping the survey short, simple, and anonymous can alleviate many of these errors
11
Q
Acquiescence
A
- Respondents’ tendency to agree with researchers’ questions and perspectives.
- Include opposition
12
Q
Social desirability
A
- Respondents tendency to align themselves with positive social connotations through their responses to survey questions
- Researchers may make it difficult to determine opinions
13
Q
lack of interest
A
- Respondents provide answers just to be done
- Keep survey short
14
Q
close ended survey questions
A
- Fixed set of possible answers to choose from
- Must have categories that are both exhaustive and mutually exclusive
- Straightforward
- Clarifies question
- Enhance comparability
15
Q
open ended survey
A
-allow respondents to formulate their own answers
Advantages:
-Answer in their own terms
-Unusual responses
-Knowledge and experience comes to foreground
-Facilitate exploration of new areas
Disadvantages:
-Participants may not take the time to respond
-Analysis and coding take time
16
Q
Linking Questions and Overall Aims
A
- Every question should have the potential to help answer your research question
- wording driven by topic
17
Q
word choice in survey questions
A
- Avoid overly general questions.
- Avoid ambiguous terms.
- Minimize technical terms.
- Spell out abbreviations and acronyms.
- Avoid questions that include negatives
18
Q
question structure in survey questions
A
-Avoid double-barreled questions.
-Avoid leading questions.
Ensure symmetry between a closed-ended question and its answers.
-Ensure that the answers provided for a closed-ended question are balanced.
19
Q
survey questions considerations
A
- Comprehension of the questions
- Memory and requisite knowledge
- Motivation to answer honestly
20
Q
fence sitters
A
people who do not have storms feelings on an issue but will choose a side if that is their only option
21
Q
floaters
A
people who usually choose don’t know if it is an option
22
Q
survey question order
A
- Most important questions should come early
- Embarrassing questions should come later
- Related questions should be grouped together
- Question order should be the same for all respondents
23
Q
unintended consequences of survey question order
A
contrast and assimilation effects
24
Q
contrast effects
A
question order causes a larger difference between responses than they would have otherwise
25
assimilation effects
question order causes responses to be more similar than they would have otherwise
26
tips for structured interviews
- Know and stick to schedule
- Introduce research
- Record answers
- Probe for more information of clarification
- Prompt as a last resort
27
testing survey quality
pilot studies and pretesting questions
28
pilot studies
smaller scale studies conducted before collecting the data.
| The sample does not overlap with the full study sample
29
pretesting questions
conducted either during a pilot study or by sharing questions with colleagues. Ensures quality of questions
30
Trust in Science agencies
- survey about trust in CDC and political parties
- trust in science has changed over time
- more dramatic in some political groups than others
31
qualitative interviews
- good for detailed information, document peoples experiences
- help understand how people make meaning and understand their perspectives
- Flexible, low cost, open ended
32
unstructured interview
- free form and conversational qualitative interview
| - No predetermined questions or order
33
Semi Structured interview
- use a detailed interview guide, but can add unique probes or change the order of the questions
- Can do more interviews
34
life history interview
nterviewee is asked to report life experiences and their understanding of events across their entire life course
35
oral history interview
asked to reflect on certain events or eras
36
prepping for an interview
-goals, topics, questions
37
writing interview questions
```
-Ask questions to spark
conversation
-Use “why” (sparingly)
-Use probes
-Ask a final question: “is
there anything you would
like to add?”
-don't Ask leading questions
-don't Ask double-barreled
questions
-don't Ask factual questions
-don't Ask yes/no questions
```
38
interview question types
1. Introducing questions
2. Follow-up questions
3. Probing questions
4. Specifying questions
5. Direct questions
6. Indirect questions
7. Structuring questions or statements
8. Silence
9. Interpreting questions
39
writing an interview guide
1. Ensure the interview questions are aligned with your research question
2. Order questions in a logical but flexible manner
3. Use familiar, casual language
4. Avoid judgments and leading questions
5. Include prompts to record contextual information
40
interview considerations
1. Become familiar with the interviewee’s situation and environment.
2. Prepare any necessary technology.
3. Choose an appropriate location.
4. Communicate important details.
5. Prepare the paperwork.
6. Develop good interview habits
41
interviewer effects
-gender and anticipated opinions matter
42
rapport
- establishing trust with interviewee
| - too much can be bad
43
interview notes
-initial thoughts, how it went, reactions, feelings, new areas of interest
44
recording and transcription
```
Advantages:
-Interviewer can stay
engaged
-Ability to analyze how
people talk about their
experiences or opinions
Disadvantages:
-Interviewee might be
uncomfortable
-Requires transcription
```
45
focus groups
- Semi-structured interview in which several people are interviewed together
- Separate groups based on characteristics
46
moderators in focus groups
- Remain neutral
- Less questions than a one on one
- Refocus discussion
- May encourage participation
- Recording is a must
47
focus group advantages and disadvantages
```
Advantages:
-Lots of people at once
Explore social questions
Disadvantages:
-Complex data transcription and analysis
-Difficult to plan
```
48
online interviews
```
Advantages:
-No travel
-Easy to schedule
-Comfortable
-Easy to record and transcribe
Disadvantages:
-No body language
-Technical difficulties
-Might be less comfortable
```
49
feeding the organic child
- Ideal of the organic child increased gendered burdens, significant economic and cultural capital and neoliberal emphasis on individual protection from environmental harm
- Neoliberal construction
- used interviews and focus groups
50
ethnography
- research with the goal of understanding people and settings
- Live alongside
- Use multiple data collection methods
- different than participant observation
51
use of ethnography
- Can engage in interpretive work in order to tell a story about social life
- Goal is immersion- in depth understanding of social settings
52
challenges of ethnography
- Potential ethical conundrums
- Time consuming research method
- Fieldwork is draining
- Small sample sizes
53
choosing ethnography site
-focus on issues of interest, connections to informants, opposition
54
immersion
in depth understanding of social settings
55
gaining access to a site
- Launching relationships
- History, impact, comfort
- sponsor, gatekeeper, key informant
56
sponsor
person in site with power and authority to help make research possible
57
gatekeeper
person with authority, power, and status to grant researchers access
58
key informant
person who shares expertise, knowledge, and power to ethnographer
-only one of their kind
59
tips for gaining access
- Offer something in return.
- Provide a clear explanation of the study aims and methods.
- Be prepared to negotiate.
- Be frank about the amount of people’s time and other resources that are required.
60
maintaining access
- Play up credentials.
- Don’t give people reasons to dislike you.
- Play a meaningful role in the setting.
- Be prepared for tests of competence and credibility.
61
overt participant observation
Participants know they are being studied
| Understands the aims and status of the researcher
62
covert participant observation
- they do not know (deception)
- Cannot do interviews
- do not know aim and status of researcher
- ethical issues
- increased anxiety of researcher
- better to see illicit behaviors
63
participant as observer
allows closeness, but may overidentify with members
64
Observer as participant-
allows impartial study, but less understanding of social setting
65
Active or passive participation
- Often not possible to be passive to observe a group under pressure
- Failure to participate may show a lack of commitment, lack of loyalty
66
field notes
- Detailed ethnographic accounts of events, conversations, behaviors, reflections
- Date, time, place
- People present (or absent)
- Specific details of what happened at site
- Sensory impressions of site
- Personal responses to site
- Specific words, phrases, etc.
- Questions for future
- first person, present tense
67
Visual ethnography
- Aims to gain insight into peoples lives through videos, photos, etc
- To identify and read images
68
Institutional ethnography
- Explores institutional discourse and relationships
| - How they image individuals or groups
69
Autoethnography
- Focuses on the researchers feelings, thoughts, interactions, interventions
- Ability to understand broader social conditions and concerns in which research is situated
70
Feminist ethnography
- Understanding women's perspectives in social context
- Importance of creating a non-exploitative relationship between the researcher and participant
- Find ways to improve lives of participants
71
Exiting the field
- When nothing else can be learned
- When there is an answer to the question
- When no more time is left
- Need a reason to tell participants
72
Working for free in the VIP
- Ashleys Mears ethnography of participation and interview
- found relational work of promoters
- womens work reframed as leisure and friendship
73
Content analysis
-examination of patterns of cultural meaning within written text, audio, visual, and other media
-Analysis by focusing on meaning
unobtrusive method of research
74
unit of analysis
-what the research is looking for in content analysis
-(Words, concepts,
paragraphs, Subjects, themes, value positions, People, objects, frames)
75
Four criteria for selecting material
Authenticity
Credibility
Representativeness
Meaning
76
Life history
-makes connections between inner experiences and connection to social and historical events
77
official documents
```
should be
scrutinized for:
-Credibility and
representativeness.
-For what viewpoint about
the institution they
convey
```
78
Visual objects
-need social context, might not be representative (positivity bias)
79
content analysis weaknesses
-quality, bias, audience, meaning, generalizability, not casual
80
Manifest content
- literal elements in data, countable
81
latent content
interpretive elements in data, theme patterns and symbolic meanings
82
deductive codes
- codes derived from previous research
| - looks for examples and applies
83
inductive codes
codes are derived from analyzing the data, starts with open coding
84
code strategies
Mutually exclusive, exhausted, clear
85
advantages of content anaylsis
allows for trial and error, ethical, cheap
86
How pigeons became rats
Cultural spatial logic of problem animals
Animals that cross boundary into human spaces are pollution
Qualitative content analysis
87
computational methods
1. Big
2. Always On
3. Nonreactive
4. Incomplete
5. Inaccessible
6. Non-representative
7. Drifting
8. Algorithmically Confounded
9. Dirty & Messy
10. Sensitive
88
Text analysis
Uses computing powers to find patterns in large amount of text data
89
Network analysis
- Examination of patterns in how people are connected to one another
- Assumes people are not independent
90
Experiment
- Lab or natural
| - Invention in social world, then outcome measured
91
ethics of computational analysis
- Informed consent
- Informational risk
- Privacy
- Uncertainty
92
Corporate Funding and Ideological Polarization about Climate Change
- How is climate change polarization produced?
- used social network data and texts on climate change
- pinned words and text
- Researchers can contextualize texts into the social networks that produced them
- Private funding can shape scientific information
93
secondary data analysis
-Analysis of existing data
-Can entail using data
beyond intended purpose
94
accessing existing data
- World Bank (international)
- U.S. Census Bureau (national)
- City of Boston (regional)
95
The Inter-University Consortium
for Political and Social Research
(ICPSR) at the University of
Michigan
- 750 academic institutions
| - 65,000 data sets
96
analysis of large surveys
-Conducted by social scientists, governments, and research
centers
-Characterized by large sample size gathered through probability
techniques
97
existing data benefits
-Representative data
-National samples
-High quality
-Studying subgroups is
possible
-Longitudinal analysis is
possible
98
existing data challenges
-complex, limited by measurement strategy, hierarchical
99
Analysis of Official Statistics
-Often collected via survey, but focused on official activities
-Made available by governmental and non-governmental
organizations
100
benefits of official statistics
```
-Measures entire
population
-Freely and publicly
available
-Reflects institutions
-Fewer issues with
reactivity
-Longitudinal analysis
is possible
```
101
challenges of official statistics
-Data might be limited
-Possible undercount
-Reflects institutions
-Concerns with reliability and
validity
-Social conditions impact when
and what is studied
-Data doesn’t reflect complexity
of social world
-Data may not be complete
102
government documents
- Official reports
- Transcribed procedures
- good for longitudinal analysis
- bad because some is missing or limited
103
Advantages of Secondary Analysis
- Resources: Cost and Time
- More time for data analysis
- New interpretations from reanalysis
- Opportunity for cross-cultural (international) analysis
- Opportunity for longitudinal analysis
104
Limitations of Secondary Analysis
- Lack of familiarity with the data
- No control over data quality
- Absence of key variables
105
visualizing quantitative analysis
- what is communicated
- highest possible value
- lowest value
- ex. zooming in on a chart makes it seem more dramatic
106
Interpreting Quantitative Analysis
- Read the abstract.
- Identify the dependent and independent variables.
- Read the discussion section.
- Look at the tables and “shoot for the stars.”
