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research methods > Unit 2 > Flashcards

Unit 2 Flashcards

1
Q

survey strengths

A

Quick, easy, lots of data

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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
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3
Q

questionnaire strengths

A
  • Cheap, quick convenient

- minimal influence of researcher

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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
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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
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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
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7
Q

structured interviews weaknesses

A

-Expensive, time consuming, interviewer may influence respondents answers

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8
Q

standardization

A

reduces response bias, ensures greater accuracy and ease in processing respondents answers

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9
Q

advantages and disadvantages of online opportunities

A
  • low cost, can be administered many ways

- low responses, skepticism, ruin sample

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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
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11
Q

Acquiescence

A
  • Respondents’ tendency to agree with researchers’ questions and perspectives.
  • Include opposition
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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
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13
Q

lack of interest

A
  • Respondents provide answers just to be done

- Keep survey short

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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
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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

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16
Q

Linking Questions and Overall Aims

A
  • Every question should have the potential to help answer your research question
  • wording driven by topic
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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
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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.

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19
Q

survey questions considerations

A
  • Comprehension of the questions
  • Memory and requisite knowledge
  • Motivation to answer honestly
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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

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21
Q

floaters

A

people who usually choose don’t know if it is an option

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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
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23
Q

unintended consequences of survey question order

A

contrast and assimilation effects

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24
Q

contrast effects

A

question order causes a larger difference between responses than they would have otherwise

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25
Q

assimilation effects

A

question order causes responses to be more similar than they would have otherwise

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26
Q

tips for structured interviews

A
  • Know and stick to schedule
  • Introduce research
  • Record answers
  • Probe for more information of clarification
  • Prompt as a last resort
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27
Q

testing survey quality

A

pilot studies and pretesting questions

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28
Q

pilot studies

A

smaller scale studies conducted before collecting the data.

The sample does not overlap with the full study sample

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29
Q

pretesting questions

A

conducted either during a pilot study or by sharing questions with colleagues. Ensures quality of questions

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30
Q

Trust in Science agencies

A
  • survey about trust in CDC and political parties
  • trust in science has changed over time
  • more dramatic in some political groups than others
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31
Q

qualitative interviews

A
  • good for detailed information, document peoples experiences
  • help understand how people make meaning and understand their perspectives
  • Flexible, low cost, open ended
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32
Q

unstructured interview

A
  • free form and conversational qualitative interview

- No predetermined questions or order

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33
Q

Semi Structured interview

A
  • use a detailed interview guide, but can add unique probes or change the order of the questions
  • Can do more interviews
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34
Q

life history interview

A

nterviewee is asked to report life experiences and their understanding of events across their entire life course

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35
Q

oral history interview

A

asked to reflect on certain events or eras

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36
Q

prepping for an interview

A

-goals, topics, questions

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37
Q

writing interview questions

A 
-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
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38
Q

interview question types

A
  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
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39
Q

writing an interview guide

A
  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
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40
Q

interview considerations

A
  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
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41
Q

interviewer effects

A

-gender and anticipated opinions matter

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42
Q

rapport

A
  • establishing trust with interviewee

- too much can be bad

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43
Q

interview notes

A

-initial thoughts, how it went, reactions, feelings, new areas of interest

44
Q

recording and transcription

A 
Advantages:
-Interviewer can stay 
engaged
-Ability to analyze how 
people talk about their 
experiences or opinions
Disadvantages:
-Interviewee might be 
uncomfortable 
-Requires transcription
45
Q

focus groups

A
  • Semi-structured interview in which several people are interviewed together
  • Separate groups based on characteristics
46
Q

moderators in focus groups

A
  • Remain neutral
  • Less questions than a one on one
  • Refocus discussion
  • May encourage participation
  • Recording is a must
47
Q

focus group advantages and disadvantages

A 
Advantages:
-Lots of people at once
Explore social questions
Disadvantages:
-Complex data transcription and analysis
-Difficult to plan
48
Q

online interviews

A 
Advantages:
-No travel
-Easy to schedule
-Comfortable
-Easy to record and transcribe
Disadvantages:
-No body language
-Technical difficulties
-Might be less comfortable
49
Q

feeding the organic child

A
  • 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
Q

ethnography

A
  • research with the goal of understanding people and settings
  • Live alongside
  • Use multiple data collection methods
  • different than participant observation
51
Q

use of ethnography

A
  • Can engage in interpretive work in order to tell a story about social life
  • Goal is immersion- in depth understanding of social settings
52
Q

challenges of ethnography

A
  • Potential ethical conundrums
  • Time consuming research method
  • Fieldwork is draining
  • Small sample sizes
53
Q

choosing ethnography site

A

-focus on issues of interest, connections to informants, opposition

54
Q

immersion

A

in depth understanding of social settings

55
Q

gaining access to a site

A
  • Launching relationships
  • History, impact, comfort
  • sponsor, gatekeeper, key informant
56
Q

sponsor

A

person in site with power and authority to help make research possible

57
Q

gatekeeper

A

person with authority, power, and status to grant researchers access

58
Q

key informant

A

person who shares expertise, knowledge, and power to ethnographer
-only one of their kind

59
Q

tips for gaining access

A
  • 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
Q

maintaining access

A
  • 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
Q

overt participant observation

A

Participants know they are being studied

Understands the aims and status of the researcher

62
Q

covert participant observation

A
  • 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
Q

participant as observer

A

allows closeness, but may overidentify with members

64
Q

Observer as participant-

A

allows impartial study, but less understanding of social setting

65
Q

Active or passive participation

A
  • 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
Q

field notes

A
  • 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
Q

Visual ethnography

A
  • Aims to gain insight into peoples lives through videos, photos, etc
  • To identify and read images
68
Q

Institutional ethnography

A
  • Explores institutional discourse and relationships

- How they image individuals or groups

69
Q

Autoethnography

A
  • Focuses on the researchers feelings, thoughts, interactions, interventions
  • Ability to understand broader social conditions and concerns in which research is situated
70
Q

Feminist ethnography

A
  • 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
Q

Exiting the field

A
  • 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
Q

Working for free in the VIP

A
  • Ashleys Mears ethnography of participation and interview
  • found relational work of promoters
  • womens work reframed as leisure and friendship
73
Q

Content analysis

A

-examination of patterns of cultural meaning within written text, audio, visual, and other media
-Analysis by focusing on meaning
unobtrusive method of research

74
Q

unit of analysis

A

-what the research is looking for in content analysis
-(Words, concepts,
paragraphs, Subjects, themes, value positions, People, objects, frames)

75
Q

Four criteria for selecting material

A

Authenticity
Credibility
Representativeness
Meaning

76
Q

Life history

A

-makes connections between inner experiences and connection to social and historical events

77
Q

official documents

A 
should be 
scrutinized for:
-Credibility and 
representativeness.
-For what viewpoint about 
the institution they 
convey
78
Q

Visual objects

A

-need social context, might not be representative (positivity bias)

79
Q

content analysis weaknesses

A

-quality, bias, audience, meaning, generalizability, not casual

80
Q

Manifest content

A
  • literal elements in data, countable
81
Q

latent content

A

interpretive elements in data, theme patterns and symbolic meanings

82
Q

deductive codes

A
  • codes derived from previous research

- looks for examples and applies

83
Q

inductive codes

A

codes are derived from analyzing the data, starts with open coding

84
Q

code strategies

A

Mutually exclusive, exhausted, clear

85
Q

advantages of content anaylsis

A

allows for trial and error, ethical, cheap

86
Q

How pigeons became rats

A

Cultural spatial logic of problem animals
Animals that cross boundary into human spaces are pollution
Qualitative content analysis

87
Q

computational methods

A
  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
Q

Text analysis

A

Uses computing powers to find patterns in large amount of text data

89
Q

Network analysis

A
  • Examination of patterns in how people are connected to one another
  • Assumes people are not independent
90
Q

Experiment

A
  • Lab or natural

- Invention in social world, then outcome measured

91
Q

ethics of computational analysis

A
  • Informed consent
  • Informational risk
  • Privacy
  • Uncertainty
92
Q

Corporate Funding and Ideological Polarization about Climate Change

A
  • 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
Q

secondary data analysis

A

-Analysis of existing data
-Can entail using data
beyond intended purpose

94
Q

accessing existing data

A
  • World Bank (international)
  • U.S. Census Bureau (national)
  • City of Boston (regional)
95
Q

The Inter-University Consortium
for Political and Social Research
(ICPSR) at the University of
Michigan

A
  • 750 academic institutions

- 65,000 data sets

96
Q

analysis of large surveys

A

-Conducted by social scientists, governments, and research
centers
-Characterized by large sample size gathered through probability
techniques

97
Q

existing data benefits

A

-Representative data
-National samples
-High quality
-Studying subgroups is
possible
-Longitudinal analysis is
possible

98
Q

existing data challenges

A

-complex, limited by measurement strategy, hierarchical

99
Q

Analysis of Official Statistics

A

-Often collected via survey, but focused on official activities
-Made available by governmental and non-governmental
organizations

100
Q

benefits of official statistics

A 
-Measures entire 
population
-Freely and publicly 
available
-Reflects institutions 
-Fewer issues with 
reactivity
-Longitudinal analysis 
is possible
101
Q

challenges of official statistics

A

-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
Q

government documents

A
  • Official reports
  • Transcribed procedures
  • good for longitudinal analysis
  • bad because some is missing or limited
103
Q

Advantages of Secondary Analysis

A
  • Resources: Cost and Time
  • More time for data analysis
  • New interpretations from reanalysis
  • Opportunity for cross-cultural (international) analysis
  • Opportunity for longitudinal analysis
104
Q

Limitations of Secondary Analysis

A
  • Lack of familiarity with the data
  • No control over data quality
  • Absence of key variables
105
Q

visualizing quantitative analysis

A
  • what is communicated
  • highest possible value
  • lowest value
  • ex. zooming in on a chart makes it seem more dramatic
106
Q

Interpreting Quantitative Analysis

A
  • Read the abstract.
  • Identify the dependent and independent variables.
  • Read the discussion section.
  • Look at the tables and “shoot for the stars.”

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