Unobtrusive Methods 7.1

Question 1

Traces

Answer 1

Provide data about the actions and processes that left the trace
Ex: wear, tear, trash

Question 2

Trace Erosion Measures

Answer 2

Erosion measures: produced when a surface is worn away

Question 3

Trace Accretion Measures

Answer 3

Accretion Measures – when material is added, usually due to
abandonment or adornment
- Graffiti

Question 4

Trace Data advantages

Answer 4

• Advantages
• Easy to collect the data
• Fast, inexpensive method
• Requires little to no cooperation of subjects
• Unobtrusive

Question 5

Trace Data Disadvantages

Answer 5

• Disadvantages
• Some activities leave little to no trace
• Some activities obliterate all the old traces
• Different materials wear differently
• Inferentially weak (Bouchard, 1976)

Question 6

Running records

Answer 6

•Documents that are produced on a somewhat regular basis
•Government documents, administrative records, news articles, advertisements, advice
columns, wedding announcements in a newspaper….
•Often publicly available
•Need to remain aware that these are socially situated data
•trends observed in them may reflect editorial changes rather than behavioral changes
•Affords longitudinal research

Question 7

Episodic Records

Answer 7

•Relatively discontinuous records
•Often not part of the public record
•Maps, product packaging, architectural drawings, letters, diaries, regulatory
handbooks, records of specific regulatory debates, inscriptions on cemetary
markers…
•Useful for triangulation and in-depth studies of individuals

Question 8

Online Data

Answer 8

•Episodic and running records
•Official documents, historical records, statistical data,
news reports and other secondary data sources
•Websites, blogs, online forums, etc.
•User generated material
•social media and “big data”

Question 9

Online Forums vs Qualitative interviews

Answer 9

•Online forum data
•Direct information about people’s experiences
•Data was often contemporaneous with treatments &
experiences
•More openness about sensitive issues

•Interview data
•Rich in biographical and contextual data
•Largely retrospective information
•Data shaped by self-presentational concerns (e.g.,
socially desirable responding)

Question 10

Digital traces and paradata

Answer 10

• Paradata: auxiliary data about the how a participant engages with a
  survey
• Mouse tracking:as a proxy for eye tracking data
• Keystroke logging
• Log files etc.