Week 11 : Material-Based Methods Flashcards
1
Q
What are Materials-based methods?
A
- Sociological methods that involve analyzing existing materials rather than interviewing, surveying or observing ppl
- called unobtrusive methods
- Materials include expert analyses, reports, records, news media, cultural artifacts, written accounts of events, physical materials, maps and pre-existing datasets
2
Q
Why use material based methods? 4 reasons
A
- Individuals are not the best sources of information about macro-social phenomena
- The answers to some questions do not exist in living memory
- People are not always the best sources of information (even about themselves)
- Materials facilitate studies otherwise difficult or impossible to carry-out
3
Q
1 - individuals aren’t the best source for macro-social phenomena
A
- Social patterns or trends are sometimes bigger than any individual
- often rely on pre-existing expert analyses, government reports, media & other records (e.g. why revolutions occur in some countries but not others)
- look at societal composition, structures & processes
4
Q
2 - answers to some questions do not exist in living memory
A
- If some/all of the tings you want to study happened in the past, memories of events may have faded or individuals who experienced the events may have died
5
Q
3 - People are not always the best sources of information
A
- want to put their best face forward
- Problem of societal blind spots… romanticize past, presume false things are true even when factcs contradict them
- not great at answering how/why they do specific things in their era if its just ‘normal’
6
Q
Materials Used in Materials-Based Methods…
A
- expert analysis
- reports (Syntheses of information, typically created by governments or organizations)
- records
- news media
- cultural artifacts
- individual accounts of events (e.g. diaries, letters, journals, videos, blogs, or Facebook posts)
- physical materials (e.g. children’s toys)
- maps
- data sets
- big data
7
Q
Primary vs secondary information…
A
- primary… firsthand evidence in its original, unaltered form, includes researchers’ direct observations
- examples of primary… diary enteries, birth certificate, etc.
- secondary… gathered, reported & sometimes altered by another, indirect evidence of something; comes through at least one other person (leads to validity problems)
- examples of secondary… nyt article, general social survey, death certificate,
8
Q
Where do researchers find material for analysis?
A
- archives
- governments (e.g. census, US department of education, criminal records)
- organizations (e.g. GoogleBooks, large organizations more likely to have archives) must be cautious tho
- individuals (e.g. individual researchers data)
9
Q
3 common methods
A
- historical comparative
- content analysis
- secondary (quantitative) data analysis
10
Q
1 - historical comparative methods
A
- better understand macro processes & reveal the blind spots of contemporary societies by comparing societies across time & space
- historical… examine change over time
- comparative… use materials to examine change across locations
- usually use government records, official reports & pre-existing academic literature/expert accounts
11
Q
1 - historical comparative methods
1 - selecting cases
A
- case-oriented research (usually 2-4)
- case = time x location
- purposive sampling… importance, typicality & contrasting outcomes/key differences
- one way to think abt whether you have selected noteworthy cases is to think in terms of counterfactuals…
- Counterfactuals involve thinking about what might have happened but did not or what might have happened if the focal event or condition had not occurred
12
Q
1 - historical comparative methods
2 - Developing Concepts & Hypotheses…
A
- theory –> concepts –> hypotheses
- key question - why did the case turn out the way it did?
- Should be based on a sociological theory & research on the topic
- be open to alternative connections & explanations
13
Q
1 - historical comparative methods
3 - finding & organizing information
A
- high-quality, unbiased & complete information on your cases
- learn as much as possible about your cases with respect to the particular angle you are exploring
- 3 steps to determine whether you have gathered sufficient materials… 1- Approach your sources systematically… 2- Closely consider the contradictions you encounter… 3- Try to reach saturation
14
Q
1 - historical comparative methods
4 - analyzing the data
A
- affirming or refuting the different possible explanations that you identified on the basis of sociological theories
- write up your findings
15
Q
2 - content analysis
A
- research conducted based ont he content of materials (text or images found in the materials)
- how do people talk about/represent things?
- seeks to uncover evidence of bias (reflects societal blind spots or the hidden biases of the public)
- Quantitative content analysis… (sytematically review some kind of material to test hypotheses)… e.g. do levels of feminist activism affect the portrayl of gender in children’s literature
- Critical (qualitative) content analysis… (focusing on a single piece of material (such as a speech) or a small number of items and analyzing the material in great depth to uncover hidden/alternative meaning)
