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Research with Nonreactive Measures
Chapter 8
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Analyzing Physical Evidence for Clues about Social Life
- Non-reactive research = research techniques in which the people in the study are unaware that someone is gathering information or using it for research purposes.
- Four types of non-reactive research:
- Physical evidence analysis
- Content analysis
- Existing statistics analysis
- Secondary data analysis
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Analyzing Physical Evidence for Clues about Social Life
- Unobtrusive measures = non-reactive research measures that do not intrude or disturb a person, so they are unaware of them.
- Limitations of Physical Evidence
- physical evidence measures are indirect
- possible privacy violation
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- Content Analysis
- Content analysis = A non-reactive technique for studying communication messages.
- Text = In content analysis it means anything written, visual, or spoken in a communication medium.
- Content analysis is useful for
- Large volumes of text
- Topics studied “at a distance”
- Content difficult to see with casual observation
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Measure and Code in Content Analysis
- Coding System = In content analysis a set of instructions or rules stating how text was systematically measured and converted into variables.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Measure and Code in Content Analysis
- What do you measure?
- Direction
- Frequency
- Intensity
- Space
- Prominence
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Measure and Code in Content Analysis
- Coding, Validity, and Reliability
- Manifest coding = Content analysis coding in which you record information about the visible, surface content in a text.
- Latent coding = Coding in content analysis in which you look for the underlying, implicit meaning in the content of a text.
- Intercoder reliability = A measure of measurement consistency in content analysis when you have multiple coders.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Measure and Code in Content Analysis
- Coding, Validity, and Reliability
- Content Analysis with Visual Material
visual material communicates indirectly
visual images often contain mixed messages and operate at multiple levels of meaning
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Conduct Content Analysis Research
- Step 1. Formulate a Research Question
- Step 2. Identify the Text to Analyze
- Step 3. Decide on Units of Analysis
- Step 4. Draw a Sample
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- How to Conduct Content Analysis Research (cont)
- Step 5. Create a Coding System
- Step 6. Construct and Refine Categories
- Step 7. Code the Data onto Recording Sheets.
- Step 8. Data Analysis
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Revealing the Content Buried within Communication Messages
- Limitations of Content Analysis
- content analysis cannot:
- determine the truthfulness of an assertion
- evaluate aesthetic qualities
- interpret content significance
- reveal the intentions of the text’s creators
- determine the influence of a message on its receivers
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions
- Social Indicator = Any measure of social conditions or well-being that can used be used in policy decisions.
- Locating Data
- many diverse sources
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions
- Verifying Data Quality
- Existing statistics can be limited by
Missing Data
Reliability
Validity
Topic Knowledge
Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness = when statistical information is reported in a way that gives a false impression of its precision.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions
- Verifying Data Quality (cont)
- Existing statistics can be limited by
Ecological Fallacy = mistaken interpretations that occur when you use data for a higher or bigger unit of analysis to examine a relationship among units at a lower or small unit of analysis
- Creative Thinking About Variables of Interest
- Standardization of Data
- Standardization = adjusting a measure by dividing it by a common base to make comparisons are possible.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Answering New Questions Using Survey Data Collected by Others
- Secondary Sources
- General Social Survey = A large-scale survey with many questions of a large national sample of adult Americans conducted almost every year. Data from it are made available to researchers at low or no cost.
- Limitations of Secondary Data Sources
- May lack data for your research question
- Validity
- Topic knowledge
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Answering New Questions Using Survey Data Collected by Others
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Conducting Ethical NonReactive Research
- Protect people’s privacy
- Protect confidentiality of data
