March 21, 2019Gathering techniques & obtrusive data- Obtrusive data- when you know that you are being watched- Unobtrusive – when someone does not know they are being watchedSurveys- Two general typeso Questionnaireso Interviews - Advantages of Questionnaires o Can collect large amount of information with reasonable expense o Provide anonymity to respondentso Can distribute by mail, on-line - Disadvantages of questionnaireso People have to be able to read and write o Must be willing to cooperate with researcher’s request o Questions may be misunderstood o May not get enough people to respond - Types of questionnaireso Fixed-alternative Simple to administer Easy to complete But, forcing into answers available - Open-endedo Can answer in own wordo Greater dealo Broader range of responses (can be disadvantage and advantage) o But, lower response rate - Construction of questionnaireso Use one that someone else has constructed If it has been previously tested, responses may be more valid Comparisons and longitudinal analysis - Or, may want to construct your own o List topics to be covered  Dependent variable, independent variable, background characteristics, and control variables - Arrange the ordero Personal and/or sensitive questions towardend- Select appropriate response formato Fixed or open ended or a combination - Write the questionso Very critical, need to make sure there is only one meaningo When fixed is used, categories must be: Mutually exclusive-only one response isappropriate Exhaustive- all possible responses are available (other)March 28, 2019- Decide on the number of categories for each response- Keep questions short and simple (KISS: keep it simple stupid)- Pretest questionnaire - Questionnaires o Have clear instructionso Start with interesting questionso Close with sensitive or personalo Final are demographics  Age, gender, ses, religion, education, etco Group with similar questionso Codebook- Question problems o Correct answer format: closed or open-ended?  Likert most common (strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree, disagree)o Try to keep answer format consistent andEZ!o Double barreled questions o Confusing or lengthy questions o No Bias- Interviewso Person-to-person Face to face Over the phone On-line (video conferencing) - Types of interviews o Formal Has a fixed-question content and structure Asks predetermined questions in presetorder Must know subject matter well o Informalo have a plan of areas to covero but more flexible, less structureo use most often in exploratory studies- Probe- when you’re doing an interview and ask for additional information on a topic o Semi- formal - Important interview tipso Must establish good rapport with respondents Produce credentials  Answer respondent’s questions about research Assure confidentiality and anonymity Pay attention to personal appearance Pay attention to the presentation of thequestions - Advantages of interviews o Can use interviews with almost any type of respondents who knows language o More Reponses possibleo Get more in-depth information - Disadvantages of interviews o Costs more money to administero More time consuming o Harder to analyze o Inconsistency among interviewers if more than one (intercoder reliability)April 2, 2019- Qualitative research methods o Quality- the what, how, when, and where ofa thing (Verstehen- sensitizing strategy) o Qualitative research- refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics metaphors, symbols, and description of things - Theoryo Much qualitative research is based on symbolic interactionism o Blumer was a student of George Herbert Mead who really first developed the concept of SI- Six basic premises of symbolic interactionism 1.What people say and do are the result of how they interpret their social world.2.People communicate what they learn through symbols. The most common symbol is language. 3.Symbolic interactionism interprets the meanings to these various meanings 4.Human interactions are the central source of data 5.The more that you can play the role of the other, the better you can do that research 6.How you define a setting determines the nature and meaning of a setting.- Symbolic interactionism o Certain things provide the “raw material” with which people create their definitions and meanings  Social roles Institutional structures  Rules Norms Goals, etc o The meaning of a “thing” grows out of how people act/react towards ito These “meanings” allow people to createtheir reality o W.I. Thomas said, “if men (sic) define situations as real, they are real in their consequences o Charles Horton cooley “the looking glass self” (You form your perception of self based on how other people react towardsyou)April 4, 2019OrientationFocusTypetimeTheoryMethodsPopularity Quantitative- Quantity: amount of something~Objective~Deductive~Applied~Quicker~Positivism~Questionnaires, secondary data~Dominant Qualitative- Quality: nature of something~Subjective~Inductive~Pure~Longer~Symbolic interactionism ~Ethnography, interviews~Waning o Three primary ways to collect qualitative datao Interviews Conversations with a purpose Three major categories of interviews- 1. Standardized (formal): seek comparable answers- 2.unstandarized (informal): don’t know questions in advance- 3. Semi-standardized (semi-structured): predetermined topics and question asked in systematic way but free to probeo Common problems: Intercoder reliability  Affective worded questions Double-barreled questions Complex questions Question sequencing  Evasion tactics o Ethnography o Developed by cultural anthropologistso Places the researcher(s) in the midst of whenever it is that they study  Common problems - Getting in, gaining acceptance- use “guides” or “gatekeepers”- Create situations you need to examine using “confederates” - Hawthorne effect- you must become invisible - You may learn too much, witness illegal acts- Ethical problems - VERY time consuming - Going native o Unobtrusive measures o Archival records: public and private o Public: hospital records, tombstones, computer bulletin boards, etco Private: diaries, letters, memos, etc Pure review process 24 questions8 true/false7 multiple choice9 short answers  Quantitative & qualitative o Quantity: amount of something~Objective~Deductive~Applied~Quicker~Positivism~Questionnaires, secondary