Content Analysis Flashcards
Why might Content Analysis have less ethical issues than other research methods?
-Indirect rather than direct
What are some strengths of Content Analysis?
-Very few ethical issues as it involves secondary data meaning no direct contact with participants is required.
-High ecological validity as it is based on real communications that are current
(recent newspapers, children’s books.)
-Therefore, it also has high mundane realism.
-Can be replicated by others.
(As long as the same artefacts that are being analysed are available to others (the same magazines, TV shows etc), the analysis could be repeated + reliability assessed.)
What are some weaknesses of Content Analysis?
-Open to researcher bias + subjective interpretation: the way the researcher analyses the content is based on their own opinion.
-So, can affect both the objectivity + validity of findings as different observers might interpret the meanings of the categories in the coding system differently.
-However, less bias is likely if more than one researcher carries out the analysis.
-Written content = can be misinterpreted as not possible to ask the person who wrote the data to explain what they wrote.
-Cause + effect relationships cannot be made about the data under investigation.
Why might Content Analysis have an issue with validity?
-The coding system may not actually be measuring what you intend to measure.
How can you assess the content validity of the Content Analysis coding system?
-Could ask a panel of experts to assess our coding system + if they agree that the categories are recording aspects of gender stereotypes then the coding system has content validity.
How can you overcome observer bias in Content Analysis?
-Using a double blind technique, where the person doing the observing does not know that aim of the study, so will not have a bias.
What are two methods of assessing reliability specifically for Content Analysis?
-Test-retest
-Inter-observer reliability
How can you use Test-retest for Content Analysis?
-another researcher/ the same researcher can repeat the analysis using the same coding system and the same artefacts.
-If the analysis is reliable, the results will be the same
How can you use Inter-observer reliability for Content Analysis?
-Two or more observers can analyse the same artefacts.
-Their results are correlated.
-If the coding system is reliable, there should be more than 80% agreement.
