research final

Question 1

two types of asking questions

Answer 1

1. interviews (telephone or face to face)
2. self administered questionnaires (online or hard copies)

Question 2

standardization

Answer 2

Everything done the same way each time
– In both the asking of questions and the recording of answers

Question 3

Interview schedule:

Answer 3

a formal list of questions that the interviewer must follow in detail
– The questions must be asked in exactly the same way each time
– Must also be asked in the order given – the same order each time

Question 4

Intra-interviewer variability:

Answer 4

Interviewer is not consistent in asking questions or recording answers
– Can happen during 1 interview, or across many

Question 5

Inter-interviewer variability:

Answer 5

multiple interviewers are
inconsistent compared to each other

Question 6

Sources of Error in Structured Surveys

Answer 6

1. Poorly worded questions
2. Interviewer error in asking a question
3. Misunderstanding on the part of the interviewee
4. Interviewee lapses in memory
5. Interviewer error in recording information
6. Mistakes in entering the data into a computer file and
7. Biases caused by the innate characteristics of the interviewer and interviewees

Question 7

two types of non response

Answer 7

– Item non-response: Respondents won’t (or can’t) answer specific questions
– Survey non-response: Potential respondents refuse to participate at all

Question 8

CATI/CAPI

Answer 8

• CATI: Computer assisted telephone interviewing
• CAPI: Computer assisted personal interviewing– Reduces errors from inconsistent wording or question
  order
  – Capture and process data at the same time (since it goes right into the computer)
  – Reduces item non-response due to interviewer error

Question 9

Acquiescence:

Answer 9

the respondent is just trying to
please the researcher, be cooperative

Question 10

Social Desirability:

Answer 10

Respondents give what they believe is the politically/socially correct answer

Question 11

pros of phone interviews

Answer 11

– Cheaper
– Quicker to administer
– Easier to supervise
– Can also reduce bias from the characteristics of the interviewers or interviewees

Question 12

cons of phone interviews

Answer 12

– Only people who can be contacted by phone during normal hours can be in the study
* If directory is used, non-listed and cell phone users left out * Hard for people with impaired hearing
– Most cannot exceed 20–25 minutes
– Sensitive issues may be more difficult to discuss in
this context
– Cannot see if interviewee understands or is upset
– The interviewer cannot use visual aids (like show cards)

Question 13

advantages of questionnaires over interviews

Answer 13

Cheaper and more convenient to administer
– N.B. text says also faster – but depends on context * No interviewer effects
* Less social desirability bias
* Respondents are more likely to (honestly) answer sensitive questions

Question 14

disadvantages of questionnaires

Answer 14

Greater risk of missing data (Higher survey and item non-response) and respondent error
– Why?
* Researcher cannot explain the question
* Cannot probe
* Cannot keep participants engaged
– So must be kept short and simple
* Very limited number and type of questions
– Limit misunderstandings and respondent fatigue
* Simplequestionsonly
– Limit open-ended questions and filtersCan be read as a whole before completion
– questions are then not really independent of each other
– Can potentially answer them in any order * Order effects may occur
* Not appropriate for certain respondents – Limited literacy
– Limited language proficiency
* Designated respondent may not have completed questionnaire!
– We have no way to know!

Question 15

ways of administering a questionnaire

Answer 15

1. through mail
2. in person
3. online

Question 16

Feminist critique

Answer 16

Like much social science generally:
– these methods are ultimately exploitative
* involve asymmetrical power relationship between the researcher and the respondent
– established within a social system of knowledge that is also made of unequal systems of power
* Only some kinds of people get to ask questions, frame how they should be answered, or what constitutes evidence, whose viewpoints should be considered etc.
* Yet some opposition has declined in recent decadesWhy decline in opposition?
– increased attention given to the rights of research respondents
* privacy rights, the right to end the interview at any time, etc.
* Rights to help formulate and have access to research
– Changes to inclusivity in the scientific/knowledge production establishment
* Who is asking the questions, framing the discussion is changing over time
– Thesemethodsconsistentlyshowempiricalsupportforfeminist theoretical statements
* Like documenting the details of various forms of domination
– Someoppositionremains
* Change is slow and also unequal
* Some of the inequalities are actually inherent to the methods, and are about ultimate authority and ‘expertise’
– so while we can limit the difficulties, they will always there

Question 17

Types of questions

Answer 17

1. Personal factual questions
   – Most common independent variables
   * Ex. income, age, occupation, personal behaviour, etc.
   – Problems: not many - memory, honesty 2. Factual questions about others
   – Ex. spouse’s income, child’s activities, sister’s personal relationships etc.
   – Problems: limited knowledge, bias, memory 3. Factual questions about an entity or event
   – Ex. accounts of a political demonstration or riot
   * How many people, what characteristics, what response etc.
   – Problems: Witnesses are not researchers * Not specifically looking for those details
   * Sameproblemsasabove4/5. Questions about attitudes/beliefs
   * Very common variables
   – Both cause and/or effect
   * Heavy use of use of Likert scales
2. Questions about knowledge
   * Ex. How many census metropolitan areas exist in Canada?
   * less common is sociology
   * Can lead to high item non-response

Question 18

General rules for designing questions

Answer 18

1. Focus on the research question(s)
2. Make sure the question is going to tell you what you actually want to know
3. Put yourself in the position of the respondent

Question 19

Specific Rules

Answer 19

• Avoid questions that ask two questions
• Avoid leading questions
• Avoid questions that include negatives
• Ensure symmetry between a closed question and its answers
• Ensure that the answers provided for a closed question are balanced
• people have memory problems (don’t ask how long its been since something took place)
  -question order should be uniform amount participants
• avoid long questions
• ## avoid general questions

Question 20

Advantages of Closed Questions

Answer 20

Easy to process answers
* Standardization of Q’s and A’s – Higher reliability
* Reduced bias in recording answers – No chance to ‘interpret’ responses
* Fixed responses help clarify what the question means
* Easier and quicker to complete– Mutually exclusive:
* No overlap between categories– Exhaustive:
* Everyone can answer the question

Question 21

Pilot Studies

Answer 21

Small scale testing of your research instruments
– 1. Used to test whether individual items or the instrument as a whole operates well
* how long does it take?
* Is it well received?
* Does it have good flow?
– 2. Provide interviewers with experience in administering the instrument
– 3. Can identify questions that are embarrassing, uninteresting, difficult to
understand, ambiguous, etc.
– 4. Can be used to ensure that there is variability in the answers given
* Ex. Develop a scale attempting to measure ‘happiness’ (0-20) but everyone in pilot study scores 19 or 20.
* Either your target population is ‘very happy’ or your scale is problematic. (either way, a problem)
– 5. Can be useful in developing closed questions

Question 22

Semi-structured

Answer 22

– Have a simple, changeable interview schedule – Usually called an interview guide in this context

Question 23

– Have little or no interview schedule

Answer 23

Unstructured

Question 24

– Usually used with personal documents
– Builds the story of one person, or one family over the course of their lives
– Usually retrospective
– Ex. Oscar Lewis, 1961, the Sanchez family in Mexico city (from the culture of poverty example)

Answer 24

Life history

Question 25

what is a focus group?

Answer 25

• In-depth group interviews
  – 6-10 participants usually considered optimum
  – Usually meet on one occasion
  – usually recorded
  – work with a specific issue, and an interview guide
• Discussion controlled by a skilled moderator
  – success heavily dependent on his/her skills
  – make sure everyone participates
  – exploit group dynamics to obtain conflicting view points
• collects a lot of information quickly
  – Much of it not relevant
  – But potential for new ideas, rare, interesting, or socially created ideas
• potential problems:
  – dominant/shy personalities

Question 26

2 types of structured observation

Answer 26

• Natural Observation
  – No manipulation of situation
  – Just watch and record human behaviours in a ‘natural’ setting
• Field Experiment
  – Manipulation of an independent variable and observe differences between groups or over time

Question 27

Reactive effects

Answer 27

• People change their behaviour when they know they are being studied/tested

Question 28

Guinea Pig effect (Hawthorne effect):

Answer 28

– 1. Role selection
– 2. Trying to help the researcher
– 3. Researcher presence as a change agent

Question 29

When is covert observation okay?

Answer 29

• public and non sensitive
  -harmless and no threat to privacy

Question 30

Humphrey’s (1970) Tearoom Trade

Answer 30

– Watched men have sex in a public bathroom by pretending to be a ‘watch queen’
– Took the license plate numbers of the men
– Used his contacts to track them to their homes
– Confronted them at home and interviewed them about their (very secret) activities

Question 31

Closed settings

Answer 31

– privateorrestrictedsettings:

Question 32

Overt observation

Answer 32

– the people being studied know they are being observed by a researcher

Question 33

Covert observation

Answer 33

– the people being studied do not know they are being observed by a
researcher

Question 34

Types of notes for ethnographic data?

Answer 34

Mental notes
Jotted notes
Direct observation notes
analytic memos
personal notes

Question 35

– Written and symbolic material
* Have ‘text’ that can be ‘read’
* Provide ethical unobtrusive measures
* Content Analysis most common research type
– Third of the three direct ways we can know the world
* Were not created for the purposes of social research

Answer 35

Documents

Question 36

– Collected for the express purpose of research, but not yours
* By another researcher/organization for their own research
* By an official body (ex. government) to be made available to researchers

Answer 36

Secondary data

Question 37

– Aggregate information like crime rates, unemployment rates
– Collected by official body for their own purposes, but useful to social researchers

Answer 37

Official Statistics

Question 38

pros of secondary analysis

Answer 38

– Often very high quality data
– Cost and Time
* Obviously much cheaper and less time consuming
* More time for analysis
* Esp with regards to: – longitudinal data
– subgroup analysis
– cross national research
– Replication of past research and Reanalysis of existing data

Question 39

limitations of secondary analysis

Answer 39

– Potential absence of key variables – No control over data quality
– Data is often very complex
* Difficult to ‘learn’