SOAN 2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cultural Artifact, Longitudinal Study, Simple Explanation
11 Apr 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The unit of analysis is the basic entity of object: About which generalizations are to be made based on an analysis, and. For which data have been collected (i. e. the central focus of the study or an analysis) What is directly observed- where the data is collected from. Can be the same as the unit of analysis, but not necessarily. Often characterized in terms of membership to social groupings. e. g: race, class, gender, etc. Can be units of analysis when we study the characteristics that belong to a group. What we often derive the charactertics of social groups from those of their individuals members. Can range from concrete objects (books, buildings) to social interactions (weddings, friendships, riots, hijackings) Trick to identifying the unit if analysis: look at what/whom the attributes of the variable refer to. Attributing something a group based on the observed behavior of characteristics of individuals.
