Sociology 2266A/B Study Guide - Final Guide: Comparative Historical Research, Qualitative Property, Official Statistics
16 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Documents: can be read", e. g. , letters, diaries, autobiographies, websites, photographs, etc. If not produced for the purposes of social research they are unobtrusive measures. Research participants are unaware of being studied and therefore act naturally. Criteria for assessing the quality of documents scott (1990: authenticity. Genuine and of unquestionable origin: credible. Free from error or distortion: representativeness. Typical of what it is supposed to represent: meaning. Clear and comprehensible: diaries, letter, autobiographies. May be somewhat elusive: visual objects, photographs can be. Used as prompts to get people to talk. sources of data: scott (1990) maintains that family photographs are of three types: The photographs available may not be typical of the event or episode depicted. What is not photographed may be very significant. Selection biases (filtering: what is chosen to be photographed, what is chosen to be kept, social context of photographs, ask the following questions:
