Study note sy280 midterm 2.doc

Study note sy280 midterm #2 Chapter 4 • Structured interview o Standardized o Interview schedule of questions o Read out questions exactly as they are stated and in the same order with every person o Goal is to have replies aggregated o Questions are specific, give fixed range of answers to choose from o Promotes standardization of both the asking of questions and the recording of answers  Reduces error due to variation in the asking of questions  Greater accuracy and ease in processing respondents answers • Prominent Sources of Errors o Poorly worded questions o Interviewer error in asking questions o Misunderstanding on the part of the interviewee o Interviewee lapses in memory o Interviewer error in recording information o Mistakes in entering the data into a computer file o Biases caused by the innate characteristics of the interviewers and the interviewee • Intra- interviewer variability o An interviewer is not consistent in asking questions or recording answers, either with different respondents or the same • Inter-interviewer variability o More than one interviewer not consistent with one another • Question Types o Closed  Limited choice of answers to choose  Potential for interviewer variability is reduced  Facilitate the processing of data o Closed-ended  Respondents allocate themselves to categories  Avoids intra and inter variability  Attach a different number to each category of answer o Pre-coded o Fixed choice • Coding Frame o Rules for assigning answers to categories • Intra-coder variability o Coder varies over time in applying the rule • Inter-coder variability o Coders differ in how to categorize the same answer • Interview contexts o Traditional  Interviewer asks series of questions and writes down answers o More than one interviewer or interviewee  Unusual because of the considerable cost involved in dispatching 2 or more people to interview someone  Focus groups  Discouraged  Qualitative research generally • Telephone Interview o Advantages  Cheap and quick  Easier to supervise  Reduce bias • Remoteness of the interviewer o Disadvantages  Some people don’t have phones , have numbers blocked etc  Those with hearing impairments will find more difficult  Not sustainable beyond 20-25 minutes  Not very good for asking about sensitive issues  Unable to see respondents reactions  Hard to tell if the right person is responding within the household  No visual aids can be used • Computer- assisted interviewing o CAPI o CATI • Online interviews o Higher risk of respondent dropout o Usually takes longer o Easier to go back to respondents • Conducting Interviews o Know the interview schedule  Reduce interviewer variability o Introducing the research  Credible rationale for participating must be given to respondents o Rapport  The relationship must be forged fairly quickly to encourage respondents to participate in and persist with the interview o Topics and issues to include in intro statements  Identify self  Identify the auspices under which the research is being conducted  Mention where funding is from  Indentify student or not  Give some indication of the info being collected  Reassure confidentiality  Give the opportunity for questions to be asked o Asking questions  Reduce variability o Recording answers  Exact as possible o Question order  Must stay constant o Probing  Need help with answers  Elaboration o Prompting  Suggests a specific answer  Last resort o Leaving the interview  Thank them for their time o Training and supervision  Checking response rates  Record some interviews  Call backs • Question • naires o Interview without the interviewer o Fewer open ended questions o Easy to follow design o Shorter to reduce fatigue o Advantages  Cheaper, quicker and more convenient  Absence of interviewer effects o Disadvantages  Cannot explain questions  Greater risk of missing data  Cannot probe  Difficult to ask a lot of questions  Difficult to ask other kinds of questions  Questionnaire can be read as a whole  Not appropriate for some kinds of respondents  Who filled out the questionnaire? o Online social surveys  Mix of SI and questionnaire  Email and web • Research –driven diaries as a form of questionnaire o Precise estimates of behaviour o Researcher asks to record perceptions, feelings or actions with regard to certain matters, shortly after the experience o Structured diaries  General appearance of a questionnaire with largely closed questions o Free text o Advantages  Possible more valid and reliable data  Likely to perform better than questionnaire  Produce data on behaviour that is personally sensitive o Disadvantages  More expensive  Process of attrition • People get bored  Failure to record sufficiently • Respondent Problems o Response set  When people respond to a series of items not according to how they feel but out of some other motive  Social desirability • Some respondents may give answers that are not sincere, but make them look good  Acquiescence • Tendency to either agree or disagree with a set of q’s regardless of content just to be cooperative or to please  Laziness or boredom • Provide a series of answers to get rid of interviewer, end interview o Issue of meaning  When people communicate they not only draw on commonly held meanings but also create new ones • Feminist Critique o Researchers extracts info from the subject and give nothing in return o Babbie Chapter 4 • Idiographic approach o Used in daily life o qualitative o Enumerating all the consideration that result in a particular action or event o Main criteria for judging validity  Credibility/ believability  Rival hypotheses believability • Nomothetic approach o Does not enumerate… o Discover considerations that are most important o Isolation of the few consideration that will provide a partial explanation o Probabilistic o Quantitative o Criteria for casual relation  Does the cause proceed the effect  Two variables be empirically correlated • One changes so does the other  The observed correlation cannot be explained in terms of some third variable o Seldom provides a complete explanation for complex behaviour o Indicates a very high or low probability that a given action will occur whenever a limited number of specified considerations are present • Two variables are considered to be casually related if o The cause precedes the effect in time o There is an empirical correlation between them o The relationship is not found to be the result of some third variable • Necessary cause o A condition must be present for the effect to follow • Sufficient cause o A condition, if present, guarantees the effect in question o Not the only possible cause Babbie Chapter 5 • Measurement o Careful, deliberate observations of the real world for the purpose of describing objects and events in terms of attributes composing a variable • Direct observables o Things we can observe rather simply and directly • Indirect observables o More subtle, complex, or indirect observations • Constructs o Theoretical creations that are based on observation but that cannot be observed directly or indirectly • Concept o Something we create • Reification o Regarding concepts as real • Conceptualization o The process through which we specify what we will mean when we use particular terms in research o Specific agreed upon meaning • Indicator o Sign of the presence or absence of the concept were studying • Dimension o Specifiable aspect of a concept • Interchangability of indicators o If several distinct indicators all represent to some degree the same concept, then all of them will behave the same way that the concept would behave if it were real and could be observed • Real definition o Not a stipulation determining the meaning of some expression but a statement of the essential nature or the essential attributes of some entity • Conceptualization o Refinement and specification of abstract concepts • Nominal definition o Simply assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a real entity o Arbitrary • Operational definition o Specifies precisely how a concept will be measured—that is, the operations we will perform o Achieve maximum clarity o Development of specific research procedures that will result in empirical observations representing those concepts in the real world • Variation between extremes o How fine you will make distinction among the various possible attributes composing a given variable • Important qualities for variables o Attributes composing should be exhaustive o Must be mutually exclusive  Every observation must be able to be classified in terms of one and only one attribute • Levels of measurement o Nominal  Variables whose attributes have only the characteristics do exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness  Gender, religious affiliation, birthplace, hair colour o Ordinal  Logically rank in order  Different attributes represent relatively more or less of the variable  Social class, conservatism  Alienation, prejudice o Interval  Attributes composing some variables, the actual distance separating those attributes does have meaning  Logical distance can be expressed in meaningful standard intervals  IQ tests o Ratio  Attributes composing variable, besides having all the structural characteristics mentioned previously, are based on a true zero point  Age, income, number of times married • Conceptualization and Operationalization o Conceptualization  Refinement and specification of abstract concepts  Take something big make it smaller, concrete, specific  Process of coming to an agreement about what terms mean  Specifying what we mean when using terms in research  Ex. Recipe  Specific agreed upon meaning of a concept to be used in research  Concepts • Ex Homophobia, compassion • What we produce through conceptualization • Something we create • Can be a construct  What social scientists measure • Direct observables o Things you see when you look at someone o Hair colour, gender • Indirect observable o Survey, questionnaire, interview o Account given through a different tool • Constructs o Artificial measure of intelligence (IQ) o cant observe directly, or indirectly o theoretical creation based on observations, o ex IQ test o IQ created or constructed measure of intelligence  Indicator