CCT208H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter Qualitative, 7: Social Stigma, Participant Observation, Ethnography
5 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Unobtrusive methods: ways of amassing data without interacting with research participants that researchers can use to carry out qualitative research. Study materials that already exist and process of collecting data does not affect the materials studied. Used in conjunction with other more interactive methods. Maps, archival records, letters, photographs, movies, advertisements, books. Researchers who engage in unobtrusive research realize there are two levels to cultural artifacts obvious level and a subtle level. Manifest content is the obvious level, something that is easily observed and immediately interpreted. Latent content is the subtle level, researcher focuses on uncovering implicit meanings. We can learn much about the people who created a document by analyzing what they chose to represent in their creation. Many researchers have repurposed and reinterpreted existing statistics to reinforce their own findings and theories. Sources of statistical data can reveal as much about a social group as the statistics themselves.
