Download Unobtrusive Methods of Social Research - Social Research Method - Lecture Slides and more Slides Research Methodology in PDF only on Docsity! Unobtrusive Methods of Social Research docsity.com Reactive Measurement Effect (aka reactivity) • A problem encountered in ethnography, controlled social experiments, and survey research in which the subject’s awareness of being studied distorts his or her behaviour. • Example: Research on sexual norms – Lewontin, Richard. 1995. “Sex, Lies, and Social Science.” New York Review of Books Vol 42, N 7. docsity.com “How far merit selection? Social stratification and the labour market.” Research question: Are jobs allocated by merit (i.e. educational qualifications) or by ascribed qualities (i.e. social skills & personality)? Data : 5,021 job adverts in British newspapers. Analysis: Code data for (1) type of job (six categories) and (2) desired qualifications of applicant (six categories). Findings: Lower-status jobs most often emphasized ascribed qualities, but many high-status jobs did too. docsity.com Another Example Kollmeyer, Christopher. 2004. “Corporate Interests: How the News Media Portray the Economy.” Social Problems 51(3):432-452. Research Question: Are liberal papers in the US really liberal on economic issues? Data: All articles in the LA Times about the economy from 1997-1998. Yielded 201 articles. Analysis: Coded all articles for : (1) objective criteria (such as number of words) (2) appraisal of the economy’s performance (good, bad, mixed) (3) people affected by event covered in story (such as corporations, workers, economy as a whole, etc). Findings: docsity.com Content Analysis Advantages • Unobtrusive no reactive effect • Transparent replication is possible • Flexible historical or cross-national search is possible. • Access elite groups docsity.com
