ATPS, fall 2009, Week 3
Click here to view a handout about Policy Analysis & Research Methods.
Review where we are going : they need to have their topic/group firmed up by class next week because we are going to spend a lot of time in class on assignment #2 (prob id/research ques).
Literature reviews : looking ahead to assignment #3 in case you want to be gathering sources as we go.
Show course website resources, mention databases we commonly use.
Purposes of lit reviews : provide background info for research, identify gaps in lit your research may help fill, definition of terms you will use in your research, compare and contrast between sources, show how each source helps you respond to your research question. Click here to view a handout about how to do a literature review.
Synthesis : what connects weeks one, two, and three. We've moved from how we “think” about research into how we “do” research. The key connector here is observation. Everything we do in social science research requires some element of observation. Translating the world of ideas into the world of behaviors.
Last week Kimberly asked Dennis a very important question. She heard Dennis refer to himself as an evaluation researcher and she asked what different kinds of researchers there are. As he stated, there are almost endless types of researchers out there. Take me for example, I've been called a management researcher, religions researcher, feminist researcher, post-colonialist researcher, American Government researcher, and a political scientist. These are all accurate at different times, but depend upon how I observe, what I observe, and who I observe.
Dennis is an “evaluation” researcher because he is a non-participant observer of programs and clients receiving services from those programs.
Most social research involves some interaction with the people under study, but how much interaction is your decision as the researcher.
There are two umbrella terms for our roles as researchers: participant observer and non-participant observer.
A non-participant observer would behave how?...................... expert on the outskirts, one degree removed from the situation and people
A participant observer would behave how?...................... community buy-in, take part in activities
What paradigm might you be coming from if you are a non-participant observer? Why would this be important to that paradigm?
What paradigm might you be coming from if you are a participant observer? Why would this be important to that paradigm?
pros and cons of each=
• involvement of the research has an impact on the study's participants, people react to seeing you, hearing you, and your actions. You may “mess with the field” and not even realize it. By changing the field of study you may change the results you observe. Participant observation requires that the researcher be physically present. This can lead the respondents to alter their behavior. An interview is an interruption in the natural stream of behavior. Respondents can get tired of responding to questions or resentful of the questions asked.
• The act of research may influence the subject of study itself. By asking people about their voting intentions, we probably influence those intentions to some degree: maybe respondents become more definite in their choices by committing to them out loud.
• By being a non-participant researcher you lack the ability to ask for clarification if the subject does or says something you don't understand.
• insider vs. outsider, access, authentic voice/authority to speak for the group of people being researched, concept that you just might not have a right to know something--- if you are not invited to be a participant there is probably a reason for that---
• “going native” why this used to be thought of as a negative and now it seems to be revered (ex. “Living with the Mek”). Affect on the observer . You may become very empathetic with who you are observing and want to change what you are “testing.”
• At a point, the researcher may become the one being observed.
• Participant observation can be very unsafe for the researcher--- prison research---- it may also be unethical if the researcher does not reveal why he or she is there----
Within these two umbrella terms of participant observer and non-participant observer for our “roles” as researchers, there are another two big ways to classify how we actually “do” research: obtrusive and unobtrusive.
Classifications of doing research:
Obtrusive research and unobtrusive research.
Unobtrusive Measures :
Observation without participant knowledge (trash in trashcans outside a business or agency, social movement--WTO witnesses, erosion of wear and tear in stairwell, accretion of flyers in stairwell)
Ex. Historical/document/archival data- content analysis
Data already collected for another purpose: secondary sources, secondary data analysis
Unobtrusive measures are measures that don't require the researcher to intrude in the research context. Unobtrusive measurement presumably reduces the biases that result from the intrusion of the researcher or measurement instrument .
However, unobtrusive measures reduce the degree the researcher has control over the type of data collected.
* A research technique is considered unobtrusive when they have no impact on what/who is being studied.
An indirect measure is an unobtrusive measure that occurs naturally in a research context.
Examples: The types of indirect measures that may be available are limited only by the researcher's imagination and inventiveness. For instance, let's say you would like to measure the popularity of various exhibits in a museum .
• It may be possible to set up some type of mechanical measurement system that is invisible to the museum patrons. We could, for instance, construct an electrical device that senses movement in front of an exhibit. Or we could place hidden cameras and code patron interest based on videotaped evidence.
• In one study, the system was simple. The museum installed new floor tiles in front of each exhibit they wanted a measurement on and, after a period of time, measured the wear-and-tear of the tiles as an indirect measure of patron traffic and interest.
In a similar manner, if you want to know magazine preferences at TESC, you might rummage through the trash on campus.
These examples illustrate one of the most important points about indirect measures -- you have to be very careful about the ethics of this type of measurement . In an indirect measure you are, by definition, collecting information without the respondent's knowledge . In doing so, you may be violating their right to privacy and you are certainly not using informed consent. Of course, some types of information may be public and therefore not involve an invasion of privacy.
Obtrusive Measures :
Observations of behavior with participant knowledge
Perceptions, opinions and attitudes gathered through interviews, surveys, focus groups
For some issues there may simply not be any available unobtrusive measures.
Set-up the film : research being done to find the most efficient way to structure a kitchen. They already did research on women, now they are studying single men. The researcher comes from a very specific paradigm and researcher role (you'll see). Slowly his role changes and his approaches to “science” are challenged.
Read through the viewing guide HANDOUT
Read through the observation exercise HANDOUT