Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
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Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
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RESEARCH METHODS SURVEYS CONTENT ANALYSIS EXPERIMENTS CASE STUDIESCHOOSING THE METHOD WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? WHICH METHOD BEST ANSWERS THE QUESTION? SURVEYS ALLOW YOU TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT PEOPLES PERCEPTIONS, DEMOGRAPHIC INFO, OPINIONS AND BELIEFS.CHOOSING THE METHOD WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? WHICH METHOD BEST ANSWERS THE QUESTION? CONTENT ANALYSIS ALLOWS YOU TO EXPLORE THE CURRENT STATUS OF MEDIA BY EXAMINING MEDIA CONTENT.CHOOSING THE METHOD WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? WHICH METHOD BEST ANSWERS THE QUESTION? EXPERIMENTS ALLOW YOU TO EXAMINE CAUSE AND EFFECT.CHOOSING THE METHOD WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN? WHICH METHOD BEST ANSWERS THE QUESTION? CASE STUDIES ALLOW YOU TO CLOSELY EXAMINE THROUGH A VARIETY OF METHODS ONE PARTICULAR GROUP, CAMPAIGN OR PHENOMENA.THE METHOD: SURVEY THREE FORMS PERSONAL OR FACE TO FACE INTERVIEWS TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS SELF-ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRESTHE METHOD: SURVEY THE INTERVIEW INCREASES COMPLIANCE COSTLY TRAINING INTERVIEWERS INTERVIEWER BIAS RELIABILITY OF METHODTHE METHOD: SURVEY THE TELEPHONE INTERVIEW COSTLY, BUT NOT AS MUCH AS FACE TO FACE. NO VISUALS CAN BE USED LIMITED TO THOSE WHO HAVE PHONES. ABOUT 5% OF HOMES DO NOT HAVE A PHONETHE METHOD: SURVEY SELF-ADMINISTERED (MAILED) SURVEYS Greater Anonymity Low response rates Question ambiguity CheapTHE METHOD: SURVEY Types of questions factual questions (threatening and non-threateningCreating a questionnaire Know the purpose of your study before you begin. Ie. What are television viewers perceptions of local tv stations coverage of sports violence?Creating a questionnaire Surveys...Scale development--- DeVellis Scale useC Use theoryC Considering the constructC Previous scalesCreating a questionnaire Surveys...Scale development--- DeVellis Scale items Generate an item pool --- Consider the latent variable --- Consider the manifest variableCreating a questionnaire Surveys...Scale development--- DeVellis Scale itemsThe more the better Reading difficultyWriting the questions or statements Avoid double barreled items. I support civil rights because discrimination is a crime against God.Writing the questions or statements Ambiguous pronoun references Murderers and rapists should not seek pardons from politicians because they are the scum of the earth.Writing the questions or statements Misplaced modifiers Our representatives should work diligently to legalize prostitution in the House of Representatives.Writing the questions or statements Positively and negatively worded items. You can use both to keep the respondent conscious of what they are reading. But, you may also create confusion for the respondent. Scale formats. Thurstone: You can have items that correspond to different intensities of an attribute, spaced to represent equal intervals and could be formatted with agree -disagree responses. Calibration of answers is possible Finding items that rise to specific levels of a phenomena is difficult. Guttman scale: The focus is on a transition from affirmative to negative responses . Here when you respond positively to one level of a hierarchy, the implication exists that you satisfy the criteria of all lower levels of that hierarchy. Ie.. Do you smoke? Do you smoke more than 10 cigarette? Do you smoke more than a pack a day? Cause and effect can not be assessed in these two cases. Likert statements: Often used to measure opinions, beliefs and attitudes. You must state the opinion, attitude, belief, or other construct under study in clear terms. Declarative sentences---followed by response options that indicate varying degrees of agreement with or endorsement of the statement.---responses should have roughly equal intervals with respect to agreement. Six responses is not uncommon. Strongly disagree, moderately disagree, mildly disagree, mildly agree, moderately agree, and strongly agree. Semantic differential: Used with one or more stimuli. Here we identify the target stimulus and follow it with a list of adjective pairs. Each pair represents opposite ends of a continuum. Stimuli: Reporters Honest ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ___ Dishonest (Unipolar set) Quiet ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ___ Noisy (Bipolar) You may use bipolar adjectives that express opposite attributes, such as friendly and hostile Unipolar adjective look at a single attribute. Visual Analog No Pain at All ___________________The worst pain I ever experienced. Single item....Hard to test reliability Binary options...limited variability ...Two answer... Variability limitedWriting the questions or statements Focus is on a single affirmative response Scale formats.Writing the questions or statements Scale formats. Thurstone: Guttman scale: Cause and effect can not be assessed in these two cases.Writing the questions or statements Likert statements: Semantic differential: Visual Analog Binary options...limited variability ...Two answer... Variability limitedQuestionnaire Design Get an expert to check the scale. Mild statements are not very useful. Survey questions Use simple language.. Long vs short questions.... Clarity is the keyQuestionnaire Design Double barreled questions Double negatives.. Avoid Length of lists.... Recalling things from the past.....cuing Hypothetical questions Specificity of questions. Open vs closed ended.Questionnaire Design Filtering questions.. Question ordering Multiple questions for a topic Page layout..white spaceQuestionnaire Design Pre-testing Checking for variation...meaning..task difficulty..respondents interest and attention....Questionnaire Design Flow and naturalness of the sections Order of questions Skip patterns.. Timing Respondents interest and attention Respondents well being.Content Analysis Content analysis is any technique for making inferences by systematically and objectively identifying specified characteristics of messages.Content Analysis Various types of content design Characteristics of communication To make inferences as to the antecedents of communication (encoding) To make inferences as to the effects of communication (decoding)Content Analysis To do a content analysis What unit of content is to be classified? What are your recording units? What is your context unit? Quantification of identified units Procedures for content analysis 1. Select a topic 2. Decide sample 3. Define concepts or unites to be counted 4. Construct categories 5. Create coding form 6. Train coders 7. Collect data 8. Measure intercoder reliability 9. Analyze data 10. Report resultsContent Analysis Procedures for content analysis 1. Select a topic 2. Decide sample 3. Define concepts or unites to be counted 4. Construct categories 5. Create coding form 6. Train coders 7. Collect dataContent Analysis Procedures for content analysis 8. Measure intercoder reliability 9. Analyze data 10. Report resultsExperiments Experimental research is concerned with control of independent variables to determine their impact on dependent variables.Experiments Advantages: Cause and effect can be established. Control is a key element: Control of conditions----environmental control Control of variables---reduction of competing explanationExperiments Control is a key element: The attempt is made to control competing explanations, the experimenter tries to isolate the effect of one or more variables.Experiments Control is a key element: Statistical control: Disadvantages Research takes place in artificial settings. Subjects are passive reactors. External validity issuesExperiments (designs) Experimental: Random assignment Allows for causal relationships. Non-experimental Establishes that a relationship exists. Non random assignment.Case Study A research method that focuses on individual cases rather than cross sectional samples. This is a sample of one or two David Manning White (gatekeeping, 1952)Case Study Uses Advertising and Public RelationsCase Study Steps Case history define the problem Sources---standard and poors industry reports Identify critical factors Alternative solutions Analyze alternativesCase Study Steps Recommendations Justification
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