Political Science 3324F/G Lecture 4: data sources

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 3324F/G
• Professor: Roberto Leone

Document Summary

Other ways of acquiring data for quantitative research (other than survey) -> structured observations (codified) Today"s agenda: structured observation, other types of observation, reliability and validity in structured observation. Criticisms of structured observations: documents as observation, using photographs, other documents, secondary analysis, official statistics. > explicit rules for observing, categorizing and recording behaviour; rigorous schedule setting is established and controlled. > direct observation over inferences from respondent reports -> limited access to some social spaces. > misunderstanding the meaning of the terms used in the survey -> problems of memory (what was done? where it was done) > threatening or embarrassing questions not answered sincerely -> gap between actual and stated behaviour. Strategies for observing behaviour: recording of incidents wait until there is a behaviour of interest. Observe barroom behaviour noting each time there is opposite sex stranger-to- stranger interaction: time period processes are observed and recorded at a designated period of time ex.