SSH 301 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Ecological Fallacy, Subgroup Analysis, Qualitative Research
4 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Heterogeneous set of data sources: letters, diaries, autobiographies, newspapers, television shows, websites, photographs, etc. are explored in this chapter (referred to as documents" in this chapter) In this chapter a document is any data sources that: Was not produced specifically for the purpose of social research. Scott"s four criteria for assessing the quality of documents: Diaries are difficult to distinguish from another kind of personal document-> the autobiography. Authenticity is important when evaluating personal documents. Credibility: 2 major concerns with respect to personal documents=factual accuracy and whether they express the true thoughts and feelings of the writer. Representativeness is a major concern in assessing these materials. Understanding the meaning of documents we have is often problematic, some pages in the letter or diary may be missing or damaged or the writer may have used abbreviations or codes that are difficult to decipher. Growing interest in the use of visual materials.
