1.3.10
Documents
Documents
Documents
Documents tend to provide qualitative data, so they are preferred by interpretivists. Common types of documents include personal and public documents.
Personal and public
Personal and public
- Personal documents are usually private documents created for the person’s own use.
- Such as letters, diaries, emails or pupils’ school reports and medical files.
- Public documents are produced for public consumption.
- Such as reports produced by government, charities, businesses and the media, as well as novels and autobiographies.
Judging the usefulness of documents
Judging the usefulness of documents
- Scott (1990) has suggested four criteria for establishing the value of public and private documents.
- Authenticity: Is the document genuine or a forgery?
- Credibility: Is the evidence believable, sincere and honest?
- Representativeness: Is the document typical of those appearing at the time?
- Meaning: Do the documents have the same meaning now as they did at the time they were first produced?
Documents: Evaluation
Documents: Evaluation
Documents tend to provide qualitative data, so they are preferred by interpretivists. Common types of documents include personal and public documents.
Advantages
Advantages
- They are already available and, therefore, cheap to use.
- They may be the only data available for certain types of research, such as historical research.
Advantages cont.
Advantages cont.
- They provide valid in-depth qualitative data, providing insights into the attitudes, values, and meanings of those people who produced them.
- No ethical issues involved, as public documents are readily available to anyone who wants to use them.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages
- Documents may not be genuine, especially if they are personal, historical documents.
- Their meaning might have changed over time.
- They may not be representative, so findings cannot be generalised.
- Using private documents without permission can cause ethical problems related to consent.
Disadvantages cont.
Disadvantages cont.
- They may not be reliable or valid. For example:
- Government reports might use data in biased ways.
- Newspapers might be biased towards a particular ideology or cause so they might misrepresent the information.
Content Analysis
Content Analysis
Content analysis produces quantitative data about the content of qualitative documents.
Content analysis
Content analysis
- Content analysis produces quantitative data about the content of qualitative documents by, for example, establishing categories and then analysing the documents and counting each time the number of category appear.
- A researcher might, for example, wish to examine gendered language within daily newspapers to see which ones are more likely to employ gender stereotypes.
Advantages
Advantages
- A cheap way of carrying out research into readily available documents.
- Reliable because it produces quantitative statistical data that can be easily checked.
- Enables the discovery of things that might not have been obvious prior to the analysis, such as gender stereotyping in young adult fiction.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages
- They might be unreliable because it rests on the categories that the researcher has chosen.
- Descriptive rather than explanatory.
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
Jump to other topics
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
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