Research Methods- Documentary sources

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  • Created by: Heather
  • Created on: 01-03-15 14:30
What is a public document?
it is produced by organisations such as government departments, and schools e.g. OFSTED
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What is a personal document?
They are first person accounts of social events e.g. letters and diaries,
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What is an example of a public and personal document?
The diary of Anne Frank, pupil's written work, graffiti on walls,
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Who favours all documentary sources and who doesnt?
Favours- Interpretivists, Against- positivists
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What is a theoretical advantage of documentary sources regarding feelings?
One can gain massive insight into people's feelings, motives and attitudes and gain high validity,
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What is the last theoretical advantage of documentary sources about motives?
It is highly valid information as documentary sources were written by people with no ulteroir motives,
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What is a practical advantage of documentary sources about cost and time?
Documents are usually cheap and quick to use and are easily accessible to reseachers and no time is wasted in primary research,
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What is the last practical advantage concerning the quantities you can use?
It is possible to use a wide range of personal documents from a variety of sources to make comparisons and check the findings from the primary data,
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What is an ethical advantage of documentary sources?
No persmission is needed for their use as they are in the public domain except personal documents,
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What is a theoretical disadvanatge of documentary sources conerning representativeness and standardisation?
Documentary sources are unrepresentative of all people in the target population and they are often unstandardised as they are one persons prespectives so lack reliabilty and it is hard to make generalisations,
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What is a theoretical disadvantage concerning authenticity?
one can question the authenticity and credibility of documentary sources and if the author has honest motives,
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What is another theoretical disadvantage regarding bias and objectivity?
Many documentary sources are subject to bias as the content may reflect their strong views at a particular point in time, objectivity is therefore lowered,
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what is the last theoretical disadvantage regarding researcher bias?
Many of the findings and arguments that come from these sources depend onthe interpretation skills of the researcher which creates possible problems with researcher bias,
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What is a practical disadvantage regarding the researcher?
the researcher may need special skills to understand a documeny e.g. it may need to be transalted from a foregin language,
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What is the last practical disadvantage regarding its crediblity?
it is difficult to check for inaccuracies as it is not repeatable,
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What is an ethical disadvantage?
If the person is deceased there is a danger of exploitation
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What is the definition of a historical document?
A personal or public document created in the past,
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What an example of a historical document other than Anne Franks idary?
Aries- he looked at child rearing books and paintings to study the rise of childhood
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What is a theoretical advantage of historical documents about objectivity?
One can try and be objective about an event by using a number of sources about that event and trying to find the common information so will increase reliability,
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What is a practical advantage conerning the period?
They are often the only way to research a particular area from the past and can offer a useful snapsnot of a particular event,
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What is a theoretical disadvantage of historical documents concerning representativeness?
There can be problems with representativesness- the surviving documents may not be typical of the ones that got destroyedm
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How does the 30 year rule create a disadvanatge?
The 30 year rule prevents access to official documents for 30 years if they are classed as secret,
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What is a practical disadvantage concerning interpretation?
There can be problems with interpreting the documents as the sources of information are from different time periods,
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What is the last practical disadvantage abou access?
Many historical documents are difficult to acces like confidential school records,
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What is content analysis?
A method for dealing systematically with the contents of documents,
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What type of documents does it analyse to prodcue what type of data?
It allows qualitative source to produce quantitative data
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How does content analysis work?
The researcher defines a set of categories adn then counts how many times material is classified under that category
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Who favours this method and who doesnt?
Favour- Positivists, Against-Interpretivists,
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What is a theoretical advantage of content analysis about patterns?
It allows the identification of patterns by examining data systematically,
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What is another theoretical advantage of content anaylsis about objectivity?
The method is largely objective and free from bias,
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Why do positivists argue the method is reliable?
As it is easily replicated as standardised categories are used,
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What is a practical advantage based on time and cost?
it is relatively cheap and easy to access e.g. newspapers, television,
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What is the last practical advantage based on dates?
Information is usually up to date,
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However, why do interpretivists argue there is no real insight?
As counting frequencies doesnt show meaning or motives,
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what is another theoretical disadvantage of content analysis concerning subjectivity?
There is still some subjectivity as recording the media can never truely be scientific. Also the media can be biased so not objecttive,
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What is a practical disadvantage of content analysis concerning the mass media?
The mass media deals with stereotypes and sensationalisation so details may be exaggerated to produce strong interest so not scientific,
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What is the last practical disadvantage about credibilty?
There is no way to double check data that the media provides,
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What is a personal document?

Back

They are first person accounts of social events e.g. letters and diaries,

Card 3

Front

What is an example of a public and personal document?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Who favours all documentary sources and who doesnt?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is a theoretical advantage of documentary sources regarding feelings?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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