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Unobtrusive Research and Qualitative Field Research
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- Trent University (TrentU )
Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies
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March 10th, 2021SOCI2151H Week 8: Unobtrusive Research and Qualitative Field Research
Reading: Chapter 10
There’s no “intrusion” with unobtrusive research! Utilize both quantitative and qualitative
methodologies
We will explore:
● Analyzing existing statistics
● Content analysis
● Historical and comparative research
○ All analyzed below in part one!!
We will use classic examples in the discipline of sociology and to show how theory and
methods are connected/inform one another
Part One: Types of Unobtrusive Methods
● Studying social artifacts (a unit of analysis) - Prompt #1
○ Documents, cave drawings (physical objects are the least obtrusive thing
to analyze)
○ Past institutions developed yearssss ago (reflect dominant values of a
society)
● From the early years to the present, historical records and things people leave
behind
○ The legitimacy of applying such qualitative methods came to an end more
than 50 years ago
○ Debate between using the positivist method of quantitative analysis (as
used for natural sciences) or the qualitative method used to talk to others
and learn about society through their people
■ Both are valid...we need both depending on what we want to learn
● “…certainly no science can develop until a base is reached from which reliable
and consistent empirical findings can be produced. But if reliability is the initial
step in science, validity is its necessary stride. The primary effect of improved
methodological practices has been to further what we [call] the internal validity of
a comparison – the confidence that a true difference is being observed. …
Questionnaires and interviews are probably the most flexible and generally useful
devices we have for gathering information. Our criticism is not against them, but
against the tradition which allowed them to become the methodological sanctuary
to which the myopia of operational definitionalism permitted a retreat… [social
research methods] need not be dependent on language.” - 1966
, 2
Max Weber’s Conceptual Tool: Verstehen
● The distinction between the methodology of the natural sciences and social
sciences
○ Relationships between variables (quantitative)
○ Understanding the “inner states” of individuals (qualitative)
● For some types of research on society it is difficult to make law-like conclusions
about human behavior/attitudes
● Human action is based on values, they can be objectively observed as social
facts in order to arrive at a causal explanation
○ Recall: patterns must be found in SRM’s
Verstehen
● The interpretive understanding of social action (to put oneself in another’s shoes;
or the “explanation at the level of meaning”)
● An essential quality in unobtrusive research
● A researcher must able to take on and internalize the circumstances and
viewpoints of those being studied
1. Analyzing Existing Statistics
● We must understand the context of when and where such data were collected
● We must do the necessary research required to understand what measures were
used and exactly how they were devised (as well as how they were collected and
coded)
● Secondary Resources:
○ Enable us to understand patterns in the topic we are researching
● Primary Resources:
○ Look no further than our first chair in the discipline...Durkheim’s Study of
Suicide
Durkheim’s research on suicide (1890s)
● The seminal research using univariate and bivariate analyses
● Beyond individual reasons, Durkheim wanted to understand the environmental
causes for suicide’by examining existing statistics, he found patterns that were
consistent among several european countries
● Step 1:
○ Higher rates in summer = hypothesis ‘heat’ is an independent variable
(cause) thus more in southern countries
■ Quickly disproven...had to improve his research
● Step 2:
○ Introduced more IV’s: age and gender
■ Age 35 was the most common age to commit suicide
■ Men committed suicide 4x more than women
● Step 3:
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