Documents

Question 1

Documents

Answer 1

Preferred by interpretivists → mostly qualitative data.

Types:
-Personal: private, e.g., diaries, letters, emails, school/medical records.
-Public: for public consumption, e.g., government reports, media, novels, autobiographies.

Question 2

Evaluating Documents (Scott, 1990)

Answer 2

Authenticity: genuine or fake?

Credibility: believable, honest, sincere?

Representativeness: typical of the time?

Meaning: same meaning now as originally?

Question 3

Advantages of Documents

Answer 3

Already available → cheap.

Sometimes the only source (historical research).

Provide in-depth qualitative data → attitudes, values, meanings.

Public documents → no ethical issues.

Question 4

Disadvantages of Documents

Answer 4

May not be genuine (esp. personal/historical).

Meaning might change over time.

May not be representative → cannot generalise.

Private documents → ethical issues (consent).

Possible bias → government reports, newspapers.

May lack reliability or validity.

Question 5

Content Analysis

Answer 5

Produces quantitative data from qualitative documents.

Method: create categories, count occurrences.

Example: studying gendered language in newspapers.

Question 6

Advantages of Content Analysis

Answer 6

Cheap → uses readily available documents.

Produces reliable quantitative data.

Reveals hidden trends → e.g., gender stereotypes.

Question 7

Disadvantages of Content Analysis

Answer 7

Reliability depends on researcher-chosen categories.

Descriptive rather than explanatory → doesn’t explain why patterns occur.