Class 13

• Data Collection in Urban Studies involves the use of various methods such as Secondary Data, Collecting Primary Data, Question types, Coding Frame, Self Completion Questionnaires, Interviews, Standardized Testing, and Observation.
• Criteria for assessing the quality of documents and data include Authenticity, Genuine and of unquestionable origin, Credibility, Free from error or distortion, Representativeness, Typical of what it is supposed to represent, Meaning, Clear and comprehensible.
• Personal documents such as diaries, letters, and autobiographies are evaluated based on Authenticity, Credibility, Representativeness, and Meaning.
• Ethnography is a study of people and their culture in naturally occurring settings.
• The complete participant is a covert observer.
• Participant-as-observer: The researcher engages fully in the life and activities of the observed, who are aware of his/her observing role.
• Complete participant: The researcher takes a full part in the social events but is not recognized as an observer by the observed.
• Behaviour is observed in an unstructured way by carrying out in-depth discussions and interviews with the people studied.
• Photographs are categorized into three types: Idealization (formally posed), Natural portrayal (candid, not posed), and Demystification (revealing, atypical portrayal).
• Government documents include census information, voting records, official reports, Hansard, etc.
• Official statistics, which include government data such as Statistics Canada, police statistics, etc., have advantages like being based on populations, not samples, and less pronounced reactivity because participants are not part of a study.
• Disadvantages of official statistics include recording only individuals who have been processed by a government agency.
• In a semi-structured interview, there is a clear focus on the topic of interest, and it is useful when more than one interviewer and when there are several interviewees.
• Unstructured interviews use only a brief set of points to introduce topics, with no more than a short interview guide.
• Sex, social class, and race of interviewer are key reactive issues.
• In a semi-structured interview, interviewees are free to reply in any way they choose, and questions may be asked out of order.
• How many children do you have?
• The questions in a structured interview must be asked in the order given.
• In a semi-structured interview, new questions may be devised and asked on the spot.
• In a semi-structured interview, the researcher has a list of questions or topics to be covered, offering a somewhat longer interview guide.
• Structured interviews are interviews that follow an interview schedule, which is a formal list of questions that the interviewer must follow in detail.
• Structured interviews reduce the chance of variation due to error on the part of the interviewer/interview process.
• Inter-interviewer variability is when there is a lack of consistency in asking questions or recording answers between different interviewers.
• The characteristics of the interviewer may influence the responses given.
• Structured interviews enhance the accuracy and ease of data processing, because of the use of 'closed' or 'fixed choice' questions.
• Preparing an interview guide involves familiarizing oneself with the setting to contextualize the data, using a good tape recorder, using a quiet and private setting for interviews, and using good interview techniques (active listening).
• In an unstructured interview, the only thing defined is the broad topic of interest, and it is conversational.
• Intra-interviewer variability is when an interviewer is not consistent in asking questions or recording answers with the same respondent or a different one.
• Put yourself in the position of the respondent.
• Structured interviews are used because they produce standardization in the asking of questions and the recording of answers.
• Direct questions are questions that ask for a specific answer.
• Telephone interviews reduce bias arising from ‘interviewer effect’.
• More than one interviewer is rare in face-to-face interviews due to cost.
• In a traditional interview, an interviewer stands or sits in front of the respondent and asks a series of questions.
• Be gentle, sensitive, and open, so that the interviewee can freely express their opinion and not be interrupted.
• Specifying questions are questions that ask for clarification about an answer.
• One-on-one interviews are more desirable in face-to-face interviews.
• Telephone interviews reduce issue with confidentiality, that exists with taped interviews.
• Indirect questions are questions that ask for the respondent's opinion.
• Follow-up questions are questions that ask for more detail about an answer.