In sum, the strengths of unobtrusive research include the following:
- There is no possibility for the Hawthorne effect.
- The method is cost effective
- It is easier in unobtrusive research than with other methods to correct mistakes.
- Unobtrusive methods are conducive to examining processes that occur over time or in the past.
What is an unobtrusive measure?
In research, an unobtrusive measure is a method of making observations without the knowledge of those being observed. Unobtrusive measures are designed to minimize a major problem in social research, which is how a subject’s awareness of the research project affects behavior and distorts research results .
What are the advantages of Unobtrusive methods?
The data produced by unobtrusive methods can be used alone, but an important strength of such methods is their use in combination with other methods so that the weaknesses inherent in data produced by one set of means can be offset by using data produced in a different way with different strengths and different weaknesses.
What is unobtrusive research and when to use it?
Finally, as described in Section 11.1 "Unobtrusive Research: What Is It and When to Use It?", unobtrusive research is well suited to studies that focus on processes that occur over time.
What are the ethics of unobstructive measures?
Unobstructive measures come with their fair share of ethics concerns, primarily in terms of privacy and surveillance. For that reason, researchers should be careful with which methods they use and how they use them when conducting these types of sociological experiments.
What are the advantages of unobtrusive measures?
The strengths of unobtrusive research include the following: There is no possibility for the Hawthorne effect. The method is cost effective. It is easier in unobtrusive research than with other methods to correct mistakes.
Why do researchers sometimes choose to use unobtrusive research methods?
Unobtrusive methods allow researchers to collect data without interfering with the subjects under study. Historical comparative methods, which are unobtrusive, focus on changes in multiple cases over time or on more than one nation or society at a single point in time.
What are the major advantages of unobtrusive observation over other types of data collection?
Key Takeaways. Unobtrusive research is cost effective and allows for easier correction of mistakes than other methods of data collection do.
Are unobtrusive methods suited to comparative research?
Social workers interested in history are likely to use unobtrusive methods, which are also well suited to comparative research.
Why do researchers sometimes choose to use unobtrusive research methods quizlet?
Why do researchers sometimes choose to use unobtrusive research methods? To minimize the cost to researchers; To minimize researchers' influence on their subjects.
How are unobtrusive measures used in conducting research?
In research, an unobtrusive measure is a method of making observations without the knowledge of those being observed. Unobtrusive measures are designed to minimize a major problem in social research, which is how a subject's awareness of the research project affects behavior and distorts research results.
Which of the following can unobtrusive methods help reduce?
Unobtrusive measures reduce or eliminate the impact of the researcher on the phenomena being studied. Logical reasoning and replication are used to handle the problem of validity in the analysis of existing statistics.
What is an example of unobtrusive measures?
any methods of collecting data without the knowledge of the subject and without affecting the data. Examples are very varied, e.g. studies of garbage, wear on carpets, recording how much coffee is consumed in meetings.
What is an example of unobtrusive research?
Unobtrusive research is simply the methods of studying social behaviorwithout affecting it. Content Analysis - With content analysis you focus on the details of recorded human communications. For example you would analyze a painting a written document, photos, films, and things like face book.
Which of the following is a strength of unobtrusive research?
In sum, the strengths of unobtrusive research include the following: There is no possibility for the Hawthorne effect. The method is cost-effective. It is easier in unobtrusive research than with other methods to correct mistakes.
What are unobtrusive research methods?
Unobtrusive methods is the collective term for ways of gathering data without intruding into the lives of the people being studied. Their advantage is that they do not disturb the naturally occurring processes that are the subject of the research.
What is unobtrusive method of information gathering?
Just by being present in an organization, the systems analyst changes it. However, unobtrusive methods such as sampling, investigation, and observing a decision maker's behavior and interaction with his or her physical environment are less disruptive than other ways of eliciting human information requirements.
What is an unobtrusive measure?
Updated February 16, 2019. In research, an unobtrusive measure is a method of making observations without the knowledge of those being observed. Unobtrusive measures are designed to minimize a major problem in social research, which is how a subject’s awareness of the research project affects behavior and distorts research results .
Why are unobstructive measures important?
Unobstructive measures come with their fair share of ethics concerns, primarily in terms of privacy and surveillance. For that reason, researchers should be careful with which methods they use and how they use them when conducting these types of sociological experiments.
How to determine the results of an experiment utilizing unobtrusive measures?
Another way that one can determine the results of an experiment utilizing unobtrusive measures is to analyze data and behavior from a hidden camera or through a two-way mirror. In either case, privacy may come into play and a test subject's individual rights are in danger of being violated.
What are indirect measures?
As opposed to obtrusive measures, indirect measures occur naturally during research and are available to researchers in pretty much limitless supply, depending on the researchers' innovation and imagination.
Who introduced the concept of unobtrusive measures?
Eugene Webb, Donald Campbell, Richard Schwartz, and Lee Sechrest introduced the concept of unobtrusive measures, and provided a host of examples of their use, in a book published in 1966 that has since become a classic ( Webb, et al. 1966 ). Sechrest 1979 is a later edited collection that seeks to extend and elaborate on the original conception of unobtrusive measures from a variety of perspectives. In 1981 a revised and expanded edition of Webb, et al. 1966 appeared with a new title, Nonreactive Measures in the Social Sciences ( Webb, et al. 1981 ). Since then a number of texts, such as Kellehear 1993 and Lee 2000, have appeared, seeking to reignite interest in the work of Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, and Sechrest, and to bring the uses of unobtrusive methods to new generations of students and researchers (see Webb, et al. 2000 ).
What is unobtrusive data?
Worries about the extent to which the social sciences rely on methods that are “reactive” have encouraged interest in what came to be dubbed “unobtrusive measures” (known also as “nonreactive measures”), sources of data that avoid problems caused by the researcher’s presence or involvement in the data-gathering process. Such sources include the physical traces produced by people as they traverse their environment, data derived from nonparticipant observation, and the use of documents of various kinds. The data produced by unobtrusive methods can be used alone, but an important strength of such methods is their use in combination with other methods so that the weaknesses inherent in data produced by one set of means can be offset by using data produced in a different way with different strengths and different weaknesses. A further important feature of the literature on unobtrusive measures is its stress on unusual, imaginative, or innovative sources of data rather than relying on the standard repertoire of approaches to be found in research methods textbooks.
Why is unobtrusive research important?
Unobtrusive research is cost effective and allows for easier correction of mistakes than other methods of data collection do. The Hawthorne effect, which occurs when research subjects alter their behaviors because they know they are being studied, is not a risk in unobtrusive research as it is in other methods of data collection.
Why do unobtrusive researchers have problems of validity?
Because unobtrusive researchers analyze data that may have been created or gathered for purposes entirely different from the researcher’s aim, problems of validity sometimes arise in such projects. It may also be the case that data sources measuring whatever a researcher wishes to examine simply do not exist.
Why are participants important in research?
Because “participants” are generally inanimate objects as opposed to human beings, researchers may be able to access data without having to worry about paying participants for their time (though certainly travel to or access to some documents and archives can be costly). Unobtrusive research is also pretty forgiving.
Is unobtrusive research more forgiving?
Unobtrusive research is also pretty forgiving. It is far easier to correct mistakes made in data collection when conducting unobtrusive research than when using any of the other methods described in this text.
Can field researchers be certain about their presence in the field?
Field researchers may also claim this advantage over interview and survey research, but field researchers cannot be certain about what effect their presence in the field may have on the people and the interactions that they observe. While unobtrusive research projects, like all research projects, face the risk of introducing researcher bias.
