Unobtrusive Measures

by Eugene J. Webb

• ISBN13: 9780761920120
• ISBN10: 0761920129
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-12
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc

Summary

Thirty-five years ago, the four authors of this book addressed the problems of validity in social science research. They were interested in new and unused methods for obtaining information. The original edition and an expanded version have often been cited as justification for using novel means to supplement, if not replace, conventional techniques, especially survey and archival research. Illustrations abound in this book. While the novelty of the illustrations will keep many a graduate student amused, the more serious purpose is to authorize and motivate ingenuity in obtaining information. Even more fundamental is the strategy of combining very different methods so that research results can, by triangulation, withstand "threats to validity" that so frequently invalidate single-measure, conventional research.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition (1965)	vii
Introduction to the Classic Edition of Unobtrusive Measures	xi
Approximations to Knowledge	1	(34)
Operationism and Multiple Operations	3	(2)
Interpretable Comparisons and Plausible Rival Hypotheses	5	(5)
Internal and External Validity	10	(2)
Sources of Invalidity of Measures	12	(14)
An Interlude: The Measurement of Outcroppings	26	(2)
The Access to Content	28	(3)
Operating Ease and Validity Checks	31	(4)
Physical Traces: Erosion and Accretion	35	(18)
Natural Erosion Measures	37	(2)
Natural Accretion Measures	39	(4)
Controlled Erosion Measures	43	(1)
Controlled Accretion Measures	44	(2)
Transforming the Data: Corrections and Index Numbers	46	(3)
An Over-All Evaluation of Physical Evidence Data	49	(4)
Archives I: The Running Record	53	(36)
Actuarial Records	57	(8)
Political and Judicial Records	65	(7)
Other Government Records	72	(3)
The Mass Media	75	(6)
Data Transformations and Indices of the Running Record	81	(2)
Over-All Evaluation of Running Records	83	(6)
Archives II: The Episodic and Private Record	89	(24)
Sales Records	91	(8)
Industrial and Institutional Records	99	(6)
Written Documents	105	(5)
A Concluding Note	110	(3)
Simple Observation	113	(30)
Exterior Physical Sings	116	(4)
Expressive Movement	120	(4)
Physical Location	124	(4)
Observation of Language Behavior: Conversation Sampling	128	(6)
Time Duration	134	(2)
Time Sampling and Observation	136	(2)
Over-All Comments on Simple Observation	138	(5)
Contrived Observation: Hidden Hardware and Control	143	(30)
Hardware: Avoiding Human Instrument Error	143	(7)
Hardware: Physical Supplanting of the Observer	150	(6)
The Intervening Observer	156	(8)
Entrapment	164	(2)
Petitions and Volunteering	166	(3)
An Over-All Appraisal of Hidden Hardware and Control	169	(4)
A Final Note	173	(12)
A Statistician on Method	185	(2)
Cardinal Newman's Epitaph	187	(2)
References	189	(22)
Further Reading	211	(4)
Index	215	(4)
About the Authors	219