Recent Developments and Applications In Social

Transcription

Recent Developments and Applications
In Social Research Methodology
Proceedings of
Sixth International Conference on
Logic and Methodology
August 16 – 20, 2004
1
in Social Research Methodology
August, 16-20, 2004, Amsterdam University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In August 2004,
the ISA Research Committee on Logic and Methodology,
jointly with the Department of Methodology and Statistics Faculty of
Utrecht University,
the Netherlands Institute for the Social Sciences (SISWO)
and the Netherlands Association for Methodological Research in the Social
Sciences (NOSMO),
organized the Sixth Conference in a series of four-yearly International
Conferences on Social Science Methodology.
Approximately five hundred researchers from different countries presented
their papers in more than sixty sessions. Eight free tutorials in advanced
methods offered participants a possibility to be introduced in the State of
the Art and Science of Methodology.
The organizers hope that the publication of papers in the proceedings will
challenge further research in the field of the social science methodology.
2
General Information
The registration fee includes: conference materials, refreshments, the
welcome reception (in Hal E) on Tuesday evening, a copy of the CD-ROM
with proceedings and this volume of abstracts.
Registration hours:
Tuesday, August 17
Wednesday, August 18
Thursday, August 19
09.00 - 17.00
09.00 – 17.00
09.00 – 13.00
Internet Facilities
An Internet room has been reserved for the use of registered conference
participants. The Internet Room is located in the H Building, third floor
(take the elevator, close by the entrance of the E Building, Roeterstraat 11)
Internet Opening Hours
Tuesday Afternoon
13.00 – 18.00
Wednesday
09.00 - 18.00
Thursday
09.00 - 18.00
Friday
09.00 - 13.00
Presentation Facilities
In each room of presentation a PC (Laptop), Beamer, Overheadprojector
and a white/or/black Board is available. Paper presentators are advised to
use an USB-stick or CD-ROM for their presentations. At request Internet
can be made available and Video Facilities. Technical assistestance can be
called on by the student assistent which is present in each room of
presentation.
3
Scientific Executive Committee
Nancy Andes
Department of Sociology, University of Alaska
Jörg Blasius
University of Bonn, Seminar for Sociology
Cor van Dijkum (chair)
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University
Harry Ganzeboom
Department of Sociology Free University
Henk Kleijer, SISWO
Nienke Siemonsma, Staff member, City of Noordwijk
Document Editing Staff, Department of Methodology and Statistics
Marieke Westeneng
Herbert van Willenswaard
Bram Vermeulen
CD-ROM Mastering
Branko van Hilten
Printing Manager, Faculty of Social Sciences
Marcel van der Linde
Logistics Support, Department of Methodology and Statistics
Roland Holdinga
Maureen Postma
Technical assistance during the conference
Branko van Hilten
Herbert van Willenswaard
Website RC33 Design and Support
Cor van Dijkum
Henk Janssen
Nienke Siemonsma
Branko van Hilten
Registration Agency Keynote
Martien van Geene
Laurette van Geene
4
5
6
In Social Research Methodology
RC33 Sixth International Conference on
Social Science Methodology
Overview of Sessions
and Programme
August 16 – 20, 2004
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Department of Methodology and Statistics
Faculty of Social Science
Utrecht University
Heidelberglaan 2
3584 CS Utrecht
The Netherlands
7
Overview of Sessions
Topics, Starting-Times and Locations
Building A
Building E
Plenary Speakers
Lyn Richards: Qualitative Software and
Methodological change: Myths, Mindsets and
Methodological Mania
Jan de Leeuw: Description, Prediction,
Inference
Computer Assisted Research
Computer-Assisted Sociological Research
Discoursive Etnography
The Achievements and Challenges of
Qualitative Computing
Computer aided Content Analysis - Research,
Methods and its Future ( Part I )
Methods and its Future ( Part II )
Methods and its Future ( Part III )
Methods and its Future ( Part IV )
The Response Process in Establishment
Surveys
Qualitative Methods
The Ethics and Social Relations of Research
Studying Sensitive Topics in Qualitative
Research
Recent Developments in Ethnomethodological
and Conversation-Analytic Research ( Part I )
Recent Developments in Ethnomethodological
and Conversation-Analytic Research ( Part II )
Research Methodology and the Challenges of
Social Diversity ( Part I )
Research Methodology and the Challenges of
Social Diversity ( Part II )
Action Research
Evaluating Cognitive Methods to Pre-Test
Questionnaires
Tuesday, 13:30
Bldg. A; Room A
Thursday, 14:00
Bldg. A; Room A
Tuesday, 15:00
Tuesday, 16:10
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 306
Bldg. A; Room 306
Bldg. A; Room 108
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. A; Room 108
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 306
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. A; Room 306
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. A; Room 306
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 306
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 306
Tuesday, 15:00
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. A; Room 108
Bldg. A; Room 108
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 010
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 010
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. A; Room 305
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 010
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. A; Room 108
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E; Room 010
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 108
8
Qualitative Methods Continued
Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
Rethinking Professional Ethics
Feminism, Methodology and Methods (Part II )
Theoretical Approaches and Methodological
Strategies to Produce and Analyze Qualitative
Empirical Data ( Part I )
Empirical Data ( Part II )
Empirical Data ( Part III )
Interrogating Conventionality in Qualitative
Research: Bricolage and Ingenuity in
Interdisciplinary Fieldwork
Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Empirical Designs and their Theoretical
Implications ( Part I )
Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Empirical Designs and their Theoretical
Implications ( Part II )
Analyzing Interviews ( Part I )
Analyzing Interviews ( Part II )
Miscellaneous
Survey Research
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for
response Effects in Survey Research(Part I)
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for
response Effects in Survey Research(Part 2)
Approaches to Using Mixed Methods
Interaction Analysis and Data Quality of
Survey Interviews
Estimating Informed Opinion: Advances in the
Theory and Measurement ( Part I )
Estimating Informed Opinion: Advances in the
Theory and Measurement ( Part II )
Telephone Survey Methodology in the 21st
Century ( Part I )
Century ( Part II )
Century ( Part III )
Response Latencies in Survey Research:
Theory, Measurement and Predictive Power
Thursday, 15:30
Friday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 108
Bldg. A; Room 108
Bldg. A; Room 108
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. E; Room 010
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 305
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 305
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. A; Room 305
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. E; Room 010
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 010
Friday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 010
Bldg. E; Room 010
Bldg. E; Room 010
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. A; Room 102
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 102
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. A; Room 102
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. A; Room 102
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. A; Room 102
9
Complex and Longitudinal Data Analysis
Classification and Structure: Recent Developments in Latent Class and Latent Trajectory
Analysis and New Developments in Cluster
Analysis ( Part I )
Classification and Structure: Recent Developments in Latent Class and Latent Trajectory
Analysis and New Developments in Cluster
Analysis ( Part II )
Multilevel Analysis ( Part I )
Multilevel Analysis ( Part II )
Measurement (In)Variance in Longitudinal
Research ( Part I )
Measurement (In)Variance in Longitudinal
Research ( Part II )
Methods of Social Network Analysis (Part I)
Methods of Social Network Analysis(Part II)
Panel Data Analysis
Combining Data from Different Sources (Part
I)
Combining Data from Different Sources (Part
II)
Information and Simulation Systems
Non Linear Modelling ( Part I )
Non Linear Modelling ( Part II )
Non Linear Modelling ( Part III )
The Applicability of Agent-Based Social
Simulation ( Part I )
Simulation ( Part II )
Simulation ( Part III )
Informetric and Text Based Procedures for
Information Retrieval and Analysis, e.g. in the
Context of Digital Libraries ( Part I )
Context of Digital Libraries ( Part II )
Context of Digital Libraries ( Part III )
Time Series Analysis
The Statistical Estimation of Linear and NonLinear Stochastic Differential Equations
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. E; Room 150
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. E; Room 150
Wednesday, 9:00
Wednesday, 11:00
Bldg. E; Room 150
Bldg. E; Room 150
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 150
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E; Room 150
Thursday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. E; Room 150
Bldg. E; Room 150
Bldg. E; Room 150
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 150
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 150
Tuesday, 15:00
Thursday, 11:00
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 007
Bldg. E; Room 007
Bldg. E; Room 007
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. E; Room 007
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 007
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 007
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 007
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E; Room 007
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 007
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 007
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 007
10
General Statistics
Assesment of Model Fit ( Part I )
Assesment of Model Fit ( Part II )
New Directions in Political (and Social)
Methodology ( Part I )
New Directions in Political (and Social)
Methodology ( Part II )
Recent Developments in Nonparametric Item
Response Theory ( Part I )
Recent Developments in Nonparametric Item
Response Theory ( Part II )
Session by Nanny Wermuth ( Part I )
Session by Nanny Wermuth ( Part II )
The Nets: between Neural Networks and
Network Analysis. Fuzzy Logic, Complexity
and/or Network Analysis Social Theory
Miscellaneous
DataCollection, Sampling and Non-Response
Improving the Validity of Fraud Research
Using Instruments from the Social Sciences
Data
Nonresponse ( Part I )
Nonresponse ( Part II )
Nonresponse ( Part III )
Nonresponse ( Part IV )
Aided Recall Techniques in Survey Interviews
Data Collection
Sampling Methods ( Part I )
Sampling Methods ( Part II )
Latent Variables Modelling
Latent Growth Curve Structural Equation
Models, Autoregressive and Hybrid Models
Multidimensional Scaling and Facet Theory
Correspondence Analysis ( Part I )
Correspondence Analysis ( Part II )
Correspondence Analysis ( Part III )
Correspondence Analysis ( Part IV )
Classification and Visualisation
Improving
Survey
Methodology:
The
European Social Survey ( Part III )
Tuesday, 15:00
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. E; Room 003
Bldg. E; Room 003
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 003
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 003
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 003
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E; Room 003
Thursday, 9:00
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. E; Room 003
Bldg. E; Room 003
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 003
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 003
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. A; Room 305
Tuesday, 16:10
Wednesday, 9:00
Thursday, 15:30
Friday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 305
Bldg. A; Room 306
Bldg. A; Room 305
Bldg. A; Room 305
Bldg. A; Room 305
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room 306
Wednesday, 14:30
Thursday, 9:00
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. A; Room 306
Bldg. A; Room 305
Bldg. A; Room 305
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E: Room 008
Wednesday, 11;30
Wednesday, 14:30
Thursday, 15:30
Friday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E: Room 008
Bldg. E: Room 008
Bldg. E: Room 008
Bldg. E: Room 008
Bldg. E: Room 008
Bldg. E: Room 008
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. E: Room 008
11
International Comparative Research
Improving
Survey
Methodology:
The
European Social Survey ( Part I )
Improving
Survey
Methodology:
The
European Social Survey ( Part II )
Comparable Data across Countries
Methodological Issues in Designing and
Implementing Cross-Cultural Surveys (Part I)
Implementing Cross-Cultural Surveys (Part II)
Implementing Cross-Cultural Surveys (Part III)
Methods of Cross-National Comparative
Analysis
Cross National Harmonization of SocioDemographic Variables ( Part I )
Cross National Harmonization of SocioDemographic Variables ( Part II )
Cross-National Comparison of Daily Activity
Patterns: Issues in the Collection and Analysis
of Cross-National Time Data ( Part I )
Cross-National Comparison of Daily Activity
Patterns: Issues in the Collection and Analysis
of Cross-National Time Data ( Part II )
Data Collection & Internet Surveys
Visual Design and Layout in Internet and Mail
Surveys ( Part I )
Visual Design and Layout in Internet and Mail
Surveys ( Part II )
The Internet and Social Research: New
Opportunities, New Challenges ( Part I )
The Internet and Social Research: New
Opportunities, New Challenges ( Part II )
Internet Surveys ( Part I )
Internet Surveys ( Part II )
Internet Surveys ( Part III )
Internet Surveys ( Part IV )
Internet Surveys ( Part V )
Miscellaneous
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. E; Room 151
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 151
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 151
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 151
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Thursday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Thursday, 11:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 151
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 151
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. A; Room A
Tuesday, 16:10
Bldg. A; Room A
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. A; Room 303
Wednesday, 16:00
Bldg. A; Room 303
Thursday, 9:00
Thursday, 11:00
Thursday, 15:30
Friday, 9:00
Friday, 11:30
Wednesday, 11:30
Bldg. A; Room A
Bldg. A; Room A
Bldg. A; Room A
Bldg. A; Room 303
Bldg. A; Room 303
Bldg. A; Room 303
Tuesday, 15:00
Bldg. E; Room 004
General Methodology
Is There a Fundamental Change in the
Individual Shaping of the Life Course in
Modernity? Or How Can We Do Research on
Fundamental
Transformations
in
Modernization?
12
General Methodology continued
Methodological Foundations of Sociological
Analysis of Social Sphere ( Part I )
Analysis of Social Sphere ( Part II )
Analysis of Social Sphere ( Part III )
Analysis of Social Sphere ( Part IV )
Feminism, Methodology and Methods (Part I )
Complex Societal Problems ( Part I )
Complex Societal Problems ( Part II )
Miscellaneous
Wednesday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 004
Thursday, 15:30
Bldg. E; Room 004
Friday, 9:00
Bldg. E; Room 004
Friday, 11:30
Bldg. E; Room 004
Wednesday, 11:30
Thursday, 9:00
Thursday, 11:00
Wednesday, 14:30
Bldg. E; Room 004
Bldg. E; Room 004
Bldg. E; Room 004
Bldg. E; Room 004
13
FREE TUTORIALS IN ADVANCED AND RECENT METHODS
These Tutorials take place before and after the conference and are free of charge.
Monday, 16th August:
Simulation for the Social Scientist
Klaus G. Troitzsch & Nigel Gilbert
Time: 14.00 - 17.45
Place: SISWO, Plantage Muidergracht 4, 1018 CV Amsterdam
(5 minutes to walk from the Conference Venue)
Introduction to Bayesian Statistics
Herbert Hoijtink & Irene Klugkist
Time: 14.00 - 17.00
Place: Amsterdam University, Roeterstraat 11, Room E-007 (HAL E)
Choosing qualitative software: why does QSR have two packages (N6 and NVivo) and
how to choose between them?
Tom and Lyn Richards, QSR International, Australia., http://www.qsrinternational.com
Time: 14.00 - 18.00
Place: Amsterdam University, Roeterstraat 11, Internet Room 4
(Third floor, HAL H, Take the Elevator left of the Entrance)
Tuesday, 17th August:
Computer aided Text Analysis with TextQuest
Harald Klein, Developer of TextQuest, Social Science Consulting , Rudolstadt, Germany
Time: 09.00 - 12.30
Introduction to QCA: approach and applications
Alain Gottcheiner, Laboratory of Research in Mathematics and Social Science, Free
University of Brussels (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Sakura Yamasaki, Centre for Comparative Politics, University of Louvain (Universite
catholique de Louvain)
Time: 9.00-12.30
Place: Amsterdam University, Roeterstraat 11, E003 (HAL E)
Everything you ever wanted to know about preparing qualitative data ...but were afraid
to ask
Louise Corti and John Southall, UK Data Archive, University of Essex
Time: 9.00-12.30
Place: Amsterdam University, Roeterstraat 11, Internet Room 4
(Third floor, HAL H, Take the Elevator left of the Entrance)
14
Friday, 20th August:
Overview of Software for Qualitative Data Analysis.
Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Boston College, Developer of Software Package, HyperRESEARCH
Raymond Maietta , ResearchTalk Inc., Bohemia, Long Island
Time: 14.00 - 17.00
Place: Amsterdam University, Roeterstraat 11, E003 (Hal E)
Modern Multidimensional Scaling
Patrick J.F. Groenen, Econometric Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Time: 14.00 - 17.00
15
Tuesday, 17th August 2004
General Program
9:00 13:00
Registration
Bldg. A; Hall
13:00 13:30
Welcome
Bldg. A; Room A
13:30 -
Plenary Speech: Lyn Richards, Australia
Subject: Qualitative Software and Methodological Change Myths, Mindsets and Methodological Mania
14:30
Bldg. A; Room A
14:30 15:00
15:00 16:10
16:10 17:45
Tea
18:00 21:00
Welcome Reception
Bldg. E; Hall
Session
Session
16
Tuesday
15:00 -
Organizer: Karl M. van Meter, France
17:45
Assessing Attitudes toward Muslims in the Netherlands:
Does asking both Open and Closed Questions Provide
more Insight?
Christine L. Carabain, The Netherlands
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing
Cross-Cultural Surveys Assessing cross-national construct
equivalence in the ESS
Jaak Billiet; Jerry Welkenhuysen-Gybels, Belgium
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Combining Test Interviews with Experimental Surveys to
Compare Question Formats in a Postal Survey on
Alcohol Consumption
Harrie Jansen; Viviënne Lahaut, The Netherlands
Elites at Home: A Multimethod Community Case Study of
a Wealthy Chicago Suburb
Al Hunter, USA
A Computer Assisted Mixed Method and Mixed Model
Analysis of Police Decision Making
Jennifer L. Schulenberg, Canada
When Quantitative is Qualitative: An Integrated Analysis
Rod Gutierrez; Pat Bazeley, Australia
The Combined Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
in Educational Research
K. Niglas, Estonia
17
Tuesday
15:00 -
Organizers: Carole Truman, UK ; Anne Ryen, Norway
17:45
The Best and Worst of Research Relations
David Chavis, USA
On Vulnerabilities and Responsibilities in the Qualitative Interview
Anne Halvorsen, Norway
Informed Consent, Gatekeepers and Go-Betweens
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Sue Heath; Vikki Charles; Graham Crow; Rose Wiles, UK
Wading through "The Jungle" with my Main Informant
A critical discussion of ethical practice in cross-cultural ethnography
Anne Ryen, Norway
Emotional Implications in Informant-Researcher Relations
Trond Stalsberg Mydland, Norway
The Regulation of Research Ethics Some Challenges of Social Diversity
Carole Truman, UK
Ethics and Power in Community-Campus Partnerships for Research
Susan Boser, USA
18
Tuesday
16:10 17:45
Theoretical Approaches and Methodological Strategies to Produce
and Analyze Qualitative Empirical Data ( Part I )
Organizers: Ruth Sautu, Argentina ;
Silvana Figueroa; Jochen Dreher, Germany
Transcendental Realism in a Particular Methodological Secuency
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Beatriz Irene Wehle, Argentina
Post-communist Systemic Transitions, National Identity and Mass
Media: Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Analysis
Izabella Zandberg, USA
Representations of Death: Theoretical and Methodological
Approaches
Christine Matter, Germany
Tracing symbols. The Hermeneutic Analysis of Paradoxical
Constructions within Argentine Collective Symbolism
Silvana K. Figueroa; Jochen Dreher, Germany
19
Tuesday
15:00 17:45
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for Response Effects in
Survey Research
Organizer: Volker Stocké, Germany
National Identity, Nationalism, or Patriotism:
Do we Really Measure what we Assume?
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Horst-Alfred Heinrich; Karsten Stephan, Germany
A Cognitive Model for Survey Response Effects
Ákos Münnic, Hungary ; Jaap Murre; Willem Saris, The Netherlands
Direction of Response Scales, Change of Numerical Values and
Respondents' Behavior
Bettina Langfeldt, Dagmar Krebs, Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik,
Germany
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for the Strength and
Direction of Social Desirability Bias in Racial Attitude Surveys
Volker Stocké, Germany
20
Tuesday
15:00 17:45
Classification and Structure: Recent Developments in Latent Class
and Latent Trajectory Analysis and New Developments in Cluster
Analysis
Organizers: Johann Bacher; Jost Reinecke; Christian Tarnai, Germany
Part I
15:00 16:10
Methods for Comparing Latent Class Cluster Solutions
Michael D. Larsen, USA
L? -consensus for Dendrograms :
An Alternative to the Average Consensus Procedure
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Guy Cucumel, Canada
Classifying Adolescents Using Value Orientations - A Comparison
of Cluster Analysis and Latent Class Analysis
Andreas Pöge, Germany
Detecting Aberrant Paterns of Change for the Dimensions of a
"Quality of Life" Questionnaire by means of Linear Mixed
Models
Herbert Matschinger, Germany
Part II
16:10 17:45
SPSS TwoStep Clustering - A First Evaluation
Johann Bacher; Knut Wenzig; Melanie Vogler, Germany
Clustering Messy Social Data with ClustanGraphics
David Wishart, UK
Cluster Analysis Software: Proposals of Tools for Validation
Michael Wiedenbeck; Cornelia Züll, Germany
Empirical Validation of "Whisky Classified"
David Wishart, UK
21
Tuesday
15:00 -
Non Linear Modelling ( Part I )
Organizer: Cor van Dijkum, The Netherlands
16:10
Dynamics of Functional Connectivity in Ongoing, No-task EEG.
Evidence for Scale-Free Properties and Explanation in Terms of
Coupled Limit Cycle Oscillators
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
C.J. Stam; E.A. de Bruin; T. Montez; K. Linkenkaer-Hansen;
M. Breakspear; B.W. van Dijk, The Netherlands
Dynamical Complexity. A measure of Critical Instability During
Human Change Processes
S. Weihrauch; G.Schiepek, The Netherlands
Evolutionary Economics and Complexity
Carl Henning Reschke, Germany
The Applicability of Agent-Based Social Simulations ( Part I)
16:10 17:45
Organizers: Klaus G. Troitzsch, Germany ; Nigel Gilbert, UK
Tracking the Invisible Hand: An A.B.M. Approach to CDA Design
with Evolutionary Behaviour
M. Posada Calvo; Cesaro Hernández Iglesias; Adolfo López Paredes,
Spain
Development of a Hybrid Multi-Agent Model for Modelling
Petrol Price Markets
Alison J. Heppenstall; Andrew J. Evans; Mark H. Birkin, UK
Dynamics of International Negotiations. A Simulation of EU
Intergovernmental Conferences
Nicole J. Saam; Paul W. Thurner; Frank Arndt, Germany
On a Theorem in the Theory of Guerilla Warfare
Jim Doran, UK
22
Tuesday
15:00 -
Assessment of Model Fit
Organizer: Tamas Rudas, Hungary
17:45
Analysis of Deviance with Penalized Likelihoods
David Firth, UK
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
Examining the Scalability of Intimacy Permissiveness in Taiwan
Pei-shan Liao; Su-hao Tu, Taiwan
Additive and Multiplicative Effects in a Fixed 2 x 2 Design using
ANOVA can be difficult to Differentiate: Demonstration and
Mathematical Reasons
Johannes A. Landsheer; Godfried van den Wittenboer;
Gerard H. Maassen, The Netherlands
How to Evaluate the Fit of Linear and Generalized Multilevel
Models
Wolfgang Langer, Germany
Collinearity involving Ordered and Unordered Categorical Variables
John Hendrickx; Ben Helzer; Manfred te Grotenhuis; Jan Lammers,
The Netherlands
Testing the Fit of Conditional Independence with a Continuous
Control Variable
Wicher Bergsma, The Netherlands
Assessment of Model Fit using Incomplete Data
Tamas Rudas, Hungary
23
Tuesday
15:00 16:10
Improving the Validity of Fraud Research Using Instruments from
the Social Sciences
organizers: Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders; Peter van der Heijden, The Netherlands
Evaluating the Validity of (Vicarious) Self-Reports of Deviant
Behavior Using Vignette Analyses
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Stefanie Eifler, Germany
Statistical and Technical Methods for the Detection and Prevention
on Interviewer Fraud in Data Collection
Joe Eyerman; Paul Biemer ; Craiig Hill; Joe Murphy; Chris Ellis, UK
Research Designs for Fraud Studies: How to Chose the Optimal
Research Design
Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders; Peter van der Heijden, The Netherlands
16:10 17:45
Preventing, Diagnosing and Analyzing Missing Data
organizers: Joop J. Hox; Edith D. de Leeuw, The Netherlands
Mixed Missing: Mode Elemental Structures
Antonio Alaminos, Spain
Social Distance, Interviewers Perception of Rapport and the
Types of Invalid Response
Su-hao Tu; Pei-Shan Liao, Taiwan
Socio-economic Status of Survey Respondents with Missing
Household Income Data
Michael Wood, USA
Statistical Editing and Imputation for Social Data
Frank van den Eijkhof, The Netherlands
24
Tuesday
15:00 -
Improving Survey Methodology: The European Social Survey
Organizer: Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands
17:45
Part I
Influence of Media Reported Events on Attitudes and Opinions
15:00 -
Jurjen Iedema; Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands
16:10
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Part II
16:10 17:45
Modeling Events for ESS: Toward the Creation of an Autonomous
Tool for Survey Research
Theoni Stathopoulou, Greece
Measuring Attitudes towards Immigration across Countries:
Potential Problems of Functional Equivalence in the ESS
Nina Rother, Germany
Improving Survey Methodology: the ESS. Index and Measurement:
The Cultural Borders of Meaning
Antonio Alaminos, Spain
Some Methods for Investigating Validity and Reliability of
Questions in the European Social Survey
A. J. Kutylowski, Norway
25
Tuesday
15:00 -
Visual Design and Layout in Internet and Mail Surveys
Organizer: Don A. Dillman, USA
17:45
A Comparison of Sliding Scales with Other Scale Types in
Online Services
Leonard R. Bayer; Randall K. Thomas, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. A
Online Surveys - Does One Size Fit All?
Dan Coates, USA
Web Survey Design: Effect of Layout on Measurement Error
Andy Peytchev, USA
An Experimental Testing of Format Changes to Reduce Missing
Data and Increase Cooperation in the Nielsen TV Diary
Kenneth W. Steve; Mildred . Bennett, Paul J. Lavrakas; Jennie W. Lai,
USA
Achieving Usability in Establishment Surveys through the Application
of Visual Design Principles
Don A. Dillman; Arina Gersteva, USA
26
Tuesday
15:00 16:10
Is There a Fundamental Change in the Individual Shaping of the Life
Course in Modernity? Or How Can We Do Research on Fundamental
Transformations in Modernization?
Organizer: Jens Zinn, UK
Using Biographical Material to Research University Students'
Identity: An Avenue for Research on Social Change
Lupita Rodriguez Bulnes, UK
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Experiential Glances at Transformations and Changes Occurring
in Reflexive Modernization Life
Ada Cattaneo, Italy
Reflexive Modernization and Biotechnology: The Conflict of
Biotechnology as a Conflict between the Logic of Industrial
Society and the Logic of Reflexive Modernity
Piet Sellke, Germany
Achieving Usability in Establishment Surveys through the Application
of Visual Design Principles
Don A. Dillman; Arina Gersteva, USA
27
Wednesday 18th August 2004
General Program
9:00 11:00
11:00 11:30
11:30 13:00
13:00 14:30
14:30 15:40
15:40 16:00
16:00 17:30
Session
18:00 19:00
Business Meeting
SISWO
Coffee/Tea
Session
Lunch
Session
Tea
Session
28
Wed.
9:00 -
Studying Sensitive Topics in Qualitative Research
Organizer: Hennie R. Boeije, The Netherlands
11:00
Minerva's Web: The Internet and Methodologies of Sensitive
Subjects
Indhu Rajagopal, Canada
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Positioning Myself as a Researcher in a Politically Sensitive
and Volatile Situation
Chaya Possick, Israel
Studying Decision-Making Issues at Home: The Nature of the
Relation between Researcher and Participants
María Elena Ramos Tovar, Mexico
Some Functions of Probing Tactics in Interviews on Friendship
Gerben Moerman, The Netherlands
Processes in Research into Sensitive Topics
Pat Cox, UK
29
Wed.
9:00 11:00
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Theoretical Approaches and Methodological Strategies to Produce
and Analyze Qualitative Empirical Data ( Part II )
People's Representations on Corrupt Practices and the Construction
of a New Moral Order: In-Depth Interviews to Middle-Class
Residents of Buenos Aires
Ruth Sautu; Paula Boniolo; Ignacia Perugorría, Argentina
Social Mimesis: a Study about Cultural Performances
Vincenzo Romania, Italy
Impact of Interviewer Attitudes and Socio-Economic Status in an
Inter-Ethnic Survey
Peter Pillók; Dávid Simon, Hungary
Video-based Analysis of Social Situations: Comparing the Analytic
Range of Ethnomethodology and Genre Analysis
Dirk vom Lehn, UK ; Bernt Schnettler, Germany
Giving Visibility to Hidden Rural Localities: Contributions of an
Ethnographic Research
Fernando Ilídio Ferreira, Portugal
The Emergence of New Identities in Argentine Armed Forces:
a Life Course Research.
Alejandra Navarro, Argentina
30
Wed.
9:00 -
Approaches to Using Mixed Methods
Organizers: Angela Dale; Lynn Jamieson, UK
11:00
Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research: How is it done?
Alan Bryman, UK
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Multi-Methods, Triangulation and Integration - Different Goals or
Just Different Terms?
Jo Moran-Ellis; Victoria Alexander; Ann Cronin; Mary Dickinson;
Jane Fielding; Judith Sleney; Hilary Thomas, UK
Qualitative Methodology as a Parenthesis for Quantitative
Methodology
Mihai Pascaru, Romania
Multi-Semiotic Ethnography
Bella Dicks, UK
A Delicate Dialectic: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
in Two Studies for US Federal Government Agencies
Susan G. Berkowitz; Cynthia S. Robins, USA
31
Wed.
9:00 -
Multilevel Analysis ( Part I )
Organizer: Tom A. B. Snijders, The Netherlands
11:00
Frequentist MCMC Estimation Methods for Multilevel Logistic
Regression
Carlos Coimbra; Tom A.B.Snijders, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
The Use of Internal Pilot Studies to Derive Powerful and CostEfficient Designs for Studies with Nested Data
M. Moerbeek, The Netherlands
Performance of Likelihood-Based Estimation Methods for
Multilevel Binary Regression Models
Marc Callens and Christophe Croux, Belgium
Outliers and Multilevel Models
John F. Bell; Eva Malacova, UK
On the Relative Efficiency of Unequal Cluster Sizes in Multilevel
Intervention Studies
L. Kotova; G.J.P. van Breukelen; M.J.J.M. Candel; M.P.F. Berger,
The Netherlands
32
Wed.
9:00 -
The Applicability of Agent-Based Social Simulations ( Part II )
11:00
Using Multi Agent Systems and Role-Playing Games to Simulate
Water Management in Peri-urban Catchments
Diana F. Adamatti; Jaime S. Sichman, Brazil
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Lagoon, Agents and Kava. A Companion Modelling Experience
in the Pacific
P. Perez; C. Lepage; P. D'Aquino, France ; A. Dray; I. White, Australia
Agent-Based Simulations bacing Use of Role-Playiing Games as
Dialogue Support Tools: Teaching from Experience
William's Daré; Olivier Barreteau, France
Actualities of Social Representation: Simulation on Diffusion
Processes of SARS Representation
Kazuhiko Shibuya, Japan
33
Wed.
9:00 -
New Directions in Political (and Social) Methodology ( Part I )
Organizer: Nathaniel Beck, USA
11:00
Time-Series--Cross-Section Data
Nathaniel Beck; Jonathan Katz, USA
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
New Directions in Spatial Analysis: Space is more than
Geography
Nathaniel Beck, USA ; Kristian Gleditsch, Norway
American Public Opinion in the 1930s and 1940s:
the Analysis of Quota-Controlled Sample Survey Data
Adam Berinsky, USA
Estimating Spatial Autoregressive Coefficients in Spatial
Lag Models
Robert J. Franzese Jr.; Jude C. Hays, USA
34
Wed.
9:00 -
Nonresponse ( Part I )
Organizers: Claire Durand; John Goyder, Canada
11:00
Recruitment Procedures and Response Rate: A Swiss Experiment
N. Schoebi; D. Joye, Switzerland
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Efficacy of Incentives in Increasing Response Rates
M. Fahimi; R. Whitmore; J. Chromy; M. Calahan; L. Zimbler, USA
New Evidence on Amount of Payment on Prepaid Incentives on a
Mailed Questionnaire
J. Goyder; G. Martinelli; S. Brown, Canada
The Drop-off Pick-up Method: An Alternative Approach to Reducing
Nonresponse in Mail Surveys
A. Ross-Davis; S. R. Broussard, USA
A Plea for the Tailored Use of Respondent Incentives
G. Nicolaas; N. Stratford, UK
35
Wed.
9:00 11:00
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Latent Growth Curve Structural Equation Models, Autoregressive
and Hybrid Models
Organizers: Jost Reinecke; Peter Schmidt, Germany
Combining Autoregressive and Semiparametric Mixture Models:
Investigating the Selection-Facilitation Effect of Peers on
Antisocial Behaviors
Eric Lacourse; Richard E. Tremblay, Canada ; Daniel Nagin, USA
Pay off and Impact of Varying the Intercept in Latent Growth
Curve Modeling
Manuel C. Voelkle, Germany
Latent Growth Curve and Interaction Modeling: The Case of
Travel Mode Choice
Fan Yang Wallentin; Peter Schmidt; Eldad Davidov
Anomia, Left Right Orientation and Group Related Enmity
Steffen Kühnel; Peter Schmidt; Elmar Schlüter
36
Wed.
9:00 -
Comparable Data across Countries
Organizers: Willem Saris; Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands
11:00
Pursuing Equivalence in Cross-National Surveys
Roger Jowell
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Comparability across Countries of Responses in the ESS
Willem E. Saris, The Netherlands
Trapped in Translation? ESS Translation Protocols Provide a Key
Janet Harkness, Germany
Sampling for the European Social Survey
Seppo Laaksonen, Finland ; Siegfried Gabler; Sabine Häder, Germany
Peter Lynn, UK
Data Quality Assessment in ESS Round 1: Between Wishes and
Reality
Jaak Billiet; Michel Philippens, Belgium
Context, Events and Attitudes
Jurjen Iedema; Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands
37
Wed.
9:00 11:00
Methodological Foundations of Sociological Analysis of Social Sphere
Part I
Organizers: Vassiliy Zhukov; Yelena Meshkova; Galina Ossadchaya, Russia
Designing of Disablement in the Institutional Field
Vladimir N. Petrov; Inna B. Kantemirova, Russia
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Theories and Methods in Cross-National Youth Research1
Ken Roberts, UK
Tasks of Historiography of Social Sphere Sociology
Viktor Gorodyanenko, Ukrain
Methodology and Methods of Comparative social research
Vassili I. Joukov, Russia
38
Wed.
11:30 -
Discoursive Ethnography
Organizers: GiamPetro Gobo, Italy ; Anne Ryen, Norway
13:00
Using Conversation Analysis to Test Questionnaires
R. J. W. M. Vis-Visschers, The Netherlands
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
For "she who knows who she is…"
Combining Ethnography and Conversation Analysis in the Study
of Internet Newsgroups
A. Vayreda; F. Nuñez; E. Ardevol, Spain ; Ch. Antaki, UK
Talk of Stakeholders, Talk of Players. Goffmans Contributions
to the Use of an RPG as a Social Investigation Tool
William's Daré, France
The Methodological Discourse about the Complex Discourse of
"The Childs best Interest"
Turid Midjo, Norway
39
Wed.
11:30 13:00
Recent Developments in Ethnomethodological and ConversationAnalytic Research ( Part I )
Organizer: Paul ten Have, The Netherlands
Technomethodology
Andy Crabtree, UK
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Exploring the Possibilities for the Use of Ethnographic, Contextual
Information in Ethnomethodological/ Conversation of Analytic
Studies
Bregje C. de Kok, UK
Shifting the Focus: The Impact of Audiovisual Technology on
Empirical Research
Antonia L. Krummheuer, Germany
Order in Disorder: Rule-Governed Actions as Sociological
Phenomena
Alain Bovet, Switzerland ; Philippe Sormani, UK
40
Wed.
11:30 13:00
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Theoretical Approaches and Methodological Strategies to Produce and
Analyze Qualitative Empirical Data
People's Perceptions on the Construction of Collective Goals:
Interviews in Street Meetings of Collective Protest
Luciano Brom; Pablo Dalle; Rodolfo Elbert, Argentina
Images of the Argentine Ruling Class: Focus Groups using Mass
Media Photographs as Stimulus
Valeria Maidana; Gabriela Medin; María Alejandra Otamendi, Argentina
Evaluation of the Internet use - A Call for Mixing Method Approach
Boris Kragelj, Slovenia
41
Wed.
11:30 -
Interaction Analysis and Data Quality of Survey Interviews
Organizers: J. van der Zouwen; J. H. Smit, The Netherlands
13:00
Conversational and Formal Questions in Survey Interviews
Yfke Ongena; Wil Dijkstra; Stasja Draisma, The Netherlands
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
The Effectiveness of Repair Strategies of Interviewers in
Survey Interviews
J. van der Zouwen; J. H. Smit, The Netherlands
Opening the Black Box in Survey Research. Data Collection as
an Ongoing Process of Total Quality Management.
John Lievens; Els Bundervoet; Hans Waege, Belgium
42
Wed.
11:30 -
Multilevel Analysis ( Part II )
Organizer: Tom A. B. Snijders, The Netherlands
13:00
Multilevel Multiprocess Modelling of Partnership Transitions
and Fertility in Britain
Bldg. E
Fiona Steele; Constantinos Kallis; Harvey Goldstein; Heather Joshi,
UK
Rm. 150
The Concept of 'Social Level' and how to assess it
Pieter van den Eeden, The Netherlands
The Hausman Test of Random Effects Specifications
A. Fielding, UK
The Problem of Time Dependent Explanatory Variables at the Context Level in Discrete Time Multilevel Event History Analysis.
Michael Windzio, Germany
43
Wed.
11:30 -
The Applicability of Agent-Based Social Simulation ( Part III )
13:00
MASON: A JAVA Multi-Agent Simulation Library
S. Luke; G. C. Balan; L. Panait; C. Cioffi-Revilla; S. Paus, USA
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Simma: A Toolkit for Participatory Business Simulations
X. Noria ,G. Peffer, Spain ; Nigel Gilbert, UK
The Political Actor Simulator (PAS) - The Simulation of a Foreign
Policy Crisis during the Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia 1995
Markus Bresinsky, Germany
Using GIS and Multi-agent Systems for Interactive Design of
Policy in Natural Resource Management
Rhodora M. Gonzalez, The Philippines
Multiple Equilibria Regulation Model in Cellular Automata Topology
Ioannis D. Katerelos; Andreas Koulouris, Greece
44
Wed.
11:30 -
New Directions in Political (and Social) Methodology ( Part II )
Organizer: Nathaniel Beck, USA
13:00
Biases in the Effects of Parental Background on Voting
Jannes de Vries; Nan Dirk de Graaf; Rob Eisinga, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
Event Data Based Network Analysis (EDNA)
Thomas Widmer; Vera Troeger, Switzerland
Matching Methods for the Causal Analysis of Observational Data
Markus Gangl; Thomas A. DiPrete, Germany
45
Wed.
11:30 -
Aided Recall Techniques in Survey Interviews
Organizer: Wander van der Vaart, The Netherlands
13:00
Improving the Quality of Retrospective Reports: Calendar
Interviewing Methodologies
Robert F. Belli, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Collecting Event History Data about Work Episodes Retrospectively:
What Recall Errors Occur and how can we Prevent them?
Maike Reimer, Germany
Influence Dating Formats on the Telescoping Effect and the
Distribution of Autobiographical Memory
S. M. J. Janssen; A. G. Chessa; J. M. J. Murre, The Netherlands
Timeline Methods and Related Aided Recall Applications in
Social Sciences and Health Studies: a Review.
Wander van der Vaart, The Netherlands
46
Wed.
11:30 -
Multidimensional Scaling and Facet Theory
Organizers: Patrick Groenen, The Netherlands ; Ingwer Borg, Germany
13:00
What is not what in Facet Theory
Wijbrandt H. van Schuur, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Questionnaire Design and Data Analysis using Facet Approach:
The Case of the International Census on Attitudes toward Languages
Kazufumi Manabe, Japan
New Type of Psychodiagnostical Test: Situational Operational Grid
Anna S. Naumenko, Russia
Explaining the Structure of Values of an Ideal Organization by
Schwartz's Universal Value Theory
Ingwer Borg; Wolfgang Bilsky, Germany ;
Patrick J.F. Groenen; Karen A. Jehn, The Netherlands
47
Wed.
11:30 13:00
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing CrossCultural Surveys ( Part I )
Organizers: Janet Harkness, Germany ; Edith D. de Leeuw, The Netherlands
A Process Quality Approach to the Testing and Evaluation
of Cross-Cultural Surveys
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Johnny Blair; Linda Piccini, USA
Language, Usage, and Cultural Context: Challenges to
Functional Equivalence in Questions
Michael Braun; Janet Harkness, Germany
Developing a Low-Cost Technique for Parallel Cross-Cultural
Instrument Development: The Question Appraisal System (QAS-04)
Elizabeth Dean; Rachel Caspar; Georgina McAvinchey;
Rosanna Quiroz; Leticia Reed, USA
Test of Anchoring Vignettes in a Low Income Population
Patricia M. Gallagher; Floyd J. Fowler, USA
48
Wed.
11:30 -
Miscellaneous
Organizer: Henk Kleijer
13:00
Using E-mail as a Site for Constructing Narratives through Interview
Nalita James; Hugh Busher, UK
Bldg. A
Rm. 303
Getting it Right: Designing an Evaluation of an INGO led HIV/AIDS
Prevention Programme in Resource Poor Settings
Fiona Samuels; Sam McPherson; Pepukai Chikukwa, UK
Cyberethnography: New Fields of Inquiry or are we simply
Re-Cycling Old Methodology?
Denise Carter, UK
49
Wed.
11:30 -
Feminism, Methodology and Methods ( Part I )
Organizer: Sharlene Hesse-Biber, USA
13:00
Critical Rationalism as a Tool for Feminist Comparative
Historical Sociology
Judith Buber Agassi, Israel
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
The Clear Feminist Rejection of an Obscure Positivism
Maria Ignez Silveira Paulilo, Brazil
Entering Sites; Entering Ethnography
Anastasia Norton, USA
Power Tools: A Feminist Approach to Large Sample
Quantitative Data Analysis
Allison J. Tracy, USA
50
Wed.
14:30 15:40
Research Methodology and the Challenges of Social Diversity ( Part I )
Organizers: Carole Truman, UK ; Donna Mertens, USA
The Hermit's Knowledge
Isacco Turina, Italy
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Philosophic Sagacity: Another Way of Doing Research
Bagele Chilisa, Botswana
Irrationality and Violence in the Postmodernity. Proposal of a Model
of Analysis of the Social Reality under the Perspective of a
Transdisciplinary Method
Augusto Renato Pérez Mayo; Maricela Guzmán Cáceres, Mexico
51
Wed.
14:30 15:40
Interrogating Conventionality in Qualitative Research. Bricolage and
Ingenuity in Interdisciplinary Fieldwork
Organizer: Marsha Henry, UK
The Tape Recorder as a Major Player in the In-Depth Interview
Tom Slater, UK
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
If the Shoe Fits: Authority, Authenticity and Agency in Feminist
Diasporic Research
Marsha Henry, UK
Colonial Contexts and Post-colonial Understandings: Researching
on Women in the Indian Nationalist Movement
Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, UK
Insider/Outsider Debates: Reflexivity in Military Research
Paul Higate, UK
52
Wed.
14:30 15:40
Estimating Informed Opinion: Advances in the Theory and Measurement
Part I
Organizer: Patrick Sturgis, UK
CAPI-based Information Intervention (CIi): A New Way of
Estimating Informed Opinion
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Patrick Sturgis; Helen Cooper, UK
Toward Informed Opinions by the Means of Deliberation
Kasper M. Hansen, Denmark
Gauging Informed Opinion amongst Young Citizens
Marcus Longley; Christian Thomas; Rachel Iredale;
Anita Shaw; Angela Burgess, UK
53
Wed.
14:30 -
Measurement (In)Variance in Longitudinal Research ( Part I )
Organizers: Han Oud; Reinoud Stoel, The Netherlands
15:40
Practical Issues in the Assessment of Measurement Invariance
and why Invariance does not Imply Measurement
Reinoud D. Stoel, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Measurement (In)Variance in SEM State Space Modelling
of Panel Data
Johan H.L. Oud, The Netherlands
Types of Change in Self-Report Data: Definition, Interpretation
and Operationalization
Frans J. Oort, The Netherlands
54
Wed.
14:30 15:40
Informetric and Text Based Procedures for Information Retrieval
and Analysis, e.g. in the Context of Digital Libraries ( Part I )
Organizers: H. Peter Ohly; Maximilian Stempfhuber, Germany
Bibliometric Mining
Peter Ohly, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Automating the Analysis of Co-Words in Contexts: Measuring the
Meaning of "Stem-Cells" and "Frankenfoods" in Different Domains
Iina Hellsten; Loet Leydesdorff, The Netherlands
Mining Document Contents in Order to Analyse a Scientific Domain
Josiane Mothe; Bernard Dousset; Désiré Kompaore, France
55
Wed.
14:30 -
Recent Developments in Nonparametric Item Response Theory ( Part I )
Organizers: Klaas Sijtsma; L. Andries van der Ark, The Netherlands
15:40
Detecting Discontinuity On a Cognitive Developmental Ability:
A Comparison of the Binomial Mixture Model and the Latent
Class Model.
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
Samantha Bouwmeester, The Netherlands
A Markov Chain Approach for Ranking Individuals From Item
Responses
Matthew S. Johnson, USA
A Bayesian Framework For the Monotone Homogeneity Model
of Non-Parametric Item Response Theory
George Karabatsos, USA
56
Wed.
14:30 -
Data Collection
Organizers: Marek Fuchs, Katja Lozar Manfreda, Slovenia
15:40
Patterns of mobile phone usage and their impact on participation in
mobile phone surveys
Vasja Vehovar
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Comparing anonymous and non-anonymous research methods
asking sensitive and socially desirable questions
Hans-Ullrich Mühlenfeld
Improving Questionnaire Design through the provision of electronic
access to large scale survey questionnaires in the UK
Martin Bulmer; Harshad Keval; Julie Lamb
Effects of Survey Sponsorship and Mode of Administration on
Respondents’ Answers about their Racial Attitudes
Volker Stocké
57
Wed.
14:30 -
Correspondence Analysis ( Part I )
Organizer: Jörg Blasius, Germany
15:40
Nordic Business Researchers' Use of Research Methodology:
An Assessment of Researchers in Denmark, Finland, Norway
and Sweden
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Tor Korneliussen, Norway
Using Combined Methods to Develop Sociological Concepts.
An Exploration of the Concept of Social Capital using
Correspondence Analysis and Case Studies Research
Francesca Odella, Italy
The Analysis of Lifestyle Groups and Social Milieus in Germany
Using Cluster and Correspondence Analysis.
Ingvill C. Mochmann; Yasmin El-Menouar, Germany
International Comparison with Correspondence Analysis. Attitudes
towards Same Sex Partnership as an Empirical Example
Maria Rohlinger, Germany
58
Wed.
14:30 15:40
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing CrossCultural Surveys ( Part II )
Disambiguating Culture: The Cultural Element of Survey
Response in Perspective
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Eleanor Gerber, USA
Question Design Features and Cultural Variability in Comprehension
Timothy Johnson; Young Ik Cho; Allyson Holbrook;
Diane O’Rourke; Richard Warnecke, USA
Socio-Cultural Factors in the Question-Response Process:
A Comparative Coding Analysis of Latino and Anglo
Cognitive Interviews
Kristen Miller; Gordon Willis; Concepcion Trevino Eason, USA
What are we talking about ?Interviewing and interpretation for a
biographical survey in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cross-cultural/cross-national survey research session
Martine Quaglia, France
59
Wed.
14:30 15:40
The Internet and Social Research: New Opportunities, New Challenges
Part I
Organizers: Jonathan Elford; Dick Wiggins, UK
Methodological and Ethical Problems in Analysis of Web Site Authors
Gregor Petrič, Slovenia
Bldg. A
Rm. 303
Gender Specific Analysis of Virtual Communication in Panel Online
Focus Groups
Brigitte Salfinger; Verena Paul, Austria
If you Build it, they will come - or will they? A Discussion on the
Acceptability of the Web as a Means to Respond to Surveys
Zoë Dowling; Martin Bulmer, UK
60
Wed.
14:30 -
Miscellaneous
Organizer: Harry Ganzeboom
15:40
Counting, Measuring, Meaning and Reality:
Issues in Sociological Research
Anne Seitz, Australia
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Socio-Cultural Foundations of Gender Parity
Yelena G. Meshkova, Russia
61
Wed.
16:00 -
The Achievements and Challenges of Qualitative Computing
Organizer: Lyn Richards, Australia
17:30
Qualitative Computing and Theory Building: A Methodological Debate
César A. Cisneros Puebla, Mexico
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Why Qualitative Computing is radically changing Qualitative Research
Tom Richards, Australia
Adopting and Adapting to Qualitative Software: Social And
Methodological Considerations from the Periphery
Diógenes Carvajal, Colombia
A Context-Oriented Approach to Design of Computer-Assisted
Qualitative Data Analysis Software
Gennady Kanyguine, Russia
62
Wed.
16:00 -
Action Research
Organizer: Nancy Andes
17:30
The Catalyse Methodology and the Restoration of the Inquiry
Results in the Action Research. Several Recent Experiments
in the Rural Romanian Areas
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Mihai Pascaru, Romania
Russian Drug-Addiction - NGO - Action Research :
Meeting on the Crossroad
Galina Saganenko, Russia
Research on Childhood and Children as Researchers:
The Participatory Methodologies on Social Worlds of Children
Natália Fernandes Soares; Manuel Jacinto Sarmento; Catarina Tomás,
Portugal
63
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Recent Developments in Ethnomethodological and ConversationAnalytic Research ( Part II )
Organizer: Paul ten Have, The Netherlands
Tracking Psychotherapeutic Agendas with Conversation Analysis
Charles Antaki; Ivan van Leudar; Rebecca Barnes, UK
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
The Production of a live TV-interview through Mediated Interaction
Mathias Broth, Sweden
Talk about Talk: The Methodological Status of Teacher Interviews
on Classroom Interaction
Tom Koole, The Netherlands
What's in a Name?: Revealing Social Identity
Erica Lea Zimmerman, USA
64
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Estimating Informed Opinion: Advances in the Theory and Measurement
Part II
Organizer: Patrick Sturgis, UK
Do People really care about GM Food Risks? A latent StateTrait Model to differentiate 'Attitudes' from 'Opinions'
amongst the UK Public
Nick Allum, UK
Self-reported Familiarity and Coherence of Opinions on Biotechnology
Sally Stares, UK
Measuring Nonattitudes through Response Latencies
Piet Sellke, Germany
65
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Measurement (In)Variance in Longitudinal Research ( Part II )
Organizers: Han Oud; Reinoud Stoel, The Netherlands
Impact of Direction of Answering Categories on Response Behavior
Dagmar Krebs, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Testing Measurement Invariance with Respect to Time, Group,
and Latent
Gitta Lubke, USA
Individual Differences in Factor Loadings and the Fit of the Standard Fac
Henk Kelderman, Peter C. M. Molenaar, The Netherlands
66
Wed.
16:00 17:30
and Analysis, e.g. in the Context of Digital Libraries ( Part II )
Comparing a Knowledge-Based Economy: In the Case of South Korea
and the Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Han Woo Park; Heung Deug Hong; Sung Jo Hong, South Korea
Loet Leydesdorff, The Netherlands
Graph-Based Representations of Motion Pictures: An Attempt to
Discover Statistical Features of Aesthetic Merit
Gregory H. Leazer; Jonathan Furner; Rachel Napper, USA
Using Search Engines and Web Crawlers in Social Science Research
Mike Thelwall, UK
67
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Recent Developments in Nonparametric Item Response Theory ( Part II )
Organizers: Klaas Sijtsma; L. Andries van der Ark, The Netherlands
Multiple Imputation of Item Scores in Test and Questionnaire Data,
and the Influence on Psychometric Results
Joost van Ginkel, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
A Nonparametric IRT Model for the Circumplex: Generalization to
Polytomous Data
Wijbrandt H. van Schuur, The Netherlands
On Ordering Properties of Classical Optimal Scaling
Matthijs J. Warrens, The Netherlands
68
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Classification and Visualisation
Organizer: Simona Balbi, Italy
Cluster Based Conjoint Analysis
Carlo Natale Lauro; Germana Scepi; Giuseppe Giordano, Italy
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
The Typological Non Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis:
Theory and Application for Social Research
Marilena Fucili and Danilo Leone, Italy
Some Different Typologies of Employment in Italy
M. G. Grassia; F. Pintaldi; L. Quattrociocchi, Italy
69
Wed.
16:00 17:30
Issues of Cross-National Comparative Research
Organizer: Harry B. G. Ganzeboom, The Netherlands
How to Grasp Nations in International Survey Comparisons
Markus Hadler, Austria
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
(P)raising Cross-National Comparability: Digital Divide
Benchmarks Based on Time Distance Method
Vesna Dolničar; Vasja Vehovar; Pavle Sicherl, Slovenia
Measuring Attitudes towards Immigration across Countries:
Potential Problems of Functional Equivalence in the ESS
Nina Rother, Germany
An Empirical Enquiry into Students' Socio-Economic Background,
Costs and Financing of Studies, and Future Career Aspirations
in Higher Education in China: Issues of Methodology
Lihong Huang, Sweden
70
Wed.
16:00 17:30
The Internet and Social Research: New Opportunities, New Challenges
Part II
Organizers: Jonathan Elford; Dick Wiggins, UK
Dropping Out of an Online Sex Survey: when and why?
Bldg. A
Alison Evans; Dick Wiggins; Graham Bolding;
Mark Davis; Jonathan Elford, Uk
Rm. 303
Validity of Data and Representativeness of Sample in Internet
Survey: University Surveys in the United States
Hisako Matsuo; Kevin McIntyre; Terry Tomazic; Barry Katz, USA
Reinoud Bosch, Italy
Actors Invisibility: About the Necessity to Re-Think Internet
Research
Maren Lübcke; Rasco Perschke, Germany
71
Thursday 19th August 2004
General Program
9:00 10:30
10:30 11:00
11:00 12:30
12:30 14:00
Session
14:00 15:00
Plenary Speech: Jan de Leeuw, The Netherlands
Subject: Description, Prediction, Inference
Bldg. A; Room A
15:00 15:30
15:30 17:30
Tea
19:00 23:00
Conference Dinner
Coffee/Tea
Session
Lunch
Session
72
Thu.
9:00 10:30
Computer Aided Content Analysis - Research, Methods and its Future
Part I
Organizer: Harald Klein, Germany
Content Analysis of Short, Structured Texts: The Need for
Multifaceted Strategies
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Harold W. Bashor, France
Extraction of Semantic Information: New Models and old Thesauri
Jan Kleinnijenhuis; Wouter H. van Atteveldt; Ivar Vermeulen,
The Netherlands
Why People Reject Super-fair Offers. Evaluating Video
Experiments on Ultimatum Bargaining Run in PR China
Heike Hennig-Schmidt; Chaoliang Yang, Germany ; Zhu-Yu Li, China
73
Thu.
9:00 10:30
Evaluating Cognitive Methods to the Pre-test Questionnaires
Organizers: Ger Snijkers, The Netherlands ; Gordon Willis, USA
Examining Expert Reviews as a Pretest Method
Terry DeMaio; Ashley Landreth, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Examining Think Aloud as a Pretest Method: The State of the Art
of think aloud in Cognitive Psychology
Tony Hak, The Netherlands
Toward the Accumulation of Cognitive Interview Findings:
Considerations in the Design of a Tested-Question Database
Paul Beatty; Kristen Miller, USA
Looking for Trouble and Finding It, Sometimes: Exploring Relationships between Pre-survey and Post-survey Evaluation Data
James L. Esposito, USA
74
Thu.
9:00 10:30
Miscellaneous
Organizer: Henk Kleijer
Funding of Social Research in Pakistan
S. Hamidullah, Pakistan
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Children as Respondents: Developing Questionnaires for Children
Edith de Leeuw; Natacha Borgers; Astrid Smits, The Netherlands
Feminist Method and Methodology and the Struggle to define
Social Inquiry and Epistemology. The Logic behind the Measure.
Ronald Marshall, Trinidad and Tobago
Disambiguating Culture: The Cultural Element of Survey
Response in Perspective
Eleanor Gerber, USA
75
Thu.
Telephone Survey Methodology in the 21st Century ( Part I )
9:00 -
Organizer: Edith D. de Leeuw, The Netherlands
10:30
Finding (and Listing) the Unlisted: A Strategy for Achieving
a Listed Sample's Cost Savings without Sacrificing Coverage
Anthony Salvanto; Kathleen Frankovic, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Where Can I Call You? The "Mobile Revolution" and its Impact on
Survey Research and Coverage Error: discussing the Italian Case
Mario Callegaro, USA ; Teresio Poggio, Italy
Mobile Phone Surveys in Hong Kong: Methodological Issues
and Comparisons with Conventional Phone Surveys
Liam K P Lau, Hong Kong
Occurrence and Consequences of Multiple Telephone Lines,
Answering Machines, and Voice Mail
Chris Barnes; Alicia Burrington, USA
Calculating Response Rates for Mobile Phone Surveys. A Proposal
of a Modified AAPOR Standard and its Application to three
Case Studies
Mario Callegaro; Trent D. Buskirk; Linda Piekarski; Charlotte Steeh, USA
Vesa Kuusela, Finland ; Vasja Vehovar, Slovenia
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone
Surveys: A Meta- Analysis
Edith De Leeuw; Joop Hox; Elly Korendijk; Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders,
The Netherlands
76
Thu.
9:00 10:30
Methods of Social Network Analysis ( Part I )
Organizers: Peter J. Carrington, Canada ; Anuska Ferligoj, Slovenia
Playing God on a Budget: Understanding Large-Scale Social
Structure from Sample Data and Random Graph Models of
Interdependent Local Processes
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Rick Grannis, USA
New Specifications for Exponential Random Graph Models
Tom A.B. Snijders, The Netherlands ; Mark S. Handcock, USA
Philippa E. Pattison; Garry L. Robins, Australia
New Developments in Estimation Methods for the P2 Mode
Bonne J.H. Zijlstra; Marijtje A.J. van Duijn, The Netherlands
77
Thu.
9:00 10:30
and Analysis, e.g. in the Context of Digital Libraries ( Part III )
Digital Libraries and Heterogeneity
Maximilian Stempfhuber, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Searching and Browsing Multiple Subject Gateways in the
Renardus Service
Michael Day, UK
Ontology Switching for the Social Sciences. Methods for the
Underlying Corpus Analysis
Robert Strötgen, Germany
Bilateral Transfer Modules for the Conceptual Integration of
Heterogeneous Document Bases in Content Analysis
Xueying Zhang, Hong Kong
78
Thu.
9:00 -
Graphical Modelling ( Part I )
Organizer: Nanny Wermuth
10:30
Some Aspects of the Analysis of Graphical Markov Models
D.R. Cox, UK
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
Computational Aspects of Chain Graph Models with Mixed
Response Variables
Vanessa Didelez, UK
Checking for a Confounder in Models Generated over
Directed Acyclic Graphs
Elena Stanghellini; Giovanni M. Marchetti, Italy
79
Thu.
9:00 -
Sampling Methods ( Part I )
Organizer: Siegfried Gabler, Germany
10:30
Comparing Sampling Frames
Renáta Németh; Ildikó Zakariás, Hungary
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Methods for Achieving Equivalence of Samples in CrossNational Surveys
Peter Lynn, UK ; Siegfried Gabler; Sabine Häder, Germany ;
Seppo Laaksonen, Finland
Design Effects in the Analysis of Longitudinal Survey Data
Chris Skinner; Marcel de Toledo Vieira, UK
Impact of the Geographical Size of Clusters on the Precision of
Survey Estimates
Kevin Pickering; Sarah Tipping
80
Thu.
9:00 -
Improving Survey Methodology: The European Social Survey ( Part III )
10:30
Quality Of Life in Europe: Comparing States using a Composite Index
Jeroen Boelhouwer, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Analysis and Relation between Social Variables and Economic
Variables in the European Social Survey and World Bank and
UNDP Reports: the Social Capital and Economic Capital at the
European Countries
Juan Sebastián Fernández Prados; Jaime Andreu Abela;
Antonia Lozano Díaz, Spain
Geographical Variations in Electoral Participation: Evidence
from a Multilevel Analysis of the European Social Survey
Ed Fieldhouse; Mark Tranmer, UK
European Value Map. Based on ESS Data
Hans Bay, Denmark
81
Thu.
9:00 -
Cross-National Harmonization of Socio-Demographic Variables ( Part I )
Organizers: Jürgen H. P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik; Christof Wolf, Germany
10:30
Obtaining Harmonized Demographic Information from European
Surveys -Experiences of the German Federal Statistical Office
form Input to Output Harmonization
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Thomas Körner; Iris Meyer, Germany
Harmonizing Background Variables in International Surveys
Kirstine Kolsrud; Knut Kalgraff Skjåk, Norway
Harmonization of Survey Data in the "International Social
Survey Programme" (ISSP)
Evi Scholz, Germany
Measuring Religious Membership and Religiosity across Europe
Christof Wolf, Germany
82
Thu.
9:00 -
Internet Surveys ( Part I )
Organizers: Mick P. Couper; Vasja Vehovar
10:30
A Comparison of Ranking versus Rating in Online Surveys
Randall K. Thomas
Bldg. A
Rm. A
Behavioral Intention Measurement: International Findings
Randall K. Thomas; George Terhanian; and Leonard R. Bayer
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Visual Analog Scales:
A Web Experiment
Mick Couper; Eleanor Singer; Roger Tourangeau; Fred Conrad
Don't Know and No Opinion Responses in Web Surveys
Reg Baker; Fred Conrad; Mick Couper; Roger Tourangeau
Design Issues in Collecting Data on Ego-centered Social Networks
on the Web
Gasper Koren; Valentina Hlebec; Vasja Vehovar; Katja Lozar Manfreda
A Comparison of Two Web-Based Surveys: Static versus Dynamic
Versions of the NAMCS Questionnaire
Mirta Galesic; Jimmie Givens; Mick P. Couper; Roger Tourangeau
83
Thu.
9:00 -
Complex Societal Problems ( Part I )
Organizer: Dorien J. DeTombe, The Netherlands
10:30
Statistical Evidence: Responsibilities And Burden Of Proof
Frans A.J. Birrer, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
The Geography of Decision-Making: Linking Attitudes,
Knowledge, Management Activities and Forestland
Characteristics in a Spatial Environment
Shorna R. Broussard; Karen Cox, USA
Causality in Complexity
Dorien J. DeTombe, The Netherlands
Interactive Mapping of Complex Policy Networks:
A Quick Scan for Strategy Making
Bert Enserink, The Netherlands
84
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Part II
Measurement Instrument Choice for Tracking Email Communication
Marguerite Kolar, Australia
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Inductive versus Deductive Approach: Computer-assisted Content
Analysis without Dictionary?
Cornelia Zuell; Juliane Landmann, Germany
Overview on Standardised Category Systems in Computer aided
Content Analysis
Harald Klein, Germany
85
Thu.
11:00 -
Research Methodology and the Challenges of Social Diversity ( Part II )
Organizers: Carole Truman; Donna Mertens, USA
12:30
Researching Civic Participation within A Diverse Context:
Conceptual and Methodological Opportunities and Challenges
Kien Shan Lee, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Transformative Research and Dimensions of Diversity
Donna M. Mertens, USA
Culturally Engaged Research - A Specific Application of an Emerging
Methodology
Anthony J. Alberta; Bonny Beach; John Whiteshirt, USA
86
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods - Empirical Designs
and their Theoretical Implications ( Part I )
Organizer: Udo Kelle, Germany
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods between Paradigm and
Pragmatics - Mixing, Integration or Triangulation?
Bldg. E
Uwe Flick; Alice Salomon, Germany
Rm. 010
Mixed Methods Sampling Considerations and Designs in Social
Science Research
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie; Kathleen M. T. Collins, USA
Why it is Necessary to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Data
and Methods to Examine the Thesis of Individualization?
Jens Zinn, UK
Stratification and Social Mechanisms: an empirical point of view
Flavio Ceravolo; Laura Accornero, Italy
Coherency Analysis for an Updating of Sociological Thought
Mascia Ferri, Italy
87
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Telephone Survey Methodology in the 21st Century ( Part II )
Organizer: Edith D. de Leeuw, The Netherlands
Interviewer Training: Responding to Changes in Telephone
Survey Methodology
Lisa R. Carley-Baxter, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
An Experiment in Cognitive Training of Telephone Survey
Interviewers
Claire Durand; Marie-Eve Gagnon; Christine Doucet, Canada
Sociolinguistic Parameters of Cross-cultural Variation in
Telephone Surveys:
Brian Kleiner; Yuling Pan, USA
Data Quality of Surveys of Minority-Majority Attitudes in Divided
Societies: A Comparison between Telephone and Face-to-Face
Surveys among Arabs in Israel
Galit Gordoni, Israel
Can Multimode Approaches Salvage RDD for Public Health
Surveillance?
Michael W. Link; Ali Mokdad, USA
Using Interactive Voice Response Technology to Capture Census
Data
Sarah E. Brady; Robin A. Pennington; James B. Treat, USA
88
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Panel Data Analysis
Organizer: Uwe Engel, Germany
Estimation of a two Equations Panel Model with Mixed Continuous
and Ordered Categorical Response Variables in the Presence of
Missing Data
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Martin Spiess, Germany
Comparing Fixed Effects and Covariance Structure Estimators
Mette Ejrnaes; Anders Holm, Denmark
Analyzing Individual and Collective Change of Attitudes Using Panel
Data. The Example of Attitudes to Social Security in Germany
Nina Baur; Christian Lahusen, Germany
89
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Non Linear Modelling ( Part II )
The Dynamics of Bilingual Language Development in
Immigrant Children
Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf; Marion Griessler, Austria
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Methodological Issues of Labour Market Analysis for
Countries in Transition
Mikhail Mikhalevich; Ludmilla Koshla, Ukrain
Anticipation and Codification in Communication Systems:
Towards a Simulation Model for Luhmann's Sociological
Theory of Communication
Loet Leydesdorff, The Netherlands
Catastrophe Theory and Social Policy Making: A Nonlinear Model
of the Early Pension Insurance Legislation in Western Europe
Georg P. Mueller, Switzerland
90
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Graphical Modelling ( Part II )
Organizer: Nanny Wermuth
An Application of Marginal Log-linear Models to Examine Changes
in Social Mobility in Hungary During the Transition Period
Renáta Németh, Hungary
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
Marginal Models for Multivariate Dependencies
Tamas Rudas, Hungary ; Wicher Bergsma, The Netherlands
The Use of Bayesian Networks for Imputation
Paola Vicard; Marco Di Zio; Mauro Scanu, Italy
91
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Sampling Methods ( Part II)
Organizer: Siegfried Gabler, Germany
GenD - An Evolutionary Algorithm for Re-sampling in
Survey Research
Daria Croce; Cinzia Meraviglia, Italy
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Sampling Process-Generated Data in order to Trace Social Change
Estimating Domestic Tourism Expenditure in Developing
Economies: Lessons from India
Rajesh Shukla; Pradeep Srivastava, India
Sampling Undocumented Immigrants in Brussels via Snowball
Sampling: Theoretical and Practical Considerations
Mila Paspalanova, Belgium
Using Adaptive Sampling Methods in the Analysis of Social
Phenomena on the WWW
Robert Ackland, Australia
92
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Improving Survey Methodology: The European Social Survey ( Part IV )
Improving Survey Methodology: the ESS. Index and Measurement:
The Cultural Borders of Meaning
Joop Hox; Edith de Leeuw, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Response Propensity and Data
Max Bergman; Nicole Schoebi; Dominique Joye, Switzerland
Modelling Interviewer-Effects in the European Social Survey
Geert Loosveldt; Michel Philippens, Belgium
93
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Cross-National Harmonization of Socio-Demographic Variables ( Part II )
Organizers: Jürgen H. P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik; Christof Wolf, Germany
Is there Another Way to View Race? Listening to Subjectivity in
the Categorization of Ethnicity and Race among Hispanics in the
United States.
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Christine Horak; Ricardo Costa Gazel, USA
Title: Ethnicity and the Comparative Analysis of Contemporary
Survey Data
Paul S. Lambert, UK
Measuring Ethno-Poverty: Methodological Challenges
Lilia Dimova, Bulgaria
Measuring "Income" in Cross-National Research
Uwe Warner, Luxembourg ; Juergen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Germany
94
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Internet Surveys ( Part II )
Computing methods and their impact on drop out
Lars Kaczmirek; Wolfgang Neubarth; Michael Bosnjak;
Wolfgang Bandilla, Germany
Bldg. A
Rm. A
Effectiveness of Progress Indicators in Web Surveys
Fred Conrad; Mick Couper; Roger Tourangeau;
Andy Peytchev, USA
Item Non Response and Dropouts in Web Surveys
Yasemin El-Menouar; Jörg Blasius, Germany
Effects of personalization on web survey response
rates and data quality
Dirk Heerwegh; Tim Vanhove; Geert Loosveldt;
Koen Matthijs, Belgium
95
Thu.
11:00 12:30
Complex Societal Problems ( Part II )
Organizer: Dorien J. DeTombe, The Netherlands
Application of Fuzzy - based Methods for Urbanization Problem
Ludmilla Koshlai; Mikhail Mikhalevich, Ukrain
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Area Studies Approach: A Critique and Search for Different Methods
Karori Singh, India
Multi-Criterion Decision Modeling Within Rural Societal Policy The Case Of South - East Europe
Sofija Adžić; Jasminka Adzic, Serbia & Montenegro
Methodological Challenges Concerning a Comparison of the
Complex Social Problem
Marie Valentova, Luxembourg
96
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Part III
TCA: General Purpose Software for Semantic and Thematic Text
Analysis
Carl W. Roberts, USA
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Routinizing Frame Analysis through the Use of CAQDAS
Thomas König, UK
Qualitative Software 2004 and Beyond
Raymond C. Maietta; Sharlene Hesse-Biber, USA
97
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
Organizer: Louise Corti, UK
Experiences with Secondary Use of Qualitative Data Material a Feasibility Study with German Qualitative Social Researchers
Diane Opitz; Reiner Mauer, Germany
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Secondary analysis of panel data: Establishing and Using a text
databank
Irena Medjedović; Andreas Witzel, Germany
The Anonymization Process for Secondary Use of Qualitative Data
D. Thomson; L. Bzdel; K. Golden-Biddle; T. Reay;
C. Estabrooks, Canada
Revisiting 'Classic' Qualitative Sociology
Mike Savage, UK
Strategies in Teaching Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
Louise Corti; Libby Bishop, UK
Reanalyzing Qualitative Interviews from Different Angles:
The Merits of Sharing Qualitative Data
Harry van den Berg, The Netherlands
98
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods - Empirical Designs
and their Theoretical Implications ( Part II )
Organizer: Udo Kelle, Germany
Danger: Data Overload! Mixed methods in a cross-national study
of care home staff
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Ingrid Eyers, UK
The German Research Foundation Project "Mobilzeit" as example
for the Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Andrea Tina Booh; Siegrid Wieczorek, Germany
Do Media Discourses Influence Opinions? Connecting Discourse
Analysis of Newspaper Data with Time Series Analysis of
Survey Data
The Conceptual Net of Internal Consistency and the Es of
Praxiology in Human Inquiry
Arne Collen, USA
99
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Combining Data from Different Sources ( Part I )
Organizer: Susanne Rässler, Germany
Estimation with Population-Level Constraints on Two Survey
Datasets: An Application to first Birth Probabilities by
Education in Italy
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Alessandra DeRose; Paola DiGiulio; Filomena Racioppi, Italy
Mark S. Handcock; Michael S. Rendall, USA
Combining Information from Multiple Surveys in the Analysis of
Coarsened Longitudinal Data
T. E. Raghunathan, USA
A Comparison Record Linkage and Statistical Matching and
Their Impact on Linear Regression Analysis
Michael D. Larsen, USA
Combining Separate Datasets in the OPUS Project
J. Polak, UK ; Ch.D.R. Lindveld, The Netherlands
Modelling the Construction of a Social Accounting Matrix in the
Context of Statistical Matching
Marcello D’Orazio; Marco Di Zio; Mauro Scanu, Italy
Integrating Data for Innovative Analyses: The North Carolina
Education Research Data Center
Elizabeth Glennie, USA
100
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Time Series Analysis
Organizer: Rainer Metz, Germany
Comparison of Seasonal Variation of Births and Deaths in Urban
and Rural Areas of Silesia (Poland)
Zofia Mielecka-Kubien, Poland
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Population at Risk (PAR) Rates and other Denominators used to
Measure Unemployment Rates
Ray Thomas; Hasan Al-Madfai, UK
Auto-regressive Time Series Cross Section Analysis (TSCS) for
Proportions Data with Random Coefficients. A Flexible Model
and its Application in Regional Science
Michael Windzio, Germany
101
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Miscellaneous
Organizer: Karl van Meter
A Strategy for the Selection of Weighting Variables
Barry Schouten, The Netherlands
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
The Measurement of Duration of Studies in Higher Education
Stephan Boes, Germany
102
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Nonresponse ( Part II )
Measuring the Respondent's Attitude towards Surveys.
Geert Loosveldt; Vicky Storms, Belgium
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Survey Experience, Generalized Attitudes Towards Surveys and
Respondents' Willingness to Answer Questions in Subsequent
Surveys
Task Dedication, Task Alienation and What Data Collection
Instruments Mean to Respondents
Patricia A. Gwartney; Vikas Kumar Gumbhir; Anthony Leiserowitz, USA
Does the Performance Matter ? A Multilevel Analysis of the Effects
of Individual and Performance Characteristics on Response in
Audience Research
Henk Roose; John Lievens; Hans Waege, Belgium
103
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Correspondence Analysis ( Part II )
The Use of Correspondence Analysis for Stratification
Renato Salvatore, Italy
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Measure versus Variable Duality in Correspondence Analysis
Henry Rouanet; Brigitte Le Roux, France
The Space of Elite Opinions. The Case of Norway
Johs. Hjellbrekke; Olav Korsnes, Norway
Processes of Social Differentiation in an Economic "Social Field"
Lennart Rosenlund and Odd Einar Olsen, Norway
104
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing CrossCultural Surveys ( Part III )
Challenges in Implementing a Multi-National Tobacco Use Survey
Bldg. E
Jutta Thornberry; Michele Bloch; Robert Goldenberg;
Norman Goco; Don Jackson; Nancy Moss, USA
Rm. 151
Attitude Scale Development in Countries which send Illegal
Immigrants
Kees van der Veer, The Netherlands ; Reidar Ommundsen, Norway ;
Hao Van Le, Vietnam ; Krum Krumov, Bulgaria ; Knud S. Larsen, USA
Behavior Coding of Multilingual Survey Interviews:
What Can We Tell by Systematically Listening?
Gordon Willis; Elaine Zahnd; Sherm Edwards; Stephanie Fry;
David Grant; Nicole Lordi, USA
Comparability of Attitude Measures towards Social Inequality.
The Level of Equivalence in the ISSP 1999, its Implications on
Further Analysis and the Presentation of Results
Mag. Vlasta Zucha, Austria
105
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Internet Surveys ( Part III )
Feasibility of a random sample
Wolfgang Neubarth; Lars Kaczmirek; Michael Bosnjak;
Wolfgang Bandilla, Germany
Bldg. A
Rm. A
Self-selection as a Sampling Method in Web Surveys
Jan B. Steffensen, Denmark
Noncoverage and Nonresponse in a Web Survey
Mick P. Couper; Arie Kapteyn; Matthias Schonlau; Joachim Winter
Utilization of an Internet survey of work-family conflict among
home-based teleworkers
Dorit Ben-Baruch; Itzhak Harpaz, Israel
Investigating the imagined online community
Dávid Simon; Klára Benda, Hungary
106
Thu.
15:30 17:30
Part II
Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Methodology of Research
Z.Kara, Turkey ; H.Meshkova, Russia
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
The Peculiarity of Treatment the Problem of Trafficking in
Woman in Mass Media
Ludmila Ykusheva, Belarussia
Sociological Measurement of Social Protection
Morozova Helen, Russia
107
Friday 20th August 2004
General Program
9:00 11:00
11:00 11:30
11:30 13:00
13:00 13:30
Session
13:30
End of Conference
Coffee/Tea
Session
Closing Session
Bldg. A; Room A
108
Friday
9:00 11:00
The Response Process in Establishment Surveys
Organizer: Tony Hak, The Netherlands
The Evaluation of Establishment Survey Questionnaires:
Experiences from combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Deirdre Giesen, The Netherlands
Bldg. A
Rm. 306
Redesigning Statistics Canada's Annual Survey of Manufactures Overview of Respondent Testing using Cognitive Interview
Techniques
Kevin Roberts, Canada
The Use Of Qualitative Interviewing To Determine The Acceptability And Take Up Of Web Data Collection Instruments for
Mandatory Business Surveys
Zoë Dowling, UK
The Contact and Response Process in Business Surveys:
Lessons from a Multimode Survey of Employers in the UK
Peter Lynn; Emanuela Sala, UK
Using Respondent Site Visits to Improve the Design of
Establishment Surveys
Stanley R. Freedman; Robert Rutchik, USA
109
Friday
9:00 11:00
Rethinking Professional Ethics
Organizers: Liora Gvion; Diana Luzzatto, Israel
Doing Ethics' In The Field: The Art And Politics Of Covert Research
Dr David Calvey, UK
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
Methodological Issues Experienced in a Comparative Study of
Children's Free Time Activities
Sidsel Hadler-Olsen, Norway ; Doug Springate, UK
The Hybridity of Borders in Ethnographic Field Work:The Case of
Open-Ended Interview
Suhad Haj-Yahia, OTR
Making Private Issues Public: Ethnic dilemmas Versus Moral
Obligations
Liora Gvion; Diana Luzzatto, Israel
110
Friday
9:00 11:00
Analyzing Interviews ( Part I )
Organizers: Manfred Max Bergman; Veronique Mottier, Switzerland
Strategies for Analysing In-depth Interviews of People with
Disabilities in Northers Aegean, Greece
D. Papageorgiou; T. Iosifides; M. Sidiropoulou, Greece
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
The Interpretation of Qualitative Data from a Critical
Theoretical Framework
Claire Wagner; David JF Maree, RSA
Contradictories in the Interview: Public and Personal
Olga B. Savinskaya, Russia
The Interview as a Text: Analyzing In-depth-interviews in Social
Science with the Conceptual Framework of Linguistics
Veronika Sieglin, Germany
Analysis of Interviews with Russian Entrepreneurs using Critical
Discourse Analysis.
Tatyana Kosyaeva, Czech Republic
Analysis of Semi-Structured, In-depth Interview Data
Kathleen W. Piercy, USA
111
Friday
9:00 11:00
Bldg. A
Rm. 102
Response Latencies in Survey Research: Theory, Measurement and
Predictive Power
Organizers: Volker Stocké; Jochen Mayerl, Germany ;
Stasja Draisma, The Netherlands
Response Latency as an Indicator of Optimizing. A Study
Comparing Job Applicants and Job Incumbents' Response
Time on a Web Survey
Mario Callegaro; Yongwei Yang; Dennison S. Bhola;
Don A. Dillman, USA
Question Wording Effects and Processes of Question Answering.
A Different Way to Measure Response Latencies
Bregje Holleman, The Netherlands
Measuring Information Accessibility and Predicting Response
Effects: The Relative Validity of Differently Transformed
Response Latencies
Controlling the Baseline Speed of Respondents: An Empirical
Evaluation of Data Treatment Methods of Response Latencies
Jochen Mayerl, Germany
Expressed Uncertainty in Question Answering: Response Latencies
and (Para)Linguistic Expressions in Factual and Attitude Questions
Stasja Draisma, The Netherlands
112
Friday
9:00 11:00
Combining Data from Different Sources ( Part II )
Organizer: Susanne Rässler, Germany
Linking Job Episodes from Survey and Register Data: Specific
Challenges and Empirical Results
Maike Reimer; Ralf Künster, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Non-Exact vs. Exact Matching with Applications to Wages Statistics
Seppo Laaksonen, Finland
Combining Datasets to Create a Synthetic Population: Sample
Enumeration.
Ch.D.R. Lindveld, The Netherlands ; J. Polak, UK
Robustifying Imputation Model Estimation
Florian Koller, Germany
Linking public health data in Georgia, USA
Mohamed G. Qayad; Emily Kahn, USA
Two Stories about Youth Unemployment? - Combining Register
Data and Self-Reported Data
Hans Dietrich, Germany
113
Friday
9:00 11:00
The Statistical Estimation of Linear and Non-Linear Stochastic
Differential Equations
Organizer: Hermann Singer, Germany
A Survey of Estimation Methods for Stochastic Differential Equations
Hermann Singer, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
A Comparison of Different Procedures to Estimate the Damped
Linear Occilator for Panel Data
J.H.L. Oud, The Netherlands
Multivariate Multilevel Models of Dynamical Systems using Latent
Differential Equations
Steven M. Boker and Stacey S. Poponak, USA
Continuous-time Modeling of Bi-directional Influences between
Family Relationships and Adolescent Problem Behavior
Marc J. M. H. Delsing
Estimating Dynamical Systems Disturbed by Noise
Lutz-M. Alisch; Alexander Robitzsch, Germany
Moment Equations and Hermite Expansion for Nonlinear Stochastic
Differential Equations with Application to Stock Price Models
Hermann Singer, Germany
114
Friday
9:00 11:00
The Nets: between Neural Networks and Network Analysis:
Fuzzy Logic, Complexity and/or Network Analysis Social Theory
Organizers: M. Ampola; D. Givigliano, Italy
Social Network Analysis, Social Theory and Research Design:
Experiences from an Italian Contexts
Bldg. E
Rm. 003
A. Salvini, Italy
The Complex Dispositional Space of the Social Relation and the Nets:
Between Social Networks and Neural Networks.
The Problem of the Language.
A. Givigliano, Italy
The Aim of a Neural Social Researcher
S. Gabbriellini, Italy
Social Capital: Theoretical Considerations
S. Milella, Italy
115
Friday
9:00 11:00
Nonresponse ( Part III )
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone
Surveys: A Meta Analysis
E. De Leeuw; J. Hox; E. Korendijk; G. Lensvelt Mulders, The Netherlands
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
Determinants of Mail Survey Response Rates over a 30 Year
Period, 1970-2000. An Analysis of Community Studies at the
German Institute of Urban Affairs
Volker Hüfken, Germany
Nonresponse trends in the United States National Health
Interview Survey, 1997-2003
Howard Riddick, USA
Unit Nonresponse among Foreigners Caused by Non Willingness to
Participate in Survey Research. An International Comparison of
Strategies Dealing with the Problem
Remco Feskens; Joop Hox; Hans Schmeets;
Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders, The Netherlands
116
Friday
9:00 11:00
Correspondence Analysis ( Part III )
Specific MCA with Special Reference to Questionnaires
Brigitte Le Roux; Jean Chiche, France
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
The Space of Central Bankers in the World
Frédéric Lebaron, France
Visualizing Complex Change
Ken Reed, Australia
The (Missing) Importance of Dimension One in
Factor Analytic Approaches
Jörg Blasius, Germany ; Victor Thiessen, Canada
117
Friday
9:00 11:00
Cross-National Comparison of Daily Activity Patterns: Issues in the
Collection and Analysis of Cross-National Time Use Data ( Part I )
Organizers: Kimberly Fisher, UK ; Elsa Fontainha, Portugal
Issues in the Collection and Analysis of Cross National Time
Use Data with Reference to Developing Countries
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Indira Hirway
Cross-National Analysis of Adolescent Time Use Data:
Methodological Problems of Comparability
Jiri Zuzanek; Roger Mannell, Canada ; Hannu Paakkonen, Finland
Measuring Activity Patterns of Young Children - a Focus on
Exercise in Early Childhood in Australia
Kimberly Fisher, UK ; Michael Bittman; Melissa Wake;
Ann Sanson; Robert Johnstone, Australia
Improving Time Use Data Quality: Recent Experiences in Italy
R. Camporese; M.C. Romanom, Italy
118
Friday
9:00 -
Internet Surveys ( Part IV)
11:00
Mixed mode effects in online course evaluations
Roman Soucek; Anja S. Göritz; Johann Bacher, Germany
Bldg. A
Rm. 303
Some basic experiments on presentation of questions and
response options in Web questionnaires
Katja Lozar Manfreda; Gašper Koren; Valentina Hlebec, Slovenia
An Experimental Comparison of Four Modes of Data Collection
Within the Eurobarometer Measurement Domain
Emilia Peytcheva; Robert M. Groves; Robert Manchin; Robert Tortora
Mode effects on data quality in mixed mode self-administered
paper, on-line and e-mail panel
Anna Stangl, Germany
Sample Adjustment Weights for Internet Surveys: Restricted
Access versus Voluntary Participation
Oztas Ayhan, Turkey
The State of Online Surveys - Evidence from Germany
Thorsten Faas, Germany
119
Friday
9:00 11:00
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Part III
Approaches for the Construction of a Theoretical Model in the
University of the Knowledge's Age. The Configuration of
Complex Cognitive Systems.
Augusto Renato Pérez Mayo; Maricela Guzmán Cáceres, Mexico
Enrique Erosa Solana, UK
Situation on Lithuanian Labour Market and EU Accession
Liongina Beinoraviciene, Lithuania
Methodology of the Sociological Research.
Svetlana Burova, Belarussia
120
Friday
11:30 13:00
Part IV
Comparative Computerized Content Analysis of Party Manifestos:
Methodological Considerations and Empirical Results
Bldg. A
Paul Pennings, The Netherlands
Rm. 306
Concepts of Animal Kingdom in Brazilian Television Advertise:
a Comparative Content Analysis
Ana Laura Arruda; Claudia Rosa Acevedo, Brazil
Instrumentally Rational Approaches to Health Care Quality in the
U.S. Health Care System: From Professional Education to
Practice Guidelines
Amit Nigam, USA
121
Friday
11:30 -
Feminism, Methodology and Methods ( Part II )
Organizer: Sharlene Hesse-Biber, USA
13:00
Gender Imago: Searching for New Feminist Methodologies
Niza Yanay; Nitza Berkovitch, Israel
Bldg. A
Rm. 108
The Problem of Methods on Feminist Epistemologies:
Discussing their Ideological and Political Background as
Opposed to Solutions of Concrete Scientific Research Subjects
Maricela Guzmán Cáceres; Augusto Renato Pérez, Mexico
The Feminist Practice of Oral History and the Merging of
Personal and Social Problems
Patricia Leavy, USA
Womanhood at the Margins: Notes of Researching and
Resolving the Stigmatization of "Undesirable" Women"
Yu-Wen Fan, USA
122
Friday
11:30 -
Analyzing Interviews ( Part II )
Organizers: Manfred Max Bergman, Switzerland ; Anthony Coxon, UK
13:00
From Interview to Results: The Processes of Analysis
Barbara B. Kawulich, USA
Bldg. E
Rm. 010
Intersubjectivity and Beyond: the use of flexible content analysis
in sorting qualitative data
Margrit Schreier, Germany
Towards Rigorous Practice in Qualitative Research
Jacques de Wet; Zimitri Erasmus, RSA
Analysing Relationships in Qualitative Data in the Context of
Applied Policy Research
Josie Dixon, UK
123
Friday
11:30 -
Methods of Social Network Analysis ( Part II )
Organizers: Peter J. Carrington, Canada ; Anuska Ferligoj, Slovenia
13:00
Actors Invisibility: About the Necessity to Re-Think Internet
Research
Maren Lübcke; Rasco Perschke, Germany
Bldg. E
Rm. 150
Using Social Networks Methods to Measure Changes in Value
Systems in Cross-Cultural Perspective: the Case of Nordic-Baltic
Relationship in 1991-2002
Indrek Tart, Estonia
Assessing Influence and Selection in Network-Behavioral
Co-evolution, with an Application to Collective Action and
Informal Sanctioning
Christian Steglich; Tom Snijders; Michael Schweinberger,
The Netherlands
Software for Statistical Analyses of Social Networks
Mark Huisman; Marijtje A.J. van Duijn, The Netherlands
124
Friday
11:30 -
Non Linear Modelling ( Part III )
13:00
Ludmilla Koshlai; Mikhail Mikhalevich, Ukrain
Bldg. E
Rm. 007
Low Dimensional Nonlinear Dynamical Systems as a Tool for
Socio-Economic Modelling
Yuri Yegorov
125
Friday
11:30 -
Nonresponse ( Part IV )
13:00
Mood and Socio-Economic Status Bias in Survey Nonresponse:
Results from an 11-Wave Panel
Femke De Keulenaer; Katia Levecque, Belgium
Bldg. A
Rm. 305
The Long-Term Effectiveness of Procedures for Minimising
Attrition on Longitudinal Surveys
Jon Burton; Heather Laurie; Peter Lynn, UK
Survey Attrition and Estimation Strategies in the Medical
Expenditure Panel Survey
Trena M. Ezzati-Rice and David Kashihara, USA
Understanding why People take part in Surveys: The Case of
the Families and Children (panel) Survey
Miranda Philips, UK
126
Friday
11:30 -
Correspondence Analysis ( Part IV )
13:00
A Measure of Asymmetries in Brand-Attribute Dominance
Relationships: Correspondence Analysis of Matched Matrices
Anna Torres-Lacomba, Spain
Bldg. E
Rm. 008
Applying Correspondence Analysis and Logistic Regression in
a Survey on Self Healing Methods
Zerrin Asan; Levent Terlemez; Sevil Şentürk, Turkey
Comparing Nonlinear Principal Component Analysis with Factor
Analysis and Ordered Logistic Regression with an Application to
Country Data
Dicle Taspinar; Ozlem Deniz, Turkey
Power Analysis and Sample Size Determination in the Context of
Correspondence Analysis
George Menexes; Iannis Papadimitriou, Greece
127
Friday
11:30 13:00
Bldg. E
Rm. 151
Cross-National Comparison of Daily Activity Patterns: Issues in the
Collection and Analysis of Cross-National Time Use Data ( Part II )
Organizers: Kimberly Fisher, UK ; Elsa Fontainha, Portugal
The Expected and the Unexpected: Declines in Details,
in Non Response, in Sociability, and in Explaining Power
in Time Use Surveys
Koen Breedveld; Jurjen Idema, The Netherlands
The Use of Cluster Analysis to Derive Time Use Profiles
from Time Use Diary Data
Ken Reed, Australia ; Guy Cucumel, Canada
Time Use - a Literature Review on Methods based on
Economic Journals and Publications
Elsa Fontainha, Portugal
128
Friday
11:30 13:00
Part IV
Actors and Interpreters: Models of Legitimization of New SocioCultural Practices in Contemporary Russia
Bldg. E
Rm. 004
Alexander V. Kachkin, Russia
Monitoring of the Social Sphere: Methodology and Methods
Galina I. Osadchaya, Russia
Methodology and Methods of Migration Sociological Analysis
T.N. Yudina, Russia
129
Contents
INVITED LECTURES
Qualitative Software and Methodological Change – myths, mindsets and methodological mania.
Description, prediction, inference
145
145
145
STREAM: COMPUTER ASSISTED RESEARCH
145
Session: Computer-Assisted Sociological Research
145
Assessing Attitudes toward Muslims in the Netherlands: Does asking both Open and Closed Questions
Provide more Insight?
146
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing Cross-Cultural Surveys. Assessing crossnational construct equivalence in the ESS
146
Combining Test Interviews with Experimental Surveys to Compare Question Formats in a Postal
Survey on Alcohol Consumption
146
Elites at Home: A Multimethod Community Case Study of a Wealthy Chicago Suburb
147
A Computer-Assisted Mixed Method and Mixed Model Analysis of Police Decision-Making
147
148
The Combined Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Educational Research
148
Session: Discoursive Ethnography
149
150
For “she who knows who she is…” Combining Ethnography and Conversation Analysis in the Study
of Internet Newsgroups
150
Talk of Stakeholders, Talk of Players. Goffman’s Contributions to the Use of a RPG as a Social
Investigation Tool
151
The Methodological Discource about the Complex Discourse of “The Child’s best Interest”
151
Session: The Achievements and Challenges of Qualitative Computing
152
152
153
Adopting and Adapting to Qualitative Software: Social And Methodological Considerations from the
Periphery
153
A Context-Oriented Approach to Design of Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software
154
Session: Computer Aided Content Analysis: Research, Methods and its Future
155
Content Analysis of Short, Structured Texts: The Need for Multifaceted Strategies
155
155
Why People Reject Super-fair Offers. Evaluating Video Experiments on Ultimatum Bargaining Run in
PR China
156
157
Inductive versus Deductive Approach: Computer-assisted Content Analysis without Dictionary? 157
Overview on Standardised Category Systems in Computer aided Content Analysis
157
TCA: General Purpose Software for Semantic and Thematic Text Analysis
158
158
159
Comparative Computerized Content Analysis of Party Manifestos: Methodological Considerations and
Empirical Results
159
Concepts of Animal Kingdom in Brazilian Television Advertise: a Comparative Content Analysis 160
Instrumentally Rational Approaches to Health Care Quality in the U.S. Health Care System: From
Professional Education to Practice Guidelines
160
130
Session: The Response Process in Establishment Surveys
161
The Evaluation of Establishment Survey Questionnaires: Experiences from combining Quantitative
and Qualitative Methods
161
Redesigning Statistics Canada’s Annual Survey of Manufactures – Overview of Respondent Testing
using Cognitive Interview Techniques
162
The Use Of Qualitative Interviewing To Determine The Acceptability And Take Up Of Web Data
Collection Instruments for Mandatory Business Surveys
162
The Contact and Response Process in Business Surveys: Lessons from a Multimode Survey of
Employers in the UK
163
Using Respondent Site Visits to Improve the Design of Establishment Surveys
164
STREAM: QUALITATIVE METHODS (1)
164
Session: The Ethics and Social Relations of Research
Wading through “The Jungle” with my Main Informant. A critical discussion of ethical practice in
cross-cultural ethnography.
The Regulation of Research Ethics – Some Challenges of Social Diversity
164
165
165
166
Session: Studying Sensitive Topics in Qualitative Research
Minerva’s Web: The Internet and Methodologies of Sensitive Subjects
Positioning Myself as a Researcher in a Politically Sensitive and Volatile Situation
Studying Decision-Making Issues at Home: The Nature of the Relation between Researcher and
Participants
169
169
169
166
167
167
168
170
171
171
Session: Recent Developments in Ethno-Methodological and Conversation Analytic Research172
Technomethodology
172
Exploring the Possibilities for the Use of Ethnographic, Contextual Information in
Ethnomethodological/ Conversation Analytic Studies.
173
Shifting the Focus: The Impact of Audiovisual Technology on Empirical Research
174
Order in Disorder: Rule-Governed Actions as Sociological Phenomena
174
175
175
Talk about Talk: The Methodological Status of Teacher Interviews on Classroom Interaction
176
What’s in a Name?: Revealing Social Identity
176
Session: Research Methodology and the Challenges of Social Diversity
177
The Hermit’s Knowledge
177
178
Irrationality and Violence in the Postmodernity. Proposal of a Model of Analysis of the Social Reality
under the Perspective of a Transdisciplinary Method
179
Researching Civic Participation within a Diverse Context: Conceptual and Methodological
Opportunities and Challenges
179
180
Culturally Engaged Research – A Specific Application of an Emerging Methodology
181
Session: Action Research
181
The Catalyse Methodology and the Restoration of the Inquiry Results in the Action Research. Several
Recent Experiments in the Rural Romanian Areas
182
131
Russian Drug-Addiction – NGO – Action-Research: Meeting on Crossroad
182
Research on Childhood and Children as Researchers: The Participatory Methodologies on Social
Worlds of Children
183
Session: Evaluating Cognitive Methods to Pre-Test Questionnaires
184
184
Examining Think Aloud as a Pretest Method: The State of the Art of think aloud in Cognitive
Psychology
185
Toward the Accumulation of Cognitive Interview Findings: Considerations in the Design of a TestedQuestion Database
185
Looking for Trouble and Finding It, Sometimes: Exploring Relationships between Pre-survey and
Post-survey Evaluation Data
186
Session: Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
187
Experiences with Secondary Use of Qualitative Data Material – a Feasibility Study with German
Qualitative Social Researchers
187
Secondary Analysis of Panel Data: Establishing and Using a Text Databank
187
188
Revisiting ‘Classic’ Qualitative Sociology
188
189
Reanalyzing Qualitative Interviews from Different Angles: The Merits of Sharing Qualitative Data 189
Session: Rethinking Professional Ethics: The Hidden Researcher and the Uninformed
Informant.
'Doing Ethics’ In The Field: The Art And Politics Of Covert Research
Methodological Issues Experienced in a Comparative Study of Children’s Free Time Activities
Making Private Issues Public: Ethnic Dilemmas Versus Moral Obligations
190
190
191
191
Session: Feminism, Methodology and Methods
192
Critical Rationalism as a Tool for Feminist Comparative Historical Sociology
192
193
193
Power Tools: A Feminist Approach to Large Sample Quantitative Data Analysis
194
194
The Problem of Methods on Feminist Epistemologies: Discussing their Ideological and Political
Background as Opposed to Solutions of Concrete Scientific Research Subjects
195
The Feminist Practice of Oral History and the Merging of Personal and Social Problems
195
Womanhood at the Margins: Notes of Researching and Resolving the Stigmatization of “Undesirable”
Women”
195
196
Session: Theoretical Approaches and Methodological Strategies to Produce and Analyze
Qualitative Empirical Data
196
197
Post-communist Systemic Transitions, National Identity and Mass Media: Theoretical and
Methodological Aspects of Analysis
197
“Representations” of Death: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches
198
Tracing Symbols. The Hermeneutic Analysis of Paradoxical Constructions within Argentine
Collective Symbolism
199
People’s Representations on Corrupt Practices and the Construction of a New Moral Order: In-Depth
Interviews to Middle-Class Residents of Buenos Aires
199
Social Mimesis: A Study about Cultural Performances
200
Impact of Interviewer Attitudes and Socio-Economic Status in an Inter-Ethnic Survey
200
132
Video-based Analysis of Social Situations: Comparing the Analytic Range of Ethnomethodology and
Genre Analysis
201
Giving Visibility to Hidden Rural Localities: Contributions of an Ethnographic Research
201
The Emergence of New Identities in Argentine Armed Forces: A Life Course Research.
202
People’s Perceptions on the Construction of Collective Goals: Interviews in Street Meetings of
Collective Protest
202
Images of the Argentine Ruling Class: Focus Groups using Mass Media Photographs as Stimulus 203
Evaluation of the Internet Use: A Call for Mixing Method Approach
204
Session: Interrogating Conventionality in Qualitative Research. Bricolage and Ingenuity in
Interdisciplinary Fieldwork
If the Shoe Fits: Authority, Authenticity and Agency in Feminist Diasporic Research
Colonial Contexts and Post-Colonial Understandings: Researching on Women in the Indian
Nationalist Movement
204
205
205
206
206
Session: Miscellaneous
206
206
207
Feminist Method and Methodology and the Struggle to define Social Inquiry and Epistemology. The
Logic behind the Measure.
207
Disambiguating Culture: The Cultural Element of Survey Response in Perspective
208
Session: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Empirical Designs and their
Implications
208
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods between Paradigm and Pragmatics: Mixing, Integration or
Triangulation?
209
Mixed Methods Sampling Considerations and Designs in Social Science Research
209
Why it is Necessary to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Data and Methods to Examine the
Thesis of Individualization?
210
Stratification and Social Mechanisms: An Empirical Point of View
211
211
Danger: Data Overload! Mixed Methods in a Cross-National Study of Care Home Staff
212
The German Research Foundation Project “Mobilzeit” as Example for the Integration of Quantitative
and Qualitative Methods
212
Do Media Discourses Influence Opinions? Connecting Discourse Analysis of Newspaper Data with
Time Series Analysis of Survey Data
213
The Conceptual Net of Internal Consistency and the Es of Praxiology in Human Inquiry
214
Session: Analyzing Interviews (Part 1): Qualitative Analysis
214
Strategies for Analysing In-depth Interviews of People with Disabilities in Northers Aegean, Greece
214
The Interpretation of Qualitative Data from a Critical Theoretical Framework
215
216
The Interview as a Text: Analyzing In-depth Interviews in Social Science with the Conceptual
Framework of Linguistics
216
Analysis of Interviews with Russian Entrepreneurs using Critical Discourse Analysis.
217
217
218
Intersubjectivity and Beyond: The Use of Flexible Content Analysis in Sorting Qualitative Data 218
219
Analysing Relationships in Qualitative Data in the Context of Applied Policy Research
220
133
STREAM: SURVEY RESEARCH
221
Session: Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for Response Effects in Survey Research 221
National Identity, Nationalism, or Patriotism: Do we Really Measure what we Assume?
221
222
Direction of Response Scales, Change of Numerical Values and Respondents’ Behavior
222
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for the Strength and Direction of Social Desirability Bias in
Racial Attitude Surveys
223
Session: Interaction Analysis and Data Quality of Survey Interviews
223
224
The Effectiveness of Repair Strategies of Interviewers in Survey Interviews
224
Opening the Black Box in Survey Research. Data Collection as an Ongoing Process of Total Quality
Management.
225
Session: Approaches to Using Mixed Methods
226
226
Multi-Methods, Triangulation, and Integration – Different Goals or Just Different Terms?
227
Qualitative Methodology as a Parenthesis for Quantitative Methodology
228
Multi-Semiotic Ethnography,
228
A Delicate Dialectic: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Two Studies for US Federal
Government Agencies
229
Session: Estimating Informed Opinion: Advances in the Theory and Measurement
229
CAPI-based Information Intervention (CIi): A New Way of Estimating Informed Opinion
230
230
231
Do People really care about GM Food Risks? A latent State-Trait Model to differentiate ‘Attitudes’
from ‘Opinions’ amongst the UK Public
232
232
233
Session: Telephone Survey Methodology in the 21st Century
234
Finding (and Listing) the Unlisted: A Strategy for Achieving a Listed Sample’s Cost Savings without
Sacrificing Coverage
234
Where Can I Call You? The “Mobile Revolution” and its Impact on Survey Research and Coverage
Error: discussing the Italian Case
235
Mobile Phone Surveys in Hong Kong: Methodological Issues and Comparisons with Conventional
Phone Surveys
236
Occurrence and Consequences of Multiple Telephone Lines, Answering Machines, and Voice Mail
236
Calculating Response Rates for Mobile Phone Surveys. A Proposal of a Modified AAPOR Standard
and its Application to three Case Studies
237
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone Surveys: A Meta- Analysis
237
Interviewer Training: Responding to Changes in Telephone Survey Methodology
238
An Experiment in Cognitive Training of Telephone Survey Interviewers
238
Sociolinguistic Parameters of Cross-cultural Variation in Telephone Surveys:
239
Data Quality of Surveys of Minority-Majority Attitudes in Divided Societies: A Comparison between
Telephone and Face-to-Face Surveys among Arabs in Israel
240
Can Multimode Approaches Salvage RDD for Public Health Surveillance?
240
Using Interactive Voice Response Technology to Capture Census Data
241
134
Session: Response Latencies in Survey Research
241
Response Latency as an Indicator of Optimizing. A Study Comparing Job Applicants and Job
Incumbents’ Response Time on a Web Survey
242
Question Wording Effects and Processes of Question Answering. A Different Way to Measure
Response Latencies
243
Measuring Information Accessibility and Predicting Response Effects: The Relative Validity of
Differently Transformed Response Latencies
243
Controlling the Baseline Speed of Respondents: An Empirical Evaluation of Data Treatment Methods
of Response Latencies
244
Expressed Uncertainty in Question Answering: Response Latencies and (Para)Linguistic Expressions
in Factual and Attitude Questions
245
STREAM: COMPLEX AND LONGITUDINAL DATA ANALYSIS
246
Session: Classification and Structure: Recent Developments in Latent Class and Latent
Trajectory Analysis and New Developments in Cluster Analysis
246
246
L∞-consensus for Dendrograms : an Alternative to the Average Consensus Procedure
247
Classifying Adolescents Using Value Orientations – a Comparison of Cluster Analysis and Latent
Class Analysis
247
Detecting Aberrant Patterns of Change for the Dimensions of a “Quality of Life” Questionnaire by
means of Linear Mixed Models
248
SPSS TwoStep Clustering – A First Evaluation
248
249
249
Empirical Validation of “Whisky Classified”
249
Session: Multilevel Analysis
Frequentist MCMC Estimation Methods for Multilevel Logistic Regression
The Use of Internal Pilot Studies to Derive Powerful and Cost-Efficient Designs for Studies with
Nested Data
Performance of Likelihood-Based Estimation Methods for Multilevel Binary Regression Models
On the Relative Efficiency of Unequal Cluster Sizes in Multilevel Intervention Studies
Multilevel Multiprocess Modelling of Partnership Transitions and Fertility in Britain
The Concept of ‘Social Level’ and how to assess it
The Problem of Time Dependent Explanatory Variables at the Context Level in Discrete Time
Multilevel Event History Analysis.
250
250
251
251
251
252
252
253
253
254
Session: Measurement (In)Variance in Longitudinal Research
254
Practical Issues in the Assessment of Measurement Invariance and why Invariance does not Imply
Measurement
255
Measurement (In)Variance in SEM State Space Modelling of Panel Data
255
Types of Change in Self-Report Data: Definition, Interpretation and Operationalization
256
256
Testing Measurement Invariance with Respect to Time, Group, and Latent
257
Individual Differences in Factor Loadings and the Fit of the Standard Factor Model: Consequences for
Quantitative Behavioral Genetics Research
257
Session: Methods of Social Network Analysis
258
Playing God on a Budget: Understanding Large-Scale Social Structure from Sample Data and Random
Graph Models of Interdependent Local Processes
258
259
135
259
Actors Invisibility: About the Necessity to Re-Think Internet Research
260
Using Social Networks Methods to Measure Changes in Value Systems in Cross-Cultural Perspective:
the Case of Nordic-Baltic Relationship in 1991-2002
261
Assessing Influence and Selection in Network-Behavioral Co-evolution, with an Application to
Collective Action and Informal Sanctioning
262
262
Session: Panal Data Analysis
263
Estimation of a two Equations Panel Model with Mixed Continuous and Ordered Categorical
Response Variables in the Presence of Missing Data
263
263
Analyzing Individual and Collective Change of Attitudes Using Panel Data. The Example of Attitudes
to Social Security in Germany
264
Session: Combining Data from Different Source
265
Estimation with Population-Level Constraints on Two Survey Datasets: An Application to first Birth
Probabilities by Education in Italy
266
Combining Information from Multiple Surveys in the Analysis of Coarsened Longitudinal Data 266
A Comparison Record Linkage and Statistical Matching and Their Impact on Linear Regression
Analysis
267
267
Modelling the Construction of a Social Accounting Matrix in the Context of Statistical Matching 268
Integrating Data for Innovative Analyses: The North Carolina Education Research Data Center
268
Linking Job Episodes from Survey and Register Data: Specific Challenges and Empirical Results 269
270
Combining Datasets to Create a Synthetic Population: Sample Enumeration.
270
271
Linking Public Health Data in Georgia, USA
271
Two Stories about Youth Unemployment? Combining Register Data and Self-Reported Data
272
STREAM: INFORMATION AND SIMULATION SYSTEMS
272
Session: Non Linear Modelling
272
Dynamics of Functional Connectivity in Ongoing, No-task EEG. Evidence for Scale-Free Properties
and Explanation in Terms of Coupled Limit Cycle Oscillators
273
Dynamical Complexity. A Measure of Critical Instability During Human Change Processes
274
274
The Dynamics of Bilingual Language Development in Immigrant Children
275
Methodological Issues of Labour Market Analysis for Countries in Transition
275
Anticipation and Codification in Communication Systems: Towards a Simulation Model for
Luhmann’s Sociological Theory of Communication
276
Catastrophe Theory and Social Policy Making: A Nonlinear Model of the Early Pension Insurance
Legislation in Western Europe
277
277
Low-Dimensional Nonliear Dynamical Systems as a Tool for Socio-Economic Modelling
278
Session: Tools and Techniques for Agent-Based Social Simulation
279
Tracking the Invisible Hand: An A.B.M. Approach to CDA Design with Evolutionary Behaviour 279
Development of a Hybrid Multi-Agent Model for Modelling Petrol Price Markets
280
Dynamics of International Negotiations: A Simulation of EU Intergovernmental Conferences
280
On a Theorem in the Theory of Guerrilla Warfare
281
Using Multi Agent Systems and Role-Playing Games to Simulate Water Management in Peri-urban
Catchments
282
Lagoon, Agents and Kava: A Companion Modelling Experience in the Pacific
282
136
Agent-Based Simulations backing Use of Role-Playing Games as Dialogue Support Tools: Teaching
from Experiments
283
Actualities of Social Representation: Simulation on Diffusion Processes of SARS Representation 283
284
284
The Political Actor Simulator (PAS): The Simulation of a Foreign Policy Crisis during the
Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia 1995
285
Using GIS and Multi-agent Systems for Interactive Design of Policy in Natural Resource Management
285
286
Session: Informetric and Text Based Procedures for Information Retrieval and Analysis
Bibliometric Mining
Automating the Analysis of Co-Words in Contexts: Measuring the Meaning of “Stem-Cells” and
“Frankenfoods” in Different Domains
Comparing a Knowledge-Based Economy: In the Case of South Korea and the Netherlands
Graph-Based Representations of Motion Pictures: An Attempt to Discover Statistical Features of
Aesthetic Merit
Searching and Browsing Multiple Subject Gateways in the Renardus Service
Ontology Switching for the Social Sciences. Methods for the Underlying Corpus Analysis
Bilateral Transfer Modules for the Conceptual Integration of Heterogeneous Document Bases in
Content Analysis
287
287
287
288
289
289
290
291
291
291
292
Session: Time Series Analysis
293
Comparison of Seasonal Variation of Births and Deaths in Urban and Rural Areas of Silesia (Poland)
293
Population at Risk (PAR) Rates and other Denominators used to Measure Unemployment Rates 293
Auto-regressive Time Series Cross Section Analysis (TSCS) for Proportions Data with Random
Coefficients. A Flexible Model and its Application in Regional Science
294
Session: The Statistical Estimation of Linear and Non-Linear Stochastic Differential Equations
295
295
A Comparison of Different Procedures to Estimate the Damped Linear Occilator for Panel Data 295
Multivariate Multilevel Models of Dynamical Systems using Latent Differential Equations
296
Continuous-time Modeling of Bi-directional Influences between Family Relationships and Adolescent
Problem Behavior
296
297
Moment Equations and Hermite Expansion for Nonlinear Stochastic Differential Equations with
Application to Stock Price Models
297
STREAM: GENERAL STATISTICS
297
Session: Assessment of Model Fit
Additive and Multiplicative Effects in a Fixed 2 x 2 Design using ANOVA can be difficult to
Differentiate: Demonstration and Mathematical Reasons
How to Evaluate the Fit of Linear and Generalized Multilevel Models
Testing the Fit of Conditional Independence with a Continuous Control Variable
297
298
298
137
299
299
299
300
300
Session: New Methods in Political (and Social) Methodology
300
300
New Directions in Spatial Analysis: Space is more than Geography
301
American Public Opinion in the 1930s and 1940s: the Analysis of Quota-Controlled Sample Survey
Data
301
Estimating Spatial Autoregressive Coefficients in Spatial Lag Models
302
303
303
304
Session: Recent Developments in Nonparametric Item Response Theory
Detecting Discontinuity On a Cognitive Developmental Ability: A Comparison of the Binomial
Mixture Model and the Latent Class Model.
A Markov Chain Approach for Ranking Individuals from Item Responses
A Bayesian Framework for the Monotone Homogeneity Model of Non-Parametric Item Response
Theory
Multiple Imputation of Item Scores in Test and Questionnaire Data, and the Influence on
Psychometric Results
A Nonparametric IRT Model for the Circumplex: Generalization to Polytomous Data
304
305
306
306
307
307
308
Session: Graphical Modelling
309
309
Computational Aspects of Chain Graph Models with Mixed Response Variables
309
Checking for a Confounder in Models Generated over Directed Acyclic Graphs
309
An Application of Marginal Log-linear Models to Examine Changes in Social Mobility in Hungary
During the Transition Period
310
310
310
Session: The Nets between Neural Networks and Network Analysis. Fuzzy Logic, Complexity
and/ or Network Analysis Social Theory
311
Social Network Analysis, Social Theory and Research Design: Experiences from an Italian Contexts
311
The Complex Dispositional Space of the Social Relation and the Nets between Social Networks and
Neural Networks. The Problem of the Language.
312
312
313
314
314
314
STREAM: DATA COLLECTION, SAMPLING AND NON-RESPONSE
315
Session: Improving the Validity of Fraud Research using Instruments from the Social Sciences
315
Evaluating the Validity of (Vicarious) Self-Reports of Deviant Behavior Using Vignette Analyses 315
Statistical and Technical Methods for the Detection and Prevention on Interviewer Fraud in Data
Collection
316
Research Designs for Fraud Studies: How to Chose the Optimal Research Design?
316
Session: Preventing, Diagnosing and Analyzing Missing Data
Social Distance, Interviewer’s Perception of Rapport and the Types of Invalid Response
138
317
317
318
Socioeconomic Status of Survey Respondents with Missing Household Income Data
Statistial Editing and Imputation for Social Data
318
318
Session: Nonresponse
319
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone Surveys: A Meta Analysis
319
320
New Evidence on Amount of Payment on Prepaid Incentives on a Mailed Questionnaire
320
321
The Drop-off Pick-up Method: An Alternative Approach to Reducing Nonrespone in Mail Surveys 321
321
The Long-Term Effectiveness of Procedures for Minimising Attrition on Longitudinal Surveys
322
Mood and Socio-Economic Status Bias in Survey Nonresponse: Results from an 11-Wave Panel 323
Survey Attrition and Estimation Strategies in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
324
Determinants of Mail Survey Response Rates over a 30 Year Period, 1970-2000. An Analysis of
Community Studies at the German Institute of Urban Affairs
324
Understanding why People take part in Surveys: The Case of the Families and Children (panel) Survey
324
Nonresponse trends in the United States National Health Interview Survey, 1997-2003
325
Understanding Nonresponse of the Twelfth Graders in the National Assessment of Education
Progress: Social Isolation Theoretical Approach
326
Unit Nonresponse among Foreigners Caused by Non Willingness to Participate in Survey Research.
An International Comparison of Strategies Dealing with the Problem
326
Task Dedication, Task Alienation and What Data Collection Instruments Mean to Respondents
327
Measuring the Respondent’s Attitude towards Surveys.
327
Does the Performance Matter? A Multilevel Analysis of the Effects of Individual and Performance
Characteristics on Response in Audience Research
328
Survey Experience, Generalized Attitudes Towards Surveys and Respondents’ Willingness to Answer
Questions in Subsequent Surveys
328
Session: Aided Recall Techniques in Survey Interviews
329
Improving the Quality of Retrospective Reports: Calendar Interviewing Methodologies
330
Collecting Event History Data about Work Episodes Retrospectively: What Recall Errors Occur and
how can we Prevent them?
330
Influence Dating Formats on the Telescoping Effect and the Distribution of Autobiographical Memory
331
Timeline Methods and Related Aided Recall Applications in Social Sciences and Health Studies: a
Review.
331
Session: Data Collection
332
Patterns of Mobile Phone Usage and their Impact on Participation in Mobile Phone Surveys
332
Comparing Anonymous and Non-Anonymous Research Methods Asking Sensitive and Socially
Desirable Questions.
333
Improving Questionnaire Design through the Provision of Electronic Access to Large Scale Survey
Questionnaires in the UK
333
Effects of Survey Sponsorship and Mode of Administration on Respondents’ Answers about their
Racial Attitudes
334
Session: Sampling Methods
Methods for Achieving Equivalence of Samples in Cross-National Surveys
Impact of the Geographical Size of Clusters on the Precision of Survey Estimates
GenD: An Evolutionary Algorithm for Re-sampling in Survey Research
Estimating Domestic Tourism Expenditure in Developing Economies: Lessons from India
139
334
335
335
336
336
337
338
339
Sampling Undocumented Immigrants in Brussels via Snowball Sampling: Theoretical and Practical
Considerations
340
Using Adaptive Sampling Methods in the Analysis of Social Phenomena on the WWW
341
STREAM: LATENT VARIABLES MODELLING
Session: Latent Growth Curve Structurual Equation Models, Autoregressive and Hybrid
Models
Combining Autoregressive and Semiparametric Mixture Models: Investigating the SelectionFacilitation Effect of Peers on Antisocial Behaviors
Pay Off and Impact of Varying the Intercept in Latent Growth Curve Modeling
Latent Growth Curve and Interaction Modeling: The Case of Travel Mode Choice
Anomia, Left right Orientation and Group Related Enmity.
341
341
342
342
343
343
Session: Multidimensional Scaling and Facet Theory
343
344
Questionnaire Design and Data Analysis using Facet Approach: The Case of the International Census
on Attitudes toward Languages
344
345
Explaining the Structure of Values of an Ideal Organization by Schwartz‘s Universal Value Theory
345
Session: Correspondence Analysis
346
Nordic Business Researchers’ Use of Research Methodology: An Assessment of Researchers in
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
347
Using Combined Methods to Develop Sociological Concepts. An Exploration of the Concept of Social
Capital using Correspondence Analysis and Case Studies Research
347
The Analysis of Lifestyle Groups and Social Milieus in Germany Using Cluster and Correspondence
Analysis
348
International Comparison with Correspondence Analysis. Attitudes towards Same Sex Partnership as
an Empirical Example
348
348
349
350
Processes of Social Differentiation in an Economic “Social Field”
350
351
352
352
The (Missing) Importance of Dimension One in Factor Analytic Approaches
353
A Measure of Asymmetries in Brand-Attribute Dominance Relationships: Correspondence Analysis of
Matched Matrices
353
Applying Correspondence Analysis and Logistic Regression in a Survey on Self Healing Methods 354
Comparing Nonlinear Principal Component Analysis with Factor Analysis and Ordered Logistic
Regression with an Application to Country Data
354
Power Analysis and Sample Size Determination in the Context of Correspondence Analysis
355
Session: Classification and Visualisation
The Typological Non Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis: Theory and Application for Social
Research
Session: Improving Survey Methodology: The European Social Survey
Measuring Attitudes towards Immigration across Countries: Potential Problems of Functional
Equivalence in the ESS
140
356
356
357
357
358
359
359
Development of a Standardized Interviewer Questionnaire for International Research into Interviewer
Effects on Nonresponse and Data Quality
360
Improving Survey Methodology: The ESS. Index and Measurement: The Cultural Borders of Meaning
360
361
Geographical Variations in Electoral Participation: Evidence from a Multilevel Analysis of the
European Social Survey
361
362
Analysis and Relation between Social Variables and Economic Variables in the European Social
Survey and World Bank and UNDP Reports: The Social Capital and Economic Capital at the
European Countries
362
363
Some Methods for Investigating Validity and Reliability of Questions in the European Social Survey
363
364
International Benchmarking: Are we Comparing Apples to Oranges?
364
Modeling Events for ESS: Toward the Creation of an Autonomous Tool for Survey Research
365
STREAM: INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
366
Session: Comparable Data across Countries
Trapped in Translation? ESS Translation Protocols provide a Key
Data Quality Assessment in ESS Round 1: Between Wishes and Reality
366
366
366
367
367
368
368
Session: Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing Cross-Culturel Surveys
369
A Process Quality Approach to the Testing and Evaluation of Cross-Cultural Surveys
369
Language, Usage, and Cultural Context: Challenges to “Functional Equivalence” in Questions
370
Developing a Low-Cost Technique for Parallel Cross-Cultural Instrument Development: The Question
Appraisal System (QAS-04)
370
371
372
372
Socio-Cultural Factors in the Question-Response Process: A Comparative Coding Analysis of Latino
and Anglo Cognitive Interviews
373
What are we talking about ?Interviewing and Interpretation for a Biographical Survey in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Cross-cultural/ Cross-National Survey Research Session
373
374
Attitude Scale Development in Countries which send Illegal Immigrants
375
Behavior Coding of Multilingual Survey Interviews: What Can We Tell by Systematically Listening?
375
Comparability of Attitude Measures towards Social Inequality. The Level of Equivalence in the ISSP
1999, its Implications on Further Analysis and the Presentation of Results
376
Session: Issues of Cross-National Comparative Research
377
How to Grasp Nations in International Survey Comparisons
377
(P)raising Cross-National Comparability: Digital Divide Benchmarks Based on Time Distance Method
378
An Empirical Enquiry into Students’ Socio-Economic Background, Costs and Financing of Studies,
and Future Career Aspirations in Higher Education in China: Issues of Methodology
379
141
Values in Europe: A Multiple Group Comparison with 20 Countries Using the European Social
Survey 2003.
379
Session: Cross-National Harmonization of Socio-Demographic Variables
379
Obtaining Harmonized Demographic Information from European Surveys -Experiences of the German
Federal Statistical Office form Input to Output Harmonization
380
Harmonizing Background Variables in International Surveys
380
Harmonization of Survey Data in the "International Social Survey Programme" (ISSP)
380
Measuring Religious Membership and Religiosity across Europe
381
Is there Another Way to View Race? Listening to Subjectivity in the Categorization of Ethnicity and
Race among Hispanics in the United States.
381
Ethnicity and the Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Survey Data
382
Measuring Ethno-Poverty: Methodological Challenges
383
Measuring "Income" in Cross-National Research
383
Session: Cross-National Comparison of Daily Activity Patterns: Issues in the Collection and
Analysis of Cross-National Time Use Data
384
Issues in the Collection and Analysis of Cross National Time Use Data with Reference to Developing
Countries
384
Cross-National Analysis of Adolescent Time Use Data: Methodological Problems of Comparability
385
Measuring Activity Patterns of Young Children – a Focus on Exercise in Early Childhood in Australia
386
Improving Time Use Data Quality: Recent Experiences in Italy
386
The Expected and the Unexpected: Declines in Details, in Non Response, in Sociability, and in
Explaining Power in Time Use Surveys
387
The Use of Cluster Analysis to Derive Time Use Profiles from Time Use Diary Data
387
Time Use: A Literature Review on Methods based on Economic Journals and Publications
388
STREAM: DATA COLLECTION AND INTERNET SURVEYS
388
Session: Visual Design and Layout in Internet and Mail Surveys
388
A Comparison of Sliding Scales with Other Scale Types in Online Surveys
389
Online Surveys-Does One Size Fit All?
389
Web Survey Design: Effect of Layout on Measurement Error
390
An Experimental Testing of Format Changes to Reduce Missing Data and Increase Cooperation in the
Nielsen TV Diary
391
Achieving Usability in Establishment Surveys through the Application of Visual Design Principles 391
Session: The Internet and Social Research: New Opportunities, New Challenges
392
Methodological and Ethical Problems in Analysis of Web Site Authors
392
Gender Specific Analysis of Virtual Communication in Panel Online Focus Groups
393
“If you Build it, they will come” – or will they? A Discussion on the Acceptability of the Web as a
Means to Respond to Surveys
393
Dropping Out of an Online Sex Survey: when and why?
394
Validity of Data and Representativeness of Sample in Internet Survey: University Surveys in the
United States
394
395
Session: Internet Surveys
A Comparison of Ranking versus Rating in Online Surveys
Behavioral Intention Measurement: International Findings
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Visual Analog Scales: A Web Experiment
Don’t Know and No Opinion Responses in Web Surveys
Design Issues in Collecting Data on Ego-centered Social Networks on the Web
142
395
396
396
397
397
398
A Comparison of Two Web-Based Surveys: Static versus Dynamic Versions of the NAMCS
Questionnaire
398
Computing Methods and their Impact on Drop Out
399
Effectiveness of Progress Indicators in Web Surveys
400
Item Non Response and Dropouts in Web Surveys
400
Effects of Personalization on Web Survey Response Rates and Data Quality
401
Feasibility of a Random Sample
401
Self-Selection as a Sampling Method in Web Surveys
402
Noncoverage and Nonresponse in a Web Survey
402
Utilization of an Internet Survey of Work-Family Conflict among Home-Based Teleworkers
403
Investigating the Imagined Online Community
403
Mixed Mode Effects in Online Course Evaluations
404
Some Basic Experiments on Presentation of Questions and Response Options in Web Questionnaires
404
An Experimental Comparison of Four Modes of Data Collection Within the Eurobarometer
Measurement Domain
405
Mode Effects on Data Quality in Mixed Mode Self-Administered Paper, On-line and E-mail Panel 406
Sample Adjustment Weights for Internet Surveys: Restricted Access versus Voluntary Participation
406
The State of Online Surveys: Evidence from Germany
407
Using Email as a Site for Constructing Narratives through Interview
Getting it Right: Designing an Evaluation of an INGO Led HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme in
Resource Poor Settings
Cyberethnography: New Fields of Inquiry or are we simply Re-Cycling Old Methodology?
408
408
408
409
STREAM: GENERAL METHODOLOGY
410
Session: Is There a Fundamental Change in the Individual Shaping of the Life Course in
Modernity? Or how can we do Research on Fundamental Transformations in Modernization?
410
Using Biographical Material to Research University Students’ Identity: An Avenue for Research on
Social Change
410
Experiential Glances at Transformations and Changes Occurring in Reflexive Modernization Life. 411
Reflexive Modernization and Biotechnology: The Conflict of Biotechnology as a Conflict between the
Logic of Industrial Society and the Logic of Reflexive Modernity
412
Session: Methodological Foundations of Sociological Analysis of Social Sphere
413
Designing of Disablement in the Institutional Field
413
Theories and Methods in Cross-National Youth Research
414
Tasks of Historiography of Social Sphere Sociology
414
Methodology and Methods of Comparative social research
415
Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Methodology of Research
415
The Peculiarity of Treatment the Problem of Trafficking in Woman in Mass Media
416
Sociological Measurement of Social Protection
416
Approaches for the Construction of a Theoretical Model in the University of the Knowledge’s Age.
The Configuration of Complex Cognitive Systems.
416
Situation on Lithuanian Labour Market and EU Accession
417
Methodology of the Sociological Research. Level of Public Awareness on Domestic Violence against
Women/ Girls and Sexual Harassment at the Work/ Study Place; its Scale, Types, Forms and
Consequences
418
Actors and Interpreters: Models of Legitimization of New Socio-Cultural Practices in Contemporary
Russia
418
Monitoring of the Social Sphere: Methodology and Methods
419
143
Methodology and Methods of Migration Sociological Analysis
419
Session: Complex Societal Problems
420
Statistical Evidence: Responsibilities and Burden of Proof
420
The Geography of Decision-Making: Linking Attitudes, Knowledge, Management Activities and
Forestland Characteristics in a Spatial Environment
421
Causality in Complexity
421
Interactive Mapping of Complex Policy Networks: A Quick Scan for Strategy Making
422
422
Area Studies Approach: A Critique and Search for Different Methods
423
Multi-Criterion Decision Modeling Within Rural Societal Policy - The Case Of South - East Europe
423
Methodological Challenges Concerning a Comparison of the Complex Social Problem.
Methodological Reflection upon the Empirical Study Comparing how People of the EU
Countries Manage to Balance Family Life and Job Career
424
Counting, Measuring, Meaning and Reality: Issues in Sociological Research
Socio-Cultural Foundations of Gender Parity
144
425
425
425
INVITED LECTURES
Qualitative Software and Methodological Change – myths, mindsets and methodological
mania.
Lyn Richards, Research Services, QSR International, Australia
Innocent tool or deus ex machina? At its advent, software for qualitative research was frequently
greeted with fear that it would preemptively determine method. Two (contradictory) arguments
dominated - that qualitative computer programs are skewed to support for grounded theory and that
hierarchical index systems forced top-down thinking. Neither has been seriously debated, and it seems
that this debate may now not take place. As the use of computer programs becomes taken for granted
the implications for methodological choice are rarely discussed. This keynote argues the question
should be addressed, not allowed to fade with familiarity.
Description, prediction, inference
Jan de Leeuw, Department of Statistics, UCLA, USA
We analyze the uses and misuses of multiple regression and related techniques in the social,
behavioral, and educational sciences. Its main uses are description of multivariate distributions,
prediction of missing or future events, and causal inference, and statistical inference from sample to
population. We'll argue that description is always legitimate and often useful. Prediction is very useful
indeed, always legitimate, but seldom practiced, except in very artificial settings. And inference, of
both the causal and the statistical type, is almost always problematical.
References
Berk, R. (2003). Regression Analysis. Sage.
Wang, C. (1993). Sense and Nonsense of Statistical Inference. Dekker.
STREAM: COMPUTER ASSISTED RESEARCH
SESSION: COMPUTER-ASSISTED SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Organizors: Karl M. van Meter
Contact: National Center of Scientific Research, 59 rue Pouchet, 75017 Paris, France, tel/fax 33 (0)1
40 51 85 19, [email protected]
Abstract
With the widespread use of computers in all aspects of sociological research, few empirical
sociologists still make a distinction between "qualitative" and "quantitative"
research. These two terms have come to mean different styles or different emphasis in doing research.
We invite submissions which explore this complementarity and, in
particular, research projects which "cross the borders" by going from data-intensive "qualitative"
approaches to formalized "quantitative" results and, vice versa, from
formalized "quantitative" survey approaches and data "back to the field" to confront results with
"qualitative" data-intensive case studies.
145
Assessing Attitudes toward Muslims in the Netherlands: Does asking both Open and
Closed Questions Provide more Insight?
Christine L. Carabain, Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Research
Methodology, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, [email protected]
In attitude research, it is common practice to assess attitudes by presenting a series of statements and
asking respondents to what extent they agree or disagree with each of those statements. Reactions to
statements are generally gauged via a five-point Likert-scale.
This paper provides a systematical comparison between the answers of such statements and open
questions, in order to make inferences about the meaning of choosing moderate answer categories,
such as ‘partly agree’, ‘don’t agree and don’t disagree’, and ‘partly disagree’.
In this study, Dutch students were interviewed on their opinions about Muslims in the Netherlands.
When they were confronted with statements on the topic, almost 80%, of their answers were scored
within the moderate answer categories. A systematical comparison between those answers and the
answers of the respondents on comparable open questions shows that open questions trigger the
expression of more differentiated opinions. Respondents while answering open questions 1)
constrained their answer with a condition; 2) differentiated the group they were referring to, and 3)
differentiated the qualifications they assigned to a group.
A striking result of this study is that when answering statements, the choice between the different
moderate answer categories seemed rather arbitrary. Respondents who made comparable distinctions
while answering open questions did often chose different answer categories while answering the
statements and vice versa. This study shows the risks of using solely closed question to assess attitudes
and the possibilities of using ‘mixed methods’ to assess them.
Methodological Issues in Designing and Implementing Cross-Cultural Surveys.
Assessing cross-national construct equivalence in the ESS
Jaak Billiet & Jerry Welkenhuysen-Gybels, K.U. Leuven, Belgium, [email protected]
One of the prime objectives of cross-national survey research is to compare concepts across countries
or cultures. It is therefore important that these concepts are measured adequately in all of the countries
involved in the survey. Moreover; in order that country-scores on items or scales can be compared in a
valid way, concepts have to be measured in a sufficiently equivalent way. This paper tries to assess
this equivalence by checking whether the indicators of a number of latent traits such as religious
commitment, and several dimensions of the attitude toward immigration measure the same construct
or trait in all of the countries. This will be done by testing for the factorial invariance of factor
loadings across countries. Two different methods are used. Whenever possible, response style effects
are taken into account in this analysis. The analysis shows that it is possible to obtain comparable
measurement elements for a number of concepts that are measured in ESS round 1
Combining Test Interviews with Experimental Surveys to Compare Question Formats
in a Postal Survey on Alcohol Consumption
Harrie Jansen1 and Viviënne Lahaut2
1
IVO, Addiction Research Institute Rotterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
ZonMw, The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, Den Haag,
[email protected]
In quantitative surveys on alcohol consumption, last week reports (LW) and typical week reports
(TW) are very common question types. The main rule in comparison of questioning formats in this
field of research is the ‘more is better’ principle: questions generating more reported alcohol
146
consumption are better than questions generating less reported alcohol consumption. This rule seems
to oversimplify the matter of data quality, however.
Therefore in our study we studied data quality in three ways: mean reported alcohol consumption at
the aggregate level to measure ‘alcohol generating power’, face to face Three Step Test Interviews at
the personal level to measure responding problems and item response at the aggregate level to measure
motivating power of each question format. In this way we compared two formats on last week’s
drinking (LW1 & LW2) and two formats on typical week’s drinking (TW1 & TW2). The results show
that each method reveals specific relevant aspects of data quality, concluding that a) more is not
always better, 2) better questions generate less answers.
Elites at Home: A Multimethod Community Case Study of a Wealthy Chicago Suburb
Al Hunter, Northwestern University, USA, [email protected]
The research reports on a community case study of an elite, wealthy suburb of Chicago. The focus is
on the day-to-day lives of its residents, their informal social networks and institutional participation in
voluntary associations, local schools and churches, and local politics. The research explores attitudes
and behaviors related to exclusion and inclusion with respect to the remainder of society. The research
is based on a questionnaire survey of 10% of households in the community, in-depth interviews of
residents, and participant observation of public events and festivals. The different methods address
different beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that distinguish public from private spheres of local
community life.
A Computer-Assisted Mixed Method and Mixed Model Analysis of Police DecisionMaking
Jennifer L. Schulenberg,
[email protected]
Department
of
Sociology,
University
of
Waterloo,
Canada,
In order to examine the organizational processes that occur in police decision-making, one needs to
uncover what, when, how, why, and to what extent some decisions are made over others. Thus, a
mixed methods approach was adopted in this research that not only uses quantitative and qualitative
data but also analyzes the qualitative data through a grounded theory approach and statistically. The
qualitative data are based on over 200 semi-structured interviews with more than 300 police officers in
95 police services across Canada – from all provinces and territories, all types of communities, and all
types of police services.
For purposes of quantitative analysis of the interviews, two SPSS databases were constructed: one
with the interview as the level of analysis and one with the police agency as the level of analysis
(through the development of aggregation rules when there was more than one respondent per police
service). About 200 variables were coded in these databases from the interviews by means of content
analysis in the same way that open-ended questions in a survey are coded for quantitative analysis.
Statistical data on police decision-making were added to the police agency database. These were taken
from the national Uniform Crime Reporting Survey which is maintained by Statistics Canada.
Characteristics of the communities were taken from the Census and added to the police agency
database. The quantitative analysis of the police agency database used the following techniques:
univariate descriptives, bivariate analyses using cross-tabs, comparison of means, and one-way
ANOVA, and multivariate analysis using multi-way ANOVA.
The interviews were also qualitatively analyzed using a between-methods approach and multi-phase
coding with the Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDA) software called Qualrus. In
this analysis, the interviews were coded qualitatively – segment by segment – in two ways: (1) using
pre-established codes suggested theoretically and by the literature, and (2) coding within these
147
categories for salient themes and factors. The results of these analyses are presented concurrently as
the quantitative and qualitative analyses clarify and illustrate each other.
The resulting description and explanation of police decision-making are both positivist – showing the
factors which are associated with outcomes – and constructivist – showing the ways in which police
officers’ understanding of their occupational world conditions their behaviour. This paper will present
one research question and one hypothesis in order to illustrate the use of both data types that are
analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The technical and epistemological issues that will be
addressed are the appropriate use of statistical methods, and the meaning of codes, themes and
variables when quantifying qualitative data.
Keywords: police decision-making, mixed method, mixed model, CAQDA
Rod Gutierrez1 and Pat Bazeley2
1
University of Sydney, Australia, [email protected]
2
Research Support P/L, Australia, [email protected]
Making a qualitative interpretation from statistical analyses of data coded from free-flowing text is not
a standard approach to research design, even within the domain of mixed methods research. The
employment of such an intertwined analysis strategy has, however, revealed new insights into the
causes and experience of occupational stress and psychological injury. Psychological assessments for
157 cases claiming work related mental disorders were examined, along with reports from the
claimants, their superiors and an assessing medical practitioner, each version being 'scored' for
presence or absence of a range of potentially critical factors. Level of agreement in the reports was
assessed using non-parametric statistics, but of more significance in the context of integrated analysis,
predictive tests (primarily logistic regressions) were conducted to identify factors most likely to be
involved in the development of mental disorders and/or psychological injury. Results of these tests
considered individually were inconclusive, but when they were considered together an explanatory
pattern emerges to tell the story of an increasingly common but poorly understood workforce problem.
The Combined Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Educational Research
K. Niglas, Tallinn Pedagogical University, Estonia
The ongoing debates about the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods and the
vigorous critique of the quality and utility of educational research led to a wish to contribute to the
potential enhancement of research practice by systematically analysing several scorching questions of
research methodology.
The preliminary study, undertaken at Cambridge University during 1998-1999, focused on the
paradigmatic confrontation of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The analysis of various texts on
methodological issues and a small-scale empirical investigation suggested that the dichotomous nature
of educational research, advocated by certain influential writers and many textbooks, is not
characteristic of the actual research practice, nor proved the incompatibility thesis to be an ideal by
which educational research could be enhanced.
The results of a preliminary study, stating that quantitative and qualitative methodologies are not
mutually exclusive and incompatible paradigms, and depending on the nature and the complexity of
particular research problem, the design of a study can be either qualitative, quantitative or a
combination of both, form the basic assumption for the main study. As the field of combined designs
(also called as “mixed methods research”) is only in its early development, this study sets the aim to
enhance and extend the existing systematic knowledge about the ways combined designs can be and
are used in research practice, to explore possible justifications for a new kind of practice and to
analyse the implications that might have in the context of educational research.
148
The main study integrates theoretical knowledge on and recent developments in the combined use of
qualitative and quantitative approaches with the results of an original empirical study. The empirical
part of the inquiry adopts a content analytical method with the aim to analyse the actual use of
combined designs to filter out common ways quantitative and qualitative approaches are merged
within different research projects. A meta-analysis was conducted, focused on methodological aspects
of a purposive but relatively representative sample of articles, presenting the results of studies using
various combined designs published in English-language academic educational research journals.
A critical analysis of the existing knowledge and a synthesis of new ideas is characteristic to all stages
of the study, but the last chapter integrates the emerged theoretical ideas with empirical results and
relates the results of the present inquiry to the latest developments in the field. It also broaches the
implications of the results for research practice and for the ways in which the methodology of
educational research could be introduced to a new generation of educators and educational researchers,
providing thereby an added value to the study undertaken.
The main merits of the present investigation are the elucidation and clarification of complex
methodological issues in the field of educational research, the regulation and harmonisation of related
terminology, the systematisation of the classification of combined designs, providing a framework for
the use of combined designs by emphasising the role of research purposes and aims on choosing a
suitable design for a particular study and by eliciting the possible justifications and purposes for the
combined use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, but also underlying the importance of
coherence of the research design and indicating some potential inconsistencies of different combined
designs.
Keywords: educational research, research methodology, quantitative and qualitative methods,
combined research designs, mixed methods research.
SESSION: DISCOURSIVE ETHNOGRAPHY
Organizor: Giampietro Gobo1 and Anne Ryen2
Contact: 1Dept. of Social and Political Studies, University of Milan, Via Conservatorio 7 - 20122
Milano, tel. ++39-02-503-18813 (office); fax: ++39-02-503-18840, [email protected]
2
Agder College, Norway
Keywords: discourse, conversation, ethnography
Abstract
This session is devoted to those studies which combine ethnographic and discourse analytic methods.
Against traditional approaches which promoted on the one hand purely discourse analytic methods, or
on the other hand purely observational studies, this session aims to gather studies which investigate
everyday life interactions, work practices or linguistic activities, focusing both the relationship
between talk and its ethnographic context, and the relationship between observational data and
participants’ accounts. These studies believe that ethnography without talk could be misleading, and
talk without ethnography is blind.
Will be particularly welcome studies based on
Fieldwork observations with interviews with participants
Fieldwork observations accompanied by transcripts of conversation or discourse
The purpose of this session is not to show substantive results only but also the benefits of a such
approach, methodological problems faced by these studies, different ways of managing and analysing
this kind of data.
149
R.J.W.M. Vis-Visschers, Statistics Netherlands, Division of Technology and Facilities, Department
Methods and Informatics, P.O. Box 4481, 6401 CZ Heerlen, room R414, Tel +31( 0)45 570 6188,
[email protected]
At the Questionnaire Laboratory of Statistics Netherlands questionnaires are tested to asses the data
quality and to investigate whether the questions work as they are intended. Bad questionnaires not
only can cause invalid data, but can also cause an extra strain on the respondent and the interviewer.
The goal of questionnaire testing is to achieve respondent and interviewer friendly questions and
questions that result in valid data.
Traditional methods to test questionnaires are among other things expert reviews, focus groups and
cognitive interviews. One mutual drawback of these methods is that they intrude upon the natural
course of the interview. In search for an unobtrusive test method, the usefulness of discourse analytic
methods for testing questionnaires was investigated. In 2002 and 2003 interviews from two CATIquestionnaires were taped and the dialogues were transcribed and analysed.
In this paper I will discuss the usefulness of discourse analytic methods in analysing telephone
interviews and in identifying problems in questionnaires. This will be illustrated by means of
transcribed dialogues.
I will point out the problems we faced. Among other things:
How to tape the interviews, and how to store them safely?
Is there a way to make the method less labour intensive?
How can the method be combined with other pre-testing methods?
To conclude, I will present our solutions to the problems, and how we use discourse analytic methods
today.
Keywords: discourse analysis, pre-testing methods, questionnaire laboratory
For “she who knows who she is…” Combining Ethnography and Conversation Analysis
in the Study of Internet Newsgroups
A. Vayreda1, F. Nuñez1, E. Ardevol1 and Charles Antaki2
1
AlmibarLab, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
2
Loughborough University, UK, [email protected]
Ethnographic methods have been proved suitable and successful for studying online social interaction
and the emergence of virtual communities. Our proposal is to combine ethnographic approach and
conversational analysis to study computer mediated communication as social practice. CA work has
mostly been done on chat-rooms, because have been seen more like a conversation, but in this
presentation we extend its application to the domain of newsgroups (forums). We focus on the users'
deployment of two crucial features of sequential interaction: determination of next speaker, and
accountability of speaker's design of their turn. We argue that, in spite of the differences between the
asynchronous, written medium of newsgroups and the synchronous, oral medium of spoken
exchanges, both of these features are made visibly present in users' postings. In examining a short
thread of postings to a public-access site, we observe how the analyst can profit by recognising how
users exploit both of these features. We show that the relatively 'free' determination of messagerecipient allows the user to launch generally-respondable turns which, in face-to-face (FTF) or
telephone (T) conversation, would require response by a single, given individual. This affords a range
of implications, and allows a range of social actions, impossible (or very difficult) in FTF or T
conversations. The second observation we make is that the looser requirements of accountability
permit "intimate" turn-designs which, in FTF and T conversation, would be non-normative; again, this
allows a wide range of actions not possible or difficult in other media. Our case study is an intensive
analysis of a short thread of postings, revealing the fine-grained detail of a user's accomplishment of
social actions (including 'declaring love') by taking advantage of the communicative affordances of the
150
medium, and how, in subsequent messages, other users ratify the original message’s use of the
medium. The ethnographic understanding of internet activity has, we claim, much to learn from CA's
close attention to turn design and sequence, and can profit from its analysis of newsgroup 'turns' as
vehicles for social action.
Keywords: ethnography, conversational analysis, Internet newsgroups, computer mediated
communication, qualitative methods
Talk of Stakeholders, Talk of Players. Goffman’s Contributions to the Use of a RPG as a
Social Investigation Tool
William’s Daré, Cirad Réunion, 100 route de la Rivière des pluies, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, France (La
Réunion), Tel: (33) (0)262 92 24 57, [email protected]
Since J. Huizinga and R. Caillois, playing is supposed to be outside the reality. Associations of multiagent systems and role-playing games (RPG) are used in participatory processes as group decision
support tools to favor exchanges of information between stakeholders. In these approaches RPG are
supposed to impact social management of common resources. But how this could happen if gaming is
not linking with reality ? A multi-agent system and a role-playing game were built up in a companion
modelling approach to tackle the viability of Senegalese irrigated systems. They are used with
villagers who farm in the same irrigated system.
In this article, we show that reality and game are linked in the playing of role-players. Even if in a
RPG, stakeholders are placed in a virtual world where roles and rules are characterized, they used their
social relationship to evolve in the role playing game. Doing so, we show that the game can help the
researcher to grasp social relationships between stakeholders.
After introducing the context of the research, we focus on a crisis appeared in one game session. Talks
of players interacting in the game are registered with a camcorder then translated into French. We use
Goffman’s discourse analysis to describe the “front” of players developed to solve the water
management issue, the interactive behaviors, the dynamics of social roles regarding to the evolution of
the game situation. Then, we describe a decision process to solve a real crisis appeared in the
management of the irrigated system. Thanks to collective interviews and history life studies, we
analyze the stakes and the interests of the stakeholders involved in the conflict. In the third part, we
put face to face information obtained in both context (reality and play). We show how the analysis of
game sessions was helpful to reveal relationships between stakeholders.
We conclude that the RPG can be considered as a dramaturgical scene. Ethnography interviews shed
light on the interactions registered in the game. In this way, Goffman is helpful to analyze talks of
players in the game and compare with talks in reality. So the game can be a new tool to investigate
social reality.
Keywords: Goffman, discourse analysis, Role-playing game, Senegal
The Methodological Discource about the Complex Discourse of “The Child’s best
Interest”
Turid Midjo, Department of Social Work and Health Science, NTNU, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway,
[email protected]
The paper explicates some challenges and problems that confront the researcher when analysing field
observation, interview information and content analyse as a combined methodological strategy. More
precisely my paper will discuss the following question: What kind of methodological discourses take
place in the knowledge production process?
The background for raising this question is my ongoing study where I’m using observation and
interview as data gathering methods, as well as information from written documents/caseloads.
151
The aim of my study is to explore the communication process between the social worker, the parents
and the child in order to understand how “participation practises” take place in the context of the Child
Welfare Services in Norway. The “participation practises” are understood as ongoing discourses and
one aim is to analyse how the discourses tend to keep, reconstruct and change the involved actors’
perception of what is to be understood as “The child’s best interest”. The study gives special attention
to the relation between aspects of control, power and disciplination and aspects of empathy, dialog and
reflexivity.
To study the communication process I'm following "inquiry cases" in four municipal child welfare
services – that means I do observation in all the settings where the social worker meets with the family
members and/or other professionals. Through and after this process I interview the social worker, the
parents and the child. I will follow between 10 -15 cases due on the information the cases give.
So what methodological challenges do I confront in making one coherent research out of these three
kinds of data? What does it mean to combine them? In the paper I will present my reflection about my
own “way of doing” the analyse and the knowledge production.
Keywords: child welfare, content analysis, ethnography, discourse analysis, interview.
SESSION: THE ACHIEVEMENTS
QUALITATIVE COMPUTING
AND
CHALLENGES
OF
Organizer: Lyn Richards,
Contact: Research Services, QSR International, Australia, [email protected]
Keywords: qualitative research, computing, software, mixed methods
Abstract
Fifteen years after the first international conference on qualitative computing (Surrey, 1989), there is
little scholarly debate about qualitative software. This session is to host such debate – not to compare
software products but to assess methodological change on the assumption that such change must be
critiqued and directed.
Papers are invited for a session to stimulate discussion of both the achievements and the challenges of
software development for qualitative research.
Topics include
What has changed, and what has not changed, in qualitative methods? Where are the effects of
software to be seen and how are they to be dealt with?
How did early software affect methods? How to assess the adequacy of developments by which
software has moved beyond these methods?
What do we know of new qualitative techniques, encouraged by software?
Developments and challenges of mixed qualitative-quantitative techniques, facilitated and encouraged
by software development;
Present and future issues of reliability and rigour of software-supported qualitative research;
Adequacy of the variety and range of programs for the research fields requiring them.
César A. Cisneros Puebla, Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico, [email protected]
The construction of theories by computer has been a long-standing objective of Artificial Intelligence
research since the 1960's as well as an important task in qualitative research. Therefore, to understand
the complex process of theory building is an essential topic to Qualitative Computing. Nowadays, a
variety of qualitative data analysis programs are available, which are proposed as an alternative to
152
code-and-retrieve software and which also had been addressed as 'third generation' software for
qualitative analysis in the middle of the last decade. But now we are facing new trends in the design of
programs, new trends in using this qualitative software, also new challenges, tasks and goals are
emerged. In this presentation the current debate about the theoretical links between qualitative
computing and qualitative methods is analyzed focusing on the cognitive process involved in theory
building. The new trends are discussed to highlight the role of conceptualization rather than
description around the discussion on Grounded Theory Approach, and then the debate about
differences and similarities between Grounded theory and Qualitative Data Analysis is the framework
to the analysis.
Keywords: qualitative computing, theory building, cognition, abduction, fuzziness
Tom Richards, QSR International, [email protected]
Qualitative computing software doesn’t merely support the qualitative data analysis (QDA) techniques
carried out in earlier technologies – pen, paper, copier and even word processor. Nor does it simply
speed up such techniques. It goes beyond them by providing tools for new qualitative data
organization techniques, new analysis techniques, and new mixed-method techniques.
New technologies have a habit of enabling people to do new things. Think of writing, think of
motorized transport, or the piano, or telephones. It can take people some time to realize new powers
the new technology makes possible – indeed often the inventors don’t foresee what wonderful things
will be done with their inventions. Some qualitative researchers for example, coming from the earlier
technologies, try to fit qualitative computing into their earlier ways of working – a sort of Procrustean
Bed approach with all the agonies associated with it. Or they may simply bypass the newer and more
powerful procedures that qualitative computing enables – which is like walking a bicycle rather than
pedalling it.
In this paper I will look at some of the most significant and interesting new ways of working. I will try
to explain what the tools are really intended for, and by contrast some of their common and painful
abuses. I will look at new types of data, at extensions of the very concept of data, and what can be
done with them. I will discuss organization and management tools, and how they are the key to
making fruitful analyses possible. I will look at various analytical processes, and what they can and
cannot deliver (including delivering enough rope to hang yourself by). In all of this I will be looking at
qualitative computing as the locus for the entire research project, not just the data analysis part. Forget
CAQDAS – the game is not QDA by computer, but QR by computer.
Keywords: qualitative research, qualitative analysis, software, computer
Adopting and Adapting to Qualitative Software: Social And Methodological
Considerations from the Periphery
Diógenes Carvajal, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia, [email protected],
[email protected].
Qualitative analysis software is nowadays commonly used by most of qualitative researchers
worldwide. These programmes have become very helpful in systematising and analysing many types
of qualitative documents: text, image, sound, and video, making obsolete the antique clerical
technique of cutting and pasting manually. Parallel to the growing interest of qualitative researchers in
such software, every day there are more training workshops to cover the also growing training
demand. This is a global process: researchers from all backgrounds participate on it. Therefore, the use
of qualitative software has become a real necessity for us researchers from the periphery in order to
relate to the methodological and technical mainstreams of the metropolis. But trying to be global is not
as easy; one does not become global by copying the metropolis’ mainstreaming. And one field where
153
this is broadly seen is in the use of qualitative software. Does a researcher from the periphery recur to
qualitative software to fulfil her necessities or just to be a la mode? In this sense, there are two aspects
I want to mention; a pragmatic one, and a methodological one. The pragmatic one refers to the type of
training in qualitative software that is being offered. The methodological aspect refers to the relation
between training workshops and the current approach that novice qualitative software users have
before facing qualitative data. Inexperienced researchers with vague or insufficient training in
qualitative research are at risk of quantitatively approaching qualitative software. Thus, aspects like
validity, reliability, rigorousness, and groundness are considered from a quantitative point of view, and
are measured as if they were quantifiable. The qualitative analysis process is left aside. Considering
the above, in this paper I will discuss three topics: First, the way we, researchers from the periphery,
are compelled to adopt and adapt to technical demands from the metropolis, and its “social”
consequences; second, how this relates to the growing supply of training workshops in qualitative
software, and its methodological consequences, specially in relation to what I call the
“quantitativation” of qualitative data. Finally, I will outline some key elements to lead future reflection
on this topic, and will pose possible solutions.
Keywords: Periphery, qualitative research, qualitative software, quantitative methodology, training,
validity, reliability, rigorousness.
A Context-Oriented Approach to Design of Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data
Analysis Software
Gennady Kanyguine, Sociological institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, [email protected]
By what means CAQDAS can retrieve with help of the user more information from data as compared
with the conventional coding and retrieval (C&R) operations?
A basic tool of C&R is an imitation of the notion clarification in the shape of the relationship ‘one-tomany’. Ex. in any tree-like component of CAQDAS such clarification is represented as denotation for
a given node (linked to the notion to be explicated) of its children (bound to the clarifying concepts).
Actually, such CAQDAS clarification does not fit the practical act of explicating. On the practical
issue it is always supposed that the relationship ‘one-to-many’ is accompanied by circumstances in
evidence which appear as a component of the relationship’s meaning. Ex. SOCIAL STATUS is
INCOME, EDUCATION, OCCUPATION, yet not as a matter of fact but under certain conditions that
should be indicated at the moment of clarification. In this example such indication might be
effectuated, for instance, with the notion of SOCIAL STUDY.
Generally, it is proposed to imitate the explicating act in the shape of a special unit (context-fixed
elucidation) that couples the relationship ‘one-to-many’ and an appropriate notion (context) suggested
by researcher to denote the conditions the explicating act holds.
How to make C&R operations as theory-building tools more consistent?
A key point of applying CAQDAS as theory-building tools is secondary analysis of the codes resulted
from the separation of informational streams (textual, visual, etc.) accomplished by means of C&R
operations. In order to enrich inquiry’s techniques accessible to researcher in such an analysis, the
software, in addition to the codes, gives him/her access to complementary descriptors, for example,
NVivo’s attributes or MAXqda’s variables.
Unfortunately, the codes and descriptors are of unmatched derivations. Literally, the heuristic problem
of stream separation and formal operations on the codes obtained.
To solve the problem of differing derivations in principle, a notion’s model (NM) is proposed. Unlike
the code and complementary descriptor NM implements by itself all basic manipulations performed by
researcher with notion in the process of theory-building - associating, definition in terms of data,
searching, etc.
Because MN grows up as a universal basic component of all computer-assisted operations of
CAQDAS and the indication of the context by researcher is mandatory at every notion’s elucidation,
the approach discussed extends considerably the set of relationships between the appearing computer
analogues of the research notion as compared with the traditional tools of C&R.
Keywords: problem-oriented qualitative data analysis software
154
SESSION: COMPUTER AIDED CONTENT ANALYSIS: RESEARCH,
METHODS AND ITS FUTURE
Organizor: Harald Klein
Contact: Social Science Consulting, Brückengasse 12, 07407 Rudolstadt, Germany
Department
of
Sociology,
Friedrich-Schiller
University,
07740
Jena,
[email protected]
Germany,
Abstract
The aim of this session is to present papers dealing with application fields of computer aided content
analyis. Such papers should focus on the application of the method, the hypotheses, its
operationalisation, and the results. Also papers concentrating on the methodogic and operationalisation
problems are welcome, e.g. how to encounter problems of negation, ambiguity, or other linguistic
problems. Otzher topics maybe software comparisons., new trends in content analysis, standardised
category systems etc. The time for each paper will be ca. 15-20 minutes including a discussion.
Part I
Content Analysis of Short, Structured Texts: The Need for Multifaceted Strategies
Harold W. Bashor, American University of Paris, France
How can one analyze short, structured texts? Content analysis provides a systematic, replicable
technique where validation normally takes the form of triangulation. Such mutual convergence lends
credibility to the findings by incorporating multiple sources of data, methods, investigators, or
theories. However, this paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of triangulation by comparing
data collection methods for long, unstructured texts with short, structured texts.
Considering the limitations of traditional triangulation, a multifaceted strategy has been tailored to
meet the needs of specific, micro-linguistic analysis of a particular genre of text:international treaty
preambles. In addition, a number of different perspectives to discern the following key elements and
the dynamics of text have been examined: (1) purpose or overall agenda, (2) agent and his/her socialcultural standpoint, (3) the intended audience, (4) the socio-political context, and (5) most relevant to
this paper, the language itself: syntax, semantics, style, rhetoric, and structure.
The combination of these elements requires a multifaceted strategy that conventional triangulation
often ignores in content analysis. This paper proposes a multi-layered approach with three different
software programs. Although it has been argued in this paper that mutual validation of results is the
ultimate goal, the capacity for methods to complement each other in the drive towards
'comprehensiveness' should not be assumed; nor should corroboration between methods be
automatically considered unproblematic, and therefore precluding the need for further nvestigation.
Jan Kleinnijenhuis, presumably with Wouter H. van Atteveldt and/or Ivar Vermeulen
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, department of Communication Science, De Boelelaan 1081c, 1081 HV
Amsterdam, tel. +31 20 444 6827 (secr.6854; fax 6820), [email protected].
The profusion of electronically available documents on the web has given rise to the quest for
automatic representations of web content that enable comprehensive understandings of the content on
the Web. The idea of a “semantic web” entails that documents may be marked up with metainformation in markup languages such as RDF in such a way that meaningful summaries,
visualisations and classifications of large sets of texts are easily obtained (Daconta, Obrst, & Smith,
2003). Insights regarding the extraction of the meaning of large sets of texts may also be gained from
155
corpus linguistics (Manning & Schütze, 2002) or from the field of content analysis in the social
sciences (Roberts, 1997)
This paper presents a survey of the problems surrounding the automated extraction of information on
relationships between objects such as organizations, persons and (economic or political) issues. Three
approaches will be described and discussed in more detail:
1. the maximum entropy approach to identifify references to specific organizations, persons and issues
(van Atteveldt, 2003).
2. the usage of electronically available thesauri (e.g. Roget’s thesaurus) to identify positive or negative
relationships between these organizations, persons and issues .(Kleinnijenhuis & Vliegenthart, 2003)
3. the usage of dimensional reduction techniques such as ‘latent content analysis’ to obtain more
robust meanings (Landauer & Dumais, 1997)
These approaches will be applied to extract information on competitive relations between businesses
and between political parties from the web and from electronically available newspaper archives
(LexisNexis).
References
Daconta, M. C., Obrst, L. J., & Smith, K. T. (2003). The semantic web. New York: Wiley.
Kleinnijenhuis, J., & Vliegenthart, R. (2003). Wetenschap in de pers:. Paper presented at the Workshop Science Alliance /
Stichting Weten on Science Communication, Maastricht, 16 en 17 december 2003.
Landauer, T. K., & Dumais, S. T. (1997). A solution to Plato's problem: The Latent Semantic Analysis theory of the
acquisition, induction, and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104, 211-240.
Manning, C. D., & Schütze, H. (2002). Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. Cambridge MA / London:
MIT press.
Roberts, C. W. (Ed.). (1997). Text analysis for the social sciences: methods for drawing statistical inferences from texts and
transcripts. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
van Atteveldt, W. H. (2003). Information Extraction using Sequencing with Large Label Sets. Unpublished Master Thesis,
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
Why People Reject Super-fair Offers. Evaluating Video Experiments on Ultimatum
Bargaining Run in PR China
Heike Hennig-Schmidt1, Zhu-Yu Li2 and Chaoliang Yang3
1
Laboratory of Experimental Economics, University of Bonn,
Germany, Tel.: +49 228 73 9195, Fax: +49 228 73
http://webserver.econ1.uni-bonn.de/
2
Economic College, Sichuan University, 29, Wangjiang Road,
+86 28 5417673, [email protected]
3
Laboratory of Experimental Economics, University of Bonn,
Germany
Adenauerallee 24-42, D-53113 Bonn,
9193, [email protected],
Chengdu 610064, PR China; Tel/Fax:
Adenauerallee 24-42, D-53113 Bonn,
Subjects in Ultimatum Bargaining Experiments have been found not only to reject offers that are to
their disadvantage. They also turn down offers that are to their benefit. It has been argued that
rejecting super-fair offers indicate subjects’ misunderstand of the strategic features of the game. Other
authors attribute the refusal of generous offers to the culture of status-seeking through gift-giving:
Accepting gifts might imply strong obligations to reciprocate in the future which the receiver wants to
avoid.
To investigate subjects’ own reasoning, we video taped discussions of subject groups acting together
as either a sender or a receiver in an Ultimatum Game experiment. We subsequently content analysed
the discussions. Our study shows that the above-mentioned views on the driving forces for rejecting
super-fair offers are far too narrow. Subjects’ motives range from other-regarding views of mutual
fairness to the preference for certain numbers. The paper gives a detailed analysis of the arguments
found and their impact on behavior.
156
Part II
Marguerite Kolar, Australia
The purpose of this research is to measure the progress towards stated change objectives through
weekly email communications from a single source. Measuring the progress of change provides
researchers and practitioners alike, the opportunity to evaluate the extent to which messages are
reflecting the progress of the change and whether the messages are reinforcing the organisation’s
change objectives.
This paper identifies potential methodologies and tools for the analysis of the email data set.
Discussion on various message analysis techniques, the pros and cons of using computerised tools
during qualitative analysis and identification of the most appropriate methodology and computerised
tool for this research are covered. Criteria for determination of the appropriate methodology include
ability to qualitatively analyse data to identify mutually exclusive themes, ability to compare themes
against researcher determined concepts (e.g. transformation change characteristics), the ability to
quantitatively analyse data to identify trends and availability of computerised tools associated with the
methodology, as the data set is already on a computer. Content Analysis is determined to be the most
appropriate methodology based on these criteria and the VBPro tool is identified as the most
appropriate tool.
Inductive versus Deductive Approach: Computer-assisted Content Analysis without
Dictionary?
Cornelia Zuell and Juliane Landmann, ZUMA, Mannheim, Germany
Dictionary construction is a very time-consuming and tedious task. Furthermore, dictionary-free
approaches promise to be able to analyse the texts, i.e. to find interrelationships among words and to
identify the underlying concepts in a text. We will discuss such a dictionary-free approach and its
advantages and disadvantages using texts from two different newspapers: the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung and the New York Times. We analysed articles published at the beginning of the war in Iraq
(March 18 to 20, 2003) and articles published at the end (April 7 to 9) in the two newspapers.
Overview on Standardised Category Systems in Computer aided Content Analysis
Harald Klein, Social Science Consulting, Brückengasse 12, 07407 Rudolstadt, Germany, Tel/ Fax:
+49 3672 488494
One of the most time consuming parts in a content analysis ist he construction of a category system.
Most studies have to develop their own category system, and often this will never be used again.
This paper will show thaat standardised category system for general and speicifc research purposes are
available. The category systems and their categories will be discussed, and one focus is which
category systems can be used with which software.
157
Part III
TCA: General Purpose Software for Semantic and Thematic Text Analysis
Carl W. Roberts, 210D Snedecor Hall Tel: 515/294-8929; fax: 294-4040), 217A East Hall, Tel.
515/294-2114; fax: 294-2303), Iowa State University (Ames, IA 50011; USA)
Text analysts generally use one of two strategies to develop a dictionary for classifying texts' words
and phrases into "meaning categories" prior to statistical analysis. Either they use a dictionary
developed by someone else, or they develop their own. TCA was developed as an aide to text analysts
of the latter type, namely to those who use key-word-in-context routines to construct dictionaries with
meaning categories that correspond more to the texts under analysis than to the analyst's
preconceptions. The program enables users to generate data suitable not only for thematic text analysis
(i.e., analyses of word/phrase counts within blocks of texts), but also for the type of semantic text
analysis (i.e., analyses of words/phrases' relations within a semantic grammar) developed by the
author. In addition, TCA has powerful tools for automatically (or manually) parsing texts into
sentences, paragraphs, and larger text blocks, plus a capacity to input contextual data regarding these
blocks.
Thomas König, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU,
United Kingdom, Brockington Building U.01.03, Tel. +44 (0)1509 223730, fax +44 (0)1509 223944,
[email protected]
Even though frame analysis has become a popular analytical framework in media studies and social
movement research, the methodological underpinnings of the empirical identification of frames lack
systematization and have consequently remained underdeveloped. This paper consolidates recent
advances in the empirical measurement of frames and explores, in how far computer-assisted
qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) can extend on these methodologies. Because framing
has become a fairly widely used but ill-defined concept, the paper will start with a brief delineation of
framing theory as it is understood for present purposes. Next, current attempts to measure frames
empirically in a systematic fashion will be discussed and a methodology, which synthesizes some of
these approaches will be proposed. This methodology attempts in a first step to draw on existing
knowledge on metanarratives to avoid a purely inductive identification of frames. Additionally,
automatic word mapping tools such as Leximancer, Sphinx Survey Lexica are suggested as
interpretative aids. In a second step, the analyst identifies a set of keywords, key phrases, and possibly
audial or visual symbols that indicate frames in his data. These indicators are then used in a third step
to semi-automatically identify frames in the remainder of the data. Keywords that might acquire
different meanings in different contexts are inspected in their contexts by the analyst, who decide on
their coding. This method avoids both the rigidities that come with fully automatic keyword clustering,
which may lead to the inclusion non-interpretable keywords as well as the exclusion of so-called stop
words such as prepositions and articles, which under certain circumstances might indeed be the
strongest indicators for certain frames. At the same time it allows for a degree of routinization and
systematization in frame analysis, whose quality has notoriously depended on the creativity of the
framing researchers.
Six CAQDAS – ATLAS.ti, Kwalitan, MAXqda, NVivo, Qualrus, and QDA Miner – are examined
with respect to their usability in this type of framing research.
158
Raymond C. Maietta1 and Sharlene Hesse-Biber2
1
ResearchTalk Inc., 1650 Sycamore Ave, Suite 53, Bohemia, NY 11716, Tel: +1-631-218-8875,
www.researchtalk.com
2
Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167, Tel: (617) 552-4139,
Fax: (617) 552-4283, [email protected]
In its current state, qualitative software accommodates analysis of data in text, graphic, audio and
video format and supports a diverse range of data types and analytic approaches from quantitative
verification to loose heuristic analysis. Dr. Maietta and Dr. Hesse-Biber examine important questions
that arise from this point organized into key sections of their co-edited volume When Methods Meets
Technology: Important Issues in Qualitative Software Evolution:
Methodological Implications - How does accommodation to such a large, and even conflicting, set of
analysis approaches affect implications and impressions of software use? What impact does qualitative
software use have on the field of qualitative analysis?
Pedagogical Approaches - Is there one 'right way' to teach qualitative software? When should
qualitative software be introduced to scholars? Can the careful introduction of qualitative software
integration techniques inspire improved qualitative scholarship?
Applied User Experiences - How is qualitative software being used within different disciplines and
industries (academia, government, not-for-profit, and corporate)? What lessons can be learned to
ensure careful and creative application of these products?
The session concludes with debate that focuses on just how much more innovation is needed for
qualitative software to meet the needs for current and future directions in qualitative analysis.
Part IV
Comparative Computerized Content Analysis of Party Manifestos: Methodological
Considerations and Empirical Results
Paul Pennings, Dept. of Political Science, DBL 859, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan
1081-c, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel. +31.20.4446852, fax. +31.20.4446820,
[email protected], www.fsw.vu.nl/~pennings
Since the 1970s different types of content analyses have been applied to party manifestos. These documents present the main party policy positions during elections and, although hardly read by voters,
they are crucial for determining where parties stand vis-á-vis each other. The recent digitalization of
these documents opens up new possibilities for content analysis. This paper explores the possibilities
and limitations, discusses some problems and pitfalls, assesses the validity and reliability of the coding
technique and presents some preliminary results.
The approach which is used in the paper is a dictionary-based content analysis. The dictionary holds
nearly 6000 key words and covers nearly 20 areas of policy-making. It is designed analyse digitalised
party manifestos in 20 countries in the period 1960-present. It will be shown that it is especially useful
to analyse the position of parties on main conflict dimensions (left versus right etc.), but that it can
also be used to study one particular issue.
159
Concepts of Animal Kingdom in Brazilian Television Advertise: a Comparative Content
Analysis
Ana Laura Arruda1 and Claudia Rosa Acevedo2
1
Faculda de Orlândia, Rua Moreira de Oliveira, 132. Alto da Boa Vista, CEP 14025-300, Ribeirão
Preto, SP, Brasil, Tel: 55 16 623-1647 or 55 16 3826-9888, [email protected]
2
Centro Universitário Nove de Julho – Uninove, Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 612. Água Branca, CEP
05001-100, São Paulo, SP, Brasil, Tel: 55 11 3665-9300 or 55 11 55.75.25.31, Fax: (55 11) 36659302, [email protected]
The relative absence of content analysis studies applied to Brazilian advertise, allied to the increasing
interest about animals, created by social changes and environment conscientiousness actions, beyond
the dispersion of human – animal relationships scientific works justify this research. With the purpose
to identify how Brazilian advertise represents the various concepts about animal kingdom that exist in
literature of reference, a set of these concepts categories was worked out. Using both classic and
interpretive content analysis methodologies, two groups of invited judges examined and classified the
same set of ads selected from a collection of Brazilian laureate commercials that comprehend the
period of 1950 to 2000, and the results are compared. Although this research presents limitations
material order, its results confirm the formulated hypothesis and validate the conceptual framework
proposed here. A larger knowledge of the content of Brazilian advertise with animals may be useful in
the generation of new studies that require the conceptual framework developed in this work.
Information about Brazilian cultural values of the animal kingdom may become practical contributions
for the economy, facilitating the process to create new products and services oriented to animal
consumption.
Instrumentally Rational Approaches to Health Care Quality in the U.S. Health Care
System: From Professional Education to Practice Guidelines
Amit Nigam, Management & Organizations and Sociology, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
To assess how professions can promote the rationalization of social life, and how institutional change
in professional fields can shape their role in promoting rationalization, I examine changing
conceptions of and approaches to quality medical care among American physicians during a period of
institutional change in the U.S. health care system. This study draws on content analysis of discussions
of health care quality, drawing on abstracts focused on healthcare quality, as categorized by the
National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINE database, in the Journal of the American Medical
Association from 1983 until the present. At adopts a grounded theory approach, beginning with
inductive analysis of the abstracts to develop a list of keywords and codes. It does an automatic coding
of the abstracts based on 66 codes. It uses partitition cluster analysis, guided by qualitative analysis of
potential groupings of the abstracts, to identify distinct approaches towards healthcare quality in the
abstracts. It then draws on qualitative analysis of the abstracts, by cluster, to develop theory about
changing approaches to healthcare quality over time. Based on this analysis, this study argues that
physicians’ approaches towards quality medical care shifts from an educational professional approach
focused on the education and licensing of physicians and on physicians’ knowledge and skills towards
a guideline/standards-based approach that emphasizes adherence to established guidelines or standards
for treating particular diseases or conditions.
160
SESSION:
SURVEYS
THE
RESPONSE
PROCESS
IN
ESTABLISHMENT
Organizor: Tony Hak
Contact: Faculteit Bedrijfskunde/ Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: establishment surveys; response process; ethnography; debriefing
Abstract
The survey questionnaire is a document type for which a gamut of specialized test procedures have
been developed, of which ‘cognitive interviewing’ and ‘behavior coding’ are the most widely used.
These methods focus on the interaction between the document and the respondent, and on the
cognitive tasks posed by the contents and the design of the questionnaire. Usability testing has been
applied to design aspects of electronic questionnaires, separately from the non-electronic aspects for
which the traditional test procedures are used.
Establishment surveys differ from other surveys in one important respect: respondents are not
reporting for themselves as people but for an organization, which means that the interaction between
the questionnaire and the respondents is more complex. In many cases, the questionnaire will be read,
discussed and manipulated by different persons, which implies that the questionnaire will ‘travel’ from
desk to desk, or from PC to PC. This applies both to the traditional paper form of the establishment
survey questionnaire as well as to the increasingly more common electronic form. This characteristic
of the establishment survey makes it useful, but challenging, to develop methods for researching the
response process in establishment surveys.
Papers in this session might focus on the characteristics of the response process in establishment
surveys or on methods (such as participant observation, debriefing and other kinds of interviews) that
are developed to study this process.
The Evaluation of Establishment Survey Questionnaires: Experiences from combining
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Deirdre Giesen, Statistics Netherlands, Department of Methods & Informatics, [email protected]
At Statistics Netherlands one of the most valued methods for evaluating and improving establishment
survey questionnaires is on site observation of the response process. A careful registration of how
respondents understand and answer the questions yields rich information about measurement problems
of the questionnaire and often provides ideas for possible solutions for those problems. These data
however come at a high cost: both the data collection and data analysis are time consuming and
require highly qualified staff.
As we can only visit a small number of different respondents we have to be careful in the selection of
the type of respondents we want to visit and the questions to focus on. Furhtermore, we would like to
have some quantitative indicators that can be considered representative for the population that can help
us “weigh” our findings from the qualitative fieldwork.
Currently, we are working on the evaluation of the Structural Business Survey (SBS) questionnaire.
The SBS questionnaire is sent out yearly to around 80,000 establishments, covering all size classes
and almost all branches. The SBS questionnaire consists of a uniform core part and 179 unique parts,
containing questions specific for type of industry and size class. Given the large heterogeneity of both
the respondents and the questions to be evaluated, the concerns stated above about the restrictions of
on-site observation as a method are extra significant. We have therefore decided to use both
quantitative and qualitative methods as a preparation and a background for our qualitative fieldwork.
These methods include:
focus group interviews with among others field officers and editing staff
unit non-response analyses
161
item non-response analyses
data quality indicators
spontaneous comments by respondents about the questionnaires
All methods are used to assess for which questionnaires, questions and types of respondents problems
occur. In this paper I compare and discuss the findings of these different methods.
Keywords: establishment surveys, questionnaire evaluation, mixing quantitative & qualitative
methods, response model.
Redesigning Statistics Canada’s Annual Survey of Manufactures – Overview of
Respondent Testing using Cognitive Interview Techniques
Kevin Roberts, Annual Survey of Manufactures, Manufacturing, Construction and Energy Division
Statistics Canada, 11-B6 Jean-Talon Building, (613) 951-6927, [email protected]
The Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging is conducted every year by Statistics Canada to
obtain important information on the manufacturing sector of the Canadian economy. Manufacturing
establishments in Canada are required to provide information on such aspects of their operations as
sales, costs/expenses, salaries and wages and commodity detail. As part of an agency streamlining
initiative the survey is being re-designed for reference year 2004. The main objectives are to
implement measures leading to efficiencies in survey process and to reduce respondent burden.
Consequently, the questionnaire has been re-designed to include a “user-friendly” set of financial
variables and a new commodity classification structure that significantly reduces the number of
categories collected.
As part of this process, a large respondent test was conducted that involved using “one-on-one”
cognitive testing techniques. Test participants selected were representatives from enterprises involved
in various types of manufacturing. In-depth interviews were conducted at their place of business in
several large cities across Canada. The objectives of the test were to obtain feedback from respondents
on their overall impressions and reactions to the content of the new form. During the meeting, the
respondent was asked to “think aloud” as he/she was completing the questionnaire. This technique
allowed us to determine respondents’ understanding of specific concepts, questions and terminology.
In addition, the ability of the respondent to answer the questions in the context of their own operations
and accounting procedures needed to be measured. The paper reviews the results and experience
gained using this qualitative testing method.
Keywords: Respondent Testing, Cognitive Interviewing, Establishment Survey
The Use Of Qualitative Interviewing To Determine The Acceptability And Take Up Of
Web Data Collection Instruments for Mandatory Business Surveys
Zoë Dowling, University of Surrey, Guilford, UK, [email protected]
Many governments require establishments to provide details of their business activities. These details
are often gathered via means of a survey by the country’s National Statistical Institution (NSI). Whilst
responding to these surveys can be a mandatory requirement (for example, as in the United Kingdom),
the NSI works within the parameters of minimising response burden whilst maintaining acceptable
levels of data quality amongst other concerns. With ever-growing Internet connectivity within
businesses the World Wide Web presents a new mode for data collection, one that appears to offer
many advantages. For example in terms of response time and survey costs, amongst others. However,
should NSIs offer the option to respond via the Web, the question remains whether businesses
perceive this as an acceptable means to respond to a survey?
In order to best address this question, series of qualitative, face-to-face interviews with business,
which have experience of responding to mandatory surveys, was undertaken in the first half of 2004.
More specifically, 30-40 semi-structured interviews were carried out within1 businesses to discuss
162
three main themes, centred around 1) their experience in responding to a survey, 2) their use and
perception of the Internet, and 3) design and functionality issues within Web questionnaires. The
interviews included the use of visual prompts – a paper version of a mandatory survey and three
alternative Web versions of a section of the questionnaire.
This paper will discuss the successes and failures of the methodological approach taken to address the
research question. In particular, it will evaluate the use of the Web illustrations as visual prompts
within the interviews.
This paper arises from on-going PhD research at the University of Surrey. It funded by the UK
Economic and Social Research Council with the UK Office for National Statistics as collaborating
partners. The views expressed in this paper are entirely my own and do not necessarily represent those
of my funders.
Keywords: Establishment surveys, Web data collection, qualitative interviews, visual prompts
1
That is to say, the interviews will take places on the premises of the participating businesses
The Contact and Response Process in Business Surveys: Lessons from a Multimode
Survey of Employers in the UK
Peter Lynn and Emanuela Sala, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, UK,
[email protected], [email protected]
On surveys of businesses, the processes of making contact and obtaining co-operation are quite
different from those on more frequently studied types of surveys, such as those of households or
private individuals. We describe experiences and outcomes on a business survey and discuss lessons
that can be learnt in order to maximise contact and co-operation rates on future surveys. The survey in
question has some valuable characteristics, including a wealth of auxiliary information. It also presents
an interesting perspective on issues of privacy and confidentiality.
As part of a large-scale methodological study known as ISMIE (Jäckle et al, 2004), a survey was
carried out in 2003 amongst a sample of employing organisations. The purpose was to obtain
validating information regarding employees who had taken part in a survey interview, answering
questions about occupation, industry, working hours, pay, pension and related issues. In the initial
survey interview, consenting respondents provided contact details for their employer. The survey of
employing organisations was initially carried out by post, including two reminder mailings. This
achieved a 51% response rate. Employers who did not reply to the postal survey were subsequently
approached by telephone. If possible, an attempt was made to collect the required information over the
phone; alternatively, another copy of the questionnaire could be mailed or faxed if requested. This
boosted the response rate to 72%.
We analyse the extent to which each mode (post, telephone, fax) influenced response rate and nonresponse bias. We also analyse reasons for refusals, which were recorded for the telephone stage and
have been coded where possible for the postal stage. We then focus on the telephone stage, for which
detailed systematic information was collected about the process of attempting to make contact and
gain response. This enables us to study the process and the relationship with the final outcome.
Additionally, we draw upon information obtained in debriefing interviews with the telephone
interviewers.
We present evidence of the number and distribution of calls made, broken down into three phases:
making contact with the organisation, making contact with the respondent, and completing the
questionnaire. Several outcomes were possible at each call and we present indications of the
prevalence and consequences of each. It was often necessary to get past “gatekeepers” such as
receptionists or secretaries and we will describe some strategies that were adopted to achieve cooperation. With respect to completing the questionnaire, we investigate the extent to which different
sections were completed by different people, the nature of the questions for which a different
respondent was often needed, and we identify question types that employers were relatively more
likely to be willing to complete by phone, rather than by mail or fax. A common request was for the
employer to be sent (typically by fax) a copy of the signed consent form that had been provided to the
163
survey organisation by the employee. Overall, the response process during the telephone phase of the
survey was typically long and complicated: we identify common sequences of contact types.
Several practical conclusions are drawn regarding the design of surveys of this kind and the
organisation of the data collection effort. In summary, we conclude that respectable response rates and
response quality can be achieved, but that this requires considerable effort and a flexible approach to
contact and response, allowing the preferences and requirements of the respondent (employing
organisation) to dictate the methods used by the survey organisation.
Keywords: Business surveys, co-operation, non-contact, non-response, refusal, survey mode
Using Respondent Site Visits to Improve the Design of Establishment Surveys
Stanley R. Freedman and Robert Rutchik, Energy Information Administration, USA
The testing of survey questionnaires with potential respondents is a time honored method for
improving the data collection instrument before the study is fielded. One of the more frequently used
techniques falls into the category of “cognitive interviewing.” The response model it addresses is that
the subject is reporting information about themselves.
In establishment surveys the response model is different and more complex. The respondent is an
intermediary between the information that a researcher wants and data that a business maintains. In
large companies or with complex surveys, several people may provide input to the survey. Even if the
questions are clear and well understood, a business may not keep exactly the data a researcher is
looking for, or keep it in a format that makes it difficult for the company to respond. These additional
elements in the establishment survey response model require modification to some of the traditional
techniques.
This paper discusses three methods used by EIA to address the issues raised in the establishment
survey model. They are pre-survey design visits, cognitive interviews on draft survey instruments, and
respondent debriefings. Findings on the effectiveness of each technique will be presented based on
work done at the Energy Information Administration.
Keywords: Establishment surveys, survey design; respondent site visits
SESSION: THE ETHICS AND SOCIAL RELATIONS OF RESEARCH
Organizers: Carole Truman1 and Anne Ryen2
Contact: 1Lancaster University, UK, [email protected]
2
Agder College, Norway
Keywords: Research relationships; cross-cultural research; ethical issues; Power in research
Abstract
This session invites papers which adopt critical perspectives on ethical issues in social research. We
invite papers which seek to widen the debates which relate to ethical considerations in research beyond
that prescribed by processes of formal/standardised ethical review.
We particularly encourage perspectives which draw from the feminist and/or post-colonial literature
on research methodology which situates ethics within the context of the social relationships of the
research process. We encourage theoretical contributions, as well as those which explore ethical issues
within the context of doing social research.
164
David Chavis, Association for
[email protected]
the
Study
and
Development
of
Community,
USA,
This proposed paper will explore the best and worst practices in relationship building among
researchers (including evaluators) and consumers, particularly in the community development area.
We often focus on best practices as a way to learn, but worst practices need to be brought out.
Research and evaluation uses information that is a resource that a local community has which is often
used to benefit “outside” interests, often at great cost to local community. Low income and racial
minority communities in modernized and developing countries are often the subjects of research and
their self help efforts the fodder for evaluations by “objective” outsiders. In order to justify the
outsiders’ collection and use of this resource, local institutions and individuals need to be seen as
inadequate and incapable. In this common condition, the relationship is greatly imbalanced and
assumptions of adequacy-inadequacy are paramount. The resource of information is used to benefit
outside sources, since locals could not adequately use it.
An emerging practice of collaboration (under many different names) reflects a perspective that
relationships between scientist/evaluator are based on mutual benefit and competence. Information as
a resource can be mutually beneficial to enhance local capacity and broader knowledge in a field. This
paper will present examples, both good and bad, on how to build local capacity for change in low
income and minority communities as well as how to inadvertently even a well intended researcher can
create harmful relations. Examples will be drawn from the authors experience as a scientist/ evaluator
and consultant often used to “repair” severely damaged relationships among research and low income
and minority communities.
Keywords: community development, research capacity, collaborative research
Anne Halvorsen, Agder University College, Norway, [email protected]
In defining the goal, setting the scene and sampling/identifying interviewees the researcher/interviewer
constitutes the Self in the Self-Other relationship in the qualitative interview. Her responsibility is to
make the best possible conditions for obtaining access to data, often expressed through the innermost
feelings, thoughts and ideas of the Other – the interviewee. In doing so she is expected to downplay
her own feelings, reactions and responses to whatever occurs during the interview, or to use them in as
an instrument in ‘collecting’ the data (Fog 1994). In both cases she is expected to in control of the
interaction between the two, she should not fall into the category of “the controlled”. The Self, who
asks for revelations from the Other, and thus makes the Other vulnerable, is supposed to remain
herself invulnerable (Fine et al 2000).
This is in line with the general description of the relationship between researcher and respondent. The
interviewee is usually depicted as the less powerful of the two, even if she is expected to contribute the
lion’s share to the dialogue, both in quantity and substance. I think this largely holds even for
perspectives which allow for the interviewer to take a more active part in the interview. The purpose
of the interview is, regardless of naturalistic, constructivist or other epistemological approach to lay
bare (reality through) ‘the interviewee’s point of view’, also when the role of the researcher as a coproducer of data is acknowledged.
During a pilot study involving former child protection clients, I interviewed a 20 year old woman who
made me question and reflect on this Self-Other relationship. Meeting her also challenged me on a
more personal level; I had to admit and rethink my preconceptions of “the powerless client”, and
acknowledge that I still had a long way to go as far as my skills as a qualitative interviewer is
concerned. The reason for this has, I think, much to do with vulnerability – both that of the
interviewee, and my own.
In this paper I will discuss how my expectations to an interview with a “former child protection client”
and “a vulnerable Other” proved wrong, and how I came to learn more about “the roles and rules of
165
the interview” (and about myself) in the way I tackled or “mis-tackled” what happened. This might
add some nuances to the discussion about the relationship of the Self (“the research community”) and
the Others (marginalised groups) in research (Fine et.al. 2000).
References
Fog, Jette (1994): Med samtalen som utgangspunkt. Det kvalitative forskningsinterview. København: Akademisk forlag.
Fine, Michelle, Lois Weis, Susan Weseen and Loonmun Wong (2000): “For Whom? Qualitative Research, Representations
and Social Responsibilities” I Denzin, N.K. and Y.S. Lincoln (2000): Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. Sage.
Sue Heath, Vikki Charles, Graham Crow and Rose Wiles, University of Southampton, UK,
[email protected]
Gaining informed consent from people involved in research is central to ethical research practice. Yet
is it ever possible to achieve genuine informed consent within the research process? Certain research
contexts may make this more difficult to achieve than others, for example, whilst the power relations
inherent in some types of research may have a similar impact. This paper reports on an Economic and
Social Research Council-funded project concerned to identify current practice with regard to the
process of obtaining informed consent by researchers working in the areas of childhood, youth,
ageing, palliative care, mental health and learning difficulties. These areas have been highlighted as
areas where research participants are often constructed as potentially vulnerable within the research
process. As a consequence, their involvement in research tends to be mediated by gatekeepers and gobetweens.
This paper will focus on the impact of these concerns in research with children and young people.
Drawing upon the views and experiences of researchers working in these areas, it will highlight the
tensions experienced by many researchers between a personal commitment to an ethical framework
which seeks to prioritise the agency of children and young people (based upon notions of ‘ethical
symmetry’ or ‘process consent’, for example) and the requirements imposed upon them by a variety of
gatekeepers and go-betweens, particularly within institutional settings such as schools, which may run
counter to this commitment. It is argued that processes of formal/standardised ethical review are often
inadequate to cope with the realities of negotiating informed consent within the field.
Keywords: Informed consent, research ethics, children and young people.
Wading through “The Jungle” with my Main Informant. A critical discussion of ethical
practice in cross-cultural ethnography.
Anne Ryen, Agder University College, Servicebox 422, 4604 Kr.sand S, Norway, [email protected]
This paper deals with ethical practice when working with a main informant in cross-cultural
ethnographic research. The author points to two delicate ethical issues. The first deals with the
professional as opposed to the private in field relations. The second issue refers to the tricky outcomes
of the referred professional code of ethical field practice. With reference to data the author calls for a
more critical, less orthodox stance on ethics and ethnography.
With reference to the first issue the author argues that a strong differentiation between the professional
and the private may emerge as unethical, colonial, hierarchical and impossible as they get intertwined.
Spending hours and days together in the field, the borderline between a research - and a social
relationship becomes blurred paradoxically motivated by the Western standard interview prescriptions.
As a consequence research relations may be more turbulent than described in most research reports. In
this way ethnographic research also includes experiences deviating from expectations to the standard
portrait of the idealized informant and researcher as the background to standardized ethical guidelines.
Rather than a failure, this aspect of ethnographic field research is argued to inform our research with
interesting contextual data.
166
In the second issue the author claims that the relational outcomes of so-called successful ethical
ethnographic work following standard ethical codes may be more delicate than assumed. The
professional may work to deceive rather than to protect the informant. Our quest for data makes the
solution to this issue more delicate.
The paper ends by relating the discussion of ethical complexity in research practice to two more
profound aspects of ethics and research across cultures. One vital question is the social processes by
which ethical issues come to be constituted as ethical issues. This includes the question if Western
research ethics are universal and also applicable in Sub-Saharan research contexts or if Western
research codes simply represent a prolongation of previous colonial relations?
And eventually, do ethical codes reflect the dominance of a certain ontology and epistemology, and if
so, what are the alternatives and the risks?
The paper draws on data from a research project on Asian businesses in East-Africa. The author has
worked with her main informant, an Asian businessman, for 2 ½ years, and her data consist of taped
talk, participant observation, mobile calls, SMS and hand written letters.
Keywords: research ethics, ethnography, colonial research, Western research ethics, ontology,
epistemology
Trond Stalsberg Mydland, Agder
[email protected]
University
College/
Agder
Research
Foundation,
Qualitative approaches, such as participant observational fieldworks and interviews, are widespread
used as methods in anthropological and sociological studies. Methodological theories and techniques,
as well as formal ethical reviews, are important when researchers design and do suchlike approaches.
But doing fieldwork and doing interviews always more or less involve implications that can be
difficult to foresee in advance of face-to-face meeting involving informants and researchers. Several
aspects evolve throughout these social meetings. Some of these are conscious, others unconscious,
some are made conscious, others are not.
Emotional implications can be such aspects, which can be difficult to predict prior to the actual
meeting of informant and researcher. Likewise, how to establish meaning in emotional expressions
challenges researchers’ professional and personal skills and experiences. Such challenges occur both
in the definite meeting of informant and researcher, and afterwards.
It can also be demanding for the researcher to get admission to informants’ experiences of emotions in
the definite situation. To assure that informants are prevented from unpleasantness even more difficult.
Meaning is negotiative, and emotional meaning can be challenging to determine.
In this paper I will discuss approaches to two different empirical fields. First I will consider challenges
in participant observation as method for exploring communication in social relations with informants
who have a mental retardation and do not have a verbal language, or other fully developed sign
language. Second I will examine challenges in qualitative interviews with persons who have sentences
on rape and sexual assaults. In both these fields I have experienced that emotional implications can be
challenging to handle, ethically, personally and professionally.
Keywords: qualitative approaches, methodology, emotional implications, communication
The Regulation of Research Ethics – Some Challenges of Social Diversity
Carole Truman, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK,
[email protected]
One of the greatest challenges to social researchers is presented by the ethical regulation of social
research. The role of research ethics committees has expanded across the UK and North America and
the process of ethical review has become institutionalised by a variety of statutory and institutional
167
bodies. Ethics committees have gained a powerful role as gatekeepers within the research process.
However, it is often the case that the re-constitution of ethical guidelines are underpinned by a range
of measures which protect institutional interests, without necessarily providing an effective means to
address the moral obligations and responsibilities of researchers in relation to the production of social
research. This paper provides a discussion of research ethics from the standpoint of research
participants who may come from diverse or marginalised social groups. This perspective provides a
useful dimension to current debate. The paper discusses ethical issues which may emerge from the
perspective of participants during the actual research as it is carried out. Individual and collective
perspectives on ethics within social research highlights incongruities between the formal ethical
regulation of research, and the experiences of research participants in relation to the research process.
Keywords: Research Ethics; Participatory Research; Research Governance; Social Diversity;
Marginalised Groups
Susan Boser, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA, [email protected]
The past twenty years has seen a strong emergence of social research approaches that seek to reduce
the distance between the researcher and the researched. Grounded within the critical theory paradigm,
these approaches bring particular attention to relations of power, often with an explicit agenda for
altering power imbalance. Emerging in various forms such as action research, community-based
research or participatory evaluation, such participatory approaches are marked by engaging local
stakeholders directly into the research process itself. Typically these approaches include the researched
in defining the questions, in data collection and analysis, and in interpreting and taking action based on
the research findings. In removing the distanced objectivist stance, such community - researcher
partnerships seek to share power in knowledge generation and, potentially, in decision-making based
on that knowledge. Thus, this movement toward participatory research approaches brings new sets of
social relations for research and, as such, presents a new set of ethical challenges. The current
framework for understanding the ethical issues involved in research is predicated on post-positivist
epistemological assumptions of a distanced objectivist research stance, and thus is ill-suited for
examining the ethics of participatory research approaches. This paper shall address this gap, presenting
a framework for considering the ethical questions involved in research partnerships between the
community and university-based researchers. I will begin by offering an operational definition of
‘participatory research’, articulating the most common elements and describing some of the typical
social relations that are often involved. Then, working from a critical theory perspective, I will
consider some ways in which power imbalance might manifest within a participatory research project
and outline potential ethical implications. Finally, I will suggest questions that participants in
participatory research projects might use to explore such issues, highlighting some potential
methodological implications. Examples from a four-year action research partnership between a
Cornell University doctoral student and a community of local government officials, human service
providers, and persons who used human services will illustrate key points.
Keywords: research ethics; action research; participatory action research; participatory evaluation;
social relations and research
168
SESSION: STUDYING
RESEARCH
SENSITIVE
TOPICS
IN
QUALITATIVE
Organizor: Hennie R. Boeije
Contact: Department of Methodology and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University,
PO Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: sensitive topics, qualitative research, intrusive threat, ethics
Abstract
Despite the sensitive nature of several social science topics such as, bereavement, illness and divorce,
researchers hope and expect research participants to answer their questions and to elaborate in depth
on them. Although most current academic works pay attention to ethical issues in general, it is unclear
what researchers do with these guidelines and considerations and whether they are aware of the
methodological issues concerned when they study sensitive topics.
Lee (1993) described a sensitive topic as one that potentially involves a level of threat or risk to those
studied and distinguished one type of research that poses an intrusive threat as it focuses on areas of
personal experience that are emotionally charged. It is assumed that sensitivity potentially affects
almost every stage of the research process from the formulation of a research problem, through the
design and implementation of a study to the dissemination and application of the findings.
In this session speakers are invited to think about and share their experiences with doing research into
sensitive topics as they were demarcated above, especially with concern to the methodological and
technical problems that were raised and how they dealt with them.
Minerva’s Web: The Internet and Methodologies of Sensitive Subjects
Indhu Rajagopal, Division of Social Science, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Canada, M3J
1P3, [email protected]
Seeking new knowledge requires the use of all information and communication technologies both soft
and hard. Despite the global expansion of the Internet, using the Web as a research tool faces many
barriers and facilitators. Partly it is due to the newness of the medium, and partly due to the subject to
be researched. On both accounts we have indeed made some progress by designing surveys, collecting
narratives, exploring the Web, conducting focus groups using conferencing software, as well as
selecting the subject matter uniquely suitable for Web research. In this paper we will explore whether
there are subjects e.g. pornography, Internet piracy, etc., privileged to be researched through the Web,
and whether there are kinds of information from the respondents – qualitative or quantitative - that are
advantaged through the Web. Indeed, the limitations of the Web in scholarly research will be an
integral part of this analysis.
Keywords: Internet, research methodologies, sensitive subjects, technology, facilitator, research,
knowledge
Positioning Myself as a Researcher in a Politically Sensitive and Volatile Situation
Chaya Possick, Dept. of Social Work, College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel, Ha'alon 37, Ginot
Shomron, 44853, Israel, Telefax: 962-9-792-9885, [email protected]
For the past six years I have conducted qualitative research projects revolving around the experiences
of West Bank settlers. The political situation in Israel in general and, the West Bank in particular, have
undergone rapid and dramatic changes during this period. These changes have included: PalestinianIsraeli negotiations about sovereignty, army redeployments, terrorism, retaliation, and the dividing
fence. All of these developments are highly controversial both within Israeli society and in the
169
international community. They engender intense emotions and tendencies towards argumentation and
defensiveness.
As a qualitative researcher, my aim is to explore the inner thoughts and feelings of the settlers. In
addition to the barriers to open and genuine expression on the part of the respondents regarding highly
controversial and threatening political situations, there are numerous researcher factors that must be
considered. Over-identification on the one hand, and the projection of outsiderness on the other, by the
qualitative researcher, affect the research design, its execution, and the representation of the findings.
This presentation will focus on the concepts of the middle voice, multiple positionings, and
emotionalism, and their application in politically sensitive and volatile research situations. The
application of these concepts will be traced throughout three phases of the research process—1) topic
selection and formulation of research questions, 2) data collection and analysis, 3) writing up and
publication of the research report.
Keywords: qualitative research, sensitive topics, West Bank settlers
Studying Decision-Making Issues at Home: The Nature of the Relation between
Researcher and Participants
María Elena Ramos Tovar, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Graduate School of Social Work,
[email protected] or [email protected]
Studying outcomes of decision-making issues at home has been traditionally analyzed using
standardized questionnaires. However, such an approach is limited in analyzing the ways men and
women persuade, negotiate, or confront in everyday circumstances. The dominant understanding of
women’s power in Latin American is that women reign at home. Discursively, I accepted that answer
but was unsure of up to what point it reflected reality. Several studies, conducted mainly in the U.S.,
concluded that women take responsibilities for children and household tasks and that men take care of
“hard” chores, such as fixing things around the house, or helping their children with their homework.
But does doing such things and deciding about such tasks give women the control and the moral
authority at home? What do they think about doing and deciding such issues? At this point, it was
clear to me that questionnaires would not be sufficient to answer those questions.
Using a qualitative design allowed me to undertake an in-depth description of how power processes
between men and women take place at home. A qualitative technique, such as the in-depth interview,
allowed me to capture the different ways women and men negotiate their lives at home. Many times
people are not conscious of their interactions and decision-making strategies. A qualitative design
serves to describe complexities and processes that more quantitative techniques cannot capture.
One difficult aspect of contacting people was explaining the objectives of the study. First of all, I had
to make clear that I was not a psychologist who was looking to analyze any wrong doing in families’
interactions. To be under scrutiny would be threatening for respondents. But if this study was not to
help solve their problems, what was it for? I did not say that the study was about power but about
familial relationships. I assumed that the concept of power could be problematic since it implied
relationships of authority and that people might feel it inappropriate to talk about authority within the
family. Another difficulty was the role imposed by the participants. Some of them saw me as a
familial counselor. Some thought of me as a mothering wife apprentice. Others as a confidant. Those
roles as an expert and as apprentice were valuable ones. I learned from both of them, but definitely the
one as a counselor was the most difficult one.
Keywords: decision-making, contrasting qualitative-quantitative responses, interaction researcherparticipant
170
Gerben Moerman, Department of Social Research Methodology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De
Boelelaan 1081c, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, +31-20-4446776, [email protected]
In qualitative interviews on sensitive topics, interviewers expect and hope that respondents elaborate
in depth on their questions. Not many respondents however, will promptly elaborate on sensitive
questions. So interviewers need probing while interviewing hesitant respondents. Unfortunately not
much is known about the effects of probing tactics in these situations.
Interviewing respondents on sensitive topics requires a certain amount of respondent’s trust in the
interviewer. For example, if the respondent believes that the interviewer will misuse the information,
the respondent will be reluctant to disclose sensitive information. Fontana and Frey take this
requirement somewhat further by stating that “gaining trust is essential to an interviewer’s success”
(Fontana & Frey, 1998: 59).
Gaining trust is often viewed as part of a more general empathic attitude that the interviewer should
demonstrate during the interview. A probing tactic in which the interviewer uses a repertoire of
complying probes appears to support this empathic attitude. Consequently, other probing tactics with
challenging or accommodating probes are seldom promoted in qualitative interviewing. Hence, there
is still a lack of knowledge about the effects of different probing tactics in qualitative interviews.
This paper focuses on the question whether respondents in interviews on sensitive topics tend to be
more disclosing if a compliant probing tactic is used instead of another. In order to answer this
question, I explore and compare how three probing tactics - compliant, accommodating and
challenging - function in interviews on friendship.
For this experiment nine interviewers were trained to conduct the interviews using solely one of the
three probing tactics. In total 36 respondents were interviewed on the number of friends and the
meaning of friendship. One surprising result among the results presented in this paper is that a
compliant probing tactic does not necessarily leads to more trust then challenging probing tactic.
Pat Cox, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Health, University of Central Lancashire, Preston,
PR1 2HE, United Kingdom, [email protected]
Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 1.2 of the European
Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights incorporate understandings that children and young
people are subjects who can think, conceptualise, form views on past experiences and contribute to
decision-making about their futures. However, the author’s experience is that such understandings are
not consistently reflected by those who commission research involving children and young people, nor
by all providers of health and social care services who may be approached to facilitate access to them.
In this paper the author examines some of the methodological and ethical issues arising from
endeavouring to undertake qualitative research with children, young people and adults. The research
was undertaken in order to assess the need for a proposed community-based support service for
children and young people who are survivors of sexual abuse, and for their safe carers.
The subject of child sexual abuse fits Lee’s (1993) definition of a sensitive topic as potentially
involving a level of threat to research subjects and addressing an area of experience that for survivors,
safe carers, their supporters and for those who work with them is emotionally charged.
The author describes and analyses the processes in the research project outlined above, focussing on
how various people involved in the research, whether as research subjects, researcher, commissioners
of research or gatekeepers, responded to the sensitive nature of its topic. She posits that both differing
agendas (personal and professional) and levels of comfort with the topic influenced responses, and
impacted on the outcome in ways which could not have been anticipated entirely, but which with
hindsight are obvious. She suggests possible ways forward, both for researchers and for those who
commission research.
Keywords: sensitive topics; processes; methodological issue
171
SESSION:
RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS
IN
ETHNOMETHODOLOGICAL AND CONVERSATION ANALYTIC RESEARCH
Organizor: Paul ten Have
Contact: University of Amsterdam, [email protected]
Keywords: ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, interaction studies, recordings-as-data, practical
applications, workplace studies
Abstract
Since their emergence in the 1960s, ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA) have
been relatively ‘stable’ in terms of their general methodological orientation. Their focus is on the
detailed procedural study of the production of social order, often (and in the case of CA always) based
on audio or video recordings of particular situated events. While these traditions have emerged within
sociology, the approach and methodology are now used in a range of disciplines, including
(interactional) linguistics, anthropology, communication studies & (discursive) psychology.
Within the original overall framework, there have been, and still are, some interesting developments
which deserve a focussed methodological discussion, including (but not limited to):
the use of video- and computer-based technologies,
combining recordings and ethnographic fieldwork,
tentative quantifications of particular aspects.
Of particular interest are issues concerning the practical ‘application’ of EM and CA studies in a
number of fields such as:
interaction of/with people with various kinds of communicative impairments
secondary language teaching
work organization in technologically complex settings
human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative work & systems design.
Part I
Technomethodology
Andy Crabtree, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, [email protected]
Harold Garfinkel has had occasion to note that “ethnomethodology is applied ethnomethodology” and
that in its application it has ambitions to become a “hybrid discipline”, merging with different
professions to address their occupational troubles. This paper discusses the emergence of one such
hybrid discipline – technomethodology - in Information Technology (IT) research. Ethnomethodology
has been involved in IT research for twenty years, where the approach initially helped the designers of
IT systems address the troubles brought about by the mismatch of computer applications with the real
world, real time circumstances of their use. In this respect, ethnomethodology’s original role in IT
research was a critical one, drawing attention to the failings of psychological models on which design
was predicated, and the need for design to be responsive to the social circumstances of work within
which IT systems are embedded in their use. This early involvement resulted in the ‘turn to the social’
in IT research, where the challenge became one of understanding the collaborative character of work.
This, in turn, raised the challenge for ethnomethodology to move from design critique to design
practice.
The move from design critique to design practice is a methodological move that requires
ethnomethodology to become an active participant in the “invention of the future”. In the first
instance, this resulted in the incorporation of “workplace studies” in traditional product development
processes. This is a problematic relationship, however, as it casts ethnomethodology in a service
provider role that inhibits the development of a foundational hybrid relationship. The situation is
compounded by fact that the vast majority of ethnomethodological studies of work are not carried out
172
in product development settings but in universities and commercial laboratories, where emphasis is
placed on innovation rather than on the construction of products. There is a need, then, to reconfigure
the relationship to allow the emergence of a socio-technical methodology – technomethodology where technology becomes a vehicle for social research, the results of which in turn propel innovation
and the invention of the future. Drawing on interdisciplinary work involved in the development of an
internationally acclaimed “mixed reality game”, this paper articulates what technomethodology might
be about, what it might look like, and what it might consist of concretely as a hybrid research
methodology for IT research.
Keywords: Ethnomethodology, IT Research, Hybrid Discipline, Technomethodology
Exploring the Possibilities for the Use of Ethnographic, Contextual Information in
Ethnomethodological/ Conversation Analytic Studies.
Bregje C. de Kok, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, [email protected]
In this paper I will discuss whether, and in what way, information about the external context can be
usefully drawn upon in studies based on the analytic traditions of conversation analysis and
ethnomethodology. With ‘external context’ I mean the context external to the conversations on which
the analysis is focused, like the wider cultural context, or biographical characteristics of research
participants.
I will address this question in two ways. First, I will discuss interview data in which Malawians talk
about their own and others’ infertility, and explore how additional, ethnographic, contextual
information may aid understanding of these data. The data analysis will be guided by an analytic
interest in the interactional production and maintenance of ‘common sense’ and social constructions,
rather than a ‘pure’ conversation analytic aim of the sequential organization of turns.
Second, I will problematize arguments put forward by conversation analysts for discarding
information obtained from outside the recorded conversations. Thereby I will discuss how these
arguments point at differences and tensions between current conversation analytic work and its
ethnomethodological foundations.
Normally, conversation analytic studies refrain from using ethnographic data about the ‘wider’
context, because of adherence to the criterion of procedural consequentiality (Schegloff, 1992):
ethnographic information is superfluous as the features of the external context which are relevant for
the interaction will be ‘talked into being’ only ‘there and then’, in the local sequences of talk, and can
thus be discerned in conversation partners’ orientations as displayed in the details of their conduct
(Boden & Zimmerman, 1991, Ten Have , 1990).
However, the vast majority of conversation analytic studies has used data gathered in the analyst’s
own society or cultural setting. Conversation analysts tacitly assume and take for granted the analyst’s
cultural competence to recognize the ‘actions’ which interaction partners bring off in their talk
(Cicourel, 1992; Firth, 1996; Lynch, 1985) and the procedural consequentiality of contextual features.
This raises the question of how talk-in-interaction can be analysed when conversation partners and
analysts do not come from the same cultural and/or linguistic community, and whether at least in such
a case drawing upon information about the external wider context is a useful, and perhaps necessary
tool in the analysis.
In addition, conversation analysis’ reliance on recordings seems to be based on its specific interest in
sequential analysis of the turn taking system, and on an empiricist, realist epistemological perspective.
However, this analytic interest, nor the realist epistemology are characteristic for ethnomethodology as
founded by Garfinkel (1967).
In conclusion, I will argue that discarding information about the external context does not necessarily
follow from the ethnomethodological spirit, and it becomes potentially problematic especially when
dealing with data obtained in a cultural setting different from one’s own.
Keywords: conversation analysis, ethnomethodology, cross-cultural analysis
173
Shifting the Focus: The Impact of Audiovisual Technology on Empirical Research
Antonia L. Krummheuer, University of Bielefeld, Germany, [email protected]
In the last two decades, more and more ethnomethodological and conversation-analytical studies used
video-based technology to collect their data (e.g. workplace studies). One advantage of audiovisual
recordings is the possibility to analyse not only verbal but also non-verbal communication.
Furthermore, the recordings can be replayed arbitrarily and a detailed analysis of the ongoing and
often unnoticed processes of interaction is feasible (e.g. Heath, 1997). Until now, just a few studies
discuss the limitations of the use of video-based technology, e.g. that efforts and costs are high (e.g.
Jordan/Henderson,1995; Ruhleder/Jordan, 1997).
The crucial point is, that the camera is not an “objective” instrument. The existence of the camera in
the field, its position as well as its point of view on the situation (e.g. perspective) influences the field
and shapes the material in special ways and therefore establishes its own structures of meaning. For
example, the position of the camera prearranges the field into sections where relevant action should
take place. Furthermore, not only the camera is influencing the field also the field has an impact on the
video-recording - and the material as well. For example, the position of the camera is limited by
conditions on side and reactions on the camera admit interpretation of the field.
Therefore this presentation shifts the focus from video-recorded interaction to the video-recording
itself. It will focus on the mutual influence of video recordings and the field and its impact on the
collected material. This will be demonstrated with video recorded data of a situation in which a camera
is usually absent. The data is derived from an audiovisual research of computer mediated
communication between human actors and an interactive and personified virtual agent (software
program) on a trade fair. To highlight special aspects, this data will be compared to television
interviews.
Keywords: video- and computer-based technologies; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis;
human-computer interaction
Order in Disorder: Rule-Governed Actions as Sociological Phenomena
Alain Bovet1 and Philippe Sormani2
1
University of Fribourg, Switzerland, [email protected]
2
University of Manchester, UK, [email protected]
Norms, values and rules are commonly considered in sociology as given and explanatory of social
action. However, the plausible explanation of an action does not favour the detailed description of its
course. In effect, the sociological emphasis on norms, values and rules has as an important
consequence to focus upon the conditions of social action rather than its actual accomplishment.
Therefore, the purpose of our paper is to examine two video recordings of how social actions that can
be explained as rule-governed are actually accomplished: in one case, participants in a television
debate struggle to take a turn at talk; in the second case, drivers at Mexico City crossroads struggle to
manoeuvre their cars into the traffic.
As problematic cases, these two instances will allow us to examine how participants produce,
recognize and relate their actions to presumed common rules. Situations of apparent disorder provide a
case in point to show how rules are used by participants as resources to coordinate their respective
actions and re-establish a local order. Turn-taking seems to play a prominent part in that coordination
and this re-establishment. Hence we will focus on how participants conjointly establish where and
when turn transition may occur.
Taking up Wittgenstein’s emphasis on the internal relation between rule and (rule-governed) action,
and Garfinkel’s insistence on their reflexive constitution, the paper respecifies some of the conceptual
and methodological problems involved in the analysis of rule-governed actions, including turn-taking,
as ever investigable sociological phenomena. In particular, the notion of ‘transition relevance place’
will be investigated as the result of participants’ situated enquiries. As methodical achievements, these
enquiries are amenable to ethnomethodological investigations.
Keywords: Rule-governed action, traffic, interaction, turn-taking, ethnomethodology
174
Part II
Charles Antaki1, Ivan van Leudar2 and Rebecca Barnes3
1
2
Manchester University, UK, [email protected]
3
A recent development in Conversation Analysis is its application to the business of psychotherapeutic
interactions. In this paper we show how CA can illuminate how therapist and client achieve certain
therapeutic goals through the design of their talk, but we also address the extent to which CA can
comment on the desirability or advisability of these goals (and the ways they are achieved). At some
point these issues are properly the province of therapists. The tipping point, however, at which CA
ceases to be useful and illuminating, is a matter of debate. We address the issue with an analysis of a
central feature of therapeutic interaction, the therapists' offer of interpretations of the clients' reported
experiences. We show how tensions can arise from the therapists' use of formulations, idiomatic
language and yes-no question formats, and how clients can offer 'resistance' by dispreferred responses.
Whether these discoveries reveal mis-steps in the therapy process, or whether they are subservient to
more overarching therapeutic agendas not visible to the analyst, are matters we shall offer for debate.
Keywords: (applied) conversation analysis; therapeutic interaction; therapists’ interpretations
Mathias Broth, Stockholms universitet, Sweden, [email protected]
This paper presents some results from an ongoing project on television production as an interactional
process. The data used are video-recordings of screens and personnel in the control room and of the
people in the studio during four live productions of the monthly French interview show called "Rideau
Rouge". The interaction on which the paper focusses primarily is taking place between some key
members of the production team: the director and the script posted before the numerous screens and
the switch-board in the control room, and the operators moving around the participants to the studio
interaction in the studio. Since the director and the script on one hand, and the operators on the other,
work in different locations, communication between these parties has to take place using technological
devices. Whereas the director and the script can talk to the operators through a microphone, the
operators can only show the director and the script their respective images, not talk back to them. In
addition, every time that the director puts a certain camera on-air, a tally light is activated both on top
of it and in its viewfinder, which effectively communicates the on-air/off-air distinction to the
camera's operator.
How is it that members to the production team can understand correctly what their colleagues are
doing through the technological configuration at hand, and collaboratively accomplish the wellordered product that the audience can view on their television sets? The answers to this broad question
begin to show that the mediated and asymmetrical character of the interaction between the director and
the operators is clearly consequential for the way they constitute recognizable action. Analysis starts
off with the establishment of timing as a crucial resource for the production of intersubjectivity in this
context. Sequencing and constitution of actions via the technological interface is identified as centrally
a matter of producing actions in strict adjacency, lest they would not be recognized as belonging to a
same sequence of actions at all. The paper then moves on to describe a basic action sequence in live
television production, the "proposal - accept" sequence, and what constitutes its respective action
types. This constantly repeated sequence generates the sequence of shots that the audience sees in the
final programme. The paper's last analytic section concerns the projectability of the actions in the basic
"proposal - accept" sequence. The possibility for members of the team to make successful hypotheses
regarding the production of one of these action types by reference to other aspects of the interactional
175
context is demonstrated, but a case of conflicting projectabilities - generating an "error" in the
production - is also analyzed.
The results yielded by analysing recordings of naturally occurring interaction in this setting, and by
focussing on how members to the team actually treat each other's actions in real time, underscores the
relevance of CA methodology for studying the hitherto unexplored work of collaboratively producing
live television.
Keywords: conversation analysis; sequential analysis; television production; mediated
communication, intersubjectivity; collaborative production
Talk about Talk: The Methodological Status of Teacher Interviews on Classroom
Interaction
Tom Koole, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
In this paper I will discuss one aspect of the methodology of an interdisciplinary project in the
Netherlands that focuses on interaction in multilingual and multicultural classes. Since one of the
project’s interests is in the relation between the teacher’s awareness of linguistic or ethnic differences,
and his interactional behaviour in the class, we videotaped and transcribed maths lessons in first
grades of secondary education (students aged 12-13) and in addition interviewed teachers and
students. One of the methods used to analyse the interactions in the math lessons was Conversation
Analysis (cf. Koole 2003).
In this paper I want to focus on the relation between the interactions in the classroom and the teacher’s
comments on these interactions in the interviews. Part of the interviews have a ‘stimulated recall’
character, which means that the teacher was shown parts of the lesson just recorded and invited to
comment on them. Others parts deal with the more general views the teacher holds on education,
multicultural classes, and specific students. I will present analyses both of fragments of classroom
interaction, and of interviews in a search for teachers’ categorizations of students and their actions.
I will show, in line with Sacks (1992), that categorizations are interactional activities and have a
situated character. It is therefore methodically hazardous to treat the teacher’s categories used in the
interview as identical with categories used in any specific interactional event in the classroom. On the
other hand there is evidence from research of intercultural communication that categorizations
(notably of co-participants) can have a less contingent, relatively stable status in interactional
behaviour. In conclusion I will make the argument that the teacher’s interview statements show us the
range of categories the teacher treats as relevant for categorizing students and their behaviour, but
cannot be used as evidence of relevant teacher categorizations made in any specific event.
What’s in a Name?: Revealing Social Identity
Erica Lea Zimmerman, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, [email protected]
Frequently, a practice of researchers of second language acquisition studies is to presuppose the
identity of the participants as “language learners” in an interaction. These studies often assume before
examining the data that the identities of “non-native speaker” or “second language (L2) learner” are
the relevant identities for the interaction. Using a Conversation Analytic approach for examining
identity in spoken discourse as proposed by Sacks (1992) and Antaki and Widdicombe (1998), this
study will examine how identity is made relevant in naturally occurring speech. The methodological
point of this study is that the analyst should abstain from presupposing the identities of the participants
before examining the data. This means that the analyst must see how the participants themselves orient
to and make relevant identity within the interaction. The data for this presentation is part of a larger
study examining construction of identity by five multilingual speakers of Japanese, who are native
speakers of Korean. Focusing on data from one of the participants from this larger study, this
176
presentation will examine a series of interactions by the same individual, focusing on repair that
occurs once the participant states his name in telephone and face-to-face conversations.
This repair occurred when the participant made phone calls or inquires at places such as the local
police station and the post office. While the focus is on how identity is manifested in talk, the
mechanism for alluding to the identity of the participant is the use of self-initiated, self-repair or otherinitiated self-repair (Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks, 1977). This study finds that the identities made
relevant by the participants in the discourse are “Korean” and “otherness” meaning not Japanese. In
order to provide a better understanding of issues of identity construction in talk in general, this study
will help to open the door of international communication on a level that has not been previously
examined.
Keywords: Conversation analysis, Identity, Second language learning,
SESSION: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THE CHALLENGES
OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY
Organizer(s): Carole Truman1 and Donna Mertens2
Contact: 1Lancaster University, UK, [email protected]
2
Gallaudet University, USA
Keywords: Transformative Research; Emancipatory Research; participatory research; Feminist
Research; Marginalised Groups
Abstract
Contemporary society is characterised by social diversity. This presents particular methodological
issues for social researchers who may find themselves working with diverse groups how may
experience various forms of marginalisation. This session invites papers from practioners of social
research who have addressed or confronted social diversity in their research practice. For example,
how do methodological concerns relate to the way that research 'problems' are framed? How may
research relate to those groups affected by research and meaningfully involve them in shaping the
research process? How can researchers take steps to avoid designing a study that denies treatment to
specific groups who then are "left behind". What methods have been used to collect accurate data
which are culturally appropriate for diverse groups of people.
The session organisers would be keen to receive contributions which have pursued the notion of mixed
methods as a methodological territory to explore issues of doing research w/n culturally diverse
groups.
The Hermit’s Knowledge
Isacco Turina, University of Padua, Italy, [email protected]
In what follows we will try to develop a cognition-based reflexivity, hoping to reach the generalization
and objectivity often denied to emotion-based reflexivity: we suggest that, dealing with its objects,
reflexive sociology should move from the question “What do they do?” to “What do they know?”.
Better, it should inquire the connection between them.
These proposals have been applied in a field research on Italian Catholic hermits, people living a
monastic life in solitude, out of traditional monastic communities. 35 in-depth interviews have been
conducted with them.
Reflexivity helped us to explain why these people living out of society, unanimously affirmed to be
much closer to other human beings than one can be remaining in society. We think that, to understand
such a paradox, an epistemological shift is needed, consisting in perceiving that hermits’ everyday life,
which for a traditional descriptive sociology is the ends of knowledge, is to them on the contrary the
177
means of it. The sociologist, used to consider the act of learning as a work performed through methods
and tools, should become aware that hermit knows with his whole life: that’s like saying that a blind
person sees the world not just by his eyes, but by his whole body.
In modern world, we can recognize two distinct sorts of knowledge: science, in which what people
know and what they do have no links; and truth, where their knowledge obliges them to adhere to it by
actions and behaviour. The former provides objective freedom but only a partial, relative and changing
knowledge: for example, persons must behave and judge differently as they play different social roles.
The latter imposes on its followers to give up freedom to organize their whole life around it, but gives
them in exchange a holistic, stable and absolute understanding of world, history and life: militant
members of religious and political groups are good examples. What we suggest is that science is not
primarily a matter of technology, but a way of life that requires an a priori refusal of matching
knowledge and action: so conceived of, even in modern democracies science could be much less
spread than we usually think, challenged as it is by many kinds of ethical ideologies and religions
requiring a commitment of belief and action.
Methodologically, what we aim to show is the importance of paying attention to a reflexive dimension
which we name cognitive distance, i.e. the difference between two possible meanings of the phrase
“hermit’s knowledge”: the knowledge that the hermit has about the world, and on the other side, the
knowledge that the social scientist has about the hermit. According to us, social sciences should not
forget that:
1) Their objects are also, as the sociologist himself, knowing subjects.
2) Science is not the only way of acquiring knowledge about reality.
Cognitive comparison between the scientist and his objects should prove relevant for that scientific
understanding of them which is the very scope of research.
Keywords: Hermit’s Knowledge, Reflexivity, Truth Science
Bagele Chilisa, Department of Educational Foundations, University of Botswana, P/Bag 0022,
Gaborone, Botswana, [email protected]
Countries that suffered from imperialism and colonisation critique research processes and procedures
on the basis that they are informed and rely on literature and a world view that continues to perceive
the coloniser as the knower and the colonised as ignorant. It is for this reason that some researchers
believe the process of framing research questions, gathering data, analysis and interpretation may if
not carefully examined exclude the colonised worldviews and ways of knowing and thus fail to
communicate their experiences. The article explores processes through which African indigenous
peoples can have greater autonomy in research and construct their own social realities in ways not so
mediated by a Western knowledge systems that are framed solely within the boundaries of Western
history, culture and world views. The article explores in particular philosophic sagacity or the use of
sages in research. Philosophic sagacity is an analysis of accepted practices, believes and worldviews
in African communities. Through Sagacity, the wisdom and beliefs of individuals who have not been
schooled in the formal education system is exposed. A Sage is well versed in the wisdoms of his/her
people and has a reputation for the knowledge; a thinker who is rationally critical and capable of
conceiving excellent options and recommending ideas that offer alternatives to the commonly
accepted opinions and practice. African communities with particular reference to Botswana have had a
long history of diverse ways of processing and producing knowledge in centres such as the Kgotla
(chief’s palace), shrines and religious centres. The production of knowledge was facilitated by
indigenous researchers/intellectuals (sages) that included chiefs, poets, social critics, herbalists, visual
artists, musicians, diviners and storytellers guided by the communities’ values and ways of perceiving
reality. The article looks at the story of HIV/AIDS as revealed by a young artist through his art work.
The article shows how the sage goes beyond explaining people’s behaviour to revealing and
explaining to the people the socially organised powers in which his life and the life of the people in his
community are embedded. The young sage creates the story of HIV/AIDS using materials and images
that reflect realities and experiences as lived by his people. The different sites, and different
178
experiences portrayed through his art provide multiple perspectives and possibilities of diverse
strategies towards addressing the Problem of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Irrationality and Violence in the Postmodernity. Proposal of a Model of Analysis of the
Social Reality under the Perspective of a Transdisciplinary Method
Augusto Renato Pérez Mayo and Maricela Guzmán Cáceres, Universidad del Valle de México
Campus Villahermosa, Mexico, [email protected], [email protected]
The postmodernism has created a monstruos term of the reason, and later on it has been easy to
criticize it, proposing other ways of thinking, another historical figures of intelligence. But it is not an
aberration in proclaiming the preeminence of the reason. To our manner of understand the ideas of
Popper when affirming extended that the election of the rationality is not based on its capacity to
found a corroborated affluent knowledge, but in which it is the use of the intelligence that better can
save to us of the horror. The irrationality leads after or before to violence, which prevails in the
updated world like an answer to the crisis of the economic systems, moral and political everywhere in
the world. Popper on the matter arguments “I believe that the critical form or the reasoning and,
mainly, the belief in the authority of the objective truth are indispensable for a free society based on
mutual respect. And this one is the reason for which it has such importance of not allowing on our
thought the serious influence of intellectual misunderstandings like irrationalism, comprehensible
results of the dogmatism and authoritarism.”
It is not about to affirm the primate of the reason, but also to evaluate the most suitable model of
intelligence for the aims of the human being. The critical reason is the only alternative to the violence
that has been discovered so far. Every epoque has elected an intelligence model from which it
considered its greatest creation. The modernity chose like ideal the reason and science, the
posmodernity has welcomed an aesthetic paradigm. Now we know alredy the power and the weakness
of the rationalism, and at the same time the force and the weakness of a weak thought. The question to
answer is How to construct a new model? Is it time to do it? Is it possible to analyze the violence to
the light of a transdisciplinary method and the lower the scientific categories of sciences more
developed to apply them to the anaylisis of a social phenomenon of such relevance?. According to
Luhmann, Maturana; Varela, Pask, Brown, Castell, Cornella, Vilar, Von Foerster, Gunther, Morin and
others, our effort of abstraction seeks to unfold the new equations, new logics that would give to born
a new model of interpretation of the reality of the being. We pretend to define a complex theoretical
system that can give a treatment to the problems and emergent systems, understanding that the unit is
possible to find it in the difference.
Keywords: Emergent society, complex society, complexity, cognitive system, complex-cognitive
system, trivial system, closed system, operationally closed system, selfpoietic system.
Researching Civic Participation within a Diverse Context: Conceptual and
Methodological Opportunities and Challenges
Kien Shan Lee, Association for the Study and Development of Community, Gaithersburg, USA,
[email protected]
This paper is based on a study that examined the meaning and practice of civic participation among
four immigrant communities in the Washington, DC metropolitan region: Chinese, Indian,
Vietnamese, and Salvadoran. Topics explored included: definition of civic participation; individual
and community capacities required for civic participation; and similarities and differences in social
organization of each immigrant community and its effect on patterns of civic participation. The
predominant approach was qualitative with some borrowed methods from quantitative research. The
research questions were framed to deepen existing knowledge about civic participation in the United
States. This knowledge base has been and continues to be informed primarily by the dominant
179
culture’s (i.e., White) values and norms regarding civic participation, resulting in incomplete portrayal
of immigrants’ civic activities in the United States. The methodology was developed to include
different types of leaders from the four immigrant communities using stakeholder interviews. This
required the researcher to understand the concept of social organization in order to be able to ensure
that a range of perspectives were captured. Issues of researcher and stakeholder credibility, which
were unique given the ways in which credibility is defined in different cultures, had to be considered
and addressed properly. The interview protocol had to be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse
ways in which people from different cultures express themselves, while enabling the researcher to
gather data in a uniform and rigorous manner. Stakeholder review of interview transcripts had to be
built into the data verification process in order to ensure that their perspectives were transcribed
accurately. Data coding had to be conducted by two persons to ensure reliability and precise
interpretation of concepts and terms. The analysis included both an examination of content as well as
quantification of responses in order to explore patterns and themes within and across communities.
This study provided an opportunity to reflect on the special considerations required for conducting
research in a diverse context, including the benefits, risks, and challenges. It also provided an
opportunity to influence future research about civic participation that might be more appropriate in a
diverse society.
Keywords: stakeholder engagement, immigrant communities, qualitative research, civic participation
Donna M. Mertens, Gallaudet University, USA, [email protected]
The history of social program research is firmly rooted in the theoretical and methodological traditions
of post-positivism and social constructivism. Theoreticians and practitioners have come to a growing
realization that the way in which research intersects with the social policy arena requires an expansion
of thinking to accommodate the demands that result from activities associated with decision making
about programs and policies (Greene, 2000). These accommodations address issues of moral behavior
and ethics, social criticism, epistemology, and methodology.
Researchers contribute to decisions about the need for and quality of educational and social programs
and policies through a systematic investigation of such programs. They work in contested territory,
laden with pluralistic values, and associated with real-life implications for resource allocation (Greene,
2000). Issues of power differences and vulnerability permeate the arena as well. These characteristics
of the research landscape not only differentiate it from traditional social science research, but also
logically connect it with the work of transformative scholars. Transformative scholars have as their
central mission the accurate and credible representation of marginalized groups in and through the
process of systematic inquiry towards the goal of bringing society to a point of greater equity and
justice (Banks, 2000; Christians, 2000; Mertens, in press).
Meaningful involvement of marginalized groups in research activities has been an on-going challenge
for researchers (Chelimsky, 1998; Mertens, 1999; Weiss, 1998). Transformative/inclusive research
emphasizes the deliberate inclusiveness of groups that have historically experienced oppression and
discrimination on the basis of gender, culture, economic levels, ethnicities/races, and sexual
orientation, and disabilities, and in a conscious effort to build a link between the results of the research
and social action.
A researcher's ability to be responsive to the challenges described above rests in part on their
understanding of two complex concept: cultural competency and dimensions of diversity. The
interpretation and operationalizing of these concepts is key to understanding the importance of and the
mechanisms to address the deliberate inclusiveness of groups that have historically not been
adequately, adequately, or appropriately involved in the research process. This issue is not only
enduring, but it is a global issue. The purpose of this presentation is to bring an international
perspective to improve understandings of these concepts for the theory and practice of research.
Keywords: Transformative paradigm, cultural competency, disabilities, deafness, feminist
180
Culturally Engaged Research – A Specific Application of an Emerging Methodology
Anthony J. Alberta1, Bonny Beach2 and John Whiteshirt2
1
Sonoran Research Group, Tucson, USA, [email protected]
2
American Indian Prevention Coalition, Phoenix, USA
Members of ethnic, cultural and racial minorities are often reluctant to participate in research
activities, especially those conducted by Anglo researchers or researchers employing experimental or
quasi-experimental methods. Abuses of information gathered during research, interpretation of data
without regard to how the cultural context affects the meaning of that data, disregard of the dignity of
the people involved and the implementation of unethical research designs by researchers working in
minority communities have contributed to a justified aversion to research activities. As the heirs to this
scientific and ethical misconduct, current researchers from all backgrounds must work to not only gain
the trust of members of minority communities, but to conduct the research activities in a manner that
demonstrates respect for the people involved and their culture.
During the past decade methodologies that involve participants, including participatory, collaborative
and empowerment research call for including people in the design of research, the data collection
process, and the interpretation of data collected. This level of inclusion transforms the research
process, providing for real agency among “subject” groups and improving the accuracy and validity of
findings by maintaining the cultural contexts in which they exist.
Although these research methods significantly reduce the potential for abuse of research participants,
they do not provide researchers, regardless of their own racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds, with any
guidance regarding how they might best interact with members of minority communities during the
course of conducting research. In short, the successful application of these inclusive methods requires
researchers to overcome barriers that include cultural conceptions of polite behaviors, the definition
and locus of the phenomena under study, the definition of knowledge, and the role of communities in
the research process.
Culturally Engaged Research emerged as a distinct method during application of the Practical Skills
Model for Multi-Cultural Engagement - a set of skills developed to assist behavioral health
professionals to work in culturally diverse settings. Culturally Engaged Research combines the five
skills from the Practical Skills Model and three distinct research practices into a unified approach to
conducting research in a manner that emphasizes respect for the community participating in the
research activities. This paper will discuss the application of the Culturally Engaged Research
methodology in a project conducted in collaboration with the American Indian Prevention Coalition in
Phoenix, Arizona, including both qualitative and quantitative findings.
Keywords: Transformative Research, Emancipatory Research, participatory research, Feminist
Research, Marginalised Groups
SESSION: ACTION RESEARCH
Organizer: Nancy Andes
Contact: Department of Sociology, University of Alaska Anchorage 3211 Providence Drive,
Anchorage, AK 99508, Tel: +1-907-786-4063, [email protected]
Keywords: Action research; Participatory methodology; Collaborative research
Abstract
The last decade has seen an expansion of action research methodologies under the labels participatory
action research, collaborative research, among others. Action research is fundamentally a democratic
practice, acknowledging people’s capacity to create knowledge about and solutions to their own
experiences. As a methodology, action research develops problem-solving, solution-oriented
investigations and fosters improvement and self-determination. Knowledge generation is co-supported
by members of higher education, organizations and agencies, governments, nonprofit organizations,
and community residents who design and implement research.
181
The Catalyse Methodology and the Restoration of the Inquiry Results in the Action
Research. Several Recent Experiments in the Rural Romanian Areas
Mihai Pascaru, University 1 Decembrie 1918 Alba Iulia, Romania
The Catalyse methodology is a creation of the MTI@SHS ....with the University in Besancon-FranceComte France. It develops methodological and instrumental solutions, which showing to advantage the
principles of territorial intelligence defined by: the partnership of the operators, the global approach,
the quality of and the access to information. It is a methodology for the action research.
The essence of the Catalyse Methodology is represented by the restoration of results as method of
shaping and putting into hierarchy the community problems in the local and regional areas. The
sociological inquiries are just emerging stages for restoration, they enabling the constitution of an
information set, which will raise and trigger off debates within the community with the end of
identifying and putting into hierarchy the real problems of community and with the end of community
development as well.
In some recent experiments in the rural Romanian village (district Alba, Romania), the author of the
present proposed paper used the restoration of the results of some sociological inquiries in two ways:
the individual restoration (based on a semi-structured interview) and the collective restoration (by
organizing restoration seminars).
The paper intends to present some results obtained in the experiments in Romania, some limits
discovered on this occasion and some deontological aspect noticed along the action research, by using
the Catalyse Methodology, and restoring the results especially.
Keywords: Catalyse Methodology, restoration of the results, community development
Russian Drug-Addiction – NGO – Action-Research: Meeting on Crossroad
Galina Saganenko, Sociological Institute of RAS, Russia, [email protected]
Drug-addiction is a complicate and rather new social phenomenon in Russia, rapidly marshalling its
destroying forces. Its parameters continuously have been changing, majority of notions about it are
erroneous or intentionally misrepresented. Narcomania is what suits the Russian powers/authorities.
The families with this problem are left without any support by the state.
NGOs can give real help in crucial situation. As usual most of volunteers working in NGOs on a
certain problem (as well on drug-addiction issues) are such people which have been touched by the
problem, more or less dramatically. Activity in NGOs permits to a researcher to joint together some
different statuses and to reach results of different types.
I started to participate in activity of the Regional Charitable NGO “AZARIA” (“Mothers against
drugs”, Saint-Petersburg) 6 years ago in order to get self-determination and to help in finding some
solutions for the decision-makings for the NGO.
The results of my participation in NGO activity are combined. What I have managed to achieve:
(1) To carry out a system of investigations, which helped to find the potential in new kinds of social
information and the manners of articulation of research and social goals and tasks in drug-addiction
area.
(2) To be in success in comprehension of social studies methodology, to articulate humanistic aspects
of sociology, to substantiate new research types – research of reflexive and modules character.
(3) To reveal significant facts in existence of the drug-addiction problem in Russian society on public
and private levels. In particular, as for the macro-level there have been revealed and articulated the
following: existence of inadequate Russian legislation related to drug issues, existence of 6-7 types of
the modern Russian narco-business, absence of the state treatment infrastructure in modern Russia,
absence of social work in this field, putting by the state the moral and financial burden only on family.
(4) To get understanding in some principal components of drug-addiction field in Saint-Petersburg and
Russia, in particular, to reveal uninterestedness of authorities in combating the use drugs: drug-
182
addiction gives them widening pseudo-activity for obtaining resources, rising one’s political and social
capital, turning over money for their own profit.
(5) To help the NGO to articulate its missions, purposes and tasks, to work out a conception of the
NGO development, to offer some formats of efficient work and collecting relevant social information
coming through the NGO for clarification of the social process and efficient help for suffering people.
(6) To build up international projects among relatives’ NGOs in the Nordic and Baltic regions and
initiate their uniting and networking.
Keywords: drug-addiction in Russia, family and person in front of drug-addiction, parental NGOs’
potential, types of positive results against drug-addiction
Research on Childhood and Children as Researchers: The Participatory Methodologies
on Social Worlds of Children
Natália Fernandes Soares, Manuel Jacinto Sarmento and Catarina Tomás, Instituto de Estudos da
Criança da Universidade do Minho- Portugal, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
In the second modernity the childhood participation is assumed as a fundamental principle to a large
extent of the scientific speeches that are produced concerning childhood. The Sociology of Childhood,
when considering the children as social actors and as citizens of rights, assumes the question of
children’s participation as central in the definition of a social status of childhood and in the
characterization of its scientific field. Consider children’s participation in research is a recurrent step
in the construction of a discipline of social sciences that looks for listen children’s voice, that assumes
children as full social actors, competent in the formularization of interpretations on its worlds of life
and revealers of the social realities in which they are insert. The participatory methodologies with
children attribute to the youngest a statute of knowledge citizens, and not of simple object, instituting
collaborative forms of knowledge construction in social sciences, which are articulated with ways of
pledged knowing production in the social transformation and the extension of social rights. The
participatory research with children rises, however, special epistemological difficulties, related with
the alterity of childhood and with the diversity of its existence conditions. The perception as the other
of the adult, elapses from the recognition of childhood cultures as specific way, generationally
constructed, of the world’s interpretation and representation. It is the translation work between the
language of social sciences and the language of children (with its distinct cultural grammars) that the
participatory methodologies are called to play, with the consequent refusal of the generational
ethnocentrism and with the indispensable mobilization of a polyphonic speech, where the voice of the
collaborative child-investigators keep up, side by side, with the interpretative work of the sociologists
of childhood. The attention to childhood’s diversity, elapsing from social categories as gender,
religion, ethnics, health and age group, imposes the refusal standardizing looks, defying the
methodological imagination to an acceptance and respect for the differences and the diverse ways of
its communication.
This paper, steady in participatory research work, developed in the Sociology of Childhood,
interrogates the knowledge’s construction of the social sciences with and on children and childhood,
considering the alterity and diversity, and including an ethical debate on the knowledge creation about
the social worlds of childhood.
Keywords: children, rights, participation, participatory methodologies
183
SESSION: EVALUATING COGNITIVE
QUESTIONNAIRES
METHODS TO PRE-TEST
Organizors: Ger Snijkers1 and Gordon Willis2
1
Statistics Netherlands, Division of Social and Spatial Statistics, and
Utrecht University, Department of Methodology and Statistics
Correspondence address: P.O. Box 4481, NL-6401 CZ Heerlen, The Netherlands, [email protected]; Tel: +
31 45 570 6995 ; Fax: +31 45 570 6272
2
Applied Research Program/NCI, 6130 Executive Blvd., MSC 7344, EPN 4005, Bethesda, MD 208927344, USA, Tel:+ 1 301 594 6652; Fax: +1 301 435 3710, [email protected]
Keywords: Cognitive Laboratory Methods, Pre-testing Questionnaires
Abstract
In this session, methodological issues on cognitive pre-testing research will be discussed. Pre-testing
of questionnaires in cognitive laboratories was initiated some 20 years ago. Today, a number of
methods are available. However, a number of research questions related to the use of these methods
remain unanswered. In this session, we would like to address two evaluation issues:
1)
Improving questionnaires using cognitive pre-test methods.
Questionnaires are pre-tested in order to improve them with regard to the Question-and-Answer
process, i.e. getting questionnaires that are easily understood and better answerable. The ultimate goal
is getting valid survey data.
Here, the following research questions are put forward:
Are pre-tested and (accordingly) adapted questionnaires really improved questionnaires? That is:
Are those questionnaires actually more respondent (and interviewer) friendly?
Do those questionnaires actually result in more valid survey data?
2)
Standardisation of methods and design of cognitive laboratory research.
Cognitive laboratory research is carried out on different ways. In order to make results comparable
across labs, a discussion on standardisation of methods is worthwhile. This includes a discussion on
designing pre-test research.
The research questions that are put forward, here, are:
How do you carry out cognitive laboratory research? Why?
When pre-testing a questionnaire, what methods do you combine? Why?
Researchers dealing with these issues are invited to present their research.
Research papers dealing with cognitive research to pre-test questionnaires in general are also
welcome.
Terry DeMaio and Ashley Landreth, U.S. Census Bureau, [email protected]
Expert reviews are frequently used as a method of evaluating pretest questionnaires. Either alone or in
combination with other methods, people who have theoretical questionnaire knowledge or practical
experience are asked to review draft questionnaires with an eye to identifying questionnaire problems.
This can be done either by having individuals review the questionnaire alone or convening a group,
also known as an “expert panel”.
Presser and Blair (1994) included expert panels in their research on the effectiveness and reliability of
different methods of pretesting questionnaires. But to our knowledge no work has been done to
evaluate the consistency of the results produced by individual expert reviewers. In the interest of time
and resources, is it plausible that in the early stages of pretesting most expert reviews are conducted by
individual reviewers.
184
As part of an experiment on alternative cognitive interviewing methods, expert reviews were used to
evaluate the completeness of the problems found by the three different teams in conducting their
interviews. Three experts from three government agencies were recruited and given a set of
instructions for reviewing the same questionnaire used in the cognitive interviews, a 48-question
general population survey on recycling. Each expert was provided with paper forms and asked to
enumerate problems question by question. They were also asked to identify the five worst questions
within the questionnaire and the five worst (i.e., most major) problems with the questionnaire and the
question numbers that reflect that problem. A coding appraisal scheme (used by Rothgeb, Willis, and
Forsyth) was used to code the reported problems according to problem type. The paper describes the
results of this exercise with expert reviewers.
Keywords: expert reviews, pretesting evaluation
Examining Think Aloud as a Pretest Method: The State of the Art of think aloud in
Cognitive Psychology
Tony Hak, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands,
[email protected]
In current pre-testing practice the term ‘cognitive interviewing’ refers to two main techniques, think
aloud and probing. Although these two techniques are very different in terms of their aims and of their
methodological status, they are normally not clearly distinguished in the practice of cognitive
interviewing. It is, for instance, quite common to present different types of probes as instances of
‘retrospective think aloud’. There is also a certain resistance to practicing think aloud, either due to
practical problems (“our respondents are not able to do this”) or motivated by a methodological
criticism according to which think aloud, as an artificial device imposing a difficult task upon the
respondent, is pictured as a technique which violates the principle of ecological validity.
This paper describes how think aloud was developed originally and was used by (cognitive)
psychologists as a technique for producing data about the process of thinking. Its aim was to make this
process, that normally is hidden, observable by asking subjects to verbalize their thoughts
concurrently, i.e. at the very moment they think them. Although it was debated from its very
beginnings whether this can be done at all without changing the process of thinking itself, the think
aloud technique is still widely used in cognitive psychology. This paper describes the state-of-the-art
of think aloud in cognitive psychology. It discusses issues such as the current standards of application
of this technique; the range of research questions it is used for; and its methodological status within
cognitive psychology. Finally, the paper discusses whether and, if so, what we can learn from current
practice in cognitive psychology for our pre-testing practices.
Toward the Accumulation of Cognitive Interview Findings: Considerations in the
Design of a Tested-Question Database
Paul Beatty and Kristen Miller, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, USA, [email protected]
While cognitive interviewing has made great contributions to the development and evaluation of
survey questionnaires over the last twenty years, it has also been plagued by a few recurring problems.
First, the method has evolved somewhat differently in different organizations, making it difficult to
determine exactly what happened when someone claims to have done “cognitive interviewing.” It is
therefore possible that researchers may sometimes use the term to describe evaluation projects that are
actually quite different methodologically. Second, cognitive interviewing projects are generally geared
toward the evaluation of particular questionnaires. While this is understandable, the result is often that
findings do not accumulate over time, and thus every new cognitive interviewing project may “reinvent the wheel” by basically exploring the same issues repeatedly. Third, it is often difficult for
185
people not directly involved in a particular cognitive interviewing project to evaluate the quality of
recommendations for questionnaire revisions. Such recommendations may be presented without clear
documentation of the evidence that was used to make those recommendations; ultimately, this
undermines the value of the work, again leading to unnecessary duplication of effort. The overarching
problem is that cognitive interview findings do not accumulate, largely because documentation of
efforts leaves much to be desired.
In an effort to improve this situation, researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics have been
working to develop a database of cognitive interviewing findings known as Q-BANK. This database
catalogs survey questions that have been tested by various U.S. statistical agencies and links them to a
variety of additional qualitative and quantitative data. For example, Q-BANK can be used to identify
cognitive tested questions according to subject matter (e.g. asthma questions, cancer questions,
demographics), question type (e.g. objective characteristics, behavioral reports, attitudes), response
category type (e.g. yes/no, open-ended, quantity), and coded response error type (e.g. problems with
terms, recall problems). The database also links questions to textual explanations of findings,
documentation of methodology used, and other detailed qualitative information. The database
effectively warehouses reports and allows for them to be searched systematically for a variety of
purposes. Q-BANK has the potential to help cognitive interviewing findings accumulate toward
larger-scale questionnaire design lessons, and to facilitate greater standardization of both cognitive
interviewing and questionnaire design strategies.
The purpose of this presentation is not to demonstrate the technical capabilities of Q-BANK as much
as to discuss the methodological issues that it was designed to address, and to show how it might
advance the art and science of cognitive interview evaluation of questionnaires.
Keywords: cognitive interviewing, questionnaire evaluation and testing, Q-BANK, characteristics of
survey questions, response errors
Looking for Trouble and Finding It, Sometimes: Exploring Relationships between Presurvey and Post-survey Evaluation Data
James L. Esposito, Bureau of Labor Statistics, USA, [email protected]
Using a new Current Population Survey (CPS) supplement on cell phone use as the investigative
context, this case study explores relationships between pre-survey evaluation data (drawn from
cognitive interviews and a questionnaire appraisal coding system) and post-survey evaluation data
(drawn from behavior coding and interviewer debriefings). Using qualitative data from cognitive
interviews and the questionnaire appraisal system (Willis and Lessler, 1999), predictions were
formulated as to where problems with the supplement questionnaire might occur during its
administration in February 2004. Evidence of problems was based on behavior-coding data from 60
household interviews and on qualitative data from two focus groups conducted with CPS interviewers.
Though subjective (i.e., no method of quantifying measurement error was available), the accuracy of
predictions was assessed using post-survey evaluation data. A summary of predictive “hits” and
“misses” is provided and discussed within the context of a larger questionnaire-design-and-evaluation
framework (Esposito, 2002, 2003) that relates pre-survey and post-survey evaluation work.
Keywords: Cognitive interviews, questionnaire appraisal system, behavior coding, interviewer
debriefing, cell phone use supplement
186
SESSION: SECONDARY ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA
Organizor: Louise Corti
Contact: UK Data Archive, Economic and Social Data Service, University of Essex, Colchester, UK,
[email protected]
Keywords: Secondary analysis; qualitative data; data archives
Abstract
Archived qualitative data are a rich and unique yet often unexploited source of research material that
can be reanalysed, reworked, compared with contemporary data. This session aims to debate the
methodological, ethical and theoretical considerations relating to the secondary analysis of qualitative
data. In the first instance, papers will be considered that either present case studies based on re-using
qualitative data, or draw out the strengths and weaknesses of particular secondary analytic approaches.
Experiences with Secondary Use of Qualitative Data Material – a Feasibility Study with
German Qualitative Social Researchers
Diane Opitz1 and Reiner Mauer2
1
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Bremen, Germany
2
Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, Cologne, Germany
The growing importance of qualitative methods since the 1970s in Germany, the progress of
computer-supported data collection and preparation as well as the development of data analysis
software, they offer - in combination with meanwhile extensively produced data material - a chance to
test whether and how secondary analyses of digitalized qualitative data can contribute to reduce the
costs arising from collecting, storing and transcribing new interview data.
Due to time and/or financial restrictions, research projects are often not able to make use of the whole
variety of possible qualitative analysis methods applicable to the data. Moreover, they usually cannot
exhaust the complete analysis potential of their own data.
On the background of these considerations the German Research Foundation (DFG) financed a
cooperation project of GSSS and ZA to explore the possibilities of an archive for qualitative data. In
this context a survey of researchers was undertaken to find out whether there is an interest for the
secondary use of archived data and if researchers are ready to give their own data away for research
and academic teaching. Furthermore, the extent of the concrete interest in secondary use of available
verbal data material should be found out, including sources of data being used and the purposes of
secondary use. The aim was to learn about the advantages and disadvantages from a researcher’s point
of view of carrying out secondary- and reanalysis.
The contribution wants to present first results of the feasibility study for a German archive for
qualitative data. Are German researchers interested in secondary use of qualitative data, and which
criteria should the data meet? We will try to estimate the chances for building up a professional
nationwide archive for qualitative data in Germany.
Secondary Analysis of Panel Data: Establishing and Using a Text Databank
Irena Medjedović and Andreas Witzel, Bremen, Germany
Despite the posibilities of using a secondary analysis in social science there are furthermore
reservations and ideas of problems about this method. In our opinion the lack of methodological
experiences dominate scepticism. In our contribution we want to show with an example of
biographical interview-data of a panel-study, how to work with secondary analysis using the
progression of data administration programs, which functions of text analysis systems.
187
We want to demonstrate coding- and retrieval-procedures in order to overcome the special demands of
panel-data. Taking into account of the discussion of using a secondary analysis which concentrates on
data criteria for a good documentation, we want to show, that in different evaluation phases and
depending on type and complexity of the objectives of analysis special memos are necessary, which
also could be used for secondary analysis if prepared for a data documentation.
The demand for secondary data are mostly restricted to original data. But on the basis of our
experiences even inductive analysis is possible when falling back on category schemes of the original
study. If such schemes have the function of a heuristic way as “container” or “oversized card-index
box” the analysing of text data using categories must not contradict to open-ended coding in the
process of creating in-vivo-codes.
D. Thomson, L. Bzdel, K. Golden-Biddle, T. Reay and C. Estabrooks, University of Alberta, Canada
Secondary use of qualitative data is only possible if that data has been “anonymized” – that is, if
information which could identify research participants has been removed. This anonymizing process is
required by most if not all Research Ethics Boards; it allows researchers to honour commitments of
confidentiality originally made to participants, while permitting the use of this data to develop further
knowledge.
Anonymizing is a part of qualitative work that does not receive much attention, yet close analysis
shows that the process is full of methodological, ethical and theoretical tensions. Qualitative research
focuses on how people live and act in very particular, situated contexts. Removing identifying
information also, inevitably, removes contextual information that has potential value to the researcher.
Hence, the central questions for a study of anonymization are:
How can researchers best anonymize qualitative data for secondary use?
What important contextual information is lost in the anonymization process?
How do we minimize these losses, preserving the situated and contextual nature of the information,
while honouring the confidentiality and privacy of research participants?
How do we assess quality of research when only anonymized stories are presented?
We propose to present a case study of working with anonymized data on the research project,
Knowledge Utilization and Policy Implementation (KUPI), a five-year program funded by the
Canadian Institutes for Health Research. This project involves the secondary use of qualitative data
sets from three separate research projects across Canada. Each project employed different methods of
qualitative data collection that were originally anonymized following different protocols. Furthermore,
the researchers on the KUPI project have differing levels of familiarity with the original, nonanonymized data.
Based on this case study, we will consider the strengths and weaknesses of the anonymization process
and provide useful recommendations that address some of the central questions of anonymization.
Revisiting ‘Classic’ Qualitative Sociology
Mike Savage, University of Manchester, UK
This paper explores methodological issues regarding the revisiting of ‘classic’ qualitative studies.
Classic studies pose particular issues for secondary analysis over and above those which specifically
relate to the secondary analysis of qualitative data itself. By virtue of being ‘classic’, the findings and
arguments of such studies define a subsequent ‘canon’ of theoretical and methodological scholarship,
and hence shape the thinking of subsequent researchers conducting secondary analysis. Secondary reanalysis therefore should be not only of the archived data itself, but of the published work itself, but
this raises a host of complex methodological and ethical issues
188
Using my own reanalysis of Elizabeth Bott’s ‘Family and Social Network’ archive, and John
Goldthorpe and David Lockwood’s ‘Affluent Worker collection’, I examine possible analytical
strategies for re-analysis, including ‘debunking’, the alternative of ‘sacralisation’, and ways in which
original data can be read ‘against the grain’.
Louise Corti and Libby Bishop
Unlike for quantitative approaches, the published literature on secondary analysis of qualitative data is
sparse. Among qualitative researchers there is neither a pervasive culture that exists to encourage the
secondary analysis of data nor is there an extensive body of published sources that can help guide or
instruct a researcher wishing to understand better the benefits and limitations of re-analysis. So where
does the student or novice researcher turn for guidance and training?
In this paper we set out ways in which EDSD Qualidata has been trying to facilitate both usage of
archived qualitative data and methodological debate among the wider academic communities. We will
present an overview of the current published literature and existing training provision for secondary
analysis of qualitative data and describe the various approaches to support and training taken by our
service. Finally, we will cover the preparation of potentially useful kinds of training materials
(teaching datasets, user guides, commentary and exercises) that we believe will help support teachers
and learners.
Reanalyzing Qualitative Interviews from Different Angles: The Merits of Sharing
Qualitative Data
Harry van den Berg, Department of Social Research Methodology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands, [email protected]
In contrast to survey interviews, qualitative interviews are seldom reanalyzed. Besides obvious reasons
such as ownership â€“ and especially the culture of individualistic ownership â€“ that impede reusing
data, there are also important methodological arguments against secondary analysis. The main
methodological argument against secondary analysis concerns the supposed risk of
decontextualization.
In this paper, I will argue in favor of sharing qualitative data on behalf of secondary analysis. The
argument is partly based on â€“ and much inspired by - the results of a collaborative project of thirteen
researchers who were invited to analyze the same set of interview data from their own
theoretical/methodological viewpoint (Van den Berg, Wetherell and Houtkoop-Steenstra, 2004,
Analyzing Race Talk; Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Interview. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press). These results show the possible merits of sharing qualitative data such as 1) testing
the validity of the original analysis, 2) enriching, refining and complementing the original analysis, 3)
reusing interviews on behalf of different research goals and 4) comparing different theoretical
approaches used to analyze the same data.
In order to evaluate those possible merits more carefully, it is necessary to scrutinize the argument
concerning the risk of decontextualization. Different theoretical and methodological positions
concerning the contextualisation of interview discourse are discussed. The main conclusion is that the
kind and measure of contextualization of interview data needed on behalf of discourse analysis is
mainly dependent on the research goal. As a consequence two opposing methodological positions are
criticized:
1) On the one hand the methodological position that promotes the inclusion of the ever-widening
societal and historical context as a necessary precondition of the analysis of interview discourse. This
position runs the risk of speculative social theorizing as a framework for interpreting interview
discourse.
189
2) On the other hand the methodological position according to which the analysis of interview
discourse should be restricted to the activities of interviewer and interviewee. It may be doubted that
the neglect of every social context outside interview talk â€“ as advocated by some strands within
Conversation Analysis â€“ is fruitful or even possible. This neglect runs the risk of abstract
empiricism.
Keywords: Qualitative interview, discourse analysis, secondary analysis
SESSION: RETHINKING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: THE HIDDEN
RESEARCHER AND THE UNINFORMED INFORMANT.
Organizors: Liora Gvion1 and Diana Luzzatto2
Contact: 1The Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel
2
The Academic College of Tel Aviv Yaffo, Israel
Keywords: public location, informants, research field, ethic dilemmas, professional ethics.
Abstract
Traditionally, professional ethics has required the researcher to notify the community of interest of his
intentions to conduct research. Unobtrusive methods, although efficient, have been regarded as
illegitimate as they have violated the informants' rights of privacy. However, unconditioned
transparence poses certain limitations especially when conducting short-term observations in public
locations in which encounters tend to take place occasionally and on an on-and-off basis. Moreover,
taking place in a public sphere, interactions among participants tend to be general on one hand, yet
reveal upon interesting life aspects of private lives generally sealed off to the researcher in fixed, close
boundary bind communities.
This session brings forward major dilemmas, often shouldered aside in qualitative research. First, is it
unethical to choose public locations, such as restaurants, schoolyards, or beauty parlors as research
fields without acquiring permission to do so? Second, who is entitled to grant permission as such?
Third, to what extent can a research integrate data observed out of the field into his current research?
Fourth, what is a public domain and is it a potential legitimate research arena as it is open to all? Fifth,
is there an unwritten contract between researchers and potential uninformed informants?
'Doing Ethics’ In The Field: The Art And Politics Of Covert Research
David Calvey, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
This paper discusses the ethical dimensions of fieldwork with reference to a six-month covert
participant observational study of door supervisors, or more traditionally ‘bouncers’, in the leisure and
entertainment sector of Manchester, which has been part of an urban mythology as regards
gangsterism. The context of this study is the increasing public discourse on the professionalization and
criminalization of this group in the wider context of the governance of the night-time economy.
More generally, the examination of the work culture of bouncers is one, which offers some insights
into a sociology of cultural practice and social organization. Central to the accomplishment of an
ongoing door order is the interactional management of respect on the door. That is door work as
involving a range of organizational issues as removed from romanticized and mythologized
treatments. Despite the increasing work done on club cultures (Thornton, 1995, Redhead et al, 1997,
Malbon, 1999), new masculinities and crime (Winlow, 1999) and violence and governance in the
night-time economy associated with bouncers (Hobbs et al, 2003) the dedicated and faithful treatment
of the topic has been marginalized, subsumed or obviated. In short, the phenomenon has been lost
under exotica.
190
More specifically, key vignettes are taken from the ethnomethodologically inspired ethnography of the
work culture of bouncers to articulate some critical reflections on self and other in the field via the
concepts of nomadic ethnography and post-fieldwork biography. The idea of methodological
appropriateness is used to articulate the covert stance taken with the study.
In particular, and arising from my dualistic lived field experience of ‘going bouncer’, the paper wishes
to raise for scrutiny the relationship between reflexivity and ethics in covert fieldwork. Despite the
increasing recognition and discussion about risk and danger in field research (Lee, 1993, 1995;
Treweek and Linkogle, 2000) the activity of managing situated field ethics remains glossed over. The
standard professional discourse on ethics is abstracted from the actual doing, which is a situated,
contingent, collaborative and temporal matter.
This study forms part of a wider engagement with reflexive ethnography, research ethics, cultural
studies, organisation studies and ethnomethodology.
Methodological Issues Experienced in a Comparative Study of Children’s Free Time
Activities
Sidsel Hadler-Olsen1 and Doug Springate2
1
Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway
2
The University of Greenwich, London, England
This paper discusses methodological considerations in relation to a 3-year comparative study
focussing on children’s out of school activities. The study concerns selected groups of English and
Norwegian 10 year old children in various week periods between 1996 and 1999.
The main aim was to explore what these children did, where they did these activities and with whom.
The problem was how to get meaningful data. The informants were young and were being asked to
record their activities and behaviour. The children were not passive in the research process but active
in their interpretation of what was being asked and in the selection of what they wanted to share. In
this paper we discuss the particular issues of dealing with children as informants in studies of this
kind. The researchers must be both innovative and respectful in dealing with young children.
In the first year of the study the main research methods were a combination of diary keeping by the
children and selected interviews. These methods were improved from year to year and were
supplemented by group discussions, mapping, questionnaires and television diaries.
Throughout the study we became more aware of the issue of how researchers can meaningfully access
children’s lives outside their school time. How did the children perceive the tasks we gave them?
Are there ethical issues implied in such tasks when the tasks are given within s school context? Do the
children perceive the tasks as part of their school work? Are there communication issues between
children and adult researchers?
These issues are compounded by the comparative nature of the research as concepts such as “play”
and “childhood” have different meanings in the two countries.
Keywords: Children as subjects, ethics and legalities; Children as respondents; Communication
issues; Cultural differences; Joint research; Qualitative versus quantitative research traditions
Making Private Issues Public: Ethnic Dilemmas Versus Moral Obligations
Liora Gvion1 and Diana Luzzatto2
1
The Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel-Aviv Israel
2
The Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo, Israel
This paper discusses means to construct and create an informed consent in cases in which information
is revealed in the public sphere yet not made consciously available to an ethnographer. It is our claim
that in cases as such, informants’ privacy is maintained by bridging between the private sphere, where
personal and family matters revolving around emotions such as pain, happiness, and so forth, are
191
managed, and professional duty to uncover meaningful data, available in public settings. Such a state
of affairs raises a moral and ethical dilemma. One the one hand, private information revealed through
dialogues among individuals talking in public settings is meant, according to normative perceptions, to
remain private. On the other hand, the assumption above rests on what one may call imaginary social
boundaries not protected by any formal code.
The purpose of this study is threefold. First, we reveal the possibility of obtaining spontaneous
information, produced in an un-structured event and hard to obtain in interviews or explicit participant
observations. Second, we claim legitimacy to make use of information as such as research ethics
provide enough means to conceal private identities and protect the informants. Third, this study points
out the richness embedded in the ethnographer’s social circles and personal network and their potential
contribution to research.
The case study analyzes the negotiation process held by parents of children with minor communication
disorders with the local placement-committee in the Tel-Aviv area in order to gain control over their
children’s placement in the school system. Data were obtained in a sport club that provided physical
education classes for children with special needs. While the children were taking their classes the
parents were discussing their experiences as parents of children with special needs. One of the
researchers was part of the setting and therefore often involved in the conversation. She was sharing
information as well as listening to other parents’ experience. Once realizing the amount of information
as well as the social issues involved, she decided to turn her personal experience to a research field. In
order to overcome ethical problems, parents were informed about her decision, their consent was
obtained and another researcher conducted all in-depth interviews.
SESSION: FEMINISM, METHODOLOGY AND METHODS
Organizor: Sharlene Hesse-Biber
Contact: Department of Sociology, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chesnut Hill, MA.
02467, USA, Tel: 617-5524139 Fax: 617-55204283, [email protected]
Keywords: feminism, methods, methodology, feminist methods, epistemology
Abstract
This session will consider cutting edge papers which deal with the intersection between feminism
methodology and methods. We will consider both theoretical and empirical papers on any aspects of
this topic. We are interested in some of the following issues: What is the role of power and authority in
the research process? Are there feminist ways of knowing? Is there a feminist method of knowledge
building? How to understand the role of the researcher and researched within the interview process.
Issues of difference in Feminist practice: How do race, class, gender and sexuality together form
standpoint ? How to account for and work with difference during the lived experience of research ?
What are the ethical questions and challenges researchers face as they incorporate difference into their
projects? How to critically deconstruct the interplay of race, class, gender and sexuality during the
practice of research. What are some critical issues in the analysis/interpretation, data management, and
writing up of feminist scholarship?
Part I
Critical Rationalism as a Tool for Feminist Comparative Historical Sociology
Judith Buber Agassi, Tel- Aviv University, Israel
Critical rationalism is the assumption that we can approach the truth about social reality. As in the
natural sciences, this process of inquiry begins with problems and proceeds with tentative solutions to
be critically examined. Criticism of extant theories leads to the search for alternatives to them.
192
I begin with the observation that in Nazi concentration camps characteristics of larger organizations of
prisoners were similar for males and females, but that small groups – so-called camp-families – were
common among female Jewish prisoners and rare among males. This seems to agree with the popular
theory of the importance of gender-specific psychological factors. Yet any detailed study shows that
this characteristic is the outcome of Jewish education that demands much more of girls than of boys
that they act protectively towards the weaker, young and old in the family.
The second popular extant theory – of Friedrich Engels – that the inferior social status of women is
due to the division of society into classes, so that the socialist revolution will wipe it out by the
abolition of both private ownership of the means of production and the raising of children in the
nuclear family. As in Kibbutz society property was communal and children were raised in groups
outside the home of their parents, the expectation was that women would enjoy equal status there. This
did not happen. My explanation for this disparity is that the division of labor in the Kibbutz was sextyped, assigning to women overwhelmingly service, non-progressive and localized work duties.
Maria Ignez Silveira Paulilo, Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil
The purpose of this essay is to discuss feminist research methods which give special emphasis to the
rejection of positivism. This rejection is based on a stereotyped and simplified vision which considers
significantly different thinkers, such as the sociologists Durkheim and Weber, as equally
“positivistic”. This leads to a strong opposition between quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Researchers eventually follow, in practice, principles that theoretically would be denied. The criticism
of established science winds up approaching one of the most classic formulations of positive
empiricism which is that “well collected data should speak for itself” and that is enough to “given
voice” to the oppressed women. The use of interview as a consciousness-raising process needs to
consider the possibility of a lack of correspondence between aspirations and concrete situations, i.e.,
the non-existence of corresponding channels available for action. Sometimes the interview-based
research as a form of making women aware of their rights is more an authoritarian intrusion and
imposition in the life of people than benefits. Third world women want to be regarded not as victims
but as people with their own culture and values.
Keywords: Positivism; Feminism; Qualitative Analysis; Interview-based Research
Anastasia Norton, Sociology Department, Brandeis University, MA, USA
Nancy Scheper-Hughes says that the ‘work’ of ethnography entails, at its very core, “the working out
of an ethical orientation to the other-than-oneself.” These strategies of successful ethnographic
“arrival” in research sites have real theoretical and epistemological implications. The manner in which
researchers enter, live, depart and return and the ways that we understand those experiences define the
practice of ethnography. And yet, successful arrival includes more than the physical movement from
point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. In this paper I explore the processes involved with arrival in a field-site and the
implications for theory construction. I have developed a typology of arrival that explores both the
multiple realms involved in travel as well as the complex levels located within each realm. I use my
own field experiences in a Maroon village in Suriname to explore the spatial, temporal and emotive
travels that I embarked upon in order to arrive in my field-site. This typology of arrival, coupled with
an investigation of feminist methodology and theory can lead to the development of more critical, selfreflexive and contextually mediated ethnography.
Keywords: Ethnography, Feminist Methods, Suriname Maroons
193
Power Tools: A Feminist Approach to Large Sample Quantitative Data Analysis
Allison J. Tracy, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
Overgeneralization has long been of central concern for feminist researchers. On one hand, a feminist
critique of traditional approaches to data analysis has been that reliance on aggregate statistics, such as
means and covariance structures, captures only the most typical experiences in the sample while
“disappearing” experiences less typical. Many feminist researchers have dealt with this concern by
carefully attending to each voice in their sample, assuming heterogeneity of experience but necessarily
limiting their sample to a feasible size. A common critique of these small scale studies is that the
results, again, may not generalize well to a larger group. While some feminist researchers downplay
the role of generalizability as a primary goal of their research, the influence of study results on broad
public policy frequently hinges on a demonstration of the applicability of the findings to a much larger
subpopulation of society. Indeed, evoking large scale shifts in social policy is a primary focus of
feminist activism. The apparent tension between quantitative and qualitative data analysis paradigms
has generated a great deal of debate and has resulted in the proposal of a variety of mixed methods
approaches.
This paper will offer and demonstrate a newly available mixed method approach that integrates the
assumption of population heterogeneity with the power of large sample statistical modeling, yielding
results that simultaneously honor both typical and atypical experiences. Recent innovations in
quantitative statistical software have made possible the analysis of a large range of latent variable
mixture models. These models allow for unobserved heterogeneity in the means and covariance
structure. Simply put, researchers may now empirically identify qualitatively diverse subpopulations
in their sample data representing sets of different experiences, without anticipating these differences
prior to analysis. Further, model-based residuals can be used to identify and study in greater depth
those individuals whose experiences are not adequately captured by the mixture model. To illustrate
this new approach, an empirical example will show how gender, race/ethnicity, region, social class,
and other social location indicators predict various classes of sexual risk in young adulthood and how
physical activity in adolescence influences the degree of sexual risk within each distinct class. Followup analysis of the model-based residuals will show how the use of extreme and typical case sampling
can be used to explore mechanisms that underlie these processes, generating directions for the
development of culturally appropriate interventions and public policies.
Keywords: Methodology, Feminism, Mixture Modeling, Mixed Methods
Part II
Niza Yanay and Nitza Berkovitch, Ben Gurion University, Israel
Invoking Butler’s notion of gender performativity, Kristeva’s concept of foreignness and Laplanche’s
reconceptualization of otherness, we examine the power of fantasy to change the women and men that
we always already are. Using ‘writing- in-response’ we discuss the meaning of gender performance in
relation to our theoretical commitments. The paper is structured around three different forms of
dialogue: (1) Two lectures that we presented, each one contesting accepted ideas of gender, self, and
society; (2) Seven e-mail correspondences that develop the ideas presented in the lectures and that
dramatize the transition from speaking to -writing-in-response-; and (3) A discussion, developed both
together and separately, that raises the possibility of exploring a new language of gendered
subjectivity. The paper challenges the concept of “direct experience”, the separation between
psychology and sociology, and destabilizes the space between gender fantasy and performance.
194
The Problem of Methods on Feminist Epistemologies: Discussing their Ideological and
Political Background as Opposed to Solutions of Concrete Scientific Research Subjects
Maricela Guzmán Cáceres and Augusto Renato Pérez Mayo, Universidad del Valle de México campus
Villahermosa
The term of feminist epistemologies is commonly utilised in relation to a heterogeneous number of
studies embracing a wide diversity of standpoints, both concerning epistemology and feminism. All of
them disagree with that traditional epistemology, whose weakness lies in the fact that it pretends to
construct a general theory that ignores the specific social contexts. From this perspective, the
individual is regarded as an abstraction expressing universal and untainted qualities in terms of
reasoning and feeling (do you mean perceiving? If so you can put perceiving). From the feminist view,
it is argued that that one to acquire knowledge is a particular and historic individual, whose body,
interests, emotions and consciousness are made up by a concrete historic context and are relevant for
epistemology- This relevance lies in the fact that knowledge is always located (probably
contextualised is more convenient) (Haraway, 1991). This means that (knowledge?) is shaped by the
individual and his/her particular situation. (spatial, temporal, historic, cultural and social) and that, the
margins of justification are always contextual (this ideas was not quite clear in Spanish) From this
location, derives the connection between knowledge and power. The political commitment with social
change is one of the main constituent aspects of feminist epistemologies and also one of the main
features, which differentiate them from other theories of knowledge.
This paper discusses the eminently ideological and politic character of the proposals established by the
so called feminist epistemologies. It stresses their weakness in relation to the methods that they use to
operationalise their epistemological paradigms. Following Bunge (1980:21-22) I argue that these
methods do not meet the five requirements, which according to this author, every epistemology ought
to have: a) if it concerns science in the proper sense; b) if discuss philosophical problems which are
present through scientific research; c) if propose clear solutions for such problems; if it is able to
distinguish between authentic science and pseudo-science; d) if it has strength to criticise programs
and suggest new results.
Keywords: Feminist Epistemologies, Methods, Methodology, Feminist Methods.
The Feminist Practice of Oral History and the Merging of Personal and Social Problems
Patricia Leavy, Stonehill College, Easton MA, USA
This paper explores the feminist practice of oral history as a method of linking individual narratives to
macro phenomena. In particular, this paper examines how through a thematic data analysis process,
feminist researchers can use oral history transcripts as a way of individualizing social problems by
allowing thematic categories to emerge out of the narrative and showing how while the individual’s
particular narrative is unique, the themes can tell us about the experiences of many. The paper
discusses how the researcher analyzed an original oral history transcript about one woman’s struggle
with an eating disorder as a method of individualizing a large-scale social problem (that primarily
impacts females).
Womanhood at the Margins: Notes of Researching and Resolving the Stigmatization of
“Undesirable” Women”
Yu-Wen Fan, New School University, NY, USA
The unions of Mainland Chinese veterans and their wives have been widely stigmatized in Taiwan.
Exiled from the Mainland, low-ranking Mainland veterans were forced into the bottom of the
economic strata. They married Taiwanese women usually characterized as “undesirable.” Lacking indepth observations and feminist perspectives, previous researches have reiterated the stigmatization
195
without questioning or exploring it. Via case studies, this paper presents the images of two disabled
women married to Mainland veterans: how they and their husbands viewed the disabilities and to what
extent the disabilities and resultant images have affected their lives. In case one, the husband
constantly ridiculed the wife’s being unable to speak clearly. This may serve as a way for the husband
not to “downgrade” himself to the category of his wife in the presence of me, a female researcher. In
case two, a wife with a crippled leg attributed her misfortune to her disability. She could hardly get
away from it in spite of her being articulate and having a unique view of life. The other aim of this
paper is to reflect whether in-depth observation and meaningful interaction between the researched and
the researcher yield a potential discourse of de-stigmatization.
SESSION: THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND METHODOLOGICAL
STRATEGIES TO PRODUCE AND ANALYZE QUALITATIVE
EMPIRICAL DATA
Organizors: Ruth Sautu1, Silvana K. Figueroa2 and Jochen Dreher2
1
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, [email protected]
2
University of Konstanz, Germany
Keywords: qualitative methodology, hermeneutics, reflexivity, collective identity, actor’s perspective,
moral order, collective protests.
Abstract
Based on empirical research that privilege the social agent´s perspective in the reflexive interpretation
of social reality, the objective of the session is to discuss:
The influence of theoretical and methodological approaches in the formulation of research objectives.
The problems related to “second order interpretation”: data validation.
The paper presenters must take these two issues into account to facilitate the interchange of ideas
during the session. Papers will be sent in advance to all participants to promote discussion.
The papers to be presented cover a variety of recent trends in qualitative research. Authors, substantive
areas and methodological approaches are the following:
The emergence of new identities in Argentine Armed Forces: a life course research. Alejandra
Navarro, University of Buenos Aires.
People’s representations on corrupt practices and the construction of a new moral order: in-depth
interviews and answers to open-ended questions in a middle-class survey. Ruth Sautu, Paula Boniolo
& Ignacia Perugorría, University of Buenos Aires.
People’s perceptions on the construction of collective goals: interviews in street meetings of collective
protest. Luciano Brom, Pablo Dalle & Rodolfo Elbert, University of Buenos Aires.
Changes in the identity of high school students: an etnographic study. Analía Meo, University of
Warwick.
Following the traces of symbols: an hermeneutic an hermeneutic analysis of paradoxical constructions
within Argentine collective symbolism. Jochen Dreher & Silvana Figueroa, University of Konstanz.
Images of the Argentine ruling class: focus groups using mass media photographs as stimulus. Valeria
Maidana, Gabriela Medín & María Alejandra Otamendi, University of Buenos Aires.
196
Part I: Theoretical and Methodological Issues
Beatriz Irene Wehle, University of Quilmes, Argentina, [email protected]
This paper aims to describe and analyze the consecutive steps and strategies we followed in our
reserarch about the perspective of the juridical agents in the Tribunals of Justice. The subject of our
research were the changes in labour oganization and the competencies of the workers in the Courts of
Justice in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
During our research we made use of different theoretical perspectives in order to make a qualitative
analysis of empirical data. We applied qualitative methods which were discussed and examined
through putting them into practice. Then, we chose those which were more effective for attaining our
objectives.
With regard the chosen theoretical frame, from the starting point of inductive inferences, we
developed a theoretical perspective close to that of the ethnographical methodology. But this
perspective is close too to the action-research: this is so because this research team was asked by an
union organization in order to study some current conflicts in the workplaces and work conditions of
juridical agents. In this first stage, the prevailing theoretical perspective was related to the participant
observation, connected with the interests and concerns of union activists and focused on the
descriptive data of labour in a holystic analysis.
This first stage was followed by other theoretical perspective, more strictly focused on the critical
ethnography, which allowed us to emphasize, through sistematical analysis, hidden structures which
were present in these workplaces. From there, we started to work in a stage of no standard
instrumentation in order to find underlying organizational models.
In the third stage of our research and from the perspective of the reflexive phenomenology, we
identified the labour situations in the Tribunals of Justice and analysed the more significant data which
were obtained through deep interviews to key informers. Basing on the phenomenological and social
interaction perspectives, we categorized the agent’s accounts and explored the possible relationships
between the subject’s representations and labour processes as for the agent’s perceptions about their
jobs and other more global judgements about service and procedures in justice departments. From this
more ethnographic perspective, our work was based on the social antropologists.
In short, from the agent’s perspective, in order to come out the particular points of view and
reconstruct the processes of colective representations in the enviroment of labour organization in
justice administration, through inductive methods and the pragmatism of “trascendental realism” we
worked out explaining structures of the present configurations.
Keywords: Actor’s perspective, labour processes reform, collective representations
Post-communist Systemic Transitions, National Identity and Mass Media: Theoretical
and Methodological Aspects of Analysis
Izabella Zandberg, Westat, USA, [email protected]
This presentation outlines theoretical and methodological aspects of analysis of the relationship
between systemic change, national identity and mass media. The author suggests that revolutions,
including those of 1989, need to be analyzed as cultural processes and that systemic transitions are, in
part, attempts at cultural engineering. Construction of collective identities is an important part of those
efforts since collective identities have the potential of becoming national identity, capable of
exercising political sovereignty and playing a defining role in the developments of national and
international communities. Their analysis needs to be undertaken in reference to a particular historical,
social, and economic context in which these collective identities are being spun. Mass media are a
forum in which this construction takes place and therefore their contents provide rich research material
for analysis of meaning-making processes accompanying structural change.
197
Based on a proposition by John J. Pauly (1991) that literature review in qualitative research maps the
discourse of the field by simply “identifying an ongoing conversation that the researcher now proposes
to join” (p.9), this study reviews related research conducted in various geographic and historical
locations, and applies the proposed methodology to the particular case of post-Communist Poland.
Drawing on the insights of social constructionist theory, this methodology involves discourse analysis
of selected media texts that were produced within different ideological frames (liberal and antiliberal), and pertained to the construction or assertion of collective identity, contributed to the
construction of systems of knowledge, and expressed beliefs about reality. A thematic analysis of
media contents is proposed, involving a three-stage process: 1) identification of patterns such as
“conversation topics, vocabulary, recurring activities, feelings, folk sayings” that are related to the
analytic focus on collective identity and reality construction (Taylor & Bogdan, 1989, p. 131); 2)
combination of patterns into themes by “bringing together components or fragments of ideas or
experiences, which often are meaningless when viewed alone” (Leininger, 1985, p. 60); 3)
identification of themes through seeking “ideas or components that would fit together in a meaningful
way when linked together” (Ibid.). The proposed methodology is applied to the analysis of the
contents of a radical ultra-right Catholic medium – Radio Maryja (Radio Mary) and findings are
briefly presented. Possible methods of data validation are discussed.
Keywords: collective identity, national identity, post-communist transitions, mass media, discourse
analysis
“Representations” of Death: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches
Christine Matter, University of Konstanz, Germany, [email protected]
The experience and the perception of temporal boundaries of individual and collective life has become
an important topic of social scientific research in recent years. Death and dying which have been
neglected as research issues within sociology for a long time are individual and social events which
correspond to a unique boundary ‚experience‘. What is particular about this boundary ‚experience‘ is
that although death is certain for everyone it cannot be experienced directly: death is a nonexperiential „empty telos“. This poses specific challenges to the production of qualitative empirical
data if one wants to examine conceptions of death, dying, and an eventual ‚after-life‘. The
fundamental problem that the phenomenon of death cannot be related to genuine real life experience
has to be taken into account in methodological and theoretical approaches. The relationship between
the interviewer and the interviewee is shaped by this specific fact: the interviewee is not in the position
to talk about an experience he or she has actually gone through and, therefore, is no „expert“
concerning the issue. In the case of death people have to talk about a „limit“ to their existence that has
no „other side“. Nevertheless, death is increasingly becoming a topic of discussion in today‘s society:
in terms of one‘s own end of life as well as the experienced end of others. The proposed paper
addresses methodological and theoretical problems which arise in this context. How is the interview
and the interpretation of the material affected by the fact that the subject has no more experience on
the topic of his death than the interviewer? The paper is based on empirical data from an ongoing
qualitative research project at the University of Konstanz which examines perceptions and
„representations“ of death by comparing two different generations of East- and West-Germans: those
born around 1930 and those born around 1970. We apply in this analysis Karl Mannheim‘s theoretical
concept about the problem of generation and the methodological approach of Grounded Theory. The
paper explores the methodological and theoretical possibilities of the social construction of temporal
boundaries. It examines the symbolic constructs people apply to the problem of the end of the
individual in the context of the two aforementioned groups in German society.
Keywords: generation, death, symbol, time, Grounded Theory, hermeneutics
198
Tracing Symbols. The Hermeneutic Analysis of Paradoxical Constructions within
Argentine Collective Symbolism
Silvana K. Figueroa and Jochen Dreher, University of Konstanz, Germany, [email protected], [email protected]
The symbolic work by means of which we extend a network of meaning over our visible and invisible
constructions of the world allows us to live within paradoxes. These illustrate one fundamental form of
dealing with contradictoriness and oppositionality; they simultaneously represent contradiction and the
process of its harmonization. Symbols consolidate and secure these constructions and enable us to
combine various seemingly irreconcilable meanings, emotions, values, and tendencies into a unified
image. They contract the contradictory into a unit, the not simultaneous into the simultaneous, the
congruent into one form. Symbols, especially those we consider collective symbols, fulfill this
function of unification. They are products and instruments of human effort, which in turn modifies and
maintains the conditions under which we live together in a group, community or society. Collective
symbols constitute the feeling of community just as they help ensure the community’s (collective)
consciousness and continuity.
On the basis of the interpretations of two case studies from our research project “Constructions of
Identity in Pluralistic Societies. Processes of Constitution of the Other and the Self in Argentina” we
will demonstrate the methodological process which is used to analyse Argentine collective symbols.
We consider tango and gaucho to be phenomena responsible for the constitution of communities and
collectivities within this society. Many of these collective symbols, that are unifying contradictory
elements of specific social worlds, disclose the means not only to analyse the specific “problems”
present within these social worlds, such as social cohesion attained on the basis of the construction of
identities, the creation of a mutual horizon of meaning or the typification of forms of action.
Furthermore, they point us towards concrete “solutions” to specific “problems” within the Argentine
society, that can be resolved through collective symbolism.
Keywords: collective symbolism, identity construction, hermeneutic analysis, Argentina, tango,
gaucho
People’s Representations on Corrupt Practices and the Construction of a New Moral
Order: In-Depth Interviews to Middle-Class Residents of Buenos Aires
Ruth Sautu, Paula Boniolo and Ignacia Perugorría, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina,
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
The objective of this paper is to evaluate the validity of a methodological strategy based on in-depth
interviews to study people’s representations of corruption and their beliefs about its effects on the
working of a democratic social order.
The paper draws on a social representations theoretical approach applied to analyze common people’s
own words when describing corrupt mechanisms, the conditions that favour its emergence, and its
effects for the democratic social order.
In-depth interviews were conducted among a purposeful sample of professionals and business men
and women who had information about mechanisms through which corruption operates in both the
public sector and private activities. The testimonies content consists in the description of cases of their
own experience and in their own interpretations and value judgments of the causes and consequences
of corruption.
The analytical approach consisted of three interrelated stages: first, the description of the corrupt
situations, actors and mechanisms based on the thematic analysis of interviews textual transcriptions;
second, the analysis of the categorization system employed by people and their attribution of either
social and/or individual causal explanations; and finally, the meaning of corruption in everyday life
and the feelings of resignation, acceptance or refusal implicated in the interpretation of corrupt
practices. While the first stage leads to a reconstruction of the factual mechanisms of corruption, the
199
second and third aim at achieving an understanding of its significance for the construction of a
“desired moral order”.
Keywords: social representations, corruption, middle class, qualitative analysis
Social Mimesis: A Study about Cultural Performances
Vincenzo Romania, University of Padua, Italy, [email protected]
Most recent developments in sociology of cultural processes frequently focus on the dimensions of
practice and performance as pragmatic expressions of attitudes and behaviour, always associated to a
cultural role, or a cultural meaning. This interesting direction of research , both in sociology and in
cultural anthropology, has mainly born in to the ambit of ethnographic studies. My paper focuses on
social mimesis, a strategic performance which immigrants often play to avoid the stereotypes and the
stigma related to their identity, in the local public space. The strategy is played by processes of
passing, of occultation, of amputation of individual identity. Following this point of view, I set an
empirical research based on the ethnographic paradigm, and conducted in Italy 100 qualitative
interviews to a snow-ball sample of Albanian immigrants.
The results of my research have important consequence for a dynamic and anti-systemic theory of
culture and for a model of social integration which renounces to consider immigrants as ‘simply’
organized in communities, otherwise analysing the individual strategies of insertion in the host
society.
Keywords: social mimesis, performance, integrations, theory of culture
Part II: Methods & Procedural Techniques
Impact of Interviewer Attitudes and Socio-Economic Status in an Inter-Ethnic Survey
Peter Pillók and Dávid Simon, Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary,
Our goal in the recent paper is to investigate the presence and pattern of impact of the interviewers’
attitude towards ethnic minorities in an inter-ethnic comparative study.
In our case study we analyse a research conducted in 1999-2000 in Hungary. The purpose of the study
was to investigate the Hungarian Roma population and compare it with the majority especially in
terms of living conditons. The findings of the research were published by János Ladányi - Iván
Szelény and György Csepeli - Dávid Simon, but in these papers the impact of interviewers’ attitudes
and socio-economic status was not given detailed investigation.
In our paper we try to find biases in the answers of the interviewees caused by the interviewer. Also,
because of the design of the research the interviewers had to answer some questions about the
interviewees - among others about the ethnicity of the interviewee.
For our investigation we used the data of the original research and a survey that was done among the
interviewers. The survey consisted of usual socio-economical questions and standard questions
concerning attitudes towards the Gypsies, and the items of the F-scale. We also used the data of a
national representative sample about the questions of the latter.
We investigate the distinction between the interviewer and the representative sample in order to test
the hypothesis that the interviewer can represent the majority. We also try to correct the possible
biases caused by these distinctions and give more exact estimations from the answers of the
interviewers about interviewees from the viewpoint of the majority.
In the second part of our paper we describe the possible effects on the answers of the interviewees
taking into consideration the similarities between the interviewers and interviewees caused by the
sampling design (e.g. location). We also compare these effects on the minority subsample and
majority subsample. For these investigations we use multilevel analysis.
As a final result, we give an evaluation and suggest some impovement for further similar multicultural surveys.
200
Video-based Analysis of Social Situations: Comparing the Analytic Range of
Ethnomethodology and Genre Analysis
Dirk vom Lehn1 and Bernt Schnettler2
1
King’s College, London, England, [email protected]
2
TU Berlin, Germany, [email protected]
There is a growing interest in the social and cognitive sciences to use video-recordings as principal
data to explore human action and interaction. Apart from an increasing body of experimental research
a variety of methods and techniques are employed to investigate naturalistic data. This paper focuses
on two approaches that have recently begun to use video-recordings for the analysis of ‘naturally’
occurring social situations, ethnomethodology and genre analysis.
Studies drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis have developed an analytic and
methodological framework to reveal the social and sequential organisation of participant’s action and
interaction. They concentrate on the sequential character of participants' conduct and the ways in
which they accomplish their action and activity in, and through, interaction with others. The aim of
these ethnomethodological studies of interaction is to uncover the “ethnomethods”, that is, the
practices and reasoning that participants use to accomplish their actions and activities.
Genre analysis was developed mainly to study the structures of oral communication. It combines basic
ideas of the social construction of reality with instruments for the detailed investigation of spoken
language from linguistics and pragmatics. Genres are socially sanctioned practices and, as they serve
as instruments for the communicative construction for the social world, their reconstruction is central
for determining the central contents of a particular culture. The aim of genre analysis is to identify
typical patterns of speaking practice and investigate their systematic relation to aspects of the social
structure and the cultural dimension of a certain society.
The paper will use a video-recorded fragment of a social situation to compare and contrast the range of
the analytic and methodological frameworks provided by ethnomethodology and genre analysis. It will
use the fragment to formulate research objectives based on different theoretical and methodological
concepts of the two approaches and analyse the fragment to reveal the different kinds of observations
and findings that the two approaches generate. In conclusion, the paper will begin to explore how
ethnomethodology and genre analysis may enrich each other’s analysis of naturally occurring social
situations.
Keywords: video-analysis, ethnomethodology, communicative genres
Giving Visibility to Hidden Rural Localities: Contributions of an Ethnographic
Research
Fernando Ilídio Ferreira, Universidade do Minho, Portugal., [email protected]
A qualitative and ethnographic research developed in the ambit of a PhD at the University of Minho,
Portugal, is presented in this paper. It was developed in a rural municipality and the part which is
presented corresponds to a study of a social solidarity institution called OUSAM. Founded in 1985, as
a sequence of a multidisciplinary project developed by the local health centre, OUSAM has been
carrying out activities involving children, families and communities in isolated parishes by a system of
bussing whereby children are picked up from their homes and driven to five small pre-school centres
and later returned home.
From its origin, the orientation for public space of the “community” has been the principal
characteristic of the work of this institution, but the members of the direction and the professionals
consider that since the 90s the pre-school teachers’ orientation for the restricted space of “the
classroom” is increasing. The ethnographic research confirms that phenomenon but also reveals that
factors still exist which make OUSAM very peculiar. In fact, one of its most distinctive characteristics
is the work that it has developed in the interior of the small and dispersed communities. The bussing
corresponds to the first moment of the education process of children and the possibility of daily
contact between pre-school teachers and families and other members of the communities. Besides that,
201
the fact that pre-school teachers circulate daily throughout the isolated parishes, has given them a
better knowledge of the social and family environment of the children of these areas.
Given the fact that the movement of the mini-buses, which transport children, pre-school teachers,
auxiliary staff and other social workers, are almost unique, these interior localities have become less
“invisible”. In fact, the professionals carry out the role of mediators with other local entities, such as
social security, local authorities, a health centre and a local project whose objective is to fight against
poverty and social exclusion, in order to contribute to the resolution of identified problems. Therefore,
what was at first considered an obstacle and which is still today seen by some people as a precarious
solution, reveals potentials which over-pass the domain of pre-school education. It is a broader process
of social and community work of mediation which is essential in rural areas confronted with problems
of de-population and isolation.
Keywords: qualitative and ethnographic methodology, community and mediation work, actor’s
perspective, rural areas
The Emergence of New Identities in Argentine Armed Forces: A Life Course Research.
Alejandra Navarro, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, [email protected]
The objective of this paper is to discuss the theoretical and methodological decisions undertaken in the
study “Pensamiento y Accionar Militar. Los Carapintadas en la Argentina: 1987-1990" ["Thought and
Military Drive: the Carapintadas in Argentina: 1987-1990"] emphasising the advantage of a qualitative
approach instead of a quantitative one. This study reconstructs four military uprisings that took place
in Argentina between 1987 and 1990, known as "levantamientos Carapintadas” [Carapintadas'
uprisings]. The paper’s objective is to reconstruct those events from the Carapintadas’ point of view
(lower and middle ranking officials), highlighting their evaluations and emotions, as well as their
ideological speech.
The frame of this study is people's narrative which is permeated by their attitudes, values and beliefs.
In this sense it contains not only a description of events but a selection and evaluation of their lived
reality. There are events in people's life that leave traces and scars which permanently stay in their
memory. Sometimes they could become turning points through which these people reinterpret their
past and future experiences. Memory is an individual property but it is strongly influenced by socio cultural contexts. Hence, activities like memory and forgetfulness must be considered basically as
social processes.
Sometimes it is possible to find not only dissent between what different people remember about the
same event but also faulty but valid reconstruction of a past episodes. What is important is to know the
actors’ perspective in the recalling of events that took place in a certain way at a certain time. The
studies which dive into peoples' narrative memories and emotions are usually shaped by qualitative
approaches which recover their life course.
The paper I am presenting to this meeting analyses each of the theoretical and methodological
decisions that were implemented in our study, emphasising the validity of the information. Data come
from in depth interviews with the participants in the four military uprisings and from documents
written by them.
Keywords: identity, actor’s perspective, military institutions/identity, life-course narratives, Argentina
People’s Perceptions on the Construction of Collective Goals: Interviews in Street
Meetings of Collective Protest
Luciano Brom, Pablo Dalle and Rodolfo Elbert, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina,
The present paper has two objectives, one of substantive order and other of methodological nature. In
first place, the article delves into the opinions and beliefs of participants of street protest
demonstrations regarding the impact of corruption on Argentine democracy and economic
development. In second place, it discusses methodological issues related to the validity and reliability
202
of both the construction of the instrument, the fieldwork experience and the data analysis. Data comes
from 196 survey interviews with open-ended questions conducted among participants of
demonstrations and popular assemblies that took place in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires
during April/May of 2002.
Taking in account that the survey was implemented during moving scenarios such as that of
demonstrations, the paper draws on both the cognitive and emotional elements present in the
respondents’ discourses. This is coherent with Raymond Williams’ definition of ideology as the
characteristic world-view or general perspective of a class or other social groups including formal and
conscious beliefs but also less conscious, less formulated attitudes, habits and feelings, or even
unconscious assumptions, bearings and commitments shared by the individuals of these groups.
This paper also discusses the methodological issues related to the validity and reliability problems
implied in the different stages of the study, from the construction of the selected instrument to the data
analysis. The paper describes the limitations and benefits of implementing a questionnaire with openended questions among demonstrators and the particularities of a fieldwork experience in a noisy and
crowded environment. Finally, it addresses the benefits of implementing a strategy of data analysis
which combines both a qualitative and quantitative approach. In first place, the thematic analysis of
the data allowed us to analyze the respondents´ opinions and emotions. The emergent categories led us
to construct a typology that resumes the respondent’s ideological orientations towards the actual
political and economic system. This typology was a key tool in further statistical analysis.
Keywords: democracy, ideology, qualitative/quantitative analysis
Images of the Argentine Ruling Class: Focus Groups using Mass Media Photographs as
Stimulus
Valeria Maidana, Gabriela Medin and María Alejandra Otamendi, University of Buenos Aires,
Argentina, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
The objective of this paper is to discuss methodological aspects of the study “Images of the Argentine
ruling class: focus groups using mass media photographs as stimulus”. The study compares middle
class young people’s opinions about social and political ruling class leaders in two different historical
moments: June 2001 and June 2003. While June 2001 may be considered representative of the
argentine political crisis, June 2003 represents a relative stability after the crisis.
People develop their opinions, perceptions and attitudes in interaction with significant others in
conversation encounters or in processes of self-reflection. Therefore, as a focus group consists of
group’s open discussions we used this method to produce data about participant’s social
representations, knowledge, beliefs and perceptions about social and political leaders. We utilized
photographs of leaders, which appeared in mass media magazines, as a stimulus for discussion.
From the analysis of the group’s discussions we constructed the following categories: appearance and
physical characteristics; moral characteristics; and attributed attitudes and behaviors. Comparing data
collected in two different historical moments, we found that the leaders in the photographs were
judged consistently in a similar way. There are certain elements that remain stable: the categories used
for describing the actor’s social membership and morality appear as the core of the social
representation.
From a methodological point of view, it is important to point out that focus groups have certain
disadvantages such as introducing a bias when one of the participants speak too much or has a
dominant attitude that could make other members to feel uncomfortable or not have an active
participation.
In this presentation we are going to emphasize the moderator importance to stimulate participation
among everybody, the convenience of a careful selection of the participants and the influence of
photographs as a stimulus for discussion.
Keywords: qualitative methodology, focus group, reflexivity collective identity, social and political
leaders, actor’s perspective.
203
Evaluation of the Internet Use: A Call for Mixing Method Approach
Boris Kragelj, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, [email protected]
In the paper we try to present a special approach for the evaluation of the use of the Internet that is
based on mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. The approach originates from the evaluation
research tradition, applies classical evaluation criteria from the public policy analysis and
systematically combines various traditional methods of social science with new methods of Internet
research. Using that kind of methodological approach for the evaluation of Internet use results in more
relevant, complete and broader assessment of Internet use by certain organization as it takes into
account its specific communication goals and considers broader social context of their realization. This
new approach is universal, so that the Internet use of different organizations could be assessed in
uniform - standardized way, and at the same time particular, so that specific goals or different
communication strategies of Internet use by each of the particular organization could be considered as
the leading criteria in each case of the evaluation.
“Evaluation study” by definition is systematic use of procedures, methodologies, and approaches of
social science research for assessing ideas, plans, projects, results and effects of public or political
programs considering broad social and political context and including all involved parties (Rossi and
Freeman, 1993). We can understand evaluation study as methodology for reviewing activity (program
monitoring) or assessment of success of some kind of program (program evaluation). The main
purpose of evaluation study is not only to assess how effective are specific programs in achieving its
specific goals, but also to find some better solutions of reaching it. Originating from the theoretical
approach of evaluation study, we are trying to transfer its basic ideas for the purpose of evaluation the
use of the Internet, where the program under evaluation are goals or communication strategy of certain
organization in using the Internet. We argue that this kind of evaluation study is possible only with
systematic design of mixing qualitative (public policy analysis) and quantitative (social science and
internet research) methods and in this way suggest the following three-step triangulation model:
Identification of organization’s goals or communication strategy in using the Internet
Selection of relevant theoretical (public policy) evaluation criteria that captures the effectiveness of
organization’s planned Internet use
Complete empirical analysis of organization’s website (measurement of its performance in all aspects
related to its goals and strategy defined in step 1: e.g., accessibility, usability…) corresponding to the
selected evaluation criteria in step 2
Comparison of goals (from step 1) with results of analysis (step 3) according to selected evaluation
criteria (step 3)
We demonstrate this methodological approach on a case study of Internet use by the Government of
the Republic of Slovenia.
Keywords: mixing methods, evaluation study, public policy analysis, Internet research methods
SESSION:
INTERROGATING
CONVENTIONALITY
IN
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH. BRICOLAGE AND INGENUITY IN
INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELDWORK
Organizor: Marsha Henry
Contact: Centre for Health and Social Care, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory
Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 (0)117 954 6755, Fax: +44(0)117 954 6756,
[email protected]
Keywords: feminist methodology, authenticity, time, insider/outsider, reflexivity, accountability
Abstract
The panel will consist of 5 papers on various qualitative methodological issues raised by doing
research from an interdisciplinary perspective and/or using multiple methods. The overall aim of this
204
panel is to explore how qualitative researchers cross conventional methodological and disciplinary
boundaries in their research and how they conduct fieldwork in ways that go against the
methodological 'grain'. Furthermore, the papers will explore how researchers are able to creatively
respond to dilemmas arising in the field by adapting old or inventing new methodological techniques.
Tom Slater's paper challenges the use of tape recorders for in-depth interviewing. Paul Higate's paper
argues that gender and military experience play equally important roles in the experiences of military
sociologists. Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert's paper examines the difficulties raised by using historical and
sociological methods across the colonial and postcolonial period. Finally, Marsha Henry's paper
explores problematic issues of representation and authority raised for diasporic researchers.
Tom Slater, Centre for Urban Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK
This paper offers an account of the problems encountered when using a tape recorder to capture the
words of people interviewed for a research project on gentrification in inner-city Toronto, and how the
problems were resolved. Numerous textbooks, fieldwork guides, and evidence-based practitioners in
several sub-disciplines of social science treat the tape recorder as a sacrosanct accessory - without it,
interview quotations are assumed to be invalid and inauthentic, and the researcher somehow casual
and irresponsible. This paper argues that jettisoning the intrusive whirr of tape spool can have a very
positive impact on qualitative work depending on the research context, and the researcher's experience
as an interviewer. It is pointed out that, first, an engaging interview can only take place when both
interviewee and interviewer are at ease, for they influence each other, back and forth, and second,
treating an interview as an informal conversation, to be documented immediately afterwards and later
checked with the respondent, can be just as effective and informative as capturing everything that is
said on tape. While I do not advocate this as a general, normative strategy, I point out that qualms over
authenticity of accounts and 'reliable data' are secondary to the needs of an inexperienced researcher
trying to come to terms with the tremendous challenges posed by qualitative investigations in tense
inner-city locations.
If the Shoe Fits: Authority, Authenticity and Agency in Feminist Diasporic Research
Marsha Henry, Centre for Health and Social Care, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol,
UK
Many feminists have been critical of the inequalities that arise between feminist researchers and their
participants, especially so in the case of research on third world women, and proposed some ways to
minimise exploitation such as using participatory methods. However, one area that has been relatively
neglected is how feminist researchers are actually trained and prepared for fieldwork. As an IndoCanadian, I was trained for my doctoral fieldwork in India by white, middle-class, English academics.
My supervisors did not assume that I was, in Narayan's terms, an 'Authentic Insider', merely because I
was part of the South Asian Diaspora. Instead, they trained and prepared me based on their own
methodological 'traditions' and histories. What was problematic, I realised after completing my
fieldwork, was that I had fashioned some aspects of my researcher identity based on my supervisors as
model researchers. This was particularly complicating in relation to issues of authority, authenticity
and agency.
In this paper, I argue that the centrality of the white, western, middle-class academic as a dominant
model of feminist researcher poses considerable difficulties for researchers who are racially and
ethnically marginalised within their 'home' communities. The 'authority' that I was expected to
diminish as a western researcher, seemed surprisingly absent in many of my research encounters. My
'authenticity' as a westerner or non-westerner was challenged both at 'home' and in the 'field' making
hyrbidity and hyphenated identity a compelling option. My abilities to exercise agency in the research
process were complicated by my attempts to fill the shoes of a feminist researcher that did not reflect
my different social and institutional positioning. I argue that diasporic researchers might be better
prepared for research by acknowledging the ways in which they are academically positioned both at
the centre and at the margins, at 'home' and in the 'field'.
205
Colonial Contexts and Post-Colonial Understandings: Researching on Women in the
Indian Nationalist Movement
Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, Sociology, University of Bristol, UK
The project of 'nation building' during the anti-colonial struggle in India has primarily been associated
with the public sphere, which is also conceptualised as the sphere of all 'political' activities. I was
interested in the 'domestic' narratives of 'ordinary' middle class women (like my mother and
grandmother) who could not negotiate public roles for themselves as easily as elite women. This
methodological journey would enable me to deconstruct unexamined assumptions about women and
their domestic activities in the Indian nationalist movement. My own emphasis on personal narratives
would raise both methodological and theoretical dilemmas. In particular, I came to question western
feminist theoretical models and their relevance for understanding non-western 'colonial' experiences.
Women's autobiographical narratives were to expose the interconnections of the public and private:
their active negotiations within the nationalist movement, the processes through which public
activities regulated private spaces and finally the politicisation of the home/family through diffusion of
the public/private boundaries. I was able to demonstrate that the domestic was an equally important
site of nationalist activities as the public sphere and saw two transformations - the domestication of the
public sphere and the politicisation of the domestic sphere.
Paul Higate, Centre for Health and Social Care, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK
Research paradigms within the sub-discipline of the sociology of the miliary continue to be influenced
by positivist approaches. These derive from organisational and psychological studies and tend to be
framed by more traditional 'objective' perspectives. Rarely is the role of the researcher and his or her
impact on the ensuing research enterprise invoked; subjectivities in these contexts remain unexplored.
In this paper, using the concept of reflexivity, we consider the ways in which the biographies of the
research team shaped engagement with ex-military personnel and their partners. Here, the 'insider' - a
former member of the Royal Air Force, and the 'outsider' - a life-long civilian with earlier affiliations
with the Campaign for Nucelar Disarmament, discuss how their biographies influence not only
thinking about their role in the research project, but also how it shaped experience of interview
amongst service leavers and their families. Through the lens of reflexivity, we show how our approach
to a particular research project, together with the findings we produce, are creations brokered intersubjectively at the interface of participant and researcher biographies.
SESSION: MISCELLANEOUS
Organizor: Henk Kleijer
Contact: SISWO, Plantage Muidergracht 4, 1018 TV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
S. Hamidullah, Government Postgraduate College, Mardan, NWFP, Pakistan, Tel.(Residential) 92 923
612913, Fax.(Residential) 92 923 611098, [email protected]
In Pakistan all the students of various universities are supposed to conduct an empirical research on
the methodology they are taught during their graduate and post-graduate course and submit the report
to their faculty of concerned department for the partial fulfillment of their degrees. The methodology
and quality of research in no way lags behind the course taught at western universities.
However the students use their own methodology when they conduct their researches because of the
facts that no financial help or sponsorship is extended for such activities. Consequently when the
206
students get their degrees in social research, they divorce their skill and do not touch such “rubbish”
activities.
Similarly the teachers of social sciences have no interest for the research because there is no funding
facilities or the incentives / encouragement, therefore they are confined to teaching only and do not
innovate their skill of research. Ultimately the research is confined to personal and private activities
with out any appreciation.
The present study discloses how the students collect the primary and or secondary data available in the
various corners of the universe. Do they go from door to door, from individual to individual and
interview / probe them all to over come biased data? If the students cannot afford the field survey
through interview schedules or questionnaires, do they do the TGD (Targeted Group Discussion)
methods for their researches? Or they use self-created methods for the compilation of their dissertation
acceptable for the post-graduate degrees.
The present study enlightens how the research activities are carried out and presented in various
conferences of national and international forums by the researcher / scholars who are addicted to
research writing and given no incentives in the globe. The report also depicts their constrains and
expectations.
Edith de Leeuw, Natacha Borgers and Astrid Smits, Department of Methodology and Statistics,
Utrecht University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Children are no longer neglected as respondents in surveys. They participate more and more in
surveys. However, systematic methodological knowledge on survey techniques and questionnaire
development for children is scarce, and researchers have to rely on ad-hoc knowledge from diverse
fields as child psychiatry and educational testing or on methodological knowledge on how to survey
adults.
The purpose of this paper is (1) to integrate the current theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding
questionnaire research with children as respondents, and (2) to present instruments and strategies for
the development of questionnaires for children.
Keywords: data quality, cognitive development, social development, youth questionnaires
Feminist Method and Methodology and the Struggle to define Social Inquiry and
Epistemology. The Logic behind the Measure.
Ronald Marshall, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad en Tobago,
[email protected]
Critical thinking according to Harding (1987) must be no less than what is traditionally defined as
relevant evidence. This paper critically reviews the question of method, methodology and
epistemology in feminist research and attempts to demonstrate that feminist research is at crosspurposes.
The question of qualitative research, “bounded generalizability” and feminist methodology represent
attempts by feminists of various suasion to come to grips with the question of logic and rationale, even
as they challenge traditional researchers on biases in their research.
In so doing, they unwittingly create systems that are not logical and force people to reconceptualize
the meaning behind research.
In comparing the two methodological systems, I come away with the impression that social science
research and sociology are at the crossroads. These impending changes have implications for the
emergence of a new method, methodology and epistemology and the ability of sociology in particular
to be able to continue to undertake research in order to uncover various complex phenomena.
207
Eleanor Gerber, US Census Bureau, Statistical Research Division, USA, [email protected]
Interest in examining surveys in a cross-cultural perspective has risen as surveys have been fielded in
complex, multi-national and multi-ethnic contexts. Survey response and respondent behavior in
general is understood to vary by cultural, ethnic and linguistic factors. The aim of this paper is to
examine some key concepts by which these behavioral differences may be understood. An
understanding of these factors is useful both in predicting where differences may occur and in guiding
future research. The data on which this paper are based are drawn from qualitative work over more
than a decade surrounding the US decennial census.
For this discussion, culture is regarded as a set of mental constructs; definitions, assumptions, values
and beliefs by which people construct and interpret the world. It is the central insight of anthropology
that these beliefs differ by culture. However, this single conceptual insight does not do justice to the
complexity in respondent behavior to surveys nor to the range of differences to which survey
designers should attend. These factors include:
1. Conceptual differences: An example is the race categories in the US census, which are
problematic for persons from Latin America, who often do not find acceptable categories for
themselves.
2. Social adaptation: Some relevant differences are not codified in belief, but represent common
structural adaptations to external circumstances. Thus, immigrant households from many
different systems of belief adapt to high rents by sharing space, regardless of varied ideals of
household structure. In addition, wide similarities in attitude towards government data
collection are shared by diverse groups with similar histories of conflict with the Federal
Government. These social adaptations can create wide similarities in behavior among very
diverse groups.
3. Assimilation: Despite very different beliefs, it often does not take immigrants long to learn
what they consider to be the expected response. Thus, although “Hispanic” is an unfamiliar
concept, many immigrants adopt it as a self-identification in the US context.
4. Different understandings of respondent behavior. The survey itself is a cultural representation.
Respondents have a set of cultural expectations about what surveys are and how to participate,
which vary by previous experience.
These factors affect survey design and procedures, and should be the subject of further research.
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design, nonresponse and survey errors
SESSION: MIXING QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS:
EMPIRICAL DESIGNS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Organizor: Udo Kelle
Contact: Vechta, Germany, [email protected]
Abstract
Despite ongoing „paradigm wars“ there is a growing tendency to combine qualitative and quantitative
methods of social Research to „Mixed Methods“ Designs. At present „Mixed Methods“ represents a
rapidly developing field of social science methodology. However, the discussion is still characterized
by a lack of common ground. A variety of proposals have been made for a taxonomy of Mixed
Methods Designs, but there is yet a lack of agreement regarding basic concepts and definitions. One
reason for this is that the relation between empirical designs and theoretical concepts has been rarely
discussed so far, although many authors in the Mixed Methods debate stress the preeminence of the
research question over abstract methodological and epistemological considerations.
In this session we will discuss the relation between sorts of mixed methods designs on the one hand
and types of research questions and theoretical rationales of research projects on the other hand.
208
Researchers who want to develop and discuss ideas about the relation between designs, research
questions and theory esp. on the basis of the results and experiences of empirical projects are invited to
submit proposals for presentations.
Part I: Mixed Methods Designs and their Relation to Theoretical and Methodological
Debates
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods between Paradigm and Pragmatics: Mixing,
Integration or Triangulation?
Uwe Flick, Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany, [email protected]
The relation of qualitative and quantitative research has been discussed from different angles, ranging
from the so-called paradigm wars to consequently pragmatic combination and use of both. Mixed
Methodologies and integration of qualitative and quantitative research are two key topics and two
slogans that are very attractive both in the methodological discussion and in research practice.
Both of these attempts to end the qualitative-quantitative debate still have to face several key
questions: How far do they operate on theoretical and reflexive grounds? Do these grounds allow to
frame the methodological relation of qualitative and quantitative research as well as the
methodological training for both types of methods and to lead to a theoretically and empirically sound
social research?
In this paper, the concept of triangulation shall be taken up (again) to set out a framework for a
reflexive and pragmatic use of qualitative and quantitative research. In spelling out the concept of
triangulation a bit more than the way it is used in both debates may contribute to develop adequate
research designs that comprise qualitative and quantitative research. A main point in this
conceptualisation will be how far both forms of research are taken serious in their epistemological,
methodological and theoretical backgrounds and research principles and are not seen in a premature
dominance of one form over the other.
Keywords: Triangulation; Qualitative and Quantitative Methods; Mixed Methods; Research Design
Mixed Methods Sampling Considerations and Designs in Social Science Research
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie1 and Kathleen M. T. Collins2
1
Department of Educational Measurement and Research, College of Education, University of South
Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, EDU 162, Tampa, FL, 33620-7750, USA,
[email protected], Tel: 813-974-1163 (Office), Tel: 813-632-9226 (Home), Fax: 813-6329227
2
College of Education and Health Professions, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction, 201 Graduate,
Education Building, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA, [email protected];
[email protected], Tel: 479 575-4209 (Office), Tel: 479-527-6955 (Home), Fax: 479 575-6676
Because every study, whether quantitative or qualitative, is time-and context-bound, sampling
decisions are made, whether consciously or subconsciously, by the researcher. These sampling
decisions are made at the data collection (e.g., choice of sample, units, instrument), data analysis (e.g.,
choice and amount of data types of data units [e.g., numbers, words, observations], and data
interpretation (e.g., choice and amount of data units to interpret) stages of the research process. Central
to all sampling designs in both quantitative and qualitative research are issues of sampling cases and
data units because some type of generalization nearly always is made. In particular, either
numbers/words/observations from the sample are generalized to the population. In other cases, the
sample of words or observations from the participant is generalized to the participant’s population of
words or observations in order to capture the voice. In the context of mixed methods research,
209
sampling considerations are even more complex because sampling decisions must be made for both
the quantitative and qualitative components of the study. Therefore, this paper provides a framework
for developing sampling designs in mixed methods research. First, we discuss the role of sampling in
both quantitative and qualitative research. Second, we discuss sampling tenets common to both
quantitative and qualitative studies, including the following: (a) sampling decisions should stem from
the research goal (e.g., predict, understand complex phenomena), research objective (e.g., exploratory
vs. confirmatory), research purpose, and research question; (b) the sample of cases and/or units must
be adequate such that the underlying characteristic, experience, and/or process is captured; (c) the
sample of cases and/or units must be compatible with the research design; (d) inferences should stem
directly from the sample of units that is extracted; and (e) the sampling strategy should be viable,
efficient, practical, and ethical. Third, we provide a typology of sampling designs in mixed methods
research. Here, parallel, concurrent, and sequential mixed methods sampling designs are distinguished.
Also, we outline 24 sampling schemes. Fourth, sample size issues pertaining to cases/units in the
quantitative and qualitative components are discussed. Finally, sampling design considerations are
discussed in terms of the triple crises in mixed methods (i.e., research of representation, legitimation,
and praxis.) We contend that carefully reflecting about sampling design represents an appropriate way
of achieving verhesten in social science research.
Keywords: Sampling, Sample Size, Mixed Methods
Why it is Necessary to Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Data and Methods to
Examine the Thesis of Individualization?
Jens Zinn, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, Cornwallis Building, University of
Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF, UK, Tel: +44 (0)1227/82 4165, [email protected]
One of the main concepts of the theory of reflexive modernization is the individualization theorem.
The releasing of individuals from traditional bonds, the pluralization of options for action, the burden
of being forced to make choices and not simply having the choice of doing so are at the centre of the
hypothesis of a modernity undergoing modernization, as Ulrich Beck puts it. The proof of increasing
individualization is however controversial. Previous attempts of its empirical verification or rejection
may have lead to the impression that the operationalizations lacking depth were deliberate attempts to
prompt confirmation or rejection of the thesis of individualization. If this thesis is however not to
remain a blurred catchword but rather to be used as a theoretical proposition which should serve the
purpose of scientifically verifiable theory, it must be formulated more precisely and operationalized.
This paper aims to make a contribution in this effort. My argument presupposes that neither the
observation of simple pluralization nor alone the change in the semantics of social or subjective
individual description suffice to confirm or reject the thesis of individualization. Much rather the
practical separation in research between the action outcome (e.g. social structure analysis) and
meanings of action (e.g. biography research) in the discourse on individualization must be overcome if
based on scientific analysis a society-wide process of individualization is to be said to have taken
place. Individualization can only be understood and tested in the sense of a ”new mode of
societalization, … a kind of ‘metamorphosis’ or ‘categorial shift’ in the relation between the
individual and society” (Beck 1992, 127). This can be made possible, I argue, by using strategies of
constructing types provided that not only identities, lifeplans or patterns of action but rather
biographical actions influenced by contextual experiences from a longitudinal perspective are typified.
Keywords: individualization, mixed methods, biography research, typology, longitudinal Research,
triangulation
Reference
Beck, Ulrich (1992). Risk Society. Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publications. (German: 1986:
Risikogesellschaft. Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp).
210
Stratification and Social Mechanisms: An Empirical Point of View
Flavio Ceravolo and Laura Accornero, Dipartimento di Ricerca Sociale (Department of Social
Research) Università del Piemonte Orientale, Via Cavour, 84, 15100 Alessandria, Italy, Tel: +39 0131
283 727, Fax: +39 0131 283 704, [email protected], [email protected]>
The paper focuses on the relation between the perspective of social mechanisms on one hand, and the
controversy between qualitative and quantitative social research. In this regard we present an empirical
study about the social reproduction mechanisms in an Italian local context (Alessandria) performed
interviewing a sample of people homogeneous by high educative qualification (degree). This study
presents a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods: a survey of 600 people together with some
unstructured interviews. In this paper we will describe the principal results of this study and how the
approach of social mechanisms can contributes to the “war between paradigms”. Using this empirical
strategy we have pointed out four main reproduction patterns between generations: a “strong
occupational” reproduction from the high position of the father’s job to the son’s collocation on the
labour market; a “group reproduction” pattern from family position from daughter, an acquisition
pattern based on the reach a high educative qualification starting from a working class family, and
finally a double exclusion mechanism that can be ascribed the results of a cumulation of inequalities
axis (gender, class…etc). The conjunction of qualitative an quantitative approach give us the
possibility to identified the patterns described and evaluate their incidence in the local society.
On the other hand we must point out that empirical studies have usually been focused on the
construction of models that describe the relation between factors only at a macro-sociological level,
thus building very complex – but also over-general – causal models. A valid alternative is to identify
empirical patterns based on micro regularities defined by theoretical assumptions, which characterize
homogeneous populations. In particular, this approach takes into account either structural conditions
(macro) or individual choices and actions (micro) [Hedström e Swedberg, 1996, 1998].
Our aim is to map a plurality of different social mechanisms (or micro-causal patterns) operating in
different social circles or spheres. Explanation in terms of mechanisms, however, allows us to develop
the embedded dimension of individual choice and action. Social actors, in fact, make their choices on
the basis of constraints, opportunities, beliefs and desires (interests) that are developed not only by the
primary socialization process, but also by the social circles in which they are involved.
On an empirical ground, we have to consider the possibility to specify assumptions and hypotheses
about the different mechanisms operating in homogeneous social circles. This methodological concept
was proposed by Lazarsfeld, who referred to “specification”.
Mascia Ferri, Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy,
[email protected]
The study of the authors who have made the history of Sociology, has created definitions and
interpretations that are often in contrast with one another. Therefore, the issue is one of understanding
the reasons for this incongruence in thought - for this we are indebted to Sociology of Knowledge and to activate a historical reflection to recompose the pieces of the History of Sociological Thought.
To this end, we needed a methodology to act as a bridge between historical reflection and the
Sociology of Knowledge.
Coherency Analysis has as its purpose identifying interpretive instruments available to the author
under scrutiny, and to verify if these same instruments were used by the author in the research. A
researcher must create an interpretive scheme/model organized in such a manner as to allow a
comparison of the author's instruments, the instruments of the social-historical era where the author
lived and the researcher's instruments.
A study of coherency, should reveal the incongruence between the author's model and the researcher's,
the instruments available and those actually used, the ideological positions and the viable positions.
211
No concept can be taken in isolation from the hypothesis, that it is stereotype of femininity, as is
shown by Rousseau's work, be severed from the concept of social control, to illustrate an ideological
position that is more conservative than progressive.
The analysis of the dimensions of a concept reflects a logical, semantic and pragmatic process, for this
reason its indexes cannot be created by a simple mathematical calculation: a researcher's reflective
intervention is necessary. The researcher must distinguish a relevant conceptual combination from an
arithmetically based one. However, the researcher's work introduces partiality by creating the data and
in directing the observation. Therefore, out of necessity the researcher must works in a state of
surrender to where, as indicated by Kurt H. Wolff, parenthesis are placed around the notions received
with respect to a particular social reality that one is trying to understand, without resistance created by
pre-constituted interpretive models: one's own point of view, prejudices, and stereotypes must be
suspended. A study through this method does not mean renouncing one's critical role as a sociologist,
but rather better defines one's ability to present a proposition over one's interpretive abilities.
Coherency Analysis could lend consistency to previous theories by updating rather than revising them.
Keywords: Coherency Analysis, stereotype, interpretive instruments
Part II: Methodological Problems and Theoretically Informed Solutions in Mixed Methods
Research
Danger: Data Overload! Mixed Methods in a Cross-National Study of Care Home Staff
Ingrid Eyers, University of Surrey, England, [email protected]
This paper presents the experience of a mixed methods approach utilising structured interviews, selfcompletion questionnaires and semi-structured interviews using vignettes and a lifecourse grid to
research care home staff in England and Germany. The research aimed to establish how government
policies impacted on the acquisition of care skills and the daily provision of care. The theoretical
framework related to emotional labour and institutional time in the provision of care and how this
impacted on the quality of life experienced by older people living in English and German care homes.
Data was collected in four English and four German care homes. The structured interviews with eight
care home managers established a profile of the older people living in the care home and the staff
employed to provide their care. Self-completion questionnaires were distributed to all care staff in the
sample homes to establish a profile of how the respondents gained the skills to work in a care home.
This was followed by interviews conducted with qualified staff and care assistants in each of the
sample homes. The resulting 50 interviews focused on establishing a picture of the daily routine in the
care home involved the use of care related vignettes in order to compare the provision of care by
qualified staff and care assistants in England and Germany. The interviews concluded with the
collection of lifecourse data in grid form.
There was an acute danger of data overload in this blend of research methods which resulted in a
wealth of inter-linked empirical data sets. However, the mixed methods provided a balanced, coherent
insight into the impact of government policies on the care of older people. Furthermore the findings
have theoretical implications on emotional labour and the sociology of time.
The German Research Foundation Project “Mobilzeit” as Example for the Integration
of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Andrea Tina Booh and Siegrid Wieczorek, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany, [email protected], [email protected]
Our study is placed in the field of labour research especially on the topic of working-times and worklife balance. Its design contains “between methods triangulation”.
An important aim of our study is the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. So we focus
on the term of “between methods triangulation” as a central concept for method integration.
212
The design of our study includes a survey of the working population in Germany.
Participants of our quantitative study are 1677 people in paid work and people who are not employed
at the moment but with the intention to find paid work in future. The sample includes 55,9 % (937)
women and 44,1 % (740) men at the age of sixteen to sixty. Data were collected from April to May
2003 in standardized telephone interviews. Our design implies a connected sample from the
representative survey. It consists out of 40 persons who were asked in face-to-face interviews about
topics of the standardized questionnaire as well as other topics like work-life balance. We chose this
procedure to combine qualitative and quantitative data of the individual cases and to analyze them
simultaneously.
The presentation includes the type of multi-method design and the combined results of the
representative sample together with the qualitative interviews of the connected sample.
Keywords: Between methods triangulation, quantitative methods, qualitative methods, mixed methods,
working-time, work-life balance.
Do Media Discourses Influence Opinions? Connecting Discourse Analysis of Newspaper
Data with Time Series Analysis of Survey Data
Nina Baur1 and Christian Lahusen2
1
Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Feldkirchenstr. 21,
96045 Bamberg, Germany, [email protected]
2
Lehrstuhl für Soziologie II, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Lichtenhaidenstr. 11, 96052
Bamberg, Germany, [email protected]
Using a current research project, we want to discuss problems and solutions of linking qualitative and
quantitative longitudinal data. The project aims at linking debates on long-term media effects and the
acceptance of welfare states. The main question is: Does acceptance of welfare states change over time
as a result of debates on social security in the mass media? In order to be able to operationalize this
question, we focus on acceptance of state programmes for preventing and reducing unemployment and
combating poverty in Germany. We used a three-stage-process in order to answer our question: First,
we analyzed newspaper articles using a combination of qualitative content analysis and discourse
analysis. Second, we traced both individual and collective change in attitudes towards the welfare
states by using different waves of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and of ALLBUS. Third, we used
the “Media-Analysen” (data collected by ag.ma giving information on readers of German media) in
order to construct reader profiles of the newspapers we analysed.
Both qualitative and quantitative research are valuable and that – depending on the research question –
researchers very often have to rely in a combination of both strategies, because no other data are
available or because of the nature of the research question. Still, at least in our case, the gap between
qualitative and quantitative data could not be closed without using theoretical hypotheses.
In this sense, there are a good number of practical reasons for using Mixed Methods. However, our
research grounds on the assumption that Mixed Methods is also indispensable in order to overcome
the gap between interpretative and statistical analysis. In our case, we argue that the acceptance of the
welfare state within the population can certainly be traced back by opinion polls. However if we want
to understand the possible effects of public debates on individual attitudes, we have to overcome the
limitations of standardized data and reach out to interpretative data. Undoubtedly, this broader
approach increases the practical and methodological challenges of the research process. Our study
indicates, however, that Mixed Methods open new insights into a broader empirical understanding.
Keywords: Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Mixed Methods, Discourse Analysis, Survey
Data, Time Series, Longitudinal Research, Validity
213
The Conceptual Net of Internal Consistency and the Es of Praxiology in Human Inquiry
Arne Collen, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, 450 Pacific, San Francisco, CA 94133
USA, [email protected]
At the heart of every research study of human beings is a set of core concepts that comprise a network
of constructs, from which arises a meta construct termed internal consistency. This first conceptual
system is complemented by a second comprised of another set of core concepts, known as the Es of
praxiology. This second conceptual system imbues the first at each phase of human inquiry. Some
relationships between the two systems are discussed to delineate the manner in which the second
system serves to enable the first system to become manifest as research process.
Keywords: Constructing research methodology, research process, validity.
SESSION: ANALYZING INTERVIEWS (PART 1): QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
Part I: Systematic Qualitative Analysis of Interview Data
Organizors: Manfred Max Bergman1 and Véronique Mottier2
Contact:1SIDOS Switzerland and Cambridge University, [email protected]
2
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, [email protected]
Keywords: Interviews, discourse analysis, narrative analysis.
Abstract
Interviews are one of the main research methods to assess social context and subjectivity. A
substantial increase in the general popularity of qualitative interviewing as a cost-effective research
tool on the one hand, and its proliferation in evaluation research and policy analysis on the other, has
raised questions about the relevance and quality of interview-based research. Most quality concerns
focus on data collection (e.g. question design, intersubjectivity, sampling, rapport), while neglecting
the analytical process. This session will explore what happens to interview data after it has been
collected and, wherever relevant, transcribed. Based on case studies and theory, session presenters will
discuss what methods they use and which steps they take to arrive at substantive conclusions.
Strategies for Analysing In-depth Interviews of People with Disabilities in Northers
Aegean, Greece
Dimitris Papageorgiou1, Theodoros Iosifides2, M. Sidiropoulou3
1
Performance Theory and Performance Practices in Everyday Life, Department of Cultural
Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, Sapfous and Arionos, 81100, Mitilini,
Lesvos, Greece. Tel. 0030-22510 36617, [email protected]
2
Social Research Methods, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, University Hill,
81100, Mitilini, Lesvos, Greece. Tel. 0030-22510 36405, [email protected]
3
Department of Physical Education and Sports Science, University of Thessaloniki, Laboratory of
Developmental Pediatrics and Special Education, DPESS, University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Tel.
0030-2310 992215, 0030-210 9345825
The basic aim of this paper is to present certain methodological and analysis strategies of a series of
in-depth qualitative interviews of people with disabilities in two islands of northern Aegean area
(Lesvos and Hios), Greece. This qualitative research was part of a broader European research program
(EQUAL) concerning various dimensions of social and economic life of people with disabilities.
Through forty-four (44) in – depth interviews with people with disabilities a series of issues were
214
researched and more specifically the meaning of being a person with a disability, social networks and
socialization, family and social life, economic and labor market participation and social integration
problems and prospects.
This paper concerns mainly the basic analysis strategies employed after the empirical material was
collected and took a textual form. After a brief account of the qualitative research process (formation
of research thematic areas, construction of the interview guide, training of the interviewees, selection
of participants and sampling, problems of entering the field and establishing rapport, field relations
and actual interviewing), special emphasis is given to the following analysis strategies:
- Gradual construction and reconstruction of the coding framework of analysis and the transition from
the interview guide to the coding scheme
- Links between different codes and sub codes and the avoidance of decontextualization
- The use, advantages and disadvantages of qualitative analysis software
- The emergence of core categories of analysis and the role of the grounded theory approach
- From categorization to theorizing and the relations between empirical data and theoretical –
analytical notions
- Problems of validity and reliability and the question of generalization of findings
Finally the paper concludes by summarizing the major methodological and analysis challenges with an
emphasis to the overall picture of the research experience.
Keywords: qualitative data analysis, grounded theory, in-depth interviews, people with disabilities,
coding, categorization theorizing
The Interpretation of Qualitative Data from a Critical Theoretical Framework
Claire Wagner1 and David JF Maree2
1
Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood road, Brooklyn, 0181, RSA,
[email protected]
2
Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood road, Brooklyn, 0181, RSA,
[email protected]
This paper describes how data, generated from semi-structured interviews, was analysed. A brief
background is provided of the aim of the research and as well as a description of how critical theory
informed the methodological approach in the study. As there is no unified critical theory and much
debate about appropriate methodologies within this theoretical framework abound in the literature, the
researcher describes the path that was chosen to do a critical interpretation of the data. Furthermore,
the paper informs the reader about how the text was prepared for analysis and the rationale behind this
preparation. Elements of Carspecken’s (1996) approach on how to analyse data from a critical
hermeneutic epistemology were adapted and applied to the interview material. A reconstructive
analysis was performed on the data where codes were assigned to establish patterns and generate
themes. This in turn enabled the researcher to choose suitable parts of the data for meaning
reconstruction (fleshing out and explicitly stating what is said by respondents). Nine categories
referred to as ‘beliefs’ were generated. The researcher then applied a hermeneutic approach to the
categories exploring the ideas of virtual intersubjectivity, meaning-making through familiarity with the
culture of the actors, reflecting on and identifying the researcher’s norms, the normative circle and the
personal characteristics of research participants versus typical cultural behaviour. The paper concludes
with some reflections on the methodological contributions and limitations of the study.
Keywords: critical social theory, qualitative data analysis, critical hermeneutics, methodology
215
Olga B. Savinskaya, The Institute of Sociology, the Russian Academy of Sciences,
[email protected]
In my presentation I would like to debate about the subsidiarity narrative and discursive analysis.
Narrative analysis allows reconstructing the consequences in life stories; determine the cost-effective
links, heroes, allies and enemies, un/favourable conditions and so on. But sometimes, the analyst is
faced the situation, when fair frank interview gives, in the result, a lot of subjective contradictions. The
attitudes to a topic of the interviewee are looking like discrete, and even contradictory.
To join the history in whole could be used discursive analysis. Analyzing discursive contexts of each
utterance pointed out, that history was told by several identities of an interviewee. And the questions
are how the interviewee presents different identities in a talk, why she/he refers to each of them, how
identities involve each other? On a personal level, these questions are more important for the analysis
of interviews with persons that have marginal status. On the societal level, they become more acute in
times of transitions then identities themselves are infixed and floating.
I would like to demonstrate my reasoning on the one interview with a young woman working in a
private firm on telecommunication service. The interview lasted about an hour. The subject of the talk
was the work, working place, but concerns all aspects involved the work: home, family, child,
combination of professional and parenting responsibilities, leisure, and so on. Despite consequently
narrated work experience, the interviewee gave contradictive description of her attitudes to the work
and the role of work for her life.
Several discourses that were produced by different identities of the interviewee were marked out
during discursive analysis. I conditionally put them in order from public to personal: some utterance
expressed the common stereotypes, some of them reflect common opinion in the professional sphere,
and some of them were the specific culture on the workplace. And the last part of expressions, that
don’t match any named above, was marked me as unique character of the interviewee. “Public”
discourses seemed strong: they had more reasonable argumentation, “private” were more emotionally,
and they came up through the powered commonsense discourse.
In that way, the discursive analysis shows how current discourse struggle in one story involves the
narrative structure, and how present reconstruct past.
Keywords: discursive analysis, origins of contradictive attitudes
The Interview as a Text: Analyzing In-depth Interviews in Social Science with the
Conceptual Framework of Linguistics
Veronika Sieglin, Facultad de Trabajo Social, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey,
Nuevo León, Mexico, [email protected], [email protected]
The methodological reflections of this paper are part of a research project which intends to recreate the
effects of governmental training programmes in the self image and self-worth of Mexican rural
midwives. As much of this imaginary does not operate on the level of the conscious – not only what is
said but how it is said is significant – I use linguistic analyses (e.g. rhetorics, semantics and narrative
theory) in combination with social theory in order to make visible unconscious self-conceptions. This
does not mean looking for meaning hidden behind the text but within the text itself. This
methodological procedure expands the materials subject of analyses from the manifest to the latent
contents of the texts. The paper - based on 42 in-depth-interviews – presents the steps taken in order to
prepare the materials for analyses and, on the next level, to interpretation. The paper presents two
ways of linguistic analyses: one which takes into account segments of different interviews in order to
explore a determinate topic; the other focused on one and the same discourse fragment as source for
case study.
Keywords: self-concept, unconscious, linguistics, discourse analyses
216
Analysis of Interviews with Russian Entrepreneurs using Critical Discourse Analysis.
Tatyana Kosyaeva, Department of Social Problems, IEIE, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk,
Russia and Economic Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic,
The contemporary field of discourse analysis is very diverse. I am going to discuss why and how one
sub-field, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), is especially useful in making substantive conclusions
from the raw interviews-in-depth with Russian entrepreneurs. It is especially useful for the following
reasons. First, CDA is considered both theory and method by leading practioneers (van Dijk ,
Fairclough, Wodak). Second, CDA stresses the view of discourse as a moment of social practice. "The
motivation for focusing on social practices is that it allows one to combine the perspective of structure
and the perspective of action." Fairclough (2001, p.121). Third, CDA contains important tools of
inquiry which mediate between the "micro" level of life stories and the "macro" level of social
institutions. As an example, consider Fairclough's 3-dimensional model, Fairclough (1992, p.73).
Theory and method of Critical Discourse Analysis contains tools that allow interpreting the Russian
entrepreneurs' life stories, namely connections between biographies and change in system of the social
institutions in Russia in transition period. In CDA change of language is always a change of social
practices, and ".word is not used in terms of a definition, but rather against a set of social and cultural
assumptions that constitute a cultural model," Gee (1999). Within this approach, emergence of new
words in life stories indicates appearance of new social practices and of the corresponding cultural
models. In-depth interviews with entrepreneurs have been conducted by the author in several regions
of Russia since 1991. Usage of the chronological strategy - repeated interviewing of the same
respondents-entrepreneurs revealed not only the dynamics of their identities, but also the changes in
discourse about entrepreneurship. As a result of analysis of Russian entrepreneurs' "life stories",
several stages of the process of transformation of system of social institutions were identified.
Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, interview-in-depth, Russian entrepreneurs, life stories
Kathleen W. Piercy, Department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development, Utah State
University, Logan, Utah, USA
In a semi-structured interview, the researcher asks a series of open-ended questions, with
accompanying queries that probe for more detailed and contextual data. Respondents’ answers provide
rich, in-depth information that helps us to understand the unique as well as shared circumstances in
which they live, and meanings attributed to their experiences. When several research questions need
answering, the semi-structured, long interview is an ideal way to collect data.
Such an approach produces a considerable amount of textual data for analysis. As a social scientist, the
analytic approach that I use is the 5-step method of McCracken (1988) for long interviews. The first
step consists of reading and reviewing each interview transcript twice; the first time, for understanding
of its content; the second time, for identification of useful comments noted as observations. In the
second stage of analysis, observations are developed into preliminary descriptive and interpretive
categories based on evidence presented in the transcripts, one’s literature review, and the theory or
conceptual framework used to guide the research.
The third stage consists of thorough examination of these preliminary codes in order to identify
connections and develop pattern codes. The fourth stage of analysis involves a determination of basic
themes by examining clusters of comments made by respondents and memos made by the researchers.
A search for inter-theme consistency and contradiction is conducted (McCracken, 1988).
The final stage examines themes from all interviews within each case, as well as across all such
groupings, to delineate predominant themes contained in the data. These predominant themes then
serve as answers to the research questions, and form the basis for writing up the data.
Other aids to data analysis are described in this paper, including analytic memos, contact summary
forms (Miles & Huberman, 1994), the researcher’s use of self through a reflexive journal, and
217
computer software (QSR NUD*IST). Computer software is an invaluable tool for management and
analysis of large amounts of qualitative data, and can be used in all stages of analysis. Reports
generated by this software are used to improve coding accuracy, discover new patterns and themes,
and as a tool for discussing evolving coding schemes and interpretations of the data. Several examples
of these analytic strategies and the ways in which they were used in the author’s research projects are
offered throughout the paper.
Keywords: semi-structured interviews, stages of data analysis, memos, computer software aids, use of
self, reflexivity
References
McCracken, G. (1988). The long interview. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publication.
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Part II: Sorting Qualitative Data
Organizors: Manfred Max Bergman and Anthony P.M. Coxon
Contact:SIDOS Switzerland, and Cambridge University, United Kingdom, [email protected]
Keywords: Qualitative data analysis, sorting, categorization
Abstract
What happens between data collection and the presentation of the research results? In so-called
quantitative studies, analysis is focussed on the statistical manipulation of variables. What, precisely,
happens in qualitative studies? All qualitative research involves the examination and sorting of bits of
information. One typical recommendation proposes to “familiarize” oneself with the raw material (i.e.
re-read research notes, transcripts, and other texts repeatedly) until “patterns emerge.” In this session,
we will try to disentangle what this may mean. More specifically, we will study how researchers
working with qualitative methods arrive at their conclusions, whether through formal or systematic
explorations, or through less formal, intuitive processes.
Barbara B. Kawulich, State University of West Georgia,USA, [email protected]
Many qualitative studies conducted today fail to fully explain the procedures used to code and analyze
qualitative data, particularly interview data. This paper shares a variety of data analysis techniques,
including coding initial interviews, organizing categories in various ways to make sense of interview
data, and making interpretations of the data for reporting purposes. Using suggested approaches by
LeCompte and Schensul (1999), Strauss and Corbin (1990), Wolcott (1994), and Miles and Huberman
(1994), among others, this paper provides numerous strategies used to analyze and interpret qualitative
data. Also included are several techniques for teaching these strategies in graduate qualitative research
courses.
Keywords: qualitative data analysis, coding, interpretation, teaching qualitative research
Intersubjectivity and Beyond: The Use of Flexible Content Analysis in Sorting
Qualitative Data
Margrit Schreier, International University Bremen, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, P.O.
Box 750 561, 28725 Bremen, Germany, Tel.: +49-(0)421-2003406, Fax: +49-(0)421-2003303,
[email protected]
This paper focuses on 'flexible content analysis' as a method for analysing qualitative data (using data
from a reception study as an example). Flexible content analysis is conceptualized as lying mid-way
between various types of coding as used in qualitative data analysis and quantitative content analysis.
218
In a first part of the paper, the method and the steps it involves will be introduced. Essentially, the
method consists of determining the meaning of verbal material by assigning the textual units to
categories of meaning that have been assembled into a coding schedule. Construction of the coding
schedule will often begin with a deductive outlining of potentially relevant categories, each category
constituting a potential 'pattern' based on presumed similarity between texts. In order to assure an
optimal 'fit' between categories and the material to be analysed, the categories will then have to be
supplemented inductively by examining part of the material. The final coding schedule will comprise
precise descriptions of all categories, specifying the conditions under which a textual unit is to be
assigned to any one category, including examples, and, if relevant, decision rules. On the basis of this
coding schedule, a first trial coding is carried out by at least two coders, and inter-coder agreement is
calculated. Usually some revision of the coding schedule will occur, and then the actual coding of the
main body of the material takes place.
In the second part of the paper, the method will be compared to quantitative content analysis on the
one hand and to coding on the other hand. It constitutes a type of content analysis by sharing in that
method's double intersubjectivity: First, patterns are established by looking for intersubjective content
across different texts, i.e. for conceptual similarities. Second, the categorisation of the texts or textual
units is carried out intersubjectively by at least two coders.
Flexible content analysis is, on the other hand, like coding and different from quantitative content
analysis in allowing for the inductive ad hoc specification and thus 'discovery' of patterns and by
extending beyond the surface characteristics of texts.
Flexible content analysis, however, reaches its limits where idiosyncratic meanings found in a single
text only are concerned. In order to capture these, different patterns have to be established, based not
on conceptual similarity, but on locations along theoretically relevant dimensions. Examples of how
this is done in coding will be provided.
Keywords: qualitative data analysis; content analysis; coding; categorization
Jacques de Wet and Zimitri Erasmus, Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, South
Africa, [email protected]
Qualitative research, in particular data analysis, is too often seen as ad hoc, intuitive, unsystematic and
thus without academic rigour. We challenge this view. The central purpose of this paper is to illustrate
that qualitative data analysis can be systematic, procedural and rigorous.
In this paper we provide an overview of analytical procedures we followed during a study about
students' experiences and perceptions of 'race' and racism at a Medical School in South Africa. We
outline our implementation of these procedures and reflect on their value in optimising our research
outcome. We track steps in our analysis by working backwards from one cluster of key findings in the
study concerned in order to demonstrate the ways in which we came to these particular findings.
Where appropriate, we note the ways in which Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software
(CAQDAS), specifically the qualitative software package QSR Nvivo, contributed to systematic and
rigorous practice at critical points in the analysis. When we outline and reflect on our analysis, we
draw on Miles and Huberman's (1994) and Wengraf's (2001) approaches to qualitative data analysis
and on Morse et al.'s (2002) understanding of rigour.
We conclude that our use of QSR Nvivo facilitated systematic organisation and procedural analysis of
our data. QSR Nvivo provides a system of electronic tools for organising, retrieving and verifying data
thus enabling one to work with data more efficiently. It does not do the analysis, nor does it think for
one. Well-organised data enables researchers to implement procedures more effectively, which in turn
contributes to rigorous analysis.
Finally, we conclude that while it may be true that some of the accusations that qualitative research is
sloppy and unscientific are unjustified, our experience is that qualitative researchers do not instill
confidence in their research by continuing to produce research reports where their methods of analysis
are not well formulated. The challenge is to identify methodological and analytical benchmarks for
219
qualitative research. This paper demonstrates our latest attempt at “working at sensible canons for
qualitative data analysis” (Miles and Huberman, 1994:2).
Keywords: qualitative data analysis, rigour, analytical procedures, CAQDAS
References
Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morse, J.M., Barrett, M., Olson, K., & Spiers, J. (2002, Spring) Verification Strategies for Establishing Reliability and
Validity in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 1 (2), pp.1-19.
Wengraf, T. (2001) Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: Sage
Analysing Relationships in Qualitative Data in the Context of Applied Policy Research
Josie Dixon, Qualitative Research Unit, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), United
Kingdom, [email protected]
In this paper, I begin by exploring the needs and understandings that policy-makers have of qualitative
analyses. I go on to consider the implications of these needs and understandings for the conduct of
qualitative analysis in applied policy research.
In particular, I focus on methods for identifying analytical relationships within qualitative data, the
evidential status of these identified relationships and the role of this evidence in informing policy.
Policy research is different to academic or ‘pure’ research. The main purpose of applied policy
research is not to develop and test academic theories (although there may be theoretical gains from the
conduct of applied research). Rather, the commissioners of applied policy research are primarily
seeking to better understand and address specific social problems and to do this within relatively
limited time scales. Consequently, policy-makers need qualitative research to:
deliver quick and timely findings
focus on policy-relevant research questions
provide findings that are clearly communicated and unambiguous in their relevance and meaning
provide findings that are persuasive
provide findings that are operationally focused
be transparent about how conclusions have been reached and be clear about the status of the evidence
engage with what is already understood
be demonstrably unbiased, accountable and quality assured
I argue that these needs have implications for the analytical approach taken in applied policy research.
Specifically, I distinguish between the identification of relationships within qualitative data (within a
broadly causal model) and rich, contextual description and I explore the role of each in informing
policy decisions.
I go on to consider assumptions about causality and the role and treatment of analytical variables in
qualitative analyses. In doing so I highlight the tension between policy-led and inductive approaches
to qualitative analysis and I propose ways of accommodating this tension with a view to producing
rigorous research findings that are useful for policy-makers.
I also consider the challenges involved in identifying, and communicating, the strength and status of
the various types of evidence generated by qualitative analysis. I propose some practical and
defensible approaches to addressing these issues with the aim of reducing unnecessary ambiguity for
policy-makers who are using the research to inform policy decisions.
Throughout I make reference to Framework, a tool for conducting qualitative analysis used by the
Qualitative Research Unit at NatCen, to illustrate some of the issues and points raised within this
paper.
As well as drawing upon relevant literature, I draw upon my own extensive experience of conducting
qualitative research for policy purposes and upon work carried out within the Qualitative Research
Unit at NatCen. This includes a recent study, of which one aspect included discussions with policy
makers and research managers in Government about quality criteria in qualitative research.
Keywords: Qualitative data analysis, applied policy research, evidence-based policy making,
causality in qualitative research, generalisability in qualitative research, communicating research
findings, Framework
220
STREAM: SURVEY RESEARCH
SESSION: COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL DETERMINANTS FOR
RESPONSE EFFECTS IN SURVEY RESEARCH
Organizer: Volker Stocké
Contact: University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Tel. +49(0)621-181-3432, Fax.
+49(0)621-181-3451, [email protected]
Keywords: Aquiescence, Cognition, Motivation, Question Order Effects, Response Effects, Response
Order Effects, Social Desirability Bias, Theory of Response Behavior, Wording-Effects
Abstract
Research about the determinants of a variety of response effects in survey research has made
considerable progress in recent years. Several cognitive and motivational factors have been found to
influence the probability of wording-effects, whether question and response order affects the response
behavior or under which conditions answers are biased by social desirability or aquiescence. Among
these factors are for instance the cognitive availability of the requested information, subjects’ accuracy
motivation, their conversational norms or need for social approval. Despite this progress in research
about response effects, the underlying cognitive processes and motivational foundations of several
effects are not yet completely understood. It is therefore more research is needed in this respect.
Furthermore, at present theoretical explanations and empirical studies often concentrate either on
cognitive or motivational determinants for response effects. However, the interplay of both factors can
be regarded as an interesting and fruitful question. For instance: How does respondents with high or
low accuracy motivation cope with an insufficient cognitive accessibility of information or time
pressure? Which information do subjects with a strong approval motive use in order to determine the
most desirable response option? Another, but related topic is the still relatively weak theoretical
foundation of research about response effects. It would be a great progress to integrate the already
available knowledge into a general and complete theory of response behavior in surveys.
This session invites contributions relating to all of the topics addressed above, or to any other topic,
which improves the explanation and prediction of response effects in survey research.
National Identity, Nationalism, or Patriotism: Do we Really Measure what we Assume?
Horst-Alfred Heinrich1 and Karsten Stephan2
1
University of Stuttgart, Germany, [email protected]
2
University of Siegen, Germany, [email protected]
The usually employed models reflecting national identity, nationalism, or patriotism are tainted with
some inconsistencies when empirically tested. Theoretically it is assumed that nationalism and
patriotism should form two factors independent of each other. The former should measure
respondents’ relationship toward the nation whereas the latter should refer to universalistic values like
human rights. Nevertheless, empirical studies report always a positive correlation between the two
factors. Therefore, the question is raised whether we really measure what we claim. One problem is
that the items of both concepts refer to the same reference object: the nation. Therefore, we think that
the standard instruments do not measure patriotism in a way as it is defined. Instead, it seems to us that
this concept corresponds to a soft version of nationalism.
As a consequence, we wanted to know in how far respondents are able to differ
- between the reference objects of nation and universalistic values
- and between evaluation of and emotion toward the reference object.
In our study we wish to answer these questions. First, we changed the question wording of the
instruments usually used. We eliminated double stimuli referring to both nation as well as values.
Then, applying several split versions of the same questionnaire to student groups we tried to find out
221
whether variations with regard to question wording enables respondents to differentiate clearer
between their attitudes toward the nation and those toward democratic values. Working with this
design we can show that patriotism as it is usually defined does only measure a slightly different facet
of nationalism. Finally, our work leads to theoretical conclusions concerning the link between
universalistic values and the nation.
Keywords: nationalism; patriotism; question wording
Ákos Münnic1, Jaap Murre2 and Willem Saris3
1
University of Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]
2
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
3
A lot has been written about survey response effects. Schuman and Presser (1981) gave a nice
overview of different effects. More recently Tourangeau et al (2000) formulated a model to explain
these effects. Their model was based on the idea of Zaller (1991) that people create their responses at
the spot and use as information the most salient information. However this model does not indicate
what is salient and how such a process works.
During the last year a research groups at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) has
worked on a new model for survey response processes to clarify how these effects could be explained.
The model is based on knowledge about neural processes and information processing. After a study of
different cognitive models, the ART model of Grossberg (1982) has been selected as the most
promising to develop a simulation model for information processing and response behavior. Using this
basic model a simulation program Survey ART has been developed consisting of different basic
modules of the ART system.
In our presentation we will introduce the model and we will show how this model can generate some
of the well known response effects mentioned in the literature.
Direction of Response Scales, Change of Numerical Values and Respondents’ Behavior
Bettina Langfeldt1, Dagmar Krebs2 and Juergen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik3
1
University of Giessen, Germany, [email protected]
2
3
Center for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA), Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
Based on a split-ballot design, the paper approaches the question whether response behavior differs
depending on the direction of the response scale as well as on the values attached to the extreme points
of the response scale. Therefore respondents were asked to answer different attitude questions by using
an 8-point scale offering increasing (split 1) or decreasing (split 2) intensity of how much an item
applies to them. Only the extreme points of the 8-point scale were labeled. Data collection was
conducted with three different versions of the questionnaire: First, all persons got the same
questionnaire with a response scale ranging from “does not at all apply” (value 1) to “applies
completely” (value 8), which acts as the baseline measurement. Second, the same individuals were
asked again but this time they were assigned to different split versions. For one group of respondents
the response scale was labeled as “applies completely” to “does not at all apply” with values ranging
from 1 to 8 (split 1). The second group got a questionnaire with a changed response scale ranging from
8 to 1 where the value 8 was labeled with “applies completely” and the value 1 was labeled with “does
not at all apply” (split 2). With this design the effect of the direction of the response scale can be
assessed as well as the effect of different values attached to the extreme points.
Furthermore, item content is supposed to be an intervening variable. If items contain rather unspecific
statements or describe rather general “states of mind” as f. e dimensions of motivation, it is expected
222
that distributions (as well as means) differ between the baseline measurement and split versions 1 and
2. With unspecific items respondents might check answering categories at random because it does not
matter to a high degree and maybe respondents are less attentive.
If, however, items contain specific statements, respondents might feel a stronger appeal to clarify their
position by checking the appropriate answering category. Thus, the direction of answering categories
is expected to produce no difference in response behavior resulting in comparable distributions (as
well as comparable means) between the baseline measurement and the two spilt versions.
Respondents are students of economy, social science and education. Analyses is based on 700
questionnaires altogether. Measurement models of the baseline measurement and the two split
versions are compared.
Keywords: response scales, measurement quality, response behavior, scaling effect.
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants for the Strength and Direction of Social
Desirability Bias in Racial Attitude Surveys
Volker Stocké, University of Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
Several factors have been assumed to determine the strength and direction of social desirability bias.
One factor, predicted from personality psychology, is the subjects’ need for social approval. Here, the
strength of social desirability bias is expected to increase with the respondents’ situational invariant
but individually variable motivation to behave according to social norms. In other approaches it is
predicted that different features of the interview situation influences respondents’ beliefs about
whether the response behavior may have consequences or not. For instance, whether the questions are
self administered or administered by an interviewer affects the privacy of the response situation and
how likely subjects expect approval or disapproval from the side of others, present during the
interview. Another important determinant for the strength and in particular for the direction of social
desirability bias are the respondents’ desirability beliefs. With this beliefs subjects anticipate whether
certain response options are positive, negative or neutral evaluated and to select them as an answer is
therefore likely to cause approval, disapproval or a neutral reactions from others. The ability of all
three factors, the need for social approval, the response privacy and subjects’ desirability beliefs, to
predict social desirability bias has been tested empirically. However, nearly all studies have
concentrated on just one of these factors and have not taken the possibility into account, that their
explanatory power may be interdependent. In the framework of rational-choice theory of response
behavior such an interdependence of cognitive and motivational determinants of social desirability
bias is predicted. Here, each factor is assumed to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for social
desirability bias. Since this implies a non compensatory relation between the determinants, the theory
predicts a three-way interaction between these factors. This hypothesis is tested using data from two
studies about the response behavior in racial attitude surveys.
Keywords: Mode of administration; need for social approval; racial attitudes; rational choice theory;
trait desirability
SESSION: INTERACTION ANALYSIS AND DATA QUALITY OF
SURVEY INTERVIEWS
Organizer(s): Johannes van der Zouwen and Johannes H. Smit
Contact: Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Abstract
A detailed analysis of sequences of coded behaviors of respondents and interviewers in survey
interviews (interaction analysis for short) can improve data quality, i.e., the completeness, validity and
reliability of the collected data.
First, it may offer valuable information about the adequacy of the questionnaire and the wording of the
questions and the set of response alternatives, by indicating what questions give difficulties with
223
asking, lead to many inadequate responses and misunderstandings, and require much 'repair' activities
of the interviewers.
Second, the protocols representing the question-answer sequences indicate which interviewers are less
competent (e.g., by deviating from the questionnaire, suggestive probing, or omitting necessary 'repair'
activities).
Third, the analysis may point at specific categories of respondents showing difficulties with fulfilling
the task as respondent, e.g., by giving many inadequate answers or misunderstandings of the
questions.
The interactions studied may concern closed or open questions; therefor papers using a more
quantitative sequence analysis as well as papers using a more qualitative conversation analysis of the
interactions are welcome.
Papers in this session may stress the effect of characteristics of the questionnaire, interviewers or
respondents on characteristics of the interaction, or of the interaction on data quality. Most welcome
are papers in which both topics are combined.
Yfke Ongena, Wil Dijkstra and Stasja Draisma, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
Interaction analysis of Question-Answer sequences from a telephone survey shows that the respondent
is usually the first to produce problematic behaviors, requiring corrective actions of the interviewer.
The occurrence of problematic respondent behavior is affected by the questionnaire design, whereas
inadequate interviewer behavior is affected by respondent behavior, rather than directly by the
questionnaire design. Especially so-called mismatch answers, i.e. answers that do not correspond to
the required answering format, appear to be the most frequently occurring problematic deviation from
a ‘paradigmatic’ interaction sequence. Explanations for the occurrence of mismatch answers concern
cognitive, conversational and task-related factors. Survey questions with words and phrases common
in ordinary conversations (i.e. ‘What is your age?’) can be characterized as conversational. In contrast,
survey questions with non-common words and phrases (i.e. ‘What is your year of birth?’) can be
characterized as formal. Similarly, a distinction can be made between formal and conversational
response alternatives, depending on their frequency of occurrence in common conversations. It is
hypothesized that conversational questions with formal response alternatives yield the most mismatch
answers, whereas formal questions with conversational response alternatives yield the least mismatch
answers. An experiment was conducted in which formal and conversational questions and formal and
conversational response alternatives were varied systematically. Most of the questions were derived
from existing questionnaires, used in several official surveys concerning health issues. Twelve
interviewers interviewed 610 respondents who were randomly assigned to the different versions of the
questionnaire. A CATI-program was used that also enabled digital recordings of the interviews (i.e.
CARI, Computer Audio Recorded Interviewing). In addition, the experiment was designed to test how
mismatch answers can be converted into adequate ones, by systematically varying corrective actions
performed by the interviewer.
Keywords: Interaction analysis, Question wording, Behavior Coding, Telephone Survey Interviews
The Effectiveness of Repair Strategies of Interviewers in Survey Interviews
Johannes van der Zouwen and Johannes H. Smit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected], [email protected]
In interviewer administered questionnaires using closed questions, ideally, respondents only mention
their choice of the set of presented response alternatives. Deviations from this ideal can occur because
the respondent refuses to answer, or says "I don't know." Or the respondent gives an irrelevant answer
224
or an answer that is relevant and normal within the context of a conversation, but that is not equal to
one of the response options presented (a 'mismatch answer') and thus inadequate. Then the interviewer
is instructed to intervene and try to get as yet a proper response.
The present paper aims at getting insight into the different types of deviations by respondents from the
ideal of the standardized survey question, the frequency by which these types occur, the ways in which
interviewers attempt at repair, and the strategies that seem to be the most effective.
To answer these research questions we analyzed parts of 201 interviews conducted in the Longitudinal
Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), a study of antecedents and consequences of changes in autonomy
and well-being of older adults. The fragments were related to four closed questions regarding income
(sources, amount, satisfaction, expectations). Transcripts of the question-answer sequences following
these four questions were coded for the type of (in)adequate initial answer, and the occurrence,
correctness and effectiveness of repair behavior of the interviewer.
In 41% of the 804 question-answer sequences the initial response is inadequate; mostly by giving a
mismatch answer or responding with "don't know." The distribution over the types of inadequate
initial responses is very uneven, and strongly related to the topic and the format of the questions.
In 74% of the sequences in need of repair, the interviewer makes an attempt at repair. Part of the repair
strategies can be qualified as 'correct' because they will not bias the answers, while other strategies,
like probing in a suggestive manner, are incorrect, because they may lead to biased answers.
Of all repair attempts, 75% are performed correctly. Most of the repair attempts are effective, i.e.,
result in an adequate final response. Correct attempts at repair have a significantly higher probability
of being successful than incorrect ones.
The result of the repair activities of the interviewers is that the number of sequences ending with an
adequate response is increased by 20%. The paper contains a list of repair strategies that appear to be
both correct and effective.
Keywords: interviewer behavior; repair strategy; effectiveness of repair; closed question; adequacy of
response; mismatch answer
Opening the Black Box in Survey Research. Data Collection as an Ongoing Process of
Total Quality Management.
John Lievens, Els Bundervoet and Hans Waege, Ghent University, Ghent-Social Science Research and
Methodology,
and
Cultural
Policy
Research
Centre
’Re-Creatief
Vlaanderen’,
[email protected]
The design and implementation of survey research is increasingly guided by principles of Total
Quality Management (TQM). These efforts, however, are often solely concentrated on the stages of
the preparation of the data collection (such as questionnaire design, selection and training of
interviewers) and the evaluation of the data quality once the data collection is completed (coverage,
non-response, interviewer effects, etc.). The intermediate stage in which the actual field work of the
data collection takes place then remains a black box, often left to the discretion of external data
collection agencies. In this stage, however, several processes are in play that have important effects on
the quality of the obtained data, such as the capacity of interviewers to convince respondents to
cooperate, the capacity of interviewers to fulfil their interviewing task properly, timeliness, respect for
contact procedures, and the capacity of the overall organisational structure to uphold the highest
standards of methodological quality throughout the entire field work. Effects of these are too often
only discovered when the full dataset is available and opportunities for remediation are limited or nonexistent.
We propose an integrated TQM-approach for a continuous and largely automated follow-up of the
data collection stage. In the paper we elaborate readily applicable measurement instruments and
quality indicators that allow to continuously monitor the actual developments on the field and provide
the necessary information for timely adjustments. Central elements are indicators for actual progress,
response, interviewer effects, and data quality; as well for the total field work as for interviewers and
225
geographical units separately. The input comes from a variety of sources, such as temporary datasets
from CAPI-interviews, contact sheets and a database containing the actual status for each address.
The integrated procedure is applied to a large scale survey in the Flemish population on cultural
participation. From October 2003 until June 2004 approximately 3.000 individuals are interviewed
using face-to-face CAPI. PAPI-questionnaires are left for other household members. A complex
contact procedure and refusal conversion are used. The data collection is carried out by a market
research agency.
We demonstrate the use and surplus-value of our integrated TQM-approach, and provide information
on its costs. Departing from real-life situations we show how the monitoring system allows to take
concrete adjustive actions and discuss to what extent these actions have an effect on the total data
quality.
Keywords: survey research, data collection, total quality management, data quality indicators
SESSION: APPROACHES TO USING MIXED METHODS
Organizors: Angela Dale1 and Lynn Jamieson2
Contact: 1University of Manchester, [email protected]
2
University of Edinburgh, [email protected]
Keywords: mixed methods; qualitative and quantitative; epistemology
Abstract
Mixed methods are increasingly seen as an innovative approach to social research. However, they
raise many important issues, some epistemological, some related to the nature of the research question
and some more practically oriented. What they do not do is provide a simple basis for ‘triangulation’.
Through a combination of invited papers and an open-call, the session will include papers that are
empirical examples of a mixed method approach to a research question or topic and those which mix
methods drawn from within or between paradigms. More specifically invited papers will deal with an
investigation of a single topic based on five methodologically discrete but linked projects which use:
quantitative secondary data, qualitative interviews (including online), visual analysis, focus groups,
and diaries. The process of integrating this research, and the issues that need to be resolved, form an
important part of the data. A second potential paper will address the theoretical, methodological and
empirical implications of undertaking ethnographic research that exploits contemporary information
and communication technologies (ICT) and thus involves a wide range of data sources. A third
potential paper will be based on combining evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies in
systematic reviews. This will examine methods of using narrative approaches to the synthesis of
evidence from multiple studies.
Alan Bryman, Department
[email protected]
of
Social
Sciences,
Loughborough
University,
England,
There appears to have been relatively little investigation of the ways in which quantitative and
qualitative research are combined, referred to by Bryman (2004) as multi-strategy research, in spite of
the fact that: there seems to have been a growing tendency for social researchers to employ both
quantitative and qualitative research in their investigations; there have been several accounts of the
advantages of such an approach and some of the processes involved (e.g. Bryman, 1988; Creswell,
1995; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998, 2003); and the ‘paradigm wars’ of the past, with their emphasis
on epistemological and ontological issues have abated (though not disappeared). This paper will entail
a preliminary report of the findings of a content analysis of articles in refereed journals that have
226
employed a multi-strategy research approach at the levels of data collection, data analysis, or both.
The disciplines covered by the investigation are: sociology, social psychology, geography,
management and organizational behaviour, and media and cultural studies. The paper examines a
variety of issues. It explores the different types of data collection method and research design that are
involved in investigations using a multi-strategy research approach. In doing so, it uncovers some
confusions surrounding precisely what is typically taken to be multi-strategy research in the research
community. It examines the rationales that are given for employing a multi-strategy research approach
and contrasts these with how quantitative and qualitative research are in fact employed in the studies
concerned. The contrast between the claims that are made about why both quantitative and qualitative
research were employed and the actual use of such an approach provides some interesting contrasts.
Use is made of Greene, Caracelli and Graham’s (1989) five-fold classification of approaches to
combining quantitative and qualitative research in evaluation research, but a more fine-grained
approach was also devised and employed in the analysis. The findings also strongly suggest that the
discussions associated with the paradigm wars are largely ignored by researchers who, at the level of
research practice, typically push such discussions to the sidelines of their concerns. The paper
considers some of the implications of the findings for the practice of multi-strategy research, such as
some of the ways in which the frequently-used term ‘triangulation’ is employed in actual research that
claims to employ it and how far quantitative and qualitative research are employed to answer different
explicitly formulated research questions.
Keywords: multi-strategy research; mixed-methods research; quantitative research; qualitative
research
Multi-Methods, Triangulation, and Integration – Different Goals or Just Different
Terms?
Jo Moran-Ellis, Victoria Alexander, Ann Cronin, Mary Dickinson, Jane Fielding, Judith Sleney, and
Hilary Thomas, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK,
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected]
There is a long standing interest in social science research in the idea of using more than one method
to investigate a research question or topic in order to gain better understandings and insights, better
measurements, or to open up alternative senses of ‘the truth’ of the matter. The notion of ‘knowing
more’ through different approaches has been variously captured in ideas about triangulation, multimethods, integration, combining methods, complementarity, and mixing methods. However, a survey
of the literature in this area reveals that these terms are used with little consistency, and that there are
many unresolved debates concerning the use of multi-methods, primarily articulated around
epistemological or ontological dilemmas.
This paper is based on a project which empirically examined how the notion of ‘vulnerability’ differs
when viewed through a variety of epistemological lenses (quantitative, qualitative and visual), and
across a range of populations (whole households, people living alone, and people who are homeless)
in the same geographical locality. The empirical focus was on how people experience vulnerabilities in
everyday life, and how they manage them. The methodological aim was to make visible the
methodological and practical issues of undertaking an integrated approach to a research question, and
examine how strategies of integrating data impact on each stage of the research process.
In the paper we explore current conceptualisations of approaches that use more than one method or
methodological approach, and then focus on approaches which specifically aim to integrate data or
findings. In the course of this, we raise questions of ‘what is integration and what, if anything, is
distinct about it as a methodological goal?’. Drawing on our empirical work, the paper demonstrates
that integration as a goal carries implications for the research process from conceptualisation of the
research question through to interpretation of findings. These implications are both methodological
and pragmatic in nature. We examine what conditions may be necessary to be able to make a distinct
227
claim of integration in approach, and consider the limitations of other conceptualisations of what it is
to use more than one method. Finally, we argue that integration of approaches may not always be
possible for a variety of reasons, and indeed that it should be taken up with appropriate caution and
hesitation rather than simply embraced as a panacea for the limitations of individual methods.
Keywords: integration, mixed methods, methodology
Qualitative Methodology as a Parenthesis for Quantitative Methodology
Mihai Pascaru and Carmen Costea-Bezerita, University 1 Decembrie 1918 Alba Iulia, Romania,
[email protected]
The proposed paper starts from the premise that a good questionnaire, for a good sociological inquiry,
means responding two fundamental conditions: 1) a strong theoretical basis 2) accurate knowledge of
the daily life of the space to be studied. The existence of the second condition necessarily implies the
use of the qualitative methodology and of some of its instruments: the participative observation, the
semi-structured interview, the group interview etc. Yet, there is no perfect sociological inquiry. The
limits of the methodological realm, of time or money influence the results of a sociological inquiry to
reflect only partially the reality of the area proposed for study. However, even if many things can be
explained, not many can be understood. Some of these limits can be, in our opinion, diminished if the
results of the sociological inquiry are restored to the questioned. Data from the sociological inquiry
will be presented to the respondents and these are invited to interpret them, to identify motivations of
their own actions etc. the restoration of the results can be made by a semi-structured interview or by a
group-interview, anyway, by an instrument specific to the qualitative methodology. From this reason
we support the syntagm << the qualitative methodology as a parenthesis for the quantitative
methodology>>, and we propose a working schemata qualitative-quantitative-qualitative. This
working schema was also used in some investigations made by us and by our collaborators about the
problem raised by the Post-Communist transition in Romania. We intend to present a part of these
results in the paper we are proposing.
Keywords: qualitative methodology, quantitative methodology, restoration of the results
Multi-Semiotic Ethnography,
Bella Dicks, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK, [email protected]
Ethnographers, like other researchers, currently have a broad range of media at their disposal both for
conducting fieldwork and representing their interpretations and analysis. These include digital media
such as photographs, video film, audio-recordings, graphics, and others besides. Through the computer
'writing space'of hypermedia (Jay Bolter), these media can be integrated together, alongside more
conventional written interpretation. However, integration poses a number of potential problems. In
particular, different media can be seen to 'afford' different kinds of meaning (Kress and Van
Leeuwen). Further, organising and structuring a hypermedia ethnography poses challenges relating to
readability and 'navigability'.
Our paper explores the implications for ethnography of integrating different media in ethnographic
research. It will explore the challenges of 'writing' ethnography in a multi-media platform. Rather than
seeing these media forms as discrete, it outlines an approach to ethnographic work which sees
meaning as emerging from the fusion of differently-mediated forms into new, 'multi-semiotic' modes.
It therefore goes beyond the current interest in visual methods, suggesting ways of developing the
project of a multi-modal ethnography.
228
A Delicate Dialectic: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Two Studies for
US Federal Government Agencies
Susan G. Berkowitz and Cynthia S. Robins, Westat, Rockville, MD USA, [email protected],
[email protected]
In the "benign abstract," the idea of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study
design has gained increasing acceptance. However, it can still be extremely challenging to come to
terms with the realities of what actually happens---and what it means--- when divergent sets of
epistemological assumptions and different methodological approaches are brought to bear on a single
problem or research question. This paper will discuss the challenges and rewards of two applied
research studies conducted for US Federal government agencies. Both started as straightforward
population surveys, but generated more in-depth qualitative "spin-offs," whose methods and findings
came to challenge many of the assumptions underlying the quantitative paradigm. Both studies have
generated an ongoing dialogue across methodological boundaries with substantive as well as
methodological implications.
One series of studies involved in-depth telephone interviews with purposively selected subsets of the
respondents from a larger, population-based survey of youth. The interviews probed the respondents'
approaches toward career decision-making as well as their views and images of military versus
civilian lifestyles. The fine-grained narrative format of the interviews, allowing the respondents' to
speak in their own voices, revealed the deeply contextual nature of their decision-making processes.
The findings illustrated the fallacy of giving undue weight to one-time survey responses and
attributing "inscribed" propensities to youth whose life circumstances were fluid. They also revealed
the deep influence of social class (over racial and ethnic) differences. These results helped to inform
and temper the interpretation of the survey findings and catalyzed changes to the survey instrument.
The second study is exploring how community context affects elderly Medicare managed care
beneficiaries’ ability to obtain needed services. Four study sites were selected for their “average-ness”
across several key demographic variables (e.g., median household income). Using rapid ethnographic
assessment techniques (e.g., participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups), we are
examining the array of services in each site; the extent to which beneficiaries are aware of and make
use of services; and community factors (e.g., cultural geography) that impede or facilitate efforts to
receive care. Initial findings suggest not only considerable cross-site variation, but also important
cultural differences within a given site. These findings challenge tendencies to rely too heavily on
statistical averages by showing the differences that can underlie apparently similar “average” patterns.
Further findings will stimulate ongoing dialogue with the survey findings and methods.
Keywords: mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, working across the
methodological divide
SESSION: ESTIMATING INFORMED OPINION: ADVANCES IN THE
THEORY AND MEASUREMENT
Organizer: Patrick Sturgis
Contact: University of Surrey, UK, [email protected]
Keywords: Informed Opinion; Survey; Non-attitude; Deliberation
Abstract
Survey researchers and scholars of public opinion have long been concerned with the quality of the
attitudinal data they collect. ‘Rationally ignorant’ citizens are too little engaged in and knowledgeable
about public affairs to provide anything more than top-of-head ‘nonattitudes’ in survey interviews
(Converse, 1964, 2000). Public opinion, as measured in surveys amounts, thereby, to little more than
an ‘echo chamber’ of elite discourse played out through the media (Key 1961; Fishkin 1995). The
weight of empirical evidence supporting this dismal characterisation (see Delli-Carpini and Keeter
1996) presents a troubling problematic for normative theories of democracy and raises serious
229
concerns about the validity and reliability of attitudinal data more generally. Various methods have
been mooted as solutions to the nonattitude problem, all of which, by various means, aim at eliciting
what has been termed ‘informed opinion’ (Price and Niejens, 1997; 1998). Some of the more
prominent examples in this regard are Deliberative Polling (Fishkin 1995; Fishkin and Luskin, 2002);
Planning Cells (Dienel 1978; Renn et al 1984); Choice Questionnaires (Neijens 1987); and simulation
modeling (Althaus, 1997; Sturgis 2003). This session invites papers which contribute to this important
and growing area of social research methodology. Papers making empirical comparisons between
different methods and those which focus on the validity and reliability of estimates of informed
opinion will be especially welcome.
CAPI-based Information Intervention (CIi): A New Way of Estimating Informed
Opinion
Patrick Sturgis1 and Helen Cooper2
1
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, UK
2
Chris Fife-Schaw, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK
Scholars of public opinion are justifiably reticent about the use of survey measures of issue
preferences to represent the ‘will of the people’. Evidence abounds that citizens in modern capitalist
democracies have a shallow grasp of matters politic and provide labile and ephemeral attitudinal
responses as a result. Various methods have been proposed as solutions to this ‘nonattitude’ problem,
all of which, by various means, aim at eliciting what has been termed ‘informed opinion’ (Price and
Niejens, 1997; 1998). Some of the more prominent examples in this regard are Deliberative Polling
(Fishkin 1997); Planning Cells (Dienel 1978); Choice Questionnaires (Neijens 1987); and simulation
modeling (Althaus, 1998). In this paper we report on a study using a new approach to estimating
informed opinion; the CAPI-based Information intervention (CIi).
The basic design of CIi is as follows: a probability sample is drawn from the target population and
respondents administered a questionnaire via Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI).
Approximately six months later respondents are re-contacted and randomly allocated to treatment and
control groups. Treatment groups are presented with factual information in the form of a short film as
part of the CAPI interview, the control group receiving no information. All respondents are then readministered the original questionnaire, with the causal effect of the information being equivalent to
the average of the differences in opinion between the two groups. A third wave of data collection, via
Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), is then conducted approximately three months after
second interview to examine the stability of observed information effects. While CIi has clear
limitations in the depth of information that can be communicated relative to other methods of
estimating informed opinion, its potential strengths lie in its use of random sampling and the high
penetration of information provision across the sample as a whole.
This paper reports results from the first two waves of a CIi study on British attitudes to genomics
conducted between June 2003 and April 2004. We evaluate the average causal effect of information
provision across a range of attitudes toward modern genetic science. We also examine respondents’
own appraisals of the accuracy and relevance of the information provided. We conclude by
considering the general utility of the CIi approach for estimating informed opinion.
Kasper M. Hansen, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Political Science, Campusvej 55,
DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark, [email protected], www.sam.sdu.dk/staff/kmh.
Since George Gallup introduced the first public opinion poll based on random sampling procedures,
the number of polls conducted have increased exponentially. Today the polls are part of our everyday
lives not to mention the daily news flow. Even though the traditional opinion polls dominate, literature
has been giving increasing attention as to how to measure public opinion more sophisticatedly that the
usual top-of-the-head responses given in traditional opinion polls.
230
The increasing attention to more sophisticated ways of measuring public opinion builds on arguments
from at least two overlapping research traditions. Research within the public opinion tradition has
shown that over time the changes in public opinion tend to fit a random pattern, because large parts of
the public simply lack opinions. That is, they only possess nonattitudes. The prevalence of
nonattitudes may be due to a number of factors such as the complexity of the issues, how often the
public is confronted with the issues, the public awareness of the issues, and how much thought the
public has given the issues before expressing their opinions.
The social choice tradition is concerned with the problem that arises when individual opinions are
aggregated in order to find the winning alternative. Different rules of aggregating might provide
different winners and as the choice of aggregating rule is rather arbitrary or at least normatively
contested, aggregating individual opinions become a general problem in any democratic society.
Furthermore, individuals might try to influence the aggregation by behaving strategically when
expressing their opinions. Strategic behavior and decision about which aggregating rule should be
used questions the entire idea of measuring public opinion and providing aggregated results - not to
mention democracy more generally.
One way of confronting the challenges of these two research traditions is through deliberation. By
given the public the opportunity to deliberate and providing the public with information before they
express their post-deliberative opinions, it is possible to confront the nonattitude-challenge to public
opinion as well as the problem of picking the winning alternative. Deliberation increases the public
awareness and increases the level of information causing the number of nonattitude-answers to
decrease. Furthermore, deliberation helps the individual to provide a consistent ranking of the different
options at stake, which makes the winning alternative less dependent on the rule of aggregation.
The deliberative solution to the challenges of the two research traditions can be empirical verified
simply by comparing pre-deliberative with post-deliberative opinions. This was done through a quasiexperiment of four deliberative hearings that were held across Denmark in the fall of 2003. A total of
168 self-selected from a random sample participated in the hearings. The issue was a new regional
structure in Denmark. The participants were recruited through a telephone interview. In the telephone
interview the participants were asked to rank the three options for a new regional structure on four
different dimensions. These questions were repeated to the participants by the end of the events.
Before the events the participants received written information on the issue and during the events the
participants debated in small groups with each other lead by a neutral moderator and in plenary session
with top regional politicians, experts and other key interests represented. Each of the four events lasted
5 hours.
The analyses of the pre- and post-deliberative opinions show that information and deliberation
decrease the number of “don’t know” answers and cause many participants to change their opinions.
Two out of five participants change their first priority for another of the two options comparing the
pre- with the post-deliberative opinions. Furthermore, post-deliberative opinions reflect more informed
opinions measured on the level of knowledge, consistency, singled-peakedness and absence of cycles.
Hence the post-deliberative opinions are more transitive than pre-deliberative opinions. Finally it
proves that whereas pre-deliberative opinions are affected by rule of aggregation post-deliberative are
not.
Keywords: Deliberative Poll, informed opinions, opinion consistency, opinion transitively, singledpeakedness, cycles, deliberation, deliberative democracy, nonattitudes.
Marcus Longley1, Christian Thomas2, Rachel Iredale1, Anita Shaw2 and Angela Burgess2
1
University of Glamorgan, UK, 2Wales Gene Park, Cardiff, UK
Citizens’ Juries are fast becoming a familiar feature of the on-going attempt to engage citizens in the
policy-making process in the UK and elsewhere. They derive from the jury model used in criminal
trials, and are predicated on the assumption that the ‘verdict’ of a (more or less) randomly-selected
group of citizens, properly informed with all the relevant evidence, has high validity, and can help to
reduce the ‘democratic deficit’ which characterises many representative democracies. They are
designed to put the citizen in charge – allowing them to decide the topic for investigation, to determine
231
the agenda, to call and question witnesses, to deliberate, and to reach a conclusion or ‘verdict’. The
growing experience with such juries has highlighted various methodological and philosophical
problems with the approach, some of which have been successfully addressed, and others remain
problematical.
This paper will provide a brief overview of the more significant of these issues, and how they have
been addressed, before describing a novel approach currently being undertaken in South Wales, UK.
This involves a ‘jury’ of people aged 16-19, broadly representative of their age group, to be held in
September 2004, and focusing on aspects of genetics and reproductive decision-making. Both the age
of the jurors and the topic make this experiment interesting. These parameters have helped to shape the
method, which is designed to enable young people to specify as many as possible of the elements of
the method, including the nature of the interaction with the witnesses, the role of facilitation, the
approach to deliberation, and the nature of the verdict. Wales is particularly fortunate in having a
relatively well-developed infrastructure for the involvement of children and young people in policymaking at the local level, and a national policy which lays emphasis on the implementation of the UN
Charter on the Rights of the Child, and the UK’s first Children’s Commissioner. The paper will
describe how the jury approach fits with such an infrastructure and history, and how the various
methodological and epistemological challenges are being defined and addressed. It will conclude with
some reflections from the author and from participants on how successfully the approach addresses
these challenges, and how it might be developed and used in other circumstances.
Keywords: Informed opinion, citizens jury, genetics, young people
Do People really care about GM Food Risks? A latent State-Trait Model to differentiate
‘Attitudes’ from ‘Opinions’ amongst the UK Public
Nick Allum, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, England,
[email protected]
In the past few years, much has been made of public opposition, in the UK and elsewhere in Europe,
to the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) food products. However, some recent research
has indicated that the issue of GM food has little salience for large sections of the general public
(Gaskell, 1997; Gaskell, Allum et al., 2003). This begs the question: do people really hold stable,
enduring attitudes about the issue, or do they simply generate an ill-considered ‘top-of-the-head’
opinion in an interview situation? This paper explores this question by conceptualising attitudes as
‘traits’ and opinions as ‘states’. In psychological research, states and traits have often been presented
as mutually exclusive entities, for instance mood is a state while introversion is a trait. However, it is
more realistic to assume that most psychological constructs vary along a continuum of stability or
what Kenny and Zautra call ‘traitness’ (Kenny & Zautra, 2001). The paper presents analyses from a
UK panel survey using latent state-trait (LST) structural equation models (Steyer, Schmitt, & Eid,
1999) to examine the stability of public perceptions of GM food risk over time. The LST model
partitions variance in responses to survey items about GM food risk into trait and state components
that correspond to ‘attitude’ and ‘opinion’ respectively. Results suggest the existence of relatively
stable views amongst the UK public, particularly in relation to the affective rather than cognitive
aspects of attitudes to GM food risk.
Keywords: risk perception; GM food; latent state-trait model; attitude stability
Sally Stares, Research student, Social Psychology Department, London School of Economics and
Political Science, UK, [email protected]
The question of whether ‘informed’ opinion can be distinguished from ‘non-attitudes’ is a
longstanding concern in survey research. It has been widely discussed in recent research into public
perceptions of biotechnology. Eurobarometer survey data suggest that for about half of the
respondents biotechnology is an unfamiliar topic: this is evidenced by respondents’ own reports of
232
whether they have heard of various applications of biotechnology, and of whether they engage with
the subject matter via the press, informal conversation, etc. It is perhaps also reflected in high rates of
‘don’t know’ responses (over 30% on some questions) to items asking for opinions on biotechnology.
However, we cannot rely solely on such measures to indicate whether or not respondents hold
informed opinions or not: self-reported familiarity with the topic does not necessarily equate with
informed opinion, and frequency of ‘don’t know’ responses does not necessarily equate with lack of it.
A ‘don’t know’ response may be the product of a considered and nuanced opinion, just as a non-‘don’t
know’ response may be instantaneously given and substantively empty.
This paper attempts to identify informed opinion on biotechnology by assessing the coherence of sets
of responses to multiple questions. Latent trait and latent class analyses are used to take a wide-angled
view of response profiles for batteries of items, and a comparison of the methods is presented. Sets of
items are taken from the Eurobarometer data of 2002, including some which call for judgements of
utility, riskiness and moral acceptability for various applications of biotechnology, and a number of
items covering self-reported levels of familiarity with the topic area. These self-report items and ‘don’t
know’ responses are interpreted with reference to connotations of coherence of opinion. The paper
concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings, both methodologically and
substantively – that is, how confident we can be of saying who really thinks what – in terms of
reporting levels and distribution of public opinion, and in terms of using latent class allocations or
latent trait scores in further multivariate analyses.
Keywords: survey, latent class models, latent trait models, self-reported familiarity, biotechnology
Piet Sellke, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and
Empirical Social Research, Keplerstrasse 17 II, D – 70174 Stuttgart, Germany, Tel: +49 (0)711/ 1213577, Fax: +49 (0)711/ 121-2768, [email protected]
It is investigated whether nonattitudes can be measured through response latencies. Nonattitudes are
directly linked to the concept of attitude strength. The definition of attitude strength, however, is
controversial. Krosnick and Petty (1995) define attitude strength as a latent psychological construct,
represented in memory through specific attitude propositions. Persistence and impactfulness (e.g. on
behavior) are hereby attitude strength’s consequences. However, it remains unclear what specifically a
strong attitude is, that is to say if defined with the characteristics of persistence and impactfulness the
definition is tautological. Another definition relies on attitude strength as a heuristical label
(Krosnick/Petty 1995). The more persistent and impactfull, the stronger the attitude is. Persistence and
impactfulness work in this definition as causal indicators of attitude strength. However, high
consistency of an attitude in this definition is caused by a strong attitude, which means in turn that the
attitude has an high impact. Thus, this definition is tautological, too. Due to these problems in the
definition of attitude strength, research has focused on indicators of attitude strength. Some of the
most investigated indicators are certainty, importance, vested interest, extremity, and accessibility.
Moreover, it was proposed to investigate the dimensions of attitude strength through factor analysis.
One of the most promising results in this matter relies on the differentiation between meta-attitudinal
and operative measures of attitude strength (Bassili 1993). Whereas meta-attitudinal measures rely on
respondent’s self-reports (i.e., judgements over judgements), operative measures rely on the process of
information processing itself. These operative measures are indicated by attitude accessibility
(measured with response latency), extremity, and ambivalence. Especially attitude accessibility is
based directly on cognitive processes underlying attitudes. The idea of attitude accessibility is based
on Fazio’s research: Attitudes vary in their attitude strength based on the strength of an associative
link between attitude object and evaluation (Fazio 1990). The stronger this link, the higher the
likelihood of attitude activation when confronted with the attitude object. Further, the stronger the
association, the faster the respondent should be able to express the attitude. Thus, response latency
should be used as an indicator of attitude’s associative strength. Fazio thought herby of an continuum
between nonattitude on the one side and strong attitudes on the other side. Is no attitude accessible, it’s
a nonattitude and respondents have to generated an attitude ‘on the spot’. Is an attitude highly
233
accessible, it is supposed to be a strong attitude. Thus, response latency now can be used as an
indicator of nonattitude.
However, response latency is multidimensional. It does not only represent the associative strength, but
also the mode of processing (e.g. spontaneous versus thoughtful). For empirical applications response
latency’s biases have to be controlled. In this paper the idea of response latency as an indicator of
accessibility shall be explored theoretically. Further, statistical procedures of controlling biases of
response latency will be presented. Findings suggest that response latency can indeed be used to
measure nonattitudes, however not without controlling the possible biases and also not without
theoretical underpinnings.
Keywords: Nonattitude, Response Latency, Survey Methodology
References
Bassili, J.N. (1993): Response latency versus vertainty as indexes of the strength of voting intentions in a CATI survey.
Public Opinion Quaterly, 57, 54-61.
Fazio, R.H: (1990): Multiple Process by which Attitudes guide Behavior: the MODE Model as an integrative framework.
Advances in experimental Psychology, 23, 75-109.
Krosnick, J.A. / Petty, R.E. (1995): Attiude Strength: An Overview. In: Petty, R.E. / Krosnick, J.A. (Eds.): Attitude Strenght:
Antecedents and consequences. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum. 1- 24.
SESSION: TELEPHONE SURVEY METHODOLOGY IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
Organizor: Edith D. de Leeuw
Contact: Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: telephone survey methodology, call screening, non-contacts, non-response, cell phones,
mobile phones, mixed mode, data quality, interviewers.
Abstract
Telephone surveys have been one of the main data collections methods in the past 30 years. It was at
its highlight of importance in the eighties and nineties, but became under pressure again at the end of
the 20th century. Societal and technological changes make that our standard good practice is no longer
optimal and force us to adapt the methodology and redesign telephone surveys. Among the societal
changes are the increased individualization, which influences contact, and increased ‘selling’ by phone
influencing willingness to participate. Among the technological changes are the increased use of
screening devices, such as telephone answering machines, voice mail, and caller-ID, and the growing
use of mobile (cell) phones as second or even only telephone connection.
Central in this session will be methods to increase response and data quality in telephone surveys.
Abstracts are invited on all aspects of telephone survey methodology. Main topics are: (1) coverage
and sampling, (2) reducing nonresponse, (3) reducing measurement error, (4) interviewer training, (5)
mixed-mode strategies. Papers discussing the role of modern technology (e.g., mobile/cell phones) are
of special interest, but all methodological papers aiming to raise the quality of modern telephone
methodology are welcome indeed!
Part I: New technology and its Influence on Coverage, Sampling, and Nonresponse
Finding (and Listing) the Unlisted: A Strategy for Achieving a Listed Sample’s Cost
Savings without Sacrificing Coverage
Anthony Salvanto and Kathleen Frankovic, CBS News, New York, USA, [email protected]
In pre-election polling, the lure of sampling from lists of registered voters instead of random-digit
dialing is obvious: it offers more productive interviewing, shorter field times, and lower costs. Across
the United States, many states and municipalities are now modernizing their voter systems and voter
234
databases – making these lists more widely available, and perhaps even more alluring to the survey
researcher.
However, despite the potential gains in efficiency, using only list-based samples for surveys can result
in substantial non-coverage error, because lists can vary greatly in completeness, coverage and quality
due to a variety of factors.
CBS News developed a strategy for avoiding non-coverage when calling from lists, while retaining
many of the operational advantages of using them. The paper will report on several tests of the
strategy, which uses a combination of both list-based samples and tailored RDD samples. It presents
findings from CBS News pre-election polls in Senate races and a 2004 Presidential primary.
The paper examines the specific biases found in the lists and their sources. For example: which groups
and voter types were excluded, and how variations between the local agencies that compile lists can
introduce measurable geographic biases. It offers suggestions, based on our results, for how these
potential biases can be measured and avoided, and also discusses the cost savings and improvements
in efficiency that can result from the method.
The analysis also examines the survey results to see if information on the lists matches respondents’
reported demographics and behavior. Survey data is matched back to the list file after the election to
compare reported and actual participation, and whether demographic information on the lists is
verified by the respondent.
Keywords: telephone sampling, telephone survey methodology, data collection, data quality
Where Can I Call You? The “Mobile Revolution” and its Impact on Survey Research
and Coverage Error: discussing the Italian Case
Mario Callegaro1 and Teresio Poggio2
1
Program in Survey Research and Methodology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
[email protected]
2
Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy, [email protected]
Italy has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates among European countries. The rapid
“mobile revolution” taking place since the late 1990s is changing the frame for landline telephone
surveys, with an increasing impact on their coverage error.
In 1993, the annual face-to-face Multipurpose Household Survey of the Italian National Institute of
Statistics (ISTAT) began collecting data on the presence of fixed telephones in Italian homes. Within
the same survey, ISTAT has also been collecting data on mobile phone ownership since 1997, in order
to account for a quick rise of mobile phone only households (MPO) within Italian society: family units
with no fixed telephone but owning mobile phones were only 1.8% of all households in 1997, while
the same figure rose to 13.1% in 2002.
This paper briefly describes the main traits of the Italian phone market, the significant changes that are
taking place and the rising impact of MPO households. Some comparisons with other European
countries are also provided. Then, it discusses the main results of research carried out on coverage
error in landline CATI surveys, using Multipurpose Household Survey data.
A telephone survey that uses a landline frame excludes the households with no phone at all (3.9% of
all family units) and the MPO households, creating a coverage error of 17% (13.1% + 3.9%).
Moreover, the chances of not owning a fixed telephone, and hence the likelihood of being excluded
from the sample of such a survey, differs dramatically among households by region, according to the
type of family unit and by its phase in the life course. Level of education and social class also count.
Family units living in Southern Italy and in the islands are more likely to be excluded from these kind
of surveys: they have more chances both to be MPO households and not to own a phone device at all.
Singles, younger family units, those with medium level of education, and working class households
are then more likely to be MPO units. While older households, those with lower education, and
farmers are more likely not to own any phone device.
Taken together, these differences clearly introduce a not-negligible bias in landline telephone surveys.
Possible solutions to this problem are discussed from a methodological point of view.
235
Keywords: Telephone survey methodology, mobile (cellular) phone surveys, mobile only households
(MPO), coverage bias, Italian Multipurpose Household Survey.
Mobile Phone Surveys in Hong Kong: Methodological Issues and Comparisons with
Conventional Phone Surveys
Liam K P Lau, Social
[email protected]
Sciences
Research
Centre,
The
University
of
Hong
Kong,
In Hong Kong, in 2003, there were households which were not equipped with conventional phones for
the first time. On the other hand, at the end of 2003, mobile penetration rate was 100%. The mobile
penetration in Hong Kong is very high which makes a mobile phone survey generally feasible and
also, some households nowadays are not equipped with conventional phones which makes a mobile
phone survey important to see if it can capture this sub-population.
The current research aimed at examining and comparing methodological issues and survey results of a
mobile survey and its corresponding conventional component. The sampling frame was the Hong
Kong general public aged 12 or above. Conventional numbers were selected systematically from the
residential telephone directory with their last digits randomized. Mobile numbers were generated by
random digit dialing stratified by mobile networks and operators. Call receivers were invited to
participate in a sociolinguistic survey of language use in Hong Kong. Telephone interviews were
conducted with a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system from 18:30 to 22:30 during
weekdays. Each working number was tried for three times on different days.
The response rates of the mobile and conventional components were 50% and 47% respectively. The
mean interview lengths per question of the two components were not significantly different. The
mobile component included higher percentages of respondent who were working, males, never
married, and respondents with higher educational level while the conventional component included
higher percentages of students, homemakers, the retired, females, now married, and respondents with
lower educational level. Respondents of the conventional component were significantly older than that
of the mobile component.
For the mobile component, 82% of the respondents who completed the whole interview were willing
to talk with a mobile phone without diverting the call to a fixed line telephone for about 18 minutes on
average although they have to pay for it. 16% of them did not have a fixed line telephone at home.
This ‘mobile only’ group included higher percentages of the unemployed and
widowed/divorced/separated than the conventional component.
Mobile surveys are generally feasibly in Hong Kong because of high mobile penetration rate and
satisfactory response rate. The two components of the current study have covered respondents with
different demographic characteristics and the ‘mobile only’ group also has some distinct
characteristics when compared with the conventional component. Conventional telephone survey
results may not represent some sub-populations such as the unemployed very well.
Keywords: mobile phones, coverage, telephone survey methodology
Occurrence and Consequences of Multiple Telephone Lines, Answering Machines, and
Voice Mail
Chris Barnes and Alicia Burrington, Center for Survey Research and Analysis, University of
Connecticut, USA, [email protected]
Scientific telephone surveys have traditionally weighted households with multiple telephone lines to
adjust for disproportionate probabilities of selection. This method relies on the assumption that all
telephone lines in a household are used in the same way and answered with equal frequency. As an
increasing number of households have more than one telephone line, the impact of adjusting for
multiple telephone lines increases substantially. If telephone lines are not answered with equal
frequency, adjusting a household’s probability of selection by the number of telephone lines has the
potential to increase rather than reduce bias.
236
This paper, using new data from a national (U.S.) telephone survey expands on a survey of
Connecticut residents from October 2003. It will shed light on this issue in two ways. First, it will
explore the distribution of the number of telephone lines, answering machines and voicemail systems,
and privacy managing devices per household; including the frequency of use and the purpose for each
telephone line. Second, the paper will demonstrate that telephone lines in households with more than
one telephone line are often used for different purposes and are not answered at the same frequency as
the primary telephone line. The implications of the bias created by the use of the current weighting
techniques are also discussed.
Keywords: multiple phone lines, weighting, bias, mobile phones
Calculating Response Rates for Mobile Phone Surveys. A Proposal of a Modified
AAPOR Standard and its Application to three Case Studies
Mario Callegaro1, Trent D. Buskirk2, Linda Piekarski3, Vesa Kuusela4, Vasja Vehovar5 and Charlotte
Steeh6
1
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA, [email protected]
2
Eastern Virginia Medical School, USA, [email protected]
3
Survey Sampling Inc., USA, [email protected]
4
Statistics Finland, [email protected]
5
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, [email protected]
6
Georgia State University, USA, [email protected]
Since 2000, surveys calling mobile phones are becoming more common in European research firms. A
survey on mobiles phone poses new challenges to the survey researcher including the calculation of
response rates. New call dispositions codes are possible and some dispositions of RDD landline
telephone surveys are no longer applicable to mobile phones, or have a different meaning. The present
paper analyzes the AAPOR Standard Definitions and proposes mobile phone final dispositions of case
codes for mobile phone surveys. Each case is discussed reporting data on mobile phone usage. An
application of the new codes with a calculation of response rate, cooperation, refusal, and contact rates
is done using the data from three mobile phone surveys. The first one was carried out by Statistics
Finland, in a nation with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates and mobile phone only
household rates. The second one was carried out by the RIS in Slovenia, a nation that mirrors the
penetration rates and mobile phone only household percentages of many European nations, such as
England, for example. The last study was conducted by the Survey Research Center of the Georgia
State University and highlights the differences between the U.S. mobile phone system and the
European one.
Keywords: Mobile (cellular) phone survey, RDD landline telephone survey, response rates, AAPOR
standards, sampling design
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone Surveys: A MetaAnalysis
Edith de Leeuw, Joop Hox, Elly Korendijk and Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders, Department of Methodology
and Statistics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Recently, the leading position of telephone surveys as the major mode of data collection has been
challenged. Telephone surveys suffer from a growing nonresponse, partly due to the general nonresponse
trend for all surveys, partly due to changes in technology specifically influencing contactibility by phone.
One way to counteract the increasing nonresponse is to increase the number of contacts. In mail and
face-to-face surveys advance letters have been shown to be an effective extra contact and raise
response. This inspired researchers to perform experiments with advance letters in telephone surveys.
Like an advance letter, leaving a message on an answering machine can be seen as a precontact and
opportunity to influence survey participation. Therefore, in this meta-analysis we present a
quantitative summary of empirical studies on the effectiveness of two types of precontact on the
response in telephone surveys. In the first part we summarize the effect of advance letters on response
237
in telephone surveys. In the second part we look into the effectiveness of a second type of precontact:
leaving a message on answering machines.
Keywords: telephone interview, advance letter, prenotification, (telephone) answering machine,
response, refusal
Part II: Challenges to Data Collection and Data Quality
Interviewer Training: Responding to Changes in Telephone Survey Methodology
Lisa R. Carley-Baxter, RTI International, USA, [email protected]
Social and technological changes continue to affect telephone survey methodology by providing new
challenges and improved efficiency. Telephone surveys are facing new challenges in terms of
sampling, contacting, response rate, and the need for utilizing a more dynamic mixed mode approach
to reach sample members. Technological changes have given rise to some of these challenges,
including the increased use of cell phones and call screening devices (answering machines, privacy
managers). In addition, declining response rates and advances in new technology as a means to
contact/interview sample members have increased the utilization of mixed mode surveys for studies
that were once only conducted by telephone. Social changes, such as the increased pace and
individualization of society, the changing nature of our relationship with respondents (some argue
moving away from social exchange towards economic exchange), the proliferation of telemarketing
followed by the recent formation of state and national “do not call” lists, have also affected telephone
survey methodology.
Both social and technological changes, as well as the expansion of studies that were traditionally
conducted only by telephone to include other modes, require modernization of interviewer training
techniques. Social and technological changes have resulted in adapting interviewer training by
changing the strategies used for avoiding and converting refusals, developing strategies for
distinguishing survey research from telemarketing, and responding to the “do not call” list challenge.
The addition of other modes to telephone studies, in particular the addition of web self-administered
questionnaires, has created new challenges for training interviewers when a single instrument is used
for both purposes. This resulted in expanding traditional telephone interviewer training, both in terms
of administration guidelines and guidelines for responding to technical issues from sample members
who are having difficulty completing the web instrument.
This paper focuses on the changes in telephone survey methodology, how those changes impact
interviewer training, and strategies for responding to those challenges in interviewer training.
Keywords: interviewer training, telephone survey methodology, mixed mode
An Experiment in Cognitive Training of Telephone Survey Interviewers
Claire Durand, Marie-Eve Gagnon and Christine Doucet, Department of Sociology, Université de
Montréal, [email protected]
Telephone survey interviewers must communicate with people and convince them to cooperate in a
context of having few cues about the characteristics of the household they are calling, and of having to
adapt quickly to situations they can imagine only with difficulty. Training should therefore take this
situation into account. This paper will present the results of an experiment to test our hypothesis that a
better sense of self-efficacy improves interviewer performance. The experiment employed a training
complement aimed at improving interviewers’ sense of self-efficacy by better informing them as to the
reasons they are asked to do what they do and the situations they face. The setup was a telephone
survey of alcohol consumption and drug addiction conducted by a private polling firm on behalf of
Health Canada. The survey polled 14,000 respondents over more than three months, allowing for a
multi-phase study. First, all interviewers completed a questionnaire on their attitudes, behaviours and
characteristics (see Lemay & Durand, 2002; Hox & de Leeuw, 2002) after twenty hours of
interviewing. Second, interviewer performance was monitored daily using the Weighted Unbiased
238
Performance Index (WUPI, see Durand, submitted) and analyzed using trajectory analysis (Nagin,
1999). This latter analysis allowed us to identify two groups of interviewers, one with greater
difficulty in convincing respondents to cooperate than the other. However, since performance
improves with time on the project, it was decided to include newly recruited interviewers in the
training. The training was devised to be mostly cognitive and comprised two parts: a) information on
sampling and bias in selection using a modified version of the M&M experiment (Auster, 2000), with
a number of add-ons pertaining to the impact of refusals and of bad selections; and b) information on
why people refuse or agree to cooperate (Goyder, 1987), together with successful strategies for taking
control of the situation and dealing with refusals, as suggested by the best interviewers. The training
complement was conducted after one-and-a-half month of fieldwork. It lasted one hour and was given
to 18 interviewers, identified as either underachieving or newly recruited, divided into three groups.
The paper will present the results of this experiment at both the qualitative and quantitative levels. It
will first present the assessment of the training itself. Second, using trajectory and multilevel analyses,
it will identify the impact of the training on performance. The paper will conclude with
recommendations for the training of interviewers conducting telephone surveys.
Keywords: telephone surveys, training, interviewers, performance, cooperation rate
Sociolinguistic Parameters of Cross-cultural Variation in Telephone Surveys:
Brian Kleiner1 and Yuling Pan2
1
Westat, USA, [email protected]
2
U.S. Census Bureau, [email protected]
There has long been recognition that surveys, and telephone surveys in particular, constitute a specific
type of linguistic interaction or discourse. A current and growing body of research is exploring the
relationship between norms of language use and survey research. Participation in telephone survey
interviews involves specific norms of language use that vary across cultures. For example, the actions
of opening and closing interviews, initiating and shifting topics, asking and responding to questions,
and repairing problems (among others) are all norm-driven components of survey interactions that
may vary in important ways from one cultural/linguistic group to the next.
It will be demonstrated that variation along these lines is not insignificant and may affect measurement
error and data quality in crucial ways. Such variation in the norms of language use across cultures may
conflict with the requirement of standardization (i.e., the principle that scripted survey questions
should be administered consistently and word-for-word across respondents). However identical survey
wording (including word-for-word translations) across cultural/linguistic groups may also lead to
various kinds of measurement error. There is, therefore, a paradox uniquely involved in conducting
international surveys: given variation in norms of language use, strict standardization may be more
likely to lead to some kinds of measurement error than variable survey wording. We argue that the
need for standardization must be balanced with the need to tailor surveys and questions to different
cultural/linguistic groups with varying norms of language use.
Thus, there is a need to identify the sociolinguistic parameters of cross-cultural variation in telephone
surveys, and to document the specific cultural/linguistic norms that may impact data quality. This
paper will outline these parameters and discuss ways in which discursive variation may be overcome
in international telephone surveys by loosening the constraints of strict standardization where needed.
We propose a program of study to determine the extent to which cross-cultural differences in norms
for language use in telephone surveys affect data quality along the parameters outlined, in order to
assess the areas in which constraints of standardization should be loosened. One result of this research
program will be to document actual differences in telephone survey norms and language use that occur
in particular cultures. Ultimately, the research program may provide international survey researchers
with practical guidelines for avoiding language-related pitfalls associated with conducting surveys
across cultural/linguistic borders.
Keywords: Telephone surveys, cross-cultural variation, norms of language use, sociolinguistic
parameters
239
Data Quality of Surveys of Minority-Majority Attitudes in Divided Societies: A
Comparison between Telephone and Face-to-Face Surveys among Arabs in Israel
Galit Gordoni, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Israel,
[email protected]
It is still an unanswered question in methodological literature whether telephone surveys amongst hard
to reach populations, such as dissident minorities, and traditional societies, produce data, similar in
quality, to face-to-face surveys.
The paper will present comparisons of sensitive attitudes concerning coexistence, expressed by
minority members, in three representative face-to-face, and telephone surveys in Israel.
A model derived from the reasoned action theory serves as the main framework for testing the
processes leading to the differences in data quality and survey response intentions between the modes.
An initial test of the model is based on findings from a face-to-face representative survey of the Arab
minority (N=688) conducted in 2002. In this survey, a coexistence index was validated using
confirmatory factor analysis. The results support the usefulness of the reasoned action theory, in
explaining survey response intentions and response error. The privacy and confidentiality concerns
and attitudes towards surveys expressed by respondents were found to have a small, but unique effect,
on the highly sensitive attitudes reported.
Data analysis of the additional surveys will includes SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis, for
testing two models: one for predicting attitudes toward coexistence and another for predicting
participation intentions. Multiple group comparisons will be used for comparing scale reliability and
factor loadings between the two modes and between high/low sensitive questions. Mode comparison
of mean differences in the coexistence index questions will be performed, using ancova analysis.
Analysis of the additional surveys: face-to-face (N=701) and telephone (N=500) surveys conducted in
2003 is still in progress.
Keywords: non-response - theoretical approaches, data collection modes, data quality, marginalized
groups, sensitive questions
Can Multimode Approaches Salvage RDD for Public Health Surveillance?
Michael W. Link, and Ali Mokdad, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral
Surveillance Branch, [email protected], [email protected]
Can alternative modes such as web and mail surveys extend the reach of random digit dial (RDD)
surveys by encouraging participation across the general population? The decline in RDD response
rates in recent years threatens the validity and reliability of their data. Researchers have looked at a
variety of options to address this problem, one of which is the use of multiple modes, in particular web
and more traditional mail surveys as complements to telephone data collection. Studies have shown
that some sample members actually prefer certain modes over others. Yet, different modes have also
been shown to produce varying results even when questions are asked of the same sample members.
Thus, alternative modes may increase response rates, but can also increase measurement differences.
As the largest ongoing, state-based RDD telephone survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System (BRFSS) is confronted with the issue of declining response rates and data reliability and
validity. Use of multiple modes is one possible means of addressing this problem. For the BRFSS and
other RDD surveys that collect similar data to continue to meet the public health data needs of local,
state, and national researchers and policymakers, alternative means of collecting these data need to be
examined to determine if the use of multiple modes of data collection can increase response rates and
ensure data quality.
This research provides the results of a set of experiments conducted in four states in the United States,
testing the effectiveness of web and mail surveys when used in conjunction with telephone follow-up
of nonrespondents as a means of increasing BRFSS survey participation. The research attempts to
240
answer several key questions regarding the use of mixed-mode for the BRFSS instead of a telephoneonly approach: Can alternative modes help to increase BRFSS response rates? What types of
individuals in the general public respond to web and mail surveys? And, what effect, if any, does
combining self-administered and interviewer-administered modes of data collection have on the
survey estimates generated by the BRFSS? These experiments were conducted in parallel with the
regular monthly BRFSS data collections in these states, providing a baseline for comparison with the
experiment results.
Keywords: health surveillance, random digit dialing, web surveys, mail surveys
Using Interactive Voice Response Technology to Capture Census Data
Sarah E. Brady, Robin A. Pennington and James B. Treat, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC,
USA, [email protected]
In 2003, the United States Census Bureau conducted the 2003 National Census Test to examine the
impact on self response of offering respondents the opportunity to provide their data using an
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application in addition to a paper questionnaire. The IVR
application was an automated system that enabled respondents to complete their questionnaire by
calling a toll free telephone number. The IVR application used voice recognition technology to capture
the respondent’s answers to the census questions. For the IVR application there was the constraint that
the question wording and flow needed to mirror the paper questionnaire. This paper presents how this
constraint was addressed in the design and development of the IVR application. That is, the paper will
present how questions were presented on the paper questionnaire and how this translated into the
questions heard in the IVR application. The paper will discuss the level of self response for those who
were offered a choice to respond by IVR and paper and those who were only offered paper. In
addition, the paper will discuss how the IVR design affected data quality for the IVR application as
measured by item nonresponse rates and errors in reporting demographics. Comparisons will be made
between the item nonresponse rates for the paper questionnaire and the IVR application. Comparisons
will also be made between the demographic characteristics for those responding using the paper
questionnaire and those responding using the IVR application. The paper will also discuss system
measures indicating where respondents experienced difficulty with the IVR application and measures
of customer satisfaction with the system.
Keywords: Self Response, Questionnaire Design, Item Nonresponse, Demographic Data, Customer
Satisfaction
SESSION: RESPONSE LATENCIES IN SURVEY RESEARCH
Organizors: Volker Stocké1, Jochen Mayerl2 and Stasja Draisma3
1
University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Tel: +49(0)621-181-3432, Fax: +49(0)621181-3451, [email protected]
2
University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and Empirical Social
Research, Keplerstr. 17 II, D-70174 Stuttgart, Germany, Tel: +49(0)711-121-3577, Fax: +49(0)711121-2768, [email protected]
3
Vrije Universiteit, Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen, Afdeling Methoden en Technieken, De
Boelelaan 1081-c, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: Attitude strength, attitude stability, attitude-behavior consistency, information
accessibility, mode of information processing, response effects, response latency.
Abstract
The time necessary to answer survey questions is an innovative and cost effective measure to enrich
survey-data. Response latencies are an objective and unobtrusive operationalization for the cognitive
availability of information addressed by the particular survey question. However, it is uncertain
241
whether and under which conditions they are better than self reported meta-cognitive measures.
Response latencies are used in survey research to judge the quality of respondents’ answers in three
respects: a) their susceptibility to response effects, b) the degree of attitude-strength and attitudebehavior consistency and c) the extent of temporal stability and persistence of attitudes. Unfortunately,
the results on the response latencies’ predictive power in these areas are rather mixed. At least three
factors may influence the validity of the latency-measure: a) measurement issues (e.g. coding, or not
coding of invalid response times during the interview), b) multi-dimensionality (response latencies
may capture any mixture of information accessibility, mode of information processing, calculations
due to social desirability) and c) issues of preparing latency data for analysis (e.g. the way of
transformation/standardization, outlier definition and treatment). In order to improve survey
methodology, more research into the factors affecting the predictive validity of response times is
needed. We would like to invite contributions relating to the topics addressed above, or to any other
topics, which would improve the effective utilization of latency data in survey research.
Response Latency as an Indicator of Optimizing. A Study Comparing Job Applicants
and Job Incumbents’ Response Time on a Web Survey
Mario Callegaro1, Yongwei Yang2, Dennison S. Bhola3 and Don A. Dillman4
1
University of Nebraska, 722 Y St., Lincoln, NE 68508-1165, USA, Tel. 1 402 304 3770, Fax. 1 402
458 2038, [email protected]
2
The Gallup Organization, USA, [email protected]
3
Psychometric Solutions, Inc., Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, [email protected]
4
Washington State University, Pullman, USA, [email protected]
Latency measures can be used in survey research as a method of understanding the cognitive processes
people employ in answering a question. There is a general consensus that a respondent performs four
steps in answering a close-ended question: comprehending the question, retrieving from memory the
information necessary to form an answer, judging the information retrieved, and selecting the best
answer among the response options. Respondents who carefully employ all four steps are called
optimizers. However, not every respondent is an optimizer, and a survey question can be answered by
shifting response strategy using satisficing schemes. In weak satisficing, respondents still go through
the four steps but in a less thorough manner. In strong satisficing, respondents skip some steps in order
to quickly form a plausible or, sometimes, don’t know answer.
Longer response times usually indicate more complex and engaged processing. Respondents who are
highly motivated are more likely to become optimizers and thus spend more time responding. On the
contrary, less motivated respondents tend to be satisficers and would spend less time.
In this study we compared response latencies of job incumbents versus job applicants on a 133-item
personality assessment administered via the web. Subjects responded to the statements using a 5-point
Likert scale. Job incumbents were informed that their responses would be kept confidential. On the
other hand, the job applicants were seeking employment and had higher stakes and likely higher
motivation to complete the assessment. We hypothesized that such higher levels of motivation would
cause the applicants to be more deliberate in responding. We also hypothesized that job applicants
would be more likely to engage in impression management. In both cases, applicants (who had higher
motivation) would be more likely to employ optimizing strategies. We hypothesized that this more
engaged and deliberate response process would be indicated by longer response times. Our analysis
supported this hypothesis. The median item response time of job applicants was consistently greater
than that of the job incumbents.
Our study adds further evidence to the satisficing paradigm from a different point of view. If
satisficers had been identified using their level of education as a proxy to respondents’ ability, task
difficulty can be rated with external judges and cognitive interviews, and motivation can be measured
directly during the questionnaire, time latency is a seamless technique that can provide further
evidence of the cognitive processes respondents employ in answering a questionnaire.
Keywords: Response latency, Satisficing, Optimizing, Job Applicants, Job Incumbents, Web Surveys.
242
Question Wording Effects and Processes of Question Answering. A Different Way to
Measure Response Latencies
Bregje Holleman, Utrecht University, Utrecht Institute for Linguistics OTS, Trans 10, 3512 JK
Utrecht, The Netherlands, Tel, +31 30 2536029, Fax: +31 30 2536000, [email protected]
Response latencies provide a way to obtain insight in the cognitive processes underlying survey
answers: they are an operationalisation for the difficulty to answer a particular survey question. It is
more difficult to answer a question if the information asked for is not available, if conflicting
information has to be integrated in order to come to a judgment, if the judgment cannot easily be
translated easily to one of the answering options, etc. Usually, computer-assisted telephone interviews
are conducted and response latencies are defined by measuring the time lapse between the off-set of
the question and the on-set of an answer.
Various frameworks have been proposed to describe the processes of answering attitude questions
(e.g. Tourangeau, Rips and Rasinski 2000). Previous research (Holleman 1999) demonstrates that it is
very revealing to distinguish only two stages; one stage of comprehension and retrieval (or attitude
formation), and one stage of translating the judgment into the response options. If the research goal is
to investigate the causes of response effects, this distinction into two stages is quite relevant.
Response latencies can be related to these two stages if self-administered computer assisted
questionnaires are used. Respondents can be asked to push a button to get a question visualized on the
screen, and to push another button in order to get the answering categories. The time spent on the first
stage of question answering (reading, attitude retrieval and judgment) then starts by the button push to
get the question on screen and end when a button is pressed to get the answering options. The time
spent on the second stage of question answering would start as soon as the answering options appear
on the screen, and stop as soon as an answer is given.
This paper presents an experiment in which response latencies were measured in this way. A
questionnaire was constructed about ethical medical issues and administered to 90 respondents
through a laptop. Reading and answering times were measured using the computer program E-prime.
Based on the data obtained, it will be discussed how these reading and answering times are related to
the stages of question answering and to each other.
In the experiment, the question wording of some questions was manipulated in order to investigate the
relation between a question wording effect (the well-known forbid/allow asymmetry) and the response
latencies. It will be demonstrated that differences in question wording can be related to differences in
answering times and not to differences in reading times. Also some preliminary results will be
presented concerning the relation between reading times, answering times and various meta-attitudinal
measures of attitude strength (such as elaboration and certainty).
Keywords: response effects, wording effects, response latencies, survey methodology, question
answering process, attitude strength
Measuring Information Accessibility and Predicting Response Effects: The Relative
Validity of Differently Transformed Response Latencies
Volker Stocké, Project Program SFB 504, "Rationality Concepts, Decision Making and Economic
Modeling", L13,15, University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Tel: +49(0)621-1813432, Fax:+49(0)621-181-3451, [email protected]
Survey respondents’ answers are frequently influenced by seemingly irrelevant features of the
question wording, the presentation of response options and different aspects or the response context.
One explanation for these response effects is the insufficient accessibility of the requested information
in the respondents’ memory. Using different indicators for information accessibility, researcher have
tested whether respondents’ susceptibility to response effects decreases when the cognitive
243
accessibility of the requested information increases. Some studies have utilized response latencies,
which can be regarded as a innovative accessibility measure in survey research. However, the results
about the predictive power of this indicator for response effects is rather mixed: in some studies
response latencies proved to be a significant moderator variable, in others they do not have predictive
power at all. One possible reason for these inconsistent results is the very heterogeneous way latency
data is treated before utilized in data analysis. In order to reduce the characteristic skewness and the
impact of outliers, response latencies are often transformed using different statistical functions.
Furthermore, different ways of standardizing response latencies have been suggested, to control for
measurement error caused by individually stable differences in the base line speed and differences in
its variability. Whether these different treatments affects the response latencies’ validity for predicting
response effects has not yet been studied systematically.
In our study we compare the predictive power of raw response latencies for response effects with those
of three differently transformed and three differently standardized versions of response times. The
analyzed types of transformations are the logarithm, the square root and the reciprocal. Difference-,
ratio- and z-scores are included into the study, representing different ways of standardization. The
validation criterion is, how well the different measures predicts the effect of using either high- or lowfrequency response scales on the respondents’ reports about their daily television consumption. Data
from a local random probability sample shows in a first step that raw response latencies are a
significant predictor for whether different presentations of response options affects the answers: faster
responses are found to be significantly less affected. Second, the different transformations are found to
have neither a positive nor a negative effect on the response latencies’ predictive power. This is
however the case for the standardized versions. Here, z-scores, computed using the mean and standard
deviation of the individual respondents’ response times in the complete interview, proved to be the
best predictor, which nearly doubles the raw response latencies’ ability to predict the analyzed type of
response effects.
Key words: Data transformation, information accessibility, response effects, response latencies
Controlling the Baseline Speed of Respondents: An Empirical Evaluation of Data
Treatment Methods of Response Latencies
Jochen Mayerl, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Sociology and
Empirical Social Research, Keplerstr. 17 II, D-70174 Stuttgart, Germany, Tel.: +49(0)711-121-3577,
Fax: +49(0)711-121-2768, [email protected]
In attitude theory, response latencies to attitude questions are regarded as a measure of chronic attitude
accessibility, interpreted as an operative indicator of attitude strength. There is few but growing
research in data treatment of response latency measurements to minimize systematic effects which can
lead to a biased or wrong interpretation. Depending on the theoretical interest, several determinants of
response latencies can be treated as bias effects (e.g. the individual baseline speed of respondents, effects
of the measurement instrument, situational effects).
Individual baseline speed reflects a constant individual characteristic of the mental speed of
information processing. Although there are already some further developments for statistical data
treatment methods to control baseline speed, these methods were not empirically evaluated and
compared in a systematic way, yet. In the present study using response latency data of a nation-wide
German survey (CATI), four statistical transformation methods to control the individual baseline
speed are empirically evaluated and compared: Z-Score, Difference Score, Ratio Index, and RateAmount-Index. Additionally, these transformation indices are controlled for other systematic bias
effects (question order, effect of extremity). Six evaluation criteria are used to compare the power of
the different indices to control baseline speed: (1) correlations between the different response latency
indices, (2) correlations of these operative indices with meta-judgemental indicators of attitude
strength, (3) reduction of the covariance with baseline speed compared to “raw” reaction times, (4)
power to moderate attitude-behavior relations (interpreting response latency as an indicator of attitude
244
strength), (5) power to moderate attitude-behavioral intention relations, and (6) power to moderate the
persistence of an attitude.
The empirical findings support the assumption of an increased data quality due to transforming “raw”
reaction times into indices controlling the baseline speed (e.g. the indices’ moderating power of
attitude-behavior-relations is significant compared to “raw” reaction times with non-significant
moderating effects). Furthermore, the data quality increases if additional systematic bias effects are
controlled (here: question order, effect of extremity). Comparing the different transformation methods
according to the evaluation criteria, the Z-Score seems to be the best choice, followed by the rateamount index and difference score. It is recommended to use at least two different transformation
indices to control empirical results of response latency applications.
Keywords: response latency, baseline speed, data treatment, attitude strength, CATI
Expressed Uncertainty in Question Answering: Response Latencies and (Para)Linguistic
Expressions in Factual and Attitude Questions
Stasja Draisma, Department of Social Research Methodology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije
universiteit, Amsterdam, [email protected], [email protected]
Draisma and Dijkstra (2004) investigated the relationships between several indicators of respondent
uncertainty and response error in a CATI survey. They found that the more difficult a survey question
is, the more uncertain a respondent becomes, which is expressed in:
1.
longer latencies between offset of the question posed and the onset of an adequate answer,
2.
more verbal expressions of doubt (e.g. hedge words) such as “I think”, “I believe”, “I might”,
3.
higher judgments of question difficulty as assessed by evaluations of individual questions by
respondents in a debriefing interview,
4.
more paralinguistic expressions of uncertainty, such as filled pauses (“ehm”), switches in
chosen answer alternatives and number of words used in answers.
The questions used in the Draisma and Dijkstra study were part of a so called validity study, in which
individual true scores of respondents were known for simple binary factual questions. In this way,
measurement error could be calculated, and the relations between the four above mentioned indicators
and measurement errors studied. It was found that the best indicators for measurement error were
verbal expressions of doubt (hedge words) followed by response latencies.
In the present -follow up- study, these results are extended to attitude questions. In the same CATI
study, some attitude questions were posed about ‘environmental issues’. Obviously, for these
questions, no information concerning measurement error is available. Nevertheless, response latencies
and verbal expressions of doubt may provide insight in the strength or accessibility of the expressed
attitudes. The latencies for the attitude questions and the patterns of hedge words are compared to
individual latencies and error patterns (within subjects) of other factual questions in the survey.
Latencies and (para) linguistic expressions of the attitude questions are compared to factual questions
as well (between subjects).
Moreover, specific order effects and response latencies are considered: a subsample of respondents
provided an estimated attitude of a reference group (“how important do you think environmental
issues are for ‘an average Dutch person’) immediately before a question was posed about their own
attitude (“how important do you yourself judge environmental issues”).
Finally, effects of different transformation procedures on the latencies, such a z-score and logarithmic
(see the abstracts of Stocké and Mayerl) will be investigated for the data from the validity study as
well as for the attitude questions.
Keywords: response latency, task uncertainty, measurement error, attitude strength, CATI
245
STREAM: COMPLEX
ANALYSIS
AND
LONGITUDINAL
DATA
SESSION:
CLASSIFICATION
AND
STRUCTURE:
RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS IN LATENT CLASS AND LATENT TRAJECTORY
ANALYSIS AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN CLUSTER ANALYSIS
Organizor: Johann Bacher1, Jost Reinecke2 and Christian Tarnai3
Contact: 1Lehrstuhl für Soziologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Findelgasse 7-9, D-90402
Nürnberg, Germany, Tel: +49-(0)911-5302-679, Fax: +49-(0)911-5302-660, [email protected],
www.soziologie.uni-erlangen.de
2
Empirische Sozialforschung, Abteilung Soziologie, Universitaet Trier, 54286 Trier, Tel: (+49)
(0)651-201-2655/ Fax: (+49) (0)651-201-2645, [email protected]
3
Fakultät für Pädagogik, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, D-85577
Neubiberg, Tel: (089) 6004-3006,-2058/ Fax: (089) 6004-2057, [email protected]
Keywords: cluster analysis, validation, data mining, meta cluster analysis, two-step-clustering, latent
class analysis, latent trajectory analysis, mixture modeling
Abstract
Statistical tools for classification analyses has been widely developed in the last 15 years although
they are hardly incorporated in statistical software packages. Beside cluster and correspondence
analysis developments in latent class and latent trajectory models are discussed in the literature. Single
computer programs like WINMIRA (von Davier 2001) and Latent Gold (Vermunt 2003) are used in
various applications.
Connections between classification and structural equation modelling have been proposed by Muthen
(2001) and the program MPLUS (Muthen/Muthen 2002) under the label “Mixture Modeling”.
Part I: Comparision and validiation of cluster solutions
Michael D. Larsen, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, USA, [email protected]
Latent class models for contingency table data are useful when the population is thought of as arising
from distinct but unidentified subpopulations. In latent class analysis, the observed table is modeled as
a composite of sub-tables each described by its own set of parameter values. Maximum likelihood
estimates of latent class model parameters can be produced using the EM algorithm. The model
estimates can be used to cluster the observations into latent classes. The U.S. National Science
Foundation's SESTAT database is created from biennial surveys that are representative of U.S.
scientists and engineers. The surveys provide detailed information about the employment, educational,
and demographic characteristics of U.S. scientists and engineers. Several sets of qualitative questions
focus on motivations for career decisions, work activities, and, for doctoral recipients, PhD
preparation. Latent class analysis when applied separately to distinct sets of variables produces
alternative cluster solutions of the survey respondents. Various methods can be used to describe the
quality of clustering and for comparing the different cluster solutions produced for various sets of
variables. Besides latent class analysis there are other strategies, such as monothetic analysis, for
clustering categorical data. Methods of comparing cluster solutions will be compared across sets of
variables and clustering algorithms. The work on this example is exploratory in nature, but aims to
suggest principles for efforts of this type.
Keywords: Adjusted Rand Index. Mixture Models. Model Selection. Number of classes. Stability of
Clusters. Variable Selection.
246
L∞-consensus for Dendrograms : an Alternative to the Average Consensus Procedure
Guy Cucumel, Département des sciences comptables, Ecole des sciences de la gestion, UQAM, CP
8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3P8, Canada, Tél.: (514) 987-3000 poste 4701,
Fax : (514) 987-6629, [email protected]
In the last decades many methods have been proposed to combine hierarchies (dendrograms) defined
on a common set of n objects (Leclerc, 1998). Given a profile P = (H1, …, Hi, …, Hk) of k hierarchies,
the average consensus (Lapointe and Cucumel, 1997) allows to obtain a consensus solution that is
representative of the entire profile P by minimizing the sum of squared distances between the initial
profile and the consensus (L2-consensus). This problem is equivalent to fit a least squares ultrametric
to dissimilarity data and is NP-complete. It can only be solved by using a branch and bound algorithm.
When the data set is large, one has to use heuristics to resolve it. As a result, the uniqueness and
optimality of the solution is not certain. Moreover, the convergence toward a solution is sometimes
difficult. Chepoi and Fichet (2000) have developed an algorithm that yields to a universal L∞consensus in a maximum of n2 steps. The two methods as well as a heuristic will be presented and
compared on some numerical examples.
Keywords: Meta Cluster Analysis, Average Consensus, L∞- consensus
References
Chepoi, V. and Fichet, B. (2000). “L∞-Approximation via Subdominants”. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 44, 600-616.
Lapointe, F.-J. and Cucumel, G. (1997). “The Average Consensus Procedure: Combination of Weighted Trees Containing
Identical or Overlapping Sets of Objects”. Systematic Biology, 46, 306-312.
Leclerc, B. (1998). “Consensus of Classifications : the Case of Trees”, In : A. Rizzi, M. Vichi and H.-H. Bock (Eds.) :
Advances in Data Science and Classification, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 81-90.
Classifying Adolescents Using Value Orientations – a Comparison of Cluster Analysis
and Latent Class Analysis
Andreas Pöge, Universität Trier, FB IV – Soziologie, Universitätsring 15, 54286 Trier, Germany
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Institut für Kriminalwissenschaften, Abteilung IV –
Kriminologie, Bispinghof 24/25, 48143 Münster, Germany, Tel.: 0251-83-22749, Fax: 0251-8322376, [email protected]
Our empirical data is part of a continuing criminological and sociological panel study of deviant and
delinquent behaviour of adolescents. With the help of questionnaires, pupils in Duisburg and Münster
are annually interviewed. The sample, which forms the basis of the given analyses, consists of data of
Year 9 pupils in Duisburg. By means of LCA (Rost, 1997) and of cluster analyses (Bacher, 1996),
classifications of adolescents are presented in view of value orientations. These classifictaions have
been conducted with the help of the EDP-programmes ALMO (Holm, 1997), WinMira and
LatentGold (Vermunt, Magidson, 2000). They are further examined for patterns of delinquent
behaviour. Moreover, differences and the comparability of the results of the different classificatory
methods shall be paid attention and discussed.
The focus will be on the comparison of latent class models and cluster analysis.
References
BACHER, Johann: Clusteranalyse, Anwendungsorientierte Einführung, München, Wien 1996.
HOLM, Kurt: ALMO Statistik System, Linz 1997.
ROST, Jürgen: Lehrbuch Testtheorie, Testkonstruktion, Bern u. a. 1997.
VERMUNT, Jeroen K.; MAGIDSON, Jay: LatentGOLD Users’s Guide, Belmont 2000.
247
Detecting Aberrant Patterns of Change for the Dimensions of a “Quality of Life”
Questionnaire by means of Linear Mixed Models
Herbert Matschinger, University of Leipzig, Department of Psychiatry, Johannisallee 20/1, D- 04317
Leipzig, Germany, Tel: ++49 341 97 24533/ Fax: ++49 341 97 24539, [email protected]
In the framework of longitudinal studies quite often only very little change is observed for a dependent
variable. If models for linear or higher order trajectories are employed the parameters are characterized
by big standard errors which seem to forbid a further explanation of the change by individual
characteristics of the observations. Nevertheless it must be assumed that the sample is heterogeneous
with respect to a change over time, which results in remarkable variance of the trajectory parameters if
the observations are treated as 1st level and the individuals as 2nd level. Unfortunately in many
instances the individual characteristics responsible for this heterogeneity are not known in advance, so
a latent class analysis seems to be adequate to investigate the latent heterogeneity.
The aim of this investigation is to identify subgroups of observations which can be characterized by
very particular patterns of change, differing considerably from the rest of the sample. The division of
the sample in latent classes of observations with different forms of trajectories then facilitates the
interpretation of the heterogeneity observed and provides the necessary information for further
investigation.
Data are used from a cost-effectiveness study on 307 psychiatric patients, which had been observed 5
times over the range of 2½ years. The endogenous variables of interest are the 8 dimensions of the socalled SF36 questionnaire measuring different aspect of quality of life. The SF36 is a multi-purpose,
short-form health survey with only 36 questions. It yields an 8-scale profile of functional health and
well-being scores as well as psychometrically based physical and mental health summary measures. It
is a generic measure that does not target a specific population (Ware, Snow and Kosinski 2000). It is
assumed that these variables are subject to change in the course of the clinical treatment.
In a first step the intercept, the linear and quadric terms and their respective variances are estimated by
means of a model developed by Muthén and others (Muthén 1997; Muthén and Curran 1997; Muthén
and Khoo 1998). The parameters of the model are treated as random effect growth factors. In a second
step the variance of the trajectory is decomposed in several latent classes of observation in order to
explain the latent heterogeneity. Results clearly show, that only a few people comprised in one latent
class are characterized by a change of certain aspects of their quality of life. Additionally it is shown
that merely looking on the parsimony of a solution will be misleading, since then the aberrant classes
will not be detected.
References
Muthén, B.O. (1997). Latent Variable Modeling of Longitudinal and Multilevel Data. In A. E. Raftery (Ed.), Sociological
Methodology. (pp. 453-480). Boston: Blackwell.
Muthén, B.O. and Curran, P.J. (1997). General Longitudinal Modeling of Individual Differences in Experimental Designs: A
Latent Variable Framework for Analysis and Power Estimation. Psychological Methods, 2(4), 371-402.
Muthén, B.O. and Khoo, S.-T. (1998). Longitudinal Studies of Achievement Growth Using Latent Variable Modeling.
Learning and individual differences, 10(2), 73-101.
Ware, J.E., Snow, K.K. and Kosinski, M. (2000). SF-36 Health Survey: Manual and Interpretation Guide. Lincoln, RI:
QualityMetric Inc.
Part II: Software, pracitical requirements and empirical validation
SPSS TwoStep Clustering – A First Evaluation
Johann Bacher, Knut Wenzig and Melanie Vogler, Lehrstuhl für Soziologie, Universität ErlangenNürnberg, Findelgasse 7-9, D-90402 Nürnberg, Germnay, Tel: +49-(0)911-5302-679/Fax: +49(0)911-5302-660, [email protected], www.soziologie.uni-erlangen.de
SPSS Version 11.5 and later versions (SPSS 2002, Chiu et al. 2001) offer a new cluster analysis
feature, called TwoStep-Cluster. TwoStep-Cluster was developed to cluster large data sets. The
procedure consists of two steps. The first step computes a new data matrix, that contains cluster
centres as rows. Cluster centres are defined as dense regions in a multivariate space. In the second
248
step, a probabilistic hierarchical cluster analysis is performed. The procedure allows to handle mixed
type attributes and offers test statistics to determine the number of clusters. These two characteristics
are attractive for the social sciences. However, TwoStep is rarely used in the social sciences.
The presentation analyses the question whether it is useful to apply TwoStep in the social sciences.
TwoStep will be compared with LatentGold (Vermunt/Magidson 2000). Examples from social
stratification research will be used.
Keywords: TwoStep-Cluster, evaluation, mixed type attributes, model based clustering
References
Chiu, T., et al. 2001: A Robust and Scalable Clustering Algorithm for Mixed Type Attributes in Large Database
Environment. Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGKDDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
2001, S. 263-268.
Vermunt, J. K., Magidson, J., 2000: Latent Gold. User's Guide. Belmont.
SPSS Inc., 2002: SPSS TwoStep Cluster Component. (www.spssetd.com, 04.02.2004)
David Wishart, Department of Management, University of St. Andrews, St. Katharine's West, The
Scores, St. Andrews KY16 9AL, Scotland, [email protected], www.clustan.com
Clustering with messy data regularly occurs in the behavioural sciences, for example in social surveys.
We discuss the practical issues involved in designing cluster analysis software for such data in
ClustanGraphics. k-means analysis is extended to handle mixed variable types, differential case and
variable weighting, and missing values, suitable for use with very large datasets such as arise in data
mining and survey analysis. Unlike other popular software, an exact assignment test guarantees that
the procedure will converge. The detection of outliers and mapping of complex cluster shapes by
tessellations of spherical clusters are unique features, and a summary tree is obtained for the resulting
k-cluster model. The talk will be illustrated by a demonstration of ClustanGraphics7.
Michael Wiedenbeck and Cornelia Zuell, ZUMA, P.O. Box 12 21 55, D-68072 Mannheim, Germany,
Tel: +49 6211246147, Fax: +49 6211246100, [email protected], [email protected], http://www.gesis.org/zuma
Application of cluster analysis software as it is implemented in packages like SPSS implies two
obstacles for the ordinary user: large data sets and the lack of decision rules which support the choice
of an outcome as an appropriate solution of a classification problem. The last problem makes
classifications sometimes rather arbitrary unless the findings have a plausible interpretation. This
problem can be overcome in case of small data set by means of theoretical reasoning. It gets often
worse when using large data sets and the software is designed to the analysis of small sets of data.
We will discuss these problems considering typical examples, show how far the problems are
approached by SPSS and ClustanGraphics by tests and preprocessing the data, and specify how tools
for validation of clusters should be designed which, for example, indicate compactness and separation
of clusters together with a substantive description.
Empirical Validation of “Whisky Classified”
David Wishart, Department of Management, University of St. Andrews, St. Katharine's West, The
Scores, St. Andrews KY16 9AL, Scotland, [email protected], www.clustan.com
A thousand tasting notes were reviewed for 86 single malt whiskies, from which a vocabulary of 500
aromatic and taste descriptors was compiled and a standardised flavour profile of 12 sensory features
developed. The principal malt whiskies of all the Scottish distilleries were then profiled and classified
249
into ten groups according to flavour, and 3 industry surveys were conducted to test the new
classification which is now fully endorsed by the producers.
“Whisky Classified: Choosing Single Malts by Flavour” was the first book to classify single malt
whiskies by flavour. It is a consumer–friendly guide that takes the confusion and guesswork out of
whisky–buying, and aims to help the novice or present–buyer make the right purchase of Scotland’s
national drink. The talk concludes with an empirical validation of Aberlour, Bruichladdich, Glen
Grant, Glenmorangie, Laphroaig and Macallan.
SESSION: MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS
Organizor: Tom A.B. Snijders
Contact: Department of Sociology / ICS, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG Groningen, The
Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: multilevel analysis, random coefficients, hierarchical linear modeling.
Abstract
Multi-level analysis, also called hierarchical (non)-linear modeling, has provided a set of methods for
data that have a natural hierarchical structure, and these methods now are routinely used in the analysis
of such data. A frequently occuring nesting structure is individuals nested within groups, but these
methods have been applied also, e.g., to longitudinal and panel data, growth curve modeling, and
meta-analysis. The model has been extended to cover dichotomous and count data, multivariate
outcomes, and data structures that include crossed as well as nested factors. Recently much work has
been done on non-linear models; Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms have been instrumental to
extending the scope of multilevel modeling to data structures that previously were too complicated.
For this session, papers treating new statistical developments are welcome, but also review papers, as
well as papers about applications that pose special methodological problems because of the
complicated data structure, interpretations, the choice of a well-fitting model, etc.
Frequentist MCMC Estimation Methods for Multilevel Logistic Regression
Carlos Coimbra and Tom A.B. Snijders, Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Grote
Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG Groningen, The Netherlands, [email protected],
[email protected]
Various estimation procedures are available for multilevel models with non-normally distributed
outcome variables. Maximum likelihood estimators can be implemented using numerical integration,
but such algorithms do not always work perfectly. Other frequentist
methods are in use that are based on approximations, but these approximations are known to lead
sometimes to biased estimators. Good Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods have
been developed, but the Bayesian paradigm is not always the first choice of approach. Thus, there still
is discussion about what is the most appropriate estimation procedure for these models.
In this presentation, a MCMC algorithm for calculating maximum likelihood estimators will be
presented, which can be used in multilevel models for non-normal outcome variables, i.e.,
hierarchical generalized linear models. The algorithm is based on stochastic approximation
(generalizations of the Robbins-Monro algorithm) for solving the likelihood equation. The principle of
the algorithm will be explained and experience with its use in various examples will be presented.
Marginal maximum likelihood estimation in multilevel item response models is an example.
Keywords: Hierarchical Non-linear Models, MCMC estimation, Maximum Likelihood, Stochastic
Approximation, Item Response Theory.
250
The Use of Internal Pilot Studies to Derive Powerful and Cost-Efficient Designs for
Studies with Nested Data
M. Moerbeek, Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
Many data in social science research have a nested structure with persons nested within clusters.
Examples are children nested within schools, members nested within households and patients nested
within therapy groups. To design a cost-efficient study to test the effect of an independent variable on
the outcome at a desired power level, the optimal number of clusters and the optimal cluster size need
to be calculated. Optimal sample size formulae can be shown to depend on the intra-class correlation
coefficient (ICC). An initial estimate of the ICC may be obtained from similar studies in the past or
from subject-matter knowledge. An incorrect estimate, however, may result in an under- or
overpowered study. The use of an internal pilot is one of the approaches that has been proposed to
avoid designs that are too expensive or have too low power. Designs with internal pilots are wellknown in the biomedical sciences, while hardly any attention has been paid to them in the social
science literature. The basic idea is to calculate the optimal sample sizes based on an initial estimate of
the ICC. Then a pre-selected proportion of the optimal number of clusters is sampled and a sub-sample
of persons equal to the optimal cluster size is taken from each cluster. This is the internal pilot or the
first stage of the study. The ICC is estimated based on the data collected until this interim time point
and the optimal sample sizes for the second stage of the study are calculated based on the estimated
ICC. After having collected the data in the second stage, the analysis is done using data from both
stages. Since data of the pilot are also used in the final analysis, it is called an internal pilot. This
procedure is known to have an inflated type I error rate since the total sample size of the study depends
on the estimate of the ICC at the interim time point. The aim of this presentation is to explore the
usefulness of internal pilots for studies in the social sciences with nested data. Designs with different
interim time points are compared on basis of their type I error rates, power levels and median total
costs. The comparison is done using a simulation study with various degrees of bias in the initial
estimate of the ICC.
Keywords: intra-class correlation, re-estimation, multilevel model, interim time point
Performance of Likelihood-Based Estimation Methods for Multilevel Binary Regression
Models
Marc Callens and Christophe
[email protected]
Croux,
Katholieke
Universiteit
Leuven,
Belgium,
By means of a fractional factorial simulation experiment, we compare the performance of Penalised
Quasi-Likelihood, Non-Adaptive Gaussian Quadrature and Adaptive Gaussian Quadrature in
estimating parameters for multi-level logistic regression models. The comparison is done in terms of
bias, mean squared error, numerical convergence, and computational efficiency. It turns out that, in
terms of Mean Squared Error, standard versions of the Quadrature methods perform relatively poor in
comparison with Penalized Quasi-Likelihood.
Keywords: Binary Regression, Fractional Factorial Experiment, Gaussian Quadra-ture, Monte Carlo
Simulation, Multilevel Analysis, Penalised Quasi-Likelihood
John F. Bell and Eva Malacova, University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, UK,
[email protected]
This paper will consider some problems relating to outliers in multilevel models drawing on research
into various data sets including progress in secondary and higher education and university admissions.
251
In particular, it will be demonstrated that when outliers are generated by a contaminating process then
they can lead to unnecessarily complex models. In these cases, it is necessary to carefully consider the
nature of the data and the processes that are generating. For example, do variables measure the same
thing for different sub-populations in the data set.
In one example, it will be demonstrated that such process leads to an extremely complex model that
may completely mask the true relationship. The paper will also consider the importance of issues such
as reproducibility and the role of subjectivity and background knowledge in dealing with outliers.
Keywords: multilevel models, outliers, educational data
On the Relative Efficiency of Unequal Cluster Sizes in Multilevel Intervention Studies
L. Kotova, G.J.P. van Breukelen, M.J.J.M. Candel and M.P.F. Berger, Department of Methodology
and Statistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
In this paper, optimality of equal cluster sizes and loss of efficiency for unequal cluster sizes in
multilevel intervention studies are examined. A few theorems concerning the D-optimality of equal
cluster sizes when the randomisation is done at the cluster or person level are proven. The relative
efficiency of designs with unequal cluster sizes is computed for different values of the intraclass
correlation coefficient and a variety of frequency distributions of the cluster size. It is concluded that
although designs with equal cluster sizes are preferred above designs with unequal cluster sizes for
their optimality properties, the actual loss of efficiency by using unequal cluster sizes is not so large
and can be compensated by increasing the number of clusters to a small extent.
Keywords: Multilevel intervention studies; Varying cluster sizes; D-optimality; Relative efficiency.
Multilevel Multiprocess Modelling of Partnership Transitions and Fertility in Britain
Fiona Steele, Constantinos Kallis, Harvey Goldstein and Heather Joshi, Bedford Group for Lifecourse
and Statistical Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H
0AL, UK, [email protected]
In this paper, we describe a general framework for the analysis of correlated event histories. The
research is motivated by a substantive research question: the relationship between partnership
transitions and fertility among British women. Previous research has treated outcomes of the fertility
process (e.g. age and number of children) as covariates in models of partnership dissolution and
transitions from (unmarried) cohabitation to marriage (e.g. Berrington and Diamond, 1999). However,
the causal direction of the relationship between the processes of partnership transitions and fertility is
complex. Research in the USA has found that marital stability (as measured by the risk of divorce)
may also influence decisions about childbearing (Lillard, 1993), and it is likely that the stability of a
cohabiting partnership would have a similar effect on childbearing decisions. In other words,
partnership transitions and childbearing may be jointly determined; the two processes may be
influenced by a common set of factors, some of which are likely to be unobserved.
In this paper, we describe an extension of Lillard’s approach in which marital dissolution is modelled
jointly with transitions from cohabitation using a multilevel multistate competing risks model (Steele
et al., 2004). A multilevel model is used to allow for repeated partnerships for the same woman, while
a multistate model is used to distinguish between two partnership states: marriage and cohabitation.
Competing risks arise when considering transitions from the cohabitation state, since a period of
cohabitation may end in separation or marriage to the same partner. Using a simultaneous equation
model, partnership transitions and fertility are modelled jointly. By modelling the two processes
simultaneously, we allow for the possibility that partnership transitions may depend on outcomes of
the fertility process and partnership stability (as measured by the hazard of a partnership transition)
might affect fertility decisions.
252
The research is based on data from the National Child Development Study, a longitudinal study of a
cohort of British men and women born in 1958.
Keywords: multilevel modelling, event history analysis, simultaneous equation model, multiprocess
model, partnership transitions, childbearing
References
Berrington, A. and Diamond, I. (1999). “Marital dissolution among the 1958 British birth cohort: The role of cohabitation.”
Population Studies, 53: 19-38.
Lillard, L.A. (1993) “Simultaneous equations for hazards: Marriage duration and fertility timing.” Journal of Econometrics,
56: 189-217.
Steele, F., Goldstein, H. and Browne, W. (2004) “A general multilevel multistate competing risks model for event history
data, with an application to a study of contraceptive use dynamics.” Journal of Statistical Modelling , 4 (to appear).
The Concept of ‘Social Level’ and how to assess it
Pieter van den Eeden, Department of social research methodology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The
The concept of “social level” has been become more and more important in social investigation and
theory formation in social sciences. The assessment of levels seems to be without any doubt in cases
where various units of investigation of a same class are so clearly distinguished to be assumed
independent from each other, and where units of different classes appear to be susceptible for multistage sampling. A well-known example of clear multiple social levels is: students within classes
within schools.
However, several serious problems can be met in practical investigation. In reality independent
comparable units are seldom met, and in social research multi-stage sampling ask mostly hard
decisions. And, is not multilevel methodology in contrast to classic sociological notions about the
interconnectedness of comparable social units? How to think about ‘relative autonomy’ of levels?
Can ‘social levels’ be viewed as classes of ‘social units’ that are mutually related in a specific way?
What is the exact nature of this relatedness? Starting from these questions, it seems to be worthwhile
to define carefully the concept of ‘social level’ and to develop instrumental procedures of its empirical
assessment. Specifically, the paper pretends to show that the assessment of social levels needs highly
qualified measurement of level-specific variables and a careful analysis of their interrelations. In
connection to this, the paper offers an overview of types of general interpretations.
This will lead to the conclusion that, although a priori notions of social levels indeed can ake sense for
establishing multilevel relations, also these notions needs a posteriori empirical reference.
Keywords: multilevel analysis measurement concept-formation
A. Fielding, University of Birmingham, UK, A. [email protected]
In the econometrics literature for panel data modelling the Hausman test statistic is routinely reported
as a diagnostic for assessing whether panel unit effect should be treated as fixed or random. The
multilevel setting is repeated measures within panel units. It has been suggested that in more general
multilevel modeling , this is one way of deciding whether higher level effects should be treated as
random or fixed. Of course this decision is often made on substantive grounds and apart from the
desire to generalise beyond the specific data units, there are design questions that should influence this
decision. The paper will examine the Hausman test and show that it is really a specification test of
whether proposed random effects are correlated with covariates, thus making standard estimation
procedures poor. The decision to use fixed effects is then really a pragmatic one that avoids this
problem due to conditioning of the effects on other effects. By simulation of such random effects
models the paper will examine why routine use of the procedure may cause us to reject a random
effects approach contrary to true situations. We will also explore an example where substantive
253
conclusions may be flawed by uncessary use of fixed effects. We propose alternative estimation
procedures using Conditional Iterative Generalised Least Squares, MCMC , and Instrumental variables
which directly deal with random effects correlated with covariates. We also make suggestions as to
how the real question of deciding between fixed and random effects. The paper proposes that this is a
real unsolved question in multlevel analysis which is ripe for advanced research.
The Problem of Time Dependent Explanatory Variables at the Context Level in Discrete
Time Multilevel Event History Analysis.
A Comparison of Models Considering Mobility Between Local Labour Markets as an Example
Michael Windzio, EMPAS, University of Bremen, Germany, [email protected]
This paper deals with the question of how to include time dependent explanatory variables at the
context level in multilevel event history models. In general, context level variables in multilevel
models are assumed to be constant over time. Only time constant context level variables can perform
the task of reducing error variance at the context level. Thus, a proposal is made to extend the analysis
to a three level model, where time periods of persons form the units at level one, historical time
periods form the level two, and the spatial units form the level three on their own part – within which,
in turn, the units of level two are clustered.
In this paper it will be argued that the complex character of contexts in the analysis of processes
embedded in spatial units is only taken into account by the three-level model. If characteristics of
spatial context units change over time then the context won’t be the spatial unit itself, but rather the
situation within a particular spatial unit during a certain (historical) period of time. Consequently, the
social structure differs not only spatially but also temporarily. For this reason, time periods which are
part of spatial units should be regarded as the correct context level units.
But this implies a problem, namely the violation of the assumption that units of level two are
independent. Thus, in order to satisfy this assumption, spatial units are considered as the third level
whereby the context level time units are clustered within the context level spatial units.
Considering the event of mobility between local labour markets as an example, four different ways of
modelling time varying context level explanatory variables are compared. The result is that the
proposed three-level model leads to the most conservative findings. In other words, the three-level
model leads to the highest upward correction of standard errors which is desired if data is clustered.
Keywords: multilevel analysis, event history analysis, logistic regression, spatial mobility
SESSION: MEASUREMENT (IN)VARIANCE IN LONGITUDINAL
RESEARCH
Organizers: Han Oud1 and Reinoud Stoel2
Contact: 1Nijmegen University,the Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: measurement invariance, factorial invariance, longitudinal research
Abstract
Measurement invariance means that measurement across occasions originate from the same
measurement scale. The important aspect of measurement (in)variance is whether, under different
conditions of observing and studying phenomena, measures of the same attribute are obtained.
Although measurement invariance plays a role in cross-sectional studies, it becomes especially
important when a study adopts a longitudinal design in which, by definition, the same measurement
instruments are applied at more than one occasion. Violation of the assumption of measurement
invariance may hinder the assessment of change, because change will be confounded with change in
254
the meaning of the construct across time. Within the context of the common factor model
measurement invariance is often investigated under the name of factorial invariance. The requirement
of factorial invariance, and measurement invariance in general, is highly likely to be violated in its
strict forms in practice. In this session the focus will be on issues regarding measurement (in)variance
in longitudinal studies. Contributions may focus on the conceptual comparison of degrees of
measurement invariance, from strict factorial invariance to partial measurement invariance. We also
welcome more applied contributions, using and assessing different degrees of longitudinal
measurement invariance.
Practical Issues in the Assessment of Measurement Invariance and why Invariance does
not Imply Measurement
Reinoud D. Stoel, Department of Biological psychology Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL-1081 BT
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Measurement invariance, or factorial invariance, across time means that the numerical values across
measurement occasions of a given concept are obtained from the same measurement scale. In practice,
measurement invariance is likely to be violated, and researchers have been investigating whether the
requirements of strict factorial variance can be relaxed. In the first part of this paper it will be
demonstrated that measurement variance, mostly referred to as partial measurement invariance, may
present some problems in practice if the latent variable structure is scaled using a reference indicator.
Pros and cons of identifying the model by means of restrictions on the measurement part of the model
will be discussed. In the second part of the paper it will be argued that a pure confirmatory approach to
the assessment of measurement invariance may sometimes be problematic. It may well occur that a
common factor model under full measurement invariance provides a good fit to the data, while the
same model without measurement invariance does not fit. This intuitively contradictory issue can be
solved by acknowledging the possibility that a certain factor model may be wrong, but consistently
wrong across occasions or groups (i.e. while the model does not fit the data, its parameters may be
invariant). This issue will be illustrated using a simulated dataset, and its implications will be
discussed.
Keywords: measurement invariance, factorial invariance, partial measurement invariance
Measurement (In)Variance in SEM State Space Modelling of Panel Data
Johan H.L. Oud, Institute of Family and Child Care Studies, University of Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9104,
6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands, [email protected]
The topic of measurement variance and invariance became popular in latent growth curve modeling.
First SEM state space modelling of panel data (Oud, 2004) will be compared to the latent growth
curve model. In contrast to the descriptive nature of the latent growth curve model, having time as the
independent “explanatory” variable, the state space model has a Laplacian causal starting point: it
explains the current state of a system in terms of its previous state and the input over the intervening
period. Nevertheless, latent growth curve modelling is easily incorporated into the measurement part
of the state space model as shown by several authors over the last 25 years (Goodrich & Caines in
1979; Jones in 1993; Shumway & Stoffer in 2000). However, the random subject effects and
parameters of the latent growth curve model, defined by means of basis functions in the measurement
part of the model, cause serious interpretation problems, especially as a result of their strong
dependence on the time scale origin (zero point). This is avoided in a state-trait model. Traits are also
random subject effects, but defined as dynamic components in the latent structural part of the state
space model in the form of unobserved heterogeneity between subjects. It is argued that measurement
invariance should preferably induce time invariance for the overall model, meaning that its parameter
255
values do not depend on the time scale origin but only on the time interval, and are scale free in the
sense of simple transformations between different time scale units.
Keywords: measurement invariance, SEM state space modeling, time scale origin, unobserved
heterogeneity
References
Oud, J. H. L. (2004). SEM state space modeling of panel data in discrete and continuous time and its relationship to
traditional state space modeling. In K. van Montfort, J. Oud & A. Satorra (Eds.), Recent developments on structural
equations models: Theory and applications (pp. 13-40). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Types of Change in Self-Report Data: Definition, Interpretation and Operationalization
Frans J. Oort, Medical Psychology (J4-410), AMC/University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, 1105
AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
The assessment of change in self-reported attributes is hindered by the fact that there are different
types of change, among which different types of response shift. Different typologies of change have
been introduced, in different fields of research. Here we consider a psychometric approach to
assessing change, based on factor analysis and item response theory. This approach results in a new
change typology, with clear definitions, interpretations, and operationalizations.
If it turns out possible to satisfactorily link the new psychometric change typology to existing response
shift typologies, then structural equation modeling can be used for the detection of response shifts.
Here we submit a proposal for such a linkage, and offer a procedure for the detection of recalibration,
reprioritization, and reconceptualization response shifts and for the measurement of “true” change.
Merits and demerits of this four-step procedure are discussed.
Keywords: measurement of change, response shift, structural equation modeling
Dagmar Krebs, Institut fuer Soziologie, Universitaet Giessen, Karl-Gloeckner-Str. 21 E, D-35394
Giessen, [email protected]
A response scale offering answering categories is usually directed from left to right. Does it, however,
make a difference in response behavior whether the scale starts on the left side with the positive
answering category or the negative answering category? This question is addressed from different
perspectives.
First, response behavior is observed in a split-ballot design. Respondents (students) were asked to
evaluate different job characteristics of a later job with respect to their subjective importance (job
motivation). Judgements were given on an 8-point scale offering increasing (split 1) or decreasing
(split 2) importance to the respondent. Only the extreme points of the 8-point scale were labeled. Thus,
for one group of respondents answering categories were labeled as “not at all important” to “very
important” (split 1), for the other group answering categories ranged from “very important” to “not at
all important” (split 2). It is postulated that direction of answering categories does make a difference
depending on the direction of reading from left to right. Thus, if answering categories range from “not
at all important” to “very important”, the proportion of negative answers is expected to be higher than
under the condition where answering categories range from “very important” to “not at all important”
where proportions of positive answers are expected to be higher. Based on the split ballot experiment
this hypothesis is tested.
Second, measurement of job motivation using the above mentioned two scales was repeated in a panel
design. Thus, it is possible to observe if there are individual changes in response behavior depending
on the reversing of answering categories. The advantage of this second step is that measurement
stability can be observed. In this part the hypothesis of (in)variance of measurement will be tested.
Additionally, a method effect can be introduced (as a latent variable) into the model and its effect can
be assessed.
256
Third, attention is given to the dimensional stability of indicators. If response behavior changes with
the direction of answering categories, as supposed in point one above, it is necessary to check the
effect this difference might have on the dimensional structure of the indicators. Measured with one
type of scale, indicators of job motivation are ordered along the dimensions of “intrinsic motivation”,
“extrinsic motivation” and “leisure motivation”. In this part the hypothesis of dimensional stability
across measurement with the above described different scales is tested.
Keywords: auto-regression, measurement stability / invariance, panel.
Testing Measurement Invariance with Respect to Time, Group, and Latent
Gitta Lubke, Department of Psychiatry/VIPBG, Virginia Commonwealth University
800 East Leigh St. Suite 1-132, Richmond VA 23219-1534, USA
University of Notre Dame, USA, [email protected]
A measurement model relates observed scores (e.g., item or subscale scores) to one or more
underlying latent variables. Measurement invariance is defined with respect to a selection variable, and
refers to the invariance of a measurement model across selected groups. If the selection variable is
time, the selected groups correspond to different time points. If the measurement model is invariant,
groups can be compared with respect to the latent variables. Absence of measurement invariance
indicates that the observed scores measure a different set of constructs across selected groups.
Measurement invariance can be tested by comparing measurement models that are restricted to be
equal across the selected groups to measurement models that are less restrictive.
The measurement model in a univariate linear growth model relates a single observed score measured
at several time points to an underlying intercept factor and a slope factor. Due to inherent model
restrictions only partial tests of measurement invariance can be carried out. These tests may reveal
whether differences in intercepts and variances of the observed variable across time points can be
explained by variation in intercept and slope of the individual growth curves. It is argued that full tests
of measurement invariance, which may reveal whether the same theoretical construct is measured
across time, can only be conducted using multivariate data collected at each time point. Possible
confoundings in the univariate case are illustrated.
The linear growth model can be used simultaneously in several groups. If the additional selection
variable is observed (e.g., gender), tests of measurement invariance can be easily conducted across
time as well as across the additional selection variable. In case of invariance, average growth can be
compared across the observed groups. In growth mixture models, the additional selection variable is a
latent class variable. It is shown that simultaneous tests of measurement invariance across time and
latent class are complicated by the fact that the number of classes and model restrictions within class
are interdependent.
Keywords: measurement invariance, multivariate analysis, linear growth model, growth mixture
model
Individual Differences in Factor Loadings and the Fit of the Standard Factor Model:
Consequences for Quantitative Behavioral Genetics Research
Henk Kelderman1 and Peter C. M. Molenaar2
1
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Psychologie en Pedagogiek, Afdeling Arbeids- en
Organisatiepsychologie, Amsterdam,The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In quantitative behavioral genetics, there are pervasive substantive arguments in favor of individual
differences in factor loadings. As a result factor loadings are not invariant over subjects. In this paper,
it is shown that, under liberal assumptions, data from a heterogeneous 1-factor model yield the same
population covariance structure as the corresponding standard 1-factor model. Furthermore, it is
shown that the sample covariance matrices and the standard goodness of fit statistics are the
asymptotically same. A small simulation study yields similar results for realistic sample sizes. The
257
consequences of the results for quantitative behavioral genetics research is discussed. It is shown that a
seemingly measurement invariant factor model in the population may lack measurement invariance on
the individual level.
Keywords: quantitative behavioral genetics, factor loadings, individual differences, invariance over
subjects
SESSION: METHODS OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS
Organizors: Peter J. Carrington1 and Anuška Ferligoj2
Contact: 1Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Canada, [email protected]
2
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, [email protected]
Abstract
Social network analysis is the application to sociology of the concept of the network — a set of
entities, or nodes, connected by relationships, or ties. Conceptualisation of social structures as social
networks has been fruitful in many areas of social research, and has, indeed, facilitated recognition of
common substantive patterns and analytic problems in diverse sub-fields of sociology and
anthropology, and of similarities to problems in many other sciences. One of the most lively areas of
social network analysis has been the development of suitable methods for applying the network
concept in social research. These methods address the three main issues in empirical research:
sampling, measurement, and data analysis. In each of these areas, the problems faced by network
researchers are considerably, though not entirely, different from those encountered by conventional
attribute-based research. This session will provide a forum for presentation of new developments in
research methods for social network analysis. These papers may be theoretical, concerning
epistemological problems in the use of the concept of the social network; methodological, concerning
technical developments in sampling, measurement, or data analysis; or empirical, demonstrating novel
applications of social network analytic methods in actual research.
Part I
Playing God on a Budget: Understanding Large-Scale Social Structure from Sample
Data and Random Graph Models of Interdependent Local Processes
Rick Grannis, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.,
[email protected]
Social scientists aspire to understand large-scale social structures, systems, and processes, but
typically they only have access to limited samples of individual-level data. Random graph models
have proved useful for understanding how local processes translate into global systems and structures.
The distribution of vertex degrees in many real-world social networks, however, is often quite
different from a “normal” random graph, exhibiting such features as transitivity and local clustering,
and such a graph would poorly model their features. In this paper, I use local information to exactly
calculate several important global properties for graphs with non-independent edge probabilities. I
then calculate the propagation of sample standard errors and show that one can reasonably estimate
many useful global properties for social networks with non-independent relationships using only
relatively small samples.
Keywords: sampling, complex networks, large-scale properties, interdependence
258
Tom A.B. Snijders1, Philippa E. Pattison2, Garry L. Robins3 and Mark S. Handcock4
1
Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG Groningen, The
2
University of Melbourne, Australia, [email protected]
3
University of Melbourne, Australia, [email protected]
4
University of Washington, U.S.A., [email protected]
The most promising class of statistical models for expressing structural properties of social networks is
the class of Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), also known as the p* model. ERGMs are
families of probability distributions for graphs and directed graphs (digraphs). The strong point of
these models is that they can represent structural tendencies, such as transitivity, that define
complicated dependence patterns not easily modeled by more basic probability models. Pseudolikelihood estimation procedures have previously been proposed for these models but these are of
doubtful value, and more recently, MCMC algorithms have been developed which produce
approximate Maximum Likelihood estimators. These algorithms also are fraught with problems for
many data sets, however, which is shown in convergence difficulties. These difficulties are not
inherent in the algorithms as such, but can be traced back to shortcomings of the class of probability
distributions defined by the usual specifications of the ERGM – where, e.g., transitivity is represented
by the number of transitive triplets in the (di)graph. The shortcomings can be summarized by (1) the
existence of regions in the natural parameter space where the expected values of the sufficient
statistics are extremely steep (i.e., nearly discontinuous) functions of the parameters, which is
associated with very large variances and bimodally shaped distributions; (2) the existence of large
regions in the natural parameter space where the probability distribution is nearly concentrated on a
relatively small set of nearly complete (di)graphs (near degeneracy); these regions often including, or
being close to, the maximum likelihood estimate for data sets as found in practice.
This paper proposes new specifications of the ERGM. These specifications also represent structural
properties such as transitivity and heterogeneity of degrees, albeit by more complicated statistics.
Three kinds of statistic are proposed: alternating stars, alternating k-triangles, and alternating
independent two-paths. These are linear combinations of related subgraph counts, where the
coefficients have alternating signs. The alternation of signs has the effect of a check on the formation
of a too large number of the type of subgraph concerned, which goes against the two shortcomings
mentioned. Examples are presented both of modeling graphs and digraphs, in which the new
specifications lead to much better results than the earlier existing specifications of the ERGM. It is
concluded that the new specifications make the ERGM a practically useful tool for the statistical
analysis of social networks.
Keywords: statistical modeling, graphs, transitivity, maximum likelihood, MCMC, p* model.
Bonne J.H. Zijlstra and Marijtje A.J. van Duijn, University of Groningen, The Netherlands,
The p2 model is a model for the analysis of social network data. The dependent variable is a (binary)
network, or directed graph, on a given set of actors, or nodes; there can be explanatory variables on the
levels of the actor and the ordered pair of actors. In the p2 model, differences between actors in
attractiveness and productivity (outgoingness) are modeled by random effects. The model includes
variance parameters and a covariance for attractiveness and productivity, and parameters for density
(log-odds of existence of a tie) and reciprocity; these parameters can be related to explanatory
variables.
Estimation of the p2 model is not straightforward. Since an IGLS algorithm produced biased estimates
for the p2 model, we developed an algorithm to estimate model parameters with a Gibbs sampler.
259
However, the conditional distributions for the random effects and the model parameters cannot easily
be sampled from.
One way to overcome this problem is using Metropolis steps with random walk proposals to
approximate draws from these conditional distributions. Unfortunately, results from a Gibbs sampler
with such Metropolis updating steps proved to suffer from the dependence between the covariance for
attractiveness and productivity and the reciprocity parameter.
Another possibility is to approximate the conditional distributions of the random effects and the model
parameters using a normal approximation for the binary network data.
Above approaches to overcome estimation problems for the p2 model will soon become available
within StOCNET, an open software system for the statistical analysis of network data. We will
elaborate on the different estimation methods. These will be illustrated using empirical network data.
Keywords: binary network MCMC estimation
Part II
Maren Lübcke and Rasco Perschke, Department of Technology Assessment, Technical University of
Hamburg-Harburg, Germany, [email protected], [email protected]
To keep up with the rapid development of the Internet is one of the greatest challenges in social
research nowadays. Uncountable emails are sent and received, websites are visited by growing
numbers of users in search for information and masses of contributions are published in Internet
forums. If we look at the Internet as a unique phenomenon we see large scale communication
processes with millions of messages passed every day which can be stored and used for future
analysis. But something is mostly invisible: the people behind those messages. They disappear behind
email addresses and nicknames, often using more than one virtual identity to participate.
Communication crosses the border of physical presence, it is substituted through the use of
communicative addresses which are merely loosely connected to real people. (Stichweh 2000). The
famous cartoon “On the Internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog” by Peter Steiner is an ironical
description of this situation, which leads to the well known problems of online-research with sampling
methods and cyberethics.
Therefore, we suggest to re-think Internet research by leaving actors aside and concentrating on the
visible and empirically observable objects. What can be really perceived while glancing at the Internet
is sociality based on single utterances. Those messages are referring to each other building a dense
network of communication, which is the only visible outcome of users communicative operations.
Based on the main assumptions of Niklas Luhmanns social system theory, we are developing a set of
concepts which allows us to describe and distinguish different kinds of online communication with a
simple framework. Our approach focuses on messages, references, and their social visibility in time.
One can use those main ideas to differentiate Internet-based communication like weblogs from online
auction or from newsgroup discussions.
Methodologically, our approach has the following implication: a switch-over from attribute-based
research (users qualities) towards relational research (web of communication) and from static to
dynamic analysis. We will present the first results of a tool for simulation and analysis (COMTE)
especially designed for large scale communication. This may help to shed light on the specific
qualities of online communication and to sensitize researchers who are engaged in using the Internet as
a tool of research.
Keywords: online communication, methodology, weblogs, newsgroups, online auction
260
Using Social Networks Methods to Measure Changes in Value Systems in CrossCultural Perspective: the Case of Nordic-Baltic Relationship in 1991-2002
Indrek Tart, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Tallinn Pedagogical University, Tallinn,
Estonia, [email protected]
In different cultural communities values and their systems are measured by survey instruments like
Rokeach or Schwartz value surveys, World/European Value Survey (1990, 1996, 2000) or European
Social Survey (2003) questionnaires. I propose to analyse these results using methodology and
software of the social networks analysis framework (Stephen P. Borgatti , Martin G. Everett. Network
analysis of 2-mode data. Social Networks 19 (1997) 243-269). This makes possible to dive into the
data matrices of relations instead of the attributes, even allow to convert individual variables into
relational (adjacency) matrices. Its strong part is good visualization of the results. More problematical
is choosing of the partition threshold. Several possible constructs based on correlation and shared
value amount matrices of data are used and visualized by Ucinet program. Additionally are used
clustering and multidimensional scaling techniques as well as CONCOR facility.
An empirical research is based on Balticom Program results from 1991 and 1995, Finnish national
value research and more recent surveys in Estonia and Sweden. Used data are adjusted to 25-item
Rokeach value scale consisting mostly of terminal values. A special analyses of constellations of
values equality and freedom was done. The research reveals quite stable value systems for Swedes and
Finns and rapid change in Estonians community while other Baltic nations and Russians in Estonia are
keeping more their older value orders. It may be explained in the context of axial moments approach
(A. Szakolczai, L. Füstös 1998. “Value Systems in Axial Moments”, European Sociological Review
14(3), 211-229) with Estonians turning back to the Swedish kind (axial) pre-1940 value system.
Same technical frame may be used in analyzing other data sets of values in cross-cultural contexts.
Keywords: social network analysis, values, Nordic and Baltic countries
FI 1999
FI 2001
RE 2002
FI 1991
FI 1994
RE 1995
EE 1995
FI 1995
FI 1991A
SE 2002
LAT 1995
EE 2002
SE 1995
RE 1991
SE 1991
EE 1991
LIT 1995
FI- Finns, SE – Swedes, EE – Estonians, RE – Russians in Estonia, LAT –
Latvians, LIT - Lithuanians
261
Assessing Influence and Selection in Network-Behavioral Co-evolution, with an
Application to Collective Action and Informal Sanctioning
Christian Steglich, Tom Snijders and Michael Schweinberger, ICS / Department of Sociology,
University of Groningen, The Netherlands, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
From the social science theory perspective, it is fundamental to distinguish between processes by
which the network neighborhood of an actor affects his behavior (influence or contagion processes)
and processes by which, vice versa, the different actors’ behavior affects network formation (selection
processes). Success and failure of intervention programs can crucially depend on the correct
assessment of the relative strength of these mechanisms.
The opposing causal directions of influence and selection processes, together with the already complex
interdependence structure that characterizes social networks, pose a challenge to the statistical analysis
of the dynamics of network and behavior. While the collection of longitudinal data on (complete)
networks and behavior in principle allows for separating influence from selection on empirical
grounds, there are as yet few analytical tools that would enable applied researchers for indeed doing
so. In this paper, we introduce such a statistical toolbox that extends earlier methodology for the
analysis of pure network dynamics.
The model is a continuous-time Markov model for the co-evolution of networks and behavior. Both
network change and change of behavior are modeled as resulting from individual decision making. By
fitting our model to panel data of networks-with-behavior, we can assess the degree to which influence
and selection processes can account for the observed dynamics.
Statistical methods for parameter estimation in such models are discussed. In addition, we investigate
the ability of the new method to indeed separate influence processes from selection processes by
means of a couple of simulation studies. E.g., we simulate data of an evolving network-behavior
pattern in which only influence plays a role, and estimate it under the (wrong) assumption that only
selection plays a role. By combing such deliberate mis-specification with variations in panel density,
we explore the sensitivity of our method to variations in panel design. As empirical example, we
analyze a data set on the co-evolution of cooperation and informal sanctioning in a work team.
Keywords: network analysis, longitudinal data, stochastic processes, collective action,
informal sanctioning
Mark Huisman and Marijtje A.J. van Duijn, University of Groningen, The Netherlands,
This paper gives a state-of-the-art overview of available software for the statistical analysis of social
networks as of spring 2004. It reviews and compares six programs with respect to their statistical
procedures, illustrating their functionality with example data. The programs are UCINET, Pajek,
NetMiner, Structure, MultiNet, and StOCNET. The choice of routines that were inspected is restricted
to procedures for statistical modeling based on probability distributions (e.g., exponential random
graph models, QAP correlation, statistical analysis of longitudinal network data). This definition of
analysis routines excludes the extensive review of procedure-based routines based on more complex
(iterative) algorithms like cluster analysis or eigen decompositions. Also, some other (special-purpose)
software packages and software routine packages for general statistical software are reviewed briefly.
The paper concludes with some recommendations.
Keywords: statistical model, software comparison, exponential graph models, actor characteristics
262
SESSION: PANAL DATA ANALYSIS
Organizor: Uwe Engel, Dept. of Sociology, University of Bremen, Germany, [email protected]
Abstract
In the face of a growing need to analyse complex panel data, the session is primarily devoted to
advanced modelling techniques of data coming from multiwave panel surveys and (e.g., household)
panel surveys collecting data at the individual and some aggregate level(s) as well as data coming
from complex, e.g. multistage, sampling designs. Welcome are contributions to statistical theory and
applications of advanced modelling techniques addressing relevant topics in this area. Especially
welcome are presentations that shed light on capabilities and possible limitations of growth curve and
structural equation modelling techniques as applied to panel data with three and more waves, as are
papers on multilevel modelling techniques for panel data. Further topics include missing value
treatment of item and unit nonresponse in panel surveys, causal analysis, latent class analysis and
latent variable mixture modelling of panel data.
Estimation of a two Equations Panel Model with Mixed Continuous and Ordered
Categorical Response Variables in the Presence of Missing Data
Martin Spiess, German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany
In this paper, the dynamics of effects of the highest level of vocational degree received simultaneously
on income and worries about job over a nine year interval in former West Germany is estimated. The
model considered is a two equations panel model with one continuous and one ordered categorical
variable (with three categories), and several covariates (e.g. age, number of children living in
household, marital status, nationality, experience), including highest level of vocational degree
received. It is estimated using a GEE-type approach, where the parameters of the systematic part of the
model are estimated based on the GEE-approach as proposed by Liang and Zeger (1986) and the
parameters of the covariance structure are estimated based on a pseudo-score equations approach
(Spiess, 1998; Spiess and Keller, 1999). Parameters of the systematic and the covariance part are
estimated simultaneously. The data are taken from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)
which is a long running household panel. The time points considered are 1991, 1995 and 1999. Since
the data set suffers from missing data, two compensation strategies are considered: To compensate for
unit nonresponse until 1991, weights are used. Compensation for attrition from 1991 to 1999 and for
item nonresponse is based on multiple imputations. The weights are functions of components
delivered with the GSOEP. The imputations are generated based on the multiple imputation theory
developed by Rubin (1987) using IVEware, a program written by Raghunathan et al. (2001). Analysis
results are based on five imputations for each missing value. To assess the explanatory power of the
covariates and the modelled covariance structure, a simple general pseudo-R2 measure as proposed by
Spiess and Tutz (to appear) is calculated. The estimation results do not imply that the effect of the
variable ‘highest level of vocational degree received’ changes over time. Furthermore, they suggest
that there are substantial correlations over time for both equations, but the hypothesis of no correlation
between the response variables of both equations – given the covariates – can not be rejected. The
results based on pseudo-R2 suggest that the explanatory power of both, the systematic and the
covariance part, is substantial.
Keywords: GEE-approach; panel data; two equations panel model; missing data
Mette Ejrnaes and Anders Holm, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
In this paper we compare the traditional econometric fixed effect/first difference estimator with the
maximum likelihood estimator implied by covariance structure models for panel data. Our findings are
263
that the maximum likelihood estimator is remarkable robust to mis-specifications, however in general
the fixed estimator is preferable in small samples. Furthermore, we argue that we can use the Hausman
test as a test of consistency of the maximum likelihood estimator. Finally we show that the covariance
structure model is not identified in the case of time-invariant independent variables.
Analyzing Individual and Collective Change of Attitudes Using Panel Data. The
Example of Attitudes to Social Security in Germany
Nina Baur and Christian Lahusen, Universität Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany
Using changing attitudes to social security as a topic, we want to demonstrate possibilities and
advantages of adding a temporal component to classical factor and reliability analysis. In order to do
so, we differentiate between three survey design types: the singlewave design, the trend design and the
panel design. The datasets we use as an example are:
the 2002 wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) as an example for single wave data;
the 1984, 1991 and 2000 ALLBUS waves as an example for multiwave trend design data;
the 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2002 SOEP waves as an example for a multiwave panel design.
We explicitly exclude from our discussion well-known problems when using survey data and doing
factor analysis, as these are common to all three of the above design types or at least common to all
analyses done with one design type. Among these are: sampling problems; wording of indicators;
choosing indicators for scale construction; handling ordinal scaled data. Instead, we concentrate on
showing which steps have to be taken in order to extend dimensional surveys to multiwave panels:
Identifying Dimensions for each wave: The first step of dimensional analysis is identifying (for each
wave) the number and the reliability of dimensions as well as the variables for measuring single
dimensions. All three design types have this step in common. Factor analysis using SOEP data
resulted in two dimensions: satisfaction with social security and preference of state vs. private
solutions. This is where factor analysis for single wave designs ends – leading to the main theoretical
problem of scale construction with this design type: Scales measuring attitudes or behavioural patterns
theoretically imply that similar reactions in many different situations (which can be partly measured in
a single survey wave) are stable over time (which can only be measured when analyzing several
survey waves). With both trend and panel designs, one can investigate stability over time – if the same
items were measured in at least two waves and if the items wording was never changed.
Assessing Stability of Dimensions over Time: Dimensions can evolve and dissolve over time. For
example, it is plausible that environmental consciousness only became a typical attitudinal pattern in
Germany in the 1980s as a result of social movements. Additionally, the importance of single
variables measuring a dimension can change over time. For example, although racism always existed
in Germany, the word “Neger” (“negro”) only got racist connotations in the 1970s or 1980s. Thus, if
dimensions are stable over time, in each wave (a) the number of factors has to be the same in each
wave; (b) the same items have to measure the dimension in each wave; (c) reliability has to be stable.
Both for ALLBUS and SOEP data, this is true for all waves.
Analyzing Collective Change of Attitudes: If dimensions are stable over time, individual values on
dimensions can be calculated for each wave. In order to be able to compare the dimensions of different
waves, we added the standardized values of single items instead of using regression estimation
techniques. Now, analyzing collective changes of attitudes is possible by analyzing time series of
aggregated data. For example, SOEP data show that in Germany both satisfaction with social security
and preference of state vs. private solutions is remarkably stable: About half the population is neither
satisfied nor unsatisfied with the German social security system. Only about 5 % prefer private
solutions over mixed or state solutions. At this point, factor analysis using multiwave trend designs
ends. In contrast to trend data, panel data allow to trace not only collective change but also individual
change and change on the household level, thus avoiding ecological fallacy.
Analyzing Individual Change of Attitudes: Multiwave panel data allow tracing changes on the
individual level using correlation coefficients and the coefficient of change as indicators. Here too,
attitudes measured by SOEP are remarkably stable: Over five year periods, between 40 to 60 % of
264
survey participants did not change their attitudes at all (depending on dimension and period). Even
after fifteen years, about 40 % still had the same opinion. Strong opinion changes (of over 30 % on the
scale) seldomly occurred.
Analyzing Individual Change Patterns: If more than two panel waves exist, one additionally can
analyze patterns of change. For example, on the dimension “satisfaction with social security”, seven
patterns can be distinguished: (a) no change at all; (b/c) continual rise in satisfaction or dissatisfaction;
(d/e) first rise in satisfaction, then in dissatisfaction (or vice versa); and (f/g) first rise in satisfaction,
then rise in dissatisfaction, then again rise in satisfaction (or vice versa). One can also make out the
period when opinion changes occurred.
The paper concludes with the ascertion that panel data analysis can strongly benefit from a sound
identification of dimensions and dimensional change patterns, for which we propose a multifacetted
modelling technique. In our case, dimensional analysis has come up with an intriguing dependent
variable, namely the strong stability of dimensions on the individual and collective level, which can be
investigated then according to various techniques of causal analysis.
Keywords: Quantitative Research, Panel Data, Survey Data, Time Series Analysis, Longitudinal
Research, Factor Analysis, Reliability Analysis, Individual Change, Collective Change, SOEP
SESSION: COMBINING DATA FROM DIFFERENT SOURCE
Organizer: Susanne Rässler
Contact: Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency, Regensburger Str.
104, 90478 Nürnberg, Germany, Tel. +49 911 179 3084, Fax. +49 911 179 3297,
[email protected]
And: Department of Statistics and Econometrics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20
D-90403 Nuremberg, Germany, [email protected]
Keywords: Statistical matching, data fusion, mass imputation, survey data, record linkage.
Abstract
The main focus of this session is the integration of registers or, more general, large databases, which
contain partial information on a larger amount of the population, and sample surveys, which contain
detailed information on a carefully selected sample of the population. The combination should allow
an optimal use of the individual data and minimize respondents burden as well as survey costs. A new
and rapidly adaptable basis for extracting statistical information shall be created.
Methods and tools for a reliable combination of data from different sources are the topic of this
session.
The methods discussed may either concern record linkage or statistical matching procedures. With
record linkage the two samples contain identical individuals that have to be found for the match
according to, e.g., the individual's name, address, or social security number. Therefore, it is often
necessary to deal with problems of errors in these link variables. Statistical matching techniques
typically aim to achieve a complete data file from different sources which do not contain the same
units. Traditionally, statistical matching is done on the basis of variables common to all files
establishing conditional independence of the (specific) variables not jointly observed given these
common variables. Alternative approaches may also be discussed based on multiple or mass
imputation.
265
Part I
Estimation with Population-Level Constraints on Two Survey Datasets: An Application
to first Birth Probabilities by Education in Italy
Alessandra DeRose1, Paola DiGiulio2, , Mark S. Handcock3,, Filomena Racioppi2, Michael S.
Rendall4,
1
University of Rome, Latina, Italy
2
University of Rome, ‘La Sapienza’, Italy
3
Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and Center for Statistics in the Social Sciences,
[email protected]
4
RAND, Labor and Population Program; and Pennsylvania State University, Population Research
Institute, USA
In non-experimental research, data on a population may be collected simultaneously by more than one
instrument. The present paper demonstrates the very large reductions in sampling error that are
possible when data from more than one instrument are combined with population-level information to
infer a multivariate population relationship. Two surveys conducted three years apart, each with
retrospective questions on birth histories and contemporary observation of education level, are first
pooled in a logistic regression model. The two surveys are shown to sample from the same population
during their overlapping retrospective years. Sampling errors in estimates of probabilities of first birth
by education level, age, and year of birth are thus reduced by magnitudes equivalent to those
achievable by increasing the sample size of one survey by the sample size of the other. Handcock,
Huovilainen, and Rendall (2000) demonstrated the potential of a constrained maximum likelihood
estimator (CMLE) to combine sample survey data with birth registration data in the estimation of a
multivariate model of fertility. Large gains in efficiency were achieved through the intercept term of
their single-covariate logistic regression equation. The variance about the intercept parameter was
halved when the General Fertility Rate constraint was introduced. In this paper we supplement the
survey information with population-level data on women’s first birth probabilities by age and year of
birth (but not education) over the same period. By using the CMLE within logistic regression, further
large reductions in standard errors about the first birth probabilities by education level, age, and year
of birth are achieved. The introduction of population data into the estimation also allows for the
evaluation and correction of bias due to non-sampling error in the two survey datasets.
Keywords: Combining data; likelihood-based inference; constrained estimation
Combining Information from Multiple Surveys in the Analysis of Coarsened
Longitudinal Data
T. E. Raghunathan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA, [email protected]
Many surveys elicit response to questions about income, wealth and other sensitive items by offering
response categories as options. In a longitudinal setting, these response categories often change over
time. Longitudinal analysis of such data poses many challenges. For example, the Alameda County
Study (ACS) is a cohort consisting of a probability sample of approximately 7,000 subjects recruited
in 1968. The subjects were then followed in 1974, 1983,1994 and 1999. In each wave, income was
collected as one of many categories and these categories changed over time. Income and changes in
income are used as outcome as well as predictors in many analyses. The naive approach of assigning
midpoints and analyze them as continuous variable may bias the results due to inherent
misclassification. One strategy is to combine information from this survey and another survey that
asks exact income. Fortunately, the Current Population Survey (CPS) collects exact income
information from a nationally representative sample. This paper develops a multiple imputation
approach that combines information from ACS and CPS. A parametric model with income as the
independent variable (observed in CPS and interval-censored in ACS) and common variables in the
266
two surveys as dependent variables is used to multiply impute the censored variables. This strategy is
evaluated using the actual and simulated data sets.
Keywords: Multiple imputation; Interval-censored income
A Comparison Record Linkage and Statistical Matching and Their Impact on Linear
Regression Analysis
Michael D. Larsen, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, USA, [email protected]
It is often the case that one desires to conduct an analysis but the information needed for the
computations is not contained in a single source. One such scenario occurs when a large file
containing records on a population is available in one agency or in one database, but other important
variables are located in a different agency or a separate database. If there are unique identification
numbers for exactly linking records on people between files and the linkage is allowed by both
agencies, then composite records can be formed and the analysis can be accomplished. If joining the
databases is allowed but unique identification numbers are not available on one file or the other, then
there are two options. One option is to use probabilistic record linkage to try to identify exact
matching records on the two files and then conduct the analysis on the merged files. A second option
is to create a matched sample through statistical matching using propensity score methods and then
studying the relationship between variables of interest. Both methods introduce errors and
uncertainty. Errors in linkage occur in record linkage. Variability is introduced through statistical
matching.
Using a simulated data set from a large scale survey, the two methods are compared where the goal is
to estimate a linear regression relationship. Methods of propagating errors of linkage in the first
method and variability due to statistical matching in the second method are presented and compared.
Keywords: Fellegi-Sunter procedure, Latent class models, Measurement error, Mixture models,
Propagation of error, Propensity scores
J. Polak1 and Ch.D.R. Lindveld2,
1
Imperial College London, UK, [email protected]
2
Imperial College London, UK, and Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
The OPUS project is a three-year project, funded under the European Commission 5th framework IST
research programme, which has been set up to develop, demonstrate, and apply a statistical framework
for combining separate datasets in the estimation of a single latent variable.
The setting for which the framework is developed is one in which individual datasets reflect (or
partially reflect) observable aspects of a latent variable, and that a certain amount of theory of the
problem domain exists and can be operationalised in quantitative mathematical / statistical models.
Such models, called General Apriori Models (GAPM’s) within the project, are translated into
graphical models on basis of their conditional independence structure. In building a graphical model, a
graph is constructed in which variables are represented as vertices, and conditional independence
relationships as edges. No assumption is made regarding linearity or non-linearity of the relationships
encoded, or the distributional forms used (unlike e.g. Structural Equation Modelling). In addition,
particularities of the observation process can be explicitly encoded into the model. We will assume
that such a representation is possible, but as the class of graphical models is a very wide one this
assumption does not seem unduly restrictive.
The advantage of using the language of graphical models is that in the past 8 years software has been
developed to operationalise such models. The most notable application is where observational
evidence is available on only part of the nodes, and the joint probability density of all nodes in the
graph is expressed and calculated using non-informative apriori distributions for variables
corresponding to unobserved nodes and repeated application of Bayes rule.
267
The essence of the approach is that disparate datasets can be linked, on basis of domain-specific
theory, into a single graphical model that comprises all observed variables plus the latent variable(s) of
interest. Constructing the joint probability distribution for the graphical model, and determining the
probability distribution of the latent variable are can then (in principle) be treated as a matter of
routine.
The OPUS project aims to demonstrate this approach in two subject areas: transportation (indicators of
urban mobility, and estimation of regional origin-destination flows) and health (health impacts of
socio-economic factors and environmental hazards). This was done in order to demonstrate the
feasibility of specialising the methodology to a particular domain and applying them, and to
investigate the difficulties that arise in doing so.
The OPUS project specifically includes, as one of its worktasks, discussions with interested parties in
the scientific community, consultancy, and potential beneficiaries of the results. To this effect, the
project has created, and actively maintains, a website for public dissemination of appropriate sections
of the results and discussions on this subject (see http://www.opus-project.org/). Interested parties are
invited to participate in the discussions, or to simply follow them.
Modelling the Construction of a Social Accounting Matrix in the Context of Statistical
Matching
Marcello D’Orazio, Marco Di Zio and Mauro Scanu, ISTAT - Italian National Statistical Institute,
In the last years, interest on Statistical Matching problems has increased. This is due to the large
amount of data-sets available and, at the same time, to the need of timely and not costly information.
Actually, Statistical Matching techniques aim at combining information from different sources. In
particular, it is assumed that the two sources (e.g. two samples) do not observe the same set of units,
so that neither merging nor record linkage techniques can be applied.
In this paper we present some preliminary results on a Statistical Matching application for the
estimation of the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) in ISTAT. A Social Accounting Matrix is a system
of statistical information containing economic and social variables in a matrix formatted data
framework. The matrix includes economic indicators such as per capita income and economic growth.
In Italy, as well as in other countries, an archive containing all the necessary variables is not available.
Hence, an attempt to estimate the SAM can be performed by means of the fusion of the Household
Balance Survey conducted by the Bank of Italy and the Household Expenditure Survey conducted by
the Italian National Statistical Institute. In this paper it will be outlined how this application can be
modelled in the Statistical Matching context. Once clarified the statistical issues and the hypotheses
that cannot be avoided, the emphasis will be posed on the consequences of the Conditional
Independence Assumption (CIA), i.e. the assumption of independence between the variables observed
distinctly in the two sources conditionally on the commonly observed variables. Moreover, it will be
outlined how this assumption can be substituted by other suitable models based on the economic
theory. These models, alternative to the CIA, are under investigation. Some results about this study
will be provided.
Keywords: Conditional Independence Assumption, Expenditure Data, Income Data
Integrating Data for Innovative Analyses: The North Carolina Education Research Data
Center
Elizabeth Glennie, Duke University, Durham, USA, [email protected]
Without ready access to relevant data, researchers cannot conduct high-quality education policy
research. Although many state governments collect vast amounts of data on students, teachers, and
schools, they do not store the data in formats that researchers can use. North Carolina has not built
longitudinal data bases to follow the progress of children over time, nor have they linked teacher and
268
student characteristics. Furthermore, they cannot link agency data to files from other sources, such as
other administrative data or surveys.
In 2001, the North Carolina Education Research Data Center was established as a partnership between
university researchers and government officials to facilitate problem-focused education research. This
Data Center encrypts confidential information, creates longitudinal databases, and links district,
school, classroom, student, and teacher data files. It also integrates education data to files from other
government agencies and university surveys.
With files from the mid 1990s to the present, the Data Center can track teachers’ careers over time,
track students’ progress over time, link teacher information to student data, and aggregate student or
teacher data to a school or district level of analysis. These education files have supported studies on
topics including within-school racial segregation, factors that influence teachers’ working satisfaction,
and whether the accountability system increases the turnover rate.
The Data Center links education records to files from other sources. A researcher surveyed
kindergarten students and their parents. Four years later, the Data Center matched the surveys to the
children’s third grade test results. To study the effect of welfare reform on children, the Data Center
linked welfare records to educational outcomes. To study teacher perceptions of an incentive bonus,
the Data Center linked survey results to teacher work histories and school characteristics. For another
analysis, the Data Center attached student addresses the student educational information, permitting
analyses of neighborhood and classroom effects on education. In each of these studies, the Data Center
reduced the response burden on teachers, school administrators, and government officials and lowered
study costs.
Agencies and researchers use varied means to collect data. Thus, files come in diverse formats and
include different combinations of identifying information (name, birth date, social security number,
school grade, or ethnicity). Often, those collecting the data do not validate it. The Data Center has
developed methods for validating and standardizing identifiers and for using probabilistic matching
techniques to integrate these files and permit innovative analyses.
Keywords: administrative data, survey data, record linkage
Part II
Linking Job Episodes from Survey and Register Data: Specific Challenges and
Empirical Results
Maike Reimer and Ralf Künster, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Center for Sociology
and the Study of the Life Course, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany, [email protected], [email protected]
This paper deals with the linking of longitudinal survey and register data on the basis of events or
episodes. Unlike persons, events, episodes or transitions are themselves products of error-prone data
generation processes and therefore can differ between the data sets to be linked. The data sets to be
linked are retrospective survey reports from the members of the birth cohorts 1964 and 1971 in the
West-German “Life History Study”, and register data from the German Social Security agencies about
employments held by the respondents between 1990 and 1997.
Event history data describes time periods as temporally ordered sequences of events or episodes and
transitions between them. Theories and findings from cognitive memory psychology and knowledge
about the data generation process in the Social Security database are used to explain how job episodes
are constructed and dated in the two datasets and which differences can occur. On this basis, the two
data sets are prepared and a match rule that uses starting and ending date of each episode as
identifying information is developed, applied and evaluated. It distinguishes between perfect matches,
time-liberal matches (that tolerate deviations up to 2 moths) and multiple matches (that match more
than one episode from one data set to one episode in the other data set if they cover the same time
period).
269
About 70 % of all episodes are thus successfully matched. Employment episodes of women, of the
younger birth cohort and of respondents with less work experience are less likely to be matched. The
same goes for episodes from the earlier career stages. Qualitative case studies show that linkage failure
can be attributed to the differing construction of events/episodes, errors in the recall of the identifying
information and in the recall of the preparatory information in the survey reports.
In the light of these results, three broader issues are discussed: 1. the question of how a specific time
period in the linked data file should be represented, 2. the relationship of manual linkage on the basis
of case studies on the one hand and automatic linkage rules on the other, and 3. the implications for
the validity of the episodes and dates obtained in the survey.
Keywords: record linkage, survey data, retrospective measurement, job spells
Seppo Laaksonen, University of Helsinki and Statistics, Finland, [email protected]
Administrative data are typically derived from different organisations. In this case, a national
statistical institute (NSI) compiles every four years the data on wages using a sample survey, the
reference period being one month. Moreover, this NSI maintains an employment register with good
coverage. The key variables of this register are employment contract and occupation while the basic
personal characteristics are also included. This register, unfortunately, has no information about wages
and its components that are of main interest for users. Fortunately, the tax register authority has the
complete yearly data on taxable wages, but unfortunately, this authority does not want to assign these
data with exact identifiers to the NSI due to confidentiality problems. There are however common
variables in both data sets but the exact matching of these data are not possible. For the excercise of
this paper, we received these identifiers and consequently we are able to test how well different
techniques succeed in non-exact matching. The methods used are closely related to those used in
imputations. Both parametric and non-parametric matching models are applied. The results with some
methods are promising but the overall quality is not maybe reasonable for a demanding user.
Combining Datasets to Create a Synthetic Population: Sample Enumeration.
Ch.D.R. Lindveld1 and J. Polak2
1
Imperial College London, UK and Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
2
Imperial College London, UK
The Dutch National Model System (NMS) is a model system to forecast mobility of over time
horizons of 15 to 20 years with the associated traffic flows. The NMS is used extensively for
transportation policy evaluation in The Netherlands. The NMS is based on so-called disaggregate
discrete choice models, which are econometric models based on a random utility maximisation
framework that model mobility decisions (such as the number of daily tours generated by households,
and the choice of travel mode and destination of individuals).
Such a model system faces a number of difficulties: a) how to capture choice behaviour at individual
level b) how to get from individual level models to population level in order to reproduce current
traffic counts in a way which is suitable for application over long time horizons. A further isue is how
to obtain the required inputs for such long-term developments. We will restrict ourselves to issues a)
and b).
The first issue is addressed by carrying out stated preference experiments on a (representative) sample
of individuals (the “prototypical sample”), and estimating econometric models on the resulting dataset
(which we call called dataset 1). This results in a number of estimated disaggregate choice models
that require individual-level characteristics, which are not available on a population basis.
270
In order to apply these disaggregate choice models at population level, say in a certain geographical
zone, the original sample is expanded to the level of the population in the target zone, while respecting
various distributions of population-level quantities (dataset 2). Examples are: age, gender, license
holding, income class, and household composition). The expansion factors are noted, and the models
are applied to the original sample with individual-level variables kept as they were, and trip-level
variables changed to reflect the new choice situation. The resulting choices are then expanded with the
expansion factors obtained earlier. This process is repeated for each geographical zone. This procedure
is called sample enumeration. The set of expanded prototypical samples can be seen as a synthetic
population.
As a matter of interest, the information from datasets 1 and 2 is combined in producing the final result:
an estimate of the current situation at population level. Dataset 1 provides the information about
individual-level behaviour and dataset 2 provides the information with which the prototypical sample
can be matched to the population of a geographical zone. The “glue” which holds this construct
together is the assumption that the estimated disaggregate choice models capture individual
preferences which can be transferred to each geographical zone. This is a testable hypothesis, which
has been found to hold to an acceptable degree.
We note that other, much more extensive and elaborate examples exist, of which we mention the
ALBATROSS model, and the TRANSSIMS model.
Florian Koller, GfK Fernsehforschung, Nordwestring 101, D-90319 Nürnberg, Germany,
[email protected]
Mass imputation of missing data needs robust imputation models which require a minimum of
assumptions from the imputer with regards to modelling. The specification of “tailor-made” models is
hardly feasible if the number of variables with missing values is very large.
Therefore, robust estimation techniques are needed to minimise biased inferences due to misspecified
imputation models. One approach that will be discussed are Generalized Additive Models which can
help to find a balanced solution between underspecified models and overspecified models which
“explain” the error term.
A second aspect deals with the outcome of the model: It will be shown that “rounding to nearest
observed value” can introduce bias for categorical data and how this problem can be mitigated.
These techniques will be applied to a fictive split questionnaire survey design where it is assumed that
the expected response burden is too high for a complete single-source survey. Split questionnaire
designs are favoured over a data integration approach, because all distributions considered for analysis
remain jointly observed in a small subsample, thus avoiding the identification problem inherent to data
fusion.
Keywords: Mass Imputation; Multiple Imputation, Sequential Regression; Predictive Mean Matching;
Generalized Additive Model; GAM; Data Fusion
Linking Public Health Data in Georgia, USA
Mohamed G. Qayad and Emily Kahn, Georgia Division of Public Health/MCH Epidemiology Section,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, [email protected]
Background. Linking data from different sources is becoming an increasingly common practice in
public health. Data linkage enables public health to perform essential public health functions and
provides opportunities to address public health problems that would not be possible without linked
data. In Georgia, we have linked Birth data with Medicaid claims, infant deaths, hospital discharge
data, and data from governmental programs to provide food assistance and medical assistance to
women and children. We use the linked data to fulfill our contract deliverables, to report State and
271
Federal government-mandated performance measures, and to perform administrative and research
duties.
Despite the opportunities it brings, combining data by matching records requires additional capacities
that are not often covered during the formative years of public health professionals. In this paper, we
describe the methods to evaluate the accuracy of matched records.
Methods. We obtain the databases from the owners, directly or indirectly, through legal means. Using
Automatch probabilistic record linkage software, we match record pairs using multiple variables,
personal identifiers, demographic information, geographical information, and dates of events. We
evaluate the accuracy of the matched and unmatched pairs by manually reviewing sets of record pairs
selected randomly from the matched and unmatched records. In addition, we assess the percent
agreement between two programmers who independently use the same data and perform the linkage.
External sources are used to assess the accuracy of matches when possible.
Conclusion. Linking data is technically and theoretically challenging, but the benefits to public health
agencies in being able to analyze complex data to solve health problems that would not be addressed
otherwise is invaluable. The value of linked data, however, depends on the accuracy of the linked
product. The evaluation methods presented here should be undertaken before any use of the final
linked data set.
Two Stories about Youth Unemployment? Combining Register Data and Self-Reported
Data
Hans Dietrich, Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency, Regensburger
Str. 104, 90478 Nürnberg, Germany, [email protected]
Unemployment spell are relevant episodes in the school-to-work transition of young persons even if
the function of this type of episodes for the individual life course could be rather different in
dependence on timing, duration, or outcome of unemployment spells.
From this point of view two questions arise:
In how far self-reported longitudinal data about individual unemployment experience correspond with
process produced data?
In the case, these informations do not fit, what are the quantitative and qualitative findings and
explanations for the observed discordance?
After a descriptive part concerning the data fit between register data and self-reported data, an
analytical section in the paper will ask for social explanation of given data-discordance.
Database is a multi-wave-study, starting with a representative sample of 4000 young persons,
registered unemployed at the Federal Employment Services between 1998 and 1999, who where
interviewed in the years 2000, 2001, and 2004 matched with individuals unemployment register date
from 1998 to 2004.
STREAM: INFORMATION AND SIMULATION SYSTEMS
SESSION: NON LINEAR MODELLING
Organizor: Cor van Dijkum
Contact: Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, [email protected]
Keywords: Dynamics, human behaviour, non-linear models, computer simulation
Abstract
In the struggle of the social sciences to describe and explain the dynamics of human behaviour,
theories and models play an important role. Social scientists such as Fechner (1889), Coleman (1964),
Forrester (1968) and Blalock (1969) made a plea for theories in which behaviour is dynamically
understood and as a consequence mathematically modelled in differential equations.
272
Non linear models are another step ahead. Linear differential equations are handled in the natural
sciences analytically by using adequate methods of solving. But only lately, made possible by
advanced hard- and software, natural scientists are able to simulate and handle the complex dynamics
of non linear differential equations. Thereby they demonstrated that many phenomena in nature can
only be understood by using these equations. Inspired by this advancement in science, social scientists
have discovered that also the dynamics of human behaviour can also be better described and
understood with non linear models.
Such pioneers in the social sciences (from psychology, sociology, but also economy, medical sciences,
etcetera) are requested to present in this session their state of 'the science and art'. They are invited to
demonstrate and explain their methodological approach, for example by answering the question:
a. In what way their non linear model is inferred from a dynamic theory;
b. In what their way their model is confronted (falsified and verified) with empirical facts;
c. In what way the simulated output of their model is compared with time-series of empirical
facts;
d. What statistics is used to calibrate, falsify and verify the model (fitting measures, etc.);
e. In what way they solved related methodological and technical problems;
f. In what way the model was useful for the practice of their field.
Part I
Dynamics of Functional Connectivity in Ongoing, No-task EEG. Evidence for Scale-Free
Properties and Explanation in Terms of Coupled Limit Cycle Oscillators
C.J. Stam, E.A. de Bruin, T. Montez, K. Linkenkaer-Hansen, M. Breakspear, B.W. van Dijk
Functional connectivity refers to statistical interdependencies in multi channel EEG recordings which
are assumed to reflect functional interactions between brain regions. We show that during a no-task,
eyes-closed state the global level of functional connectivity shows fluctuations which have a scale-free
character, and determine optimal parameters for detecting this scaling behaviour. We attempt to
explain this property of ongoing EEG in terms of a model of weakly coupled non-linear oscillators.
Time dependent global levels of synchronization were determined in eyes-closed, no-task EEGs (19
channels, 32 second epochs) of 15 healthy subjects (10 males; mean age 22.5 years) using the
synchronization likelihood (SL). Fluctuations in SL over time were analysed with detrended
fluctuation analysis (DFA). The influence of EEG filter bandwidth and parameters of SL computation
on the detection of scale-free fluctuations in functional connectivity levels was determined. A similar
analysis was applied to the output of a model of 64 globally coupled limit cycle oscillators to study the
influence of coupling strength and frequency distribution.
Evidence was found for significant, scale-free long term correlations in the global level of
synchronization, and optimal parameters to detect this could be determined. The slope of the DFA fit
was between 1.2 and 0.9, and decreased with increasing bandwidth. In the model the SL showed the
theoretically expected sigmoidal dependence on coupling strength. For weak coupling scale-free
fluctuations in the level of SL were found, with a slope that depended upon coupling strength as well
as bandwidth.
Fluctuations in global levels of functional connectivity, as determined with SL, show significant long
term correlations and scale-free properties during an eyes-closed, no-task condition. This could be
replicated in a model of globally coupled limit cycle oscillators close to a bifurcation point. Long term
correlations and scale-free behaviour suggest that spontaneous brain dynamics is close to a critical and
optimal state for pattern formation and integration of information between different spatial and
temporal scales.
Keywords: Electroencephalogram Synchronization Functional connectivity Detrended fluctuation
analysis Scale-free Kuramoto’s model
273
Dynamical Complexity. A Measure of Critical Instability During Human Change
Processes
S. Weihrauch and G.Schiepek
Our project is based on the idea that change processes of human mental and behavioural patterns can
be described by the terms of self-organizing systems. For description we use the transdisciplinary
paradigm of “Synergetics” (founded by Prof. Hermann Haken).
Our data were produced by psychosomatic in-patients treated at a hospital ward (average stay: 66
days). The success of treatment was measured by a set of questionaires filled out before and after
treatment. In order to receive process data we used a Psychotherapy Process Rating, containing 53
items. concerning mental and interpersonal topics. Intensities were to be rated on a 7-step Likert scale
except for 7 items recorded by visual analogue scales.
Corresponding to the theory of self-organization, changes in system dynamics are often accompanied
by critical instabilities, in that creating an increasing probability of order transitions. The recognition
of these instabilities is an important information for the practitioner to modulate the therapeutical
intervention.
In searching for adequate methods to describe critical fluctuations, we were limited by the resolution
of the measurement scale as well as by the length of the time series. The method we developed
identifies the amplitude as well as the frequency of measurement changes (fluctuations) within a
seven-day gliding window. Additionally the distribution of data in the window is analysed. We call
that combined measure “dynamical complexity”.
After applying the method to the time series we obtained for each patient 53 index-time-series
containig information about the dynamic attributes of the original data. In order to minimize random
effects we summarized the index-time-series by the 7 factors of the daily rating scale.
Regarding the group of successful patients (e.g. the patients whose problems were reduced by the
therapy) we could show a significant correlation between the effect-size of therapy and the highest
attained local complexity during therapy.
As a consequence of the short length of the section needed to calculate the index, it is possible to get
the results close on, e.g. three days after the day it referres to. We use that fact in an computer-based
real-time-monitoring system which can deliver hints of the system dynamics during the ongoing
process of psychotherapy.
Carl Henning Reschke, Mainzer Strasse 80, 50678 Cologne +49-221-3406585
Germany, [email protected]
University of Witten/Herdecke, Macroeconomic and Institutional Change, 58448 Witten, Germany
The aim of this paper is to sketch a strategic map of some of the relevant issues at the intersection of
economics, sociology and evolu-tionary theories of development. The unit of evolution is taken from
psychological personal construct theory. Methodologically, a success-ful integration of these areas
requires a transfer of complexity and non-linear methods and development of further measurement
methods in the complexity area. A particular challenge is the integration of emergence phenomena and
the measurement of evolutionary change in practical research efforts. I review selected approaches
from physics (socio- and econophsy-ics), computer science (John von Neumann’s theory of selfreproducing automata), biology (systemic evolutionary theory, population approach) and economics
(Lancaster and Saviotti on characteristics) and dis-cuss how these areas intersect conceptually. This is
integrated into a model of social evolution. Open questions revolve particularly around the
characterization, modelling and empirical research on evolution-ary change processes. On this basis, I
pose challenges to complexity researchers and statisticians. Special attention is given to the tension
between ‘reductionism’ and complexity.
Each of the disciplines mentioned offers a specific way of dealing with complex phenomena, with
distinctive advantages and disadvan-tages. Physics measures potentially relevant characteristics.
274
Computer science aims at algorithmic accounts of how complex systems can be artificially
constructed. Evolutionary thinking asks for the adaptive value of specific characteristics. It shifts
attention from a generalized standard optimality criterion to a differentiated account of selection
criteria and selection conditions in specific circumstances. Hypotheses and models are illustrated with
issues from the pharmaceuticals market.
Keywords: social evolution, models, complexity, socio-/econophysics
Part II
The Dynamics of Bilingual Language Development in Immigrant Children
Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf and Marion Griessler, Graz University, Austria
This paper deals with the dynamics of language development in a multicultural setting. Data collected
in a long-term study on bilingual development in immigrant children (N = 106) are given a
neurocognitive interpretation which links brain development with the linguistic growth spurts
ascertained in four different languages: Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Turkish, German and English. The
focus is set on the interplay of systems along a four-year trajectory with the control parameters set by
monolingual children in Austria, Bosnia and Turkey. Each of the children was followed up from age 6
to 10 in his/her own linguistic career. The individual languages were given a regular psycho- and
pragmalinguistic scrutiny (including the frog story), transcribed in CHILDES and then submitted to a
dynamic cross-linguistic analysis. The outcome is a vast data-pool which allows for the tracing of
fluctuations and turbulences along increasingly intertwined chaotic itineraries with different onsets
and developmental conditions. Of particular interest is the question how a lopsided start into a new
language influences the ongoing development of the first language. In linguistic terms the prospective
temporal asynchrony takes the following stepping stones in the intake and further processing of
information: while starting with the search for coherence in the new language immigrant children keep
sorting out the more sophisticated morphological and syntactic patterns of their first language, enrich
and reorganize their lexical repertoire and work out explicit rules for the management of discourse and
textual structures. A more intensified scene-segmentation in the minor language soon creates a state
which shows all the signs of cross-linguistic chaos, i.e. turbulences and fluctuations expressed in the
over-generalization of rules, excessive morphological marking and free-floating syntax. The
investigations carried out so far provide evidence for a changing sensitivity to language cues at
different times and structure-specific time scales for system development. Of particular importance is
the notion that successive bilingual language development does not take a linear path but rather comes
in phases of intermittent turbulence, fluctuations and stability apt to swap linguistic borders in midstream.
The data were collected in the course of a research project funded by the Austrian Ministry of
Education, Research and Culture
Keywords: language development, bilingualism, temporal asynchrony, non-linearity, critical mass,
chaotic itinerary, neural development, brain-growth spurts
Methodological Issues of Labour Market Analysis for Countries in Transition
Mikhail Mikhalevich1 and Ludmilla Koshlai2
1
Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade, :[email protected]
2
Institute of Cybernetics, Ukrain, [email protected]
The present social situation in post-communist countries is certainly an exceedingly difficult one.
There are various grave problems: growing inequalities in incomes both at the stages of decline and
growth of business cycle form islands of prosperity in a sea of distress and poverty, capital flights and
growing indebtedness. All this leads to criminalization in a society. The extremely low wages are the
275
main reasons of such a situation. Many phenomena, which are observed at the labour market in postcommunist countries, can be explained when considering this segment as a market with imperfect
competition.
The analysis of such a market needs a special methodology combining qualitative and quantitative
methods, modelling and economic interpretation of the obtained results.
The presentation applies the dynamical model based on monopoly consumption or monopsony at the
labour markets in transition economies.
We consider a manufacturer of commodities who is a monopolist-consumer in some segment of a
labour market. The analysis of his behavior
demonstrates that wages grows when an expected demand does not exceed some value. If a demand is
greater than this value, a manufacturer receives the largest profit for constant wages. The mentioned
value is determined by the labour-supply function and by the value of expenses that are conditioned by
purchasing of a unit of labour by a manufacturer. Thus, the dependence between wages and an
expected demand is non linear. The impact of prices on the demand is also described by a non linear
function. Hence, we have obtained the non linear model, some analytical and numerical methods can
be applied in order to solve this problem. The conditions for availability of the feedbacks of "wage
decrease results in decrease of internal demand and to industrial decline and leads back to wage
decrease" and "industrial growth without increase of wage leads to non-increasing of internal demand
that stops industrial growth" are analysed. This explains such transitional phenomena as a low l
evel of official unemployment, decline in productivity of labour and other features of an employer's
behavior. The simulated output of the model demonstrated the possibilities of appearance of specific
economic cycles. The investigation results are compared with the real data from different branches of
the Ukrainian economy. The monopoly mechanisms in the wage-employment relations are typical for
approximately half of them, whilst oligopoly competition between branches exists in the remaining
sector. The essential aspects of the theory of employment for early stages of transition are developed
and discussed as the conclusion.
Keywords: methodology, non linear models, computer simulation, human behavior.
Anticipation and Codification in Communication Systems: Towards a Simulation Model
for Luhmann’s Sociological Theory of Communication
Loet Leydesdorff, Science & Technology Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of
Communications Research (ASCoR), Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
[email protected], http://www.leydesdorff.net
A system which contains a model of itself can function in an anticipatory mode. Anticipatory systems
will be simulated using a cellular automaton. The anticipatory (sub)system operates on the modeled
system with hindsight, and thus an observer can be generated. The anticipation is based on advancing
the clock of the modeling (sub)system with one time-step. From this next stage the model looks back,
while the ensemble of the system and its model moves historically, that is, with the arrow of time.
While the forward movement can be simulated as a recursive routine, the backward subroutine
operates incursively, that is, as a feedback against the arrow of time.
In this study, I show that under the condition of functional differentiation the social system can be
expected to contain two anticipatory mechanisms: (1) meaning is provided with hindsight, i.e., with a
time step difference from the reflected operation; (2) the differentiation in the social system generates
an asynchronicity (Ät) between the operation of its subsystems at each moment in time. This
asynchronicity allows for an anticipatory mechanism other than (orthogonal to) the one over the time
axis: the codes of the different subsystems provide them with representations of each other. For
example, the state of the art in a technology is reflected in the prices on the market at each moment in
time. The historical development of the technology follows a dynamics different from the
development of the prices on the market. These two subdynamics, however, can be expected to
interact.
276
When two anticipatory mechanisms are left free to operate on each other, a so-called “strongly
anticipatory system” can be shaped as the results of a resonance or a coevolution between the two
degrees of freedom. While weakly anticipatory systems contain only a model of themselves—which
can be used as a prediction—a strongly anticipatory system is also able to construct its next stage. The
social system generates endogenously mechanisms for its renewal. For example, the social systems
can be redefined in a techno-economic evolution under the condition of functional differentiation. The
functional differentiation provides us with the degrees of freedom.
The knowledge base of this system and its subsystems (e.g., the economy) can increasingly be
globalized. Knowledge further codifies the meaning in the communication. When two subsystems
operate upon each other incursively, hyper-incursion can be expected. The formula for the hyperincursion indicates an uncertainty in the decision-rule which can be appreciated as the need for
organization at the interface by using Luhmann’s sociological theory of communication.
Catastrophe Theory and Social Policy Making: A Nonlinear Model of the Early Pension
Insurance Legislation in Western Europe
Georg P. Mueller, Department of Social Sciences, University of Fribourg, Av. de l'Europe 20, CH1700 Fribourg, Switzerland, [email protected]
This paper aims at modeling the process of the introduction of new social policy laws by using tools
and concepts borrowed from mathematical catastrophe theory.
The model presented in this paper departs from a societal conflict between the antagonists and the
protagonists of a new social policy. In order to ensure its own political survival, government is
assumed to minimize this conflict by making appropriate political decisions about the introduction of
social reforms. The policy resulting from this conflict minimization depends among others on the
power distribution between the two mentioned conflict groups. Historical trends, which change this
power distribution, eventually lead to the disappearance of a well established conflict minimum and
thus trigger a sudden discontinuous shift to a new social policy, which is associated with an alternative
minimum of internal conflicts.
The paper analyzes the conditions under which such shifts in social policy occur. The results of this
mathematical investigation are used for an empirical test of the model with historical data about the
introduction of the first pension insurance laws in Western Europe. This test of the model shows, that
the dependent variable, i.e. the percentage of the labor force covered by the first pension insurance
laws, is relatively well explained by changes in the power distribution between labor movements and
entrepreneurial groups. This finding corroborates the basic structure of the model, which at the end of
the paper is further explored with regard to its consequences for the feasibility and the persistence of
social reforms.
Keywords: Catastrophe theory, model building, social policy, government behavior, discontinuous
social change.
Part III
Ludmilla Koshlai1 and Mikhail Mikhalevich2
1
Institute of Cybernetics, Ukrain, [email protected]
2
Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade, [email protected]
The problems of development relations between large cities and suburbs are very important both for
market and post-communist countries. Handling these problems, different economic, ecological,
social, cultural and other weakly formalized factors must be taken into account. Therefore the special
methodology must be elaborated for this purpose. "Fuzzy" terms are used often in the mentioned
problem formulation, so the theory of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic may be used as the basis for
methodology elaboration. The important aspects of fuzzy-based methods application are considered in
277
the presentation as the example of two connected problems: 1) the establishment of borders for
urbanized (suburban) area; 2) the search of legislation alternatives to determine financial,
administrative and political relations between municipal structures. Several approaches including
multicriteria generalization of the "gravity" model and fuzzy-logic-based hierarchical procedures of
complex alternative analysis are proposed. They are united using the system analysis. The empirical
results will illustrate the proposed approaches from a practical point of view.
Keywords: complex societal problems, fuzzy logic, dss.
Low-Dimensional Nonliear Dynamical Systems as a Tool for Socio-Economic Modelling
Yuri Yegorov, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria, [email protected]
The art of mathematical modelling challenges both the complexity of real world and analytical
tractability. While nonlinear dynamic systems have been proved to be a proper tool of modelling in
physics which captures the essence of the process, their application in social sciences is still very
limited. Two methodological extremes, both far away from optimally simple description of reality,
seem to dominate. The first can be named „oversimplification“; it relies mostly on linear static
relationships across variables. While it has an advantage to be understandable for a broad group of
scientists without special mathematical background, it can rarely capture intereseting phenomena,
known as „nonlinear science“. The second can be named „excess complexity“; it either uses too many
variables or focuses on chaotic solutions, making robust predictions and simple policy
recommendations hardly possible. Due to rigidity of some scientific schools in using the concept of
rationality, even simple dynamical systems are taken away from subfields of economics, and at the
same time very complex functional relationships are analyzed in static form. The interaction between
social and natural phenomena clearly escapes rationality trap, as nature cannot be rational. Forrester
has suggested the methodology of dynamic modelling of such systems, which has been used
successfully in prediction of future processes on the Earth. The trap here is that models typically use
too many variables, and the result often depends on the correct choice of parameters and initial
conditions. But very often low-dimensional systems can both represent an interesting dynamics and
allow for some analytical tractability along with numerical robustness of results. Here two threedimensional models of such type will be presented. The first focuses on interaction between
economics and nature and shows that Malthusian and neoclassical concepts can represent two extreme
cases of more complex dynamical system which is governed only by three nonlinear differential
equations for population, natural resources and technology. The system is derived using quite standard
relationships, but taking part of them from economics and other part from biology. The second model
is about the link between urbanization and demographic transition. While more than three economic
and social variables are used initially, the dynamics is governed by the system of 3 differential
equations for capital, total population and rural population. While the first model predicts a possibility
of a catastrophy after a period of almost exponential growth, in the second model population
stabilization can take place due to low fertility in urban areas.
Keywords: nonlinear dynamical system, socio-economic modelling, technology, nature, demography,
urbanization.
278
SESSION: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR AGENT-BASED SOCIAL
SIMULATION
Organizors: Klaus G. Troitzsch1 and Nigel Gilbert2
Contact: 1Universität Koblenz-Landau, Institut für Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungsinformatik,
Germany, [email protected]
2
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey,Guildford, Surrey, UK, [email protected]
Abstract
Papers in this session should introduce new software for agent-based social simulation and address
topics like the unification of different approaches, for instance to combine an equation-based macro
model of the natural environment with an agent-oriented micro model of the human beings living in it,
the calibration of social simulation models in order to foster their use to solve actual problems, the
comparison and integration of different tools for different research and applications objectives
(Swarm, RePast, NetLogo, SDML, MAML, etc.), since there is a number of different tools available
with restricted capabilities which need to be integrated and to be made more user-friendly, the design
of new tools and ways to make them available.
Part I: The Applicability of Agent-Based Social Simulation
Tracking the Invisible Hand: An A.B.M. Approach to CDA Design with Evolutionary
Behaviour
M. Posada Calvo, Cesareo Hernández Iglesias and Adolfo López Paredes, Grupo de Ingeniería de
Organización, InSiSoc, ETS Ingenieros Industriales de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain,
The ancillary hypothesis of unbounded rationality has dominated, and still dominates, economic
modelling. This extreme assumption has been relaxed in a fast growing literature under different
headings: new institutional economics, evolutionary economics and experimental economics (E.E.). In
E.E. the eighteenth century Scottish tradition (Hume, D. and Smith, A.) is revealed in the observation
of emergent order in numerous studies of existing markets such as the continuous double auction
(CDA). This emergence demonstrates that the logic of choice (individual rationality) and the ecology
of choice (social rationality) can diverge, (Smith V. 2002).
Why not to take a step further and experiment with soft agents that could allow us to engineer the
social institutions (Hernández 1999 and López 2002)?. In this paper we examine the emergence of
Nash efficient solutions for a CDA market, since it is the dominant institution for the real-world
trading of equities, energy, derivatives, etc. and there is a lot of valuable knowledge from E.E.
Taking as reference the paper by Walsh et al 2001, we endow the soft-agents with ZI, ZIP, Kaplan and
GD ask-bidding strategies. Every class of agents in Walsh, has a fixed strategy. But we allow our softagents to spontaneously change their strategies in an autonomous and evolutionary process. Instead of
fixing the agents strategies from the modeller and then calibrating the parameters to achieve Nash
equilibrium we look for autonomous emergence of Nash efficiency. Thus extending previous work
and introducing evolutionary learning and adaptation.
Although our analysis can be programmed in standard object oriented language, we use SDML as
programming shell, a cognitive strictly declarative language, since we intend to extend this work to
allow for richer learning strategies. At least three mental processes interact in the decision choice:
Motivation (the driving force); adaptation; and cognition (reasoning) (Selten 1998).
Keywords: Continuous Double Auction. Computational Organization. ABM Social Simulation
279
Development of a Hybrid Multi-Agent Model for Modelling Petrol Price Markets
Alison J. Heppenstall, Andrew J. Evans and Mark H. Birkin, School of Geography, University of
Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK, [email protected]
The petrol price market is a highly sensitive and competitive market with many processes combining
at different temporal and spatial scales to affect each petrol station’s prices. For example: internal
costs (cost of production; fixed costs e.g. staff pay), external influences (price of crude oil and levels
of taxation) and effects of locality (rural versus urban areas). Previous models developed to represent
the relationship between petrol and a variable are empirical and mathematical. These suffer from a
number of problems, chiefly: the parameters are all on the same scale (behaviours executed at the
‘micro’ level are not tied to ‘global’ level variables like oil prices); the parameters are often difficult to
estimate and lack realism; very little, if any, account of any geographical effects is taken, and, finally,
mathematical models by their nature only consider quantitative parameters and therefore miss out on
qualitative, behavioural information.
We present a series of three multi-agent and hybrid models that seek to rectify some of these problems
by combining the strengths of several techniques. The models vary chiefly in how profitability is
assessed. The three systems have an increasing complexity of customer model. An individual-level
agent based model of each potential customer would be a vast computational and behavioural
modelling effort, so the three systems utilise simplified models of customers. The systems are:
A pure Agent based model in which the profitability is decided by simple price comparison. Stations
attempt to undercut competitors while maximizing price.
A hybrid Spatial Interaction Model (SIM) – Agent system in which customers’ choice of petrol
stations is determined by the SIM based on distance to station and price of petrol. Stations aim to
maximize their profit based on customer numbers, price, and a fixed volume of fuel that is sold to each
customer.
A hybrid SIM-Network-Agent system. This is the same as the hybrid SIM-Agent model, except that
the customers are initially distributed on the basis of journey to work data along potential routes. This
introduces an “intervening opportunities” style component.
The performance of each model is evaluated by using idealised simulations and through comparison
with the real data. We show that the combination of traditional market-analysis tools, for example
SIM’s with the agent-based approach gives a powerful methodology for replicating and analysing the
geographical ramifications of such system.
Keywords: pricing; multi-agent model; spatial interaction model; networks
Dynamics of International Negotiations: A Simulation of EU Intergovernmental
Conferences
Nicole J. Saam1, Paul W. Thurner2 and Frank Arndt2
1
Allgemeine Soziologie, University of Marburg, Ketzerbach 11, D-35032 Marburg, Germany,
[email protected]
2
Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES), Postfach, D-68131 Mannheim,
Germany
Why do international negotiations fail or succeed? The success story of the constitutionalisation of the
European Union seems to be seriously challenged since december 2003 when the head of member
states admittedly failed to decide on a proposal on it’s future constitution. Media ventilated the reason
to be the obstinate refusal of Poland and Spain to accept a new reweighting of votes. This reweighting
would have abolished a compromise of the conference in Nice in 2000. Obviously, previously applied
technics of compromising during long negotiations were not successful – or even attempted.
However, the public impression of one-shot intergovernmental conference negotiations and the
invoking of a single cause of failure are inconclusive. Such negotiations span months of formal
meetings and informal coordination between member states. Furthermore, they are not separated from
ongoing political business and events - at the international as well as at the domestic level. Therefore,
280
an understanding of negotiation outcomes has to take account of the specific form of the underlying
processes and its connectedness to process-relevant determinants.
Unfortunately, our knowledge about processes and dynamics of negotiations is scant. Whereas the
sophistication of game-theoretic models has increased enormously during the last decade, their model
setup remain highly stylized. The identfication of necessary assumptions for a sequential two-player
game immediately ending in a unique equilibrium is ingenious and instructive. However, it does not
answer our question. Even if there is a convergence of real world negotiations towards the noncooperative result of the Rubinstein model or the cooperative Nash-bargaining solution, we would like
to know the actors’ microbehaviour in getting these macro-results.
In our lecture, we contribute to a ‘comparative game dynamics’ (Richard 2000). We present the
Zeuthen-Harsanyi model of concession behaviour - a predecessor to the Rubinstein model – as a
framework for simulating the dynamics of a multilateral, multiple issue, multi-stage and multi-level
negotiation system, the EU Intergovernmental Conference of 1996 which led to the Amsterdam treaty.
In our model, the 15 EU member states are represented as more or less homogeneous agents who have
preferences with respect to 46 issues which are negotiated in parallel processes. The states avoid nperson games in order to economize on transaction costs. Instead, after signalling their preferences,
they form coalitions. The negotiations are reconceptualised as Zeuthen-Harsanyi model for two
coalitions. In order to evaluate the appropriateness of our simulation model we have calculated several
goodness of fit parameters. These parameters are based on different kinds of predicted outcome
(simulated or regressed) as well as the empirical outcome - the Amsterdam treaty - which has been
operationalised (cf. Thurner/Pappi/Stoiber 2002).
Keywords: international negotiations, game theory
On a Theorem in the Theory of Guerrilla Warfare
Jim Doran, Department
[email protected]
of
Computer
Science,
University
of
Essex,
Colchester,
UK,
Agent-based social modelling may be viewed as individual-based modelling of social phenomena
using the techniques of artificial intelligence studies. Investigation of guerrilla warfare offensive and
defensive strategies is a natural, timely (e.g. ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Nepal), and potentially very
important application for this type of modelling involving as it does both social and individual factors,
including the cognition of individuals. In this paper I focus in particular upon the following assertion
by T.E.Lawrence concerning the conditions under which a guerrilla insurgency is guaranteed to
succeed:
“Granted mobility, security (in the form of denying targets to the enemy), time and doctrine (the idea
to convert every subject to friendliness) victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors
are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain.”
[T.E.Lawrence, Guerrilla Warfare, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed., 1929, Vol. 10, p 953]
Lawrence’s own “proof” of his assertion is informal and straightforward. Generalising from the
circumstances of the 1917/18 Arab Revolt and the Turkish defence of the Hejaz railway, he points to
the impossibility of even a large force having the ability to control and defend a very large territory
under the stated conditions. In this paper I formalise Lawrence’s assertion, in a simple way, and prove
it as a theorem.
What may be called the “Supermarket Theorem” is also considered. This asserts that almost certainly
the vast majority of people in a supermarket will leave the building within a relatively short time (an
hour, say) however diverse may be their beliefs and goals.
The relationship between such theorems and agent-based modelling in general is discussed, including
linkage to the now established notion of a rule-based “expert system”. A central issue is the extent to
which it is possible to discover such theorems directly from the model and without experimental work
on the computer. The discussion is illustrated by reference to a programmed generic model of a
guerrilla insurgency set on the imaginary island of “Iruba”. Throughout the paper, particular attention
is paid to the requisite level of abstraction of a social model, to the “mix” of cognitive and social
factors, and to the seemingly crucial role played by belief systems in guerrilla warfare and terrorism.
Keywords: guerrilla warfare, asymmetric warfare, agent-based modelling, social simulation
281
Using Multi Agent Systems and Role-Playing Games to Simulate Water Management in
Peri-urban Catchments
Diana F. Adamatti and Jaime S. Sichman, Laboratório de Técnicas Inteligentes, Escola Politécnica da
Universidade
de
São
Paulo Raphaèle
Ducrot,
Brasil,
[email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], CIRAD-TERA, Visiting Scientist IEA-USP
Peri-urban catchments are characterised by their complexity (hydrological, sociological and
geographical processes) as well as their dynamics. This dynamics depends on the multiplicity of
stakeholders, with differing and often conflicting land use representations and strategies. To simulate
these, it is necessary to have both innovative methods and computer tools to support their coordination
and mediation processes, aiming at an improved, more decentralized and integrated natural resources
management.
Multi Agent Systems (MAS) and Role-Playing Games (RPG) are methods that have been used for
some years to represent this dynamics. Computer tools are implemented using MAS and RPG to
integrate the conceptual modelling, allowing to represent and to explore functionning and dynamics
through testing of different scenarios.
An example of peri-urban catchment is the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, that is studied in the
Negowat Project (Negotiation of Land and Water Conflicts in Latin America). We have developed a
prototype of a computer tool to integrate water management and the actions of the stakeholders. This
prototype, called “JogoMan”, links MAS and RPG, and its implementation is based on Cormas, a
Multi-Agent Simulator developed at CIRAD (Agricultural Research Developing Countries of France).
JogoMan is a simplification of the real phenomena of interaction between the several actors, and it is
used as a means of learning and analysis.
The idea of the Negowat Project is to define a complete conceptual model of the area and its
implementation in two levels: local and catchment. On the first level, the focus is on the negotiation
and interation of stakeholders, and in the second level, the focus is on multi-agent simulations and its
effect on the quality of the water. For both levels, the project researchers will need to have strong
linking with the local communities, because they can supply much information about the real situation,
being crucial for model construction. One of the project objectives is to use representative groups of
society better to understand the functioning of the social and political processes, and all research will
need a direct interaction with local comunities. In order to, an effect of this approach, some interesting
questions related with this modelling and its implementation arises, like how one should model social
processes in such an approach?
Keywords: Agent Based Modeling; Role Playing Games; Simulation
Lagoon, Agents and Kava: A Companion Modelling Experience in the Pacific
Pascal Perez1,2, A. Dray1,2, C. LePage1, P. D’Aquino1,3 and I. White2
1
CIRAD, Montpellier, France, [email protected]
2
RSPAS/RMAP, Coombs Bldg, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
3
IAC, New Caledonia, France
Expanding populations and limited land area in small islands are increasing the pressures on fresh
groundwater resources. The dilemma is how to protect shallow groundwater reserves without
alienating traditional landowners and without generating costly conflicts. The problem is complex and
involves the interaction of hydrologic and technical factors with socio-cultural, economic, policy and
institutional factors.
Multi Agent Systems (MAS) have been developed to study the interaction between societies and the
environment. Here we use MAS in conjunction with a Companion Modelling approach to develop a
Negotiation Support System for groundwater management in Tarawa (Rep of Kiribati). In agreement
with the complex and dynamic nature of the processes under study, the Companion Modelling
(ComMod) approach requires a permanent and iterative confrontation between theories and field
circumstances. Therefore, it is based on repetitive back and forth steps between the model and the field
situation.
282
The methodology applied in Tarawa relies on three successive stages. First, a Global Targeted
Appraisal focus on social group leaders in order to collect different standpoints and their articulated
mental models. These collective models are partly validated through Individual Activities Surveys
focusing behavioural patterns of individual islanders. Then, these models are merged into a single
conceptual one that is further simplified in order to create a role-playing game. This game is played
during iterative sessions, generating innovative rules and scenarios. Finally, when the rules become
too complex, a computer based version of the game replaces the board version. Stakeholders can
explore the possible futures of freshwater management in Tarawa and eventually agree on an equitable
collective solution.
Keywords: Water management, Multi-Agent System, Companion Modelling, Pacific, Tarawa
Agent-Based Simulations backing Use of Role-Playing Games as Dialogue Support
Tools: Teaching from Experiments
William’s Daré1 and Olivier Barreteau2
1
Cirad Réunion, Cirad Tera/Rev, Equipe GREEN, TA 60/15, 73 rue Jean-François Breton, 34398
Montpellier, Cedex 5, France, Tél: (33) (0)4 67 59 38 49, Fax: (33) (0)4 67 59 38 27,
[email protected]
2
Cemagref Montpellier, France, [email protected]
A Role-playing game (RPG) was used in a companion modelling approach to facilitate negotiation
between stakeholders sharing an irrigated system in the Senegal River valley. This RPG describes a
schematic representation of the coordination of farmers to manage water. A Multi-Agent System
(MAS), computer version of the RPG, has been used to speed up time of the game and make players
started in different conditions of interaction. The aim of this article is to present the issue raised and
the limits of the use of a MAS in a such context.
After presenting our use of RPG and their place among other simulation games, we analysed their
interests and their limits as support tools in negotiation processes. RPG are more powerful than purely
computer based Group Decision Support System to support dialogue, since they make stakeholders
better handle the simulated impacts of their decision on their system. The first part finishes with a
synthesis of issues raised in this context.
The second part illustrates how the MAS Shadoc was used to speed up time during RPG sessions. A
session is described. Avoid the black-box view of the computer model, by linking its components with
the game parameters and introducing the MAS as a response to game limits expressed by the players
are some of the conditions necessary to use the MAS in this context.
We conclude that (i) the MAS is helpful to the RPG in negotiation processes but its introduction to
stakeholders need to be done carefully otherwise models could be delegitimated; (ii) even though RPG
and MAS are schematic representation of stakeholders’ behaviours to manage their irrigated system,
they do not reduce the complexity of the reality represented. But these models used directly with
stakeholders may empower some of them in front of others and the researcher has to assess the
impacts of game sessions on the local system.
Keywords: Agent-Based simulations, Role-Playing Games, dialogue support tools
Actualities of Social Representation: Simulation on Diffusion Processes of SARS
Representation
Kazuhiko Shibuya, Cyber Assist Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology, 2-41-6 Aomi, Koto ward, Tokyo, 135-0064, Japan, Tel: +81-3-3599-8302; Fax: +813-5530-2067, [email protected]
The objective of this paper is to explore social processes on informational representation of severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by means of an multi-agent based model. Especially I attempt to
clarify a spatial modelling on a social network. Therefore I will be to explore (a) Social representation
in social process, (b) Examine network model of small world, (c) Opinion leader in social networks,
283
(d) Spatial informatics and analysis. The immediate crisis of SARS has already recognized a fact that
human population and relationships as network patterns is significant for understanding. I define here
that social representation regards as sharing social information and shared cognitive patterns among
members in specific opinion groups. Social representation can diffuse and emerge through social
communication and social consensual understandings in social network. In this concern, spatial model
and simulation have an opportunity to analyze and examine computational process of social
informational representation. I would like to show computational results of spatial modeling, and
discuss on considerable relative aspects.
Keywords: spatial modelling, social network, small world, SARS
Part II: Session: Tools and Techniques for Agent-Based Social Simulation
Sean Luke1, Gabriel C. Balan1, Liviu Panait1, Claudio Cioffi-Revilla2, Sean Paus1
1
Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, 2Center for Social Complexity, George
Mason University, 237 Robinson Hall MS 3F4, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 USA, tel
(703) 993-1402, fax (703) 993-1399
[email protected]
Agent-based modeling (ABM) has transformed social science research by allowing researchers to
replicate or generate the emergence of empirically complex social phenomena from a set of relatively
simple agent-based rules at the micro-level. Swarm, RePast, Ascape, and others currently provide
simulation environments for ABM social science research. After Swarm —arguably the first widely
used ABM simulator employed in the social sciences —subsequent simulators have sought to enhance
available simulation tools and computational capabilities by providing additional functionalities and
formal modeling facilities. Here we present MASON (Multi-Agent Simulator Of Neighborhoods),
following in a similar tradition that seeks to enhance the power and diversity of the available scientific
toolkit in computational social science. MASON is intended to provide a core of facilities useful not
only to social science but to other agent-based modeling fields such as artificial intelligence and
robotics. We believe this can foster useful "cross-pollination" between such diverse disciplines, and
further that MASON's additional facilities will become increasing important as social complexity
simulation matures and grows into new approaches. We illustrate the new MASON simulation library
with a replication of HeatBugs and a demonstration of MASON applied to two challenging case
studies: ant-like foragers and micro-aerial agents. Other applications are also being developed. The
HeatBugs replication and the two new applications provide an idea of MASON's potential for
computational social science and artificial societies.
Keywords: MASON, agent-based modeling, multi-agent social simulation
Xavier Noria1, Nigel Gilbert2, Gilbert Peffer3
1
[email protected]
2
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, [email protected]
3
[email protected]
In the course of a publicly-funded project on business strategy in the on-line news and music sector, a
multi-agent based simulation toolkit – Simma – has been developed to aid experts in building market
models and to provide end-users with an adaptable and easy-to-use simulation GUI. The toolkit is
being designed to support a participatory style of development and implementation using rapid
prototyping, design workshops, and user panels involving both modellers and end-users. In an iterative
evaluation process, existing commercial and freely distributed tools for implementing multi-agent
284
models were found not to support adequately the divergent needs, objectives, and skills of these two
types of Simma toolkit users.
In this article, we examine some of the better known MABS toolkits, discussing and comparing their
characteristics which are relevant from the vantage point of the Simma users. We then explain the
diverse user requirements and how they were translated into design options. The components of the
current version of the tool are described and the functionality of the Simma toolkit is illustrated using
a simple example. Following the demonstration, we clarify how the original design requirements are
met and how the iterative development process was instrumental in this respect. We conclude with an
outlook on future plans for improvement, in particular the possibility of a collaborative development
of new components for the tool.
Keywords: participatory business simulations; multi-agent based simulation, market models
The Political Actor Simulator (PAS): The Simulation of a Foreign Policy Crisis during
the Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia 1995
Markus Bresinsky, Projektleiter Human Factors bei der Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
(IABG), Einsteinstraße 20, D-85521 Ottobrunn, [email protected]
The Political Actor Simulator (PAS) is an agent-based model. Its development is guided by an
interdisciplinary approach; the goal is to apply PAS when investigating crisis situations in
international politics. This model takes into account both political theory as well as principles of
cognitive modelling. Parts of the research project are directed at testing the PAS-model with respect to
assumptions derived from political theory. PAS is a moderately complex model for a complex domain
and gives an example for the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach in the foreign policy analysis.
The research objective of PAS is (1) to characterize the problems arising when modeling short-term
decision-making processes, and (2) to provide an example for the modeling of political decisionmaking in a crisis situation. Political science as a discipline has provided a wide range of theories and
models about decision-making. However, the influence of psychological science, especially of
cognitive science, is rather unusual. The PAS model is an agent-based approach directed at the
modelling of political decision-making with a cognitive architecture.
PAS is an approach to investigate political decision making by a computer simulation. For this goal
the PAS model includes a scenario that refers to events around Srebrenica in the year 1995. The model
uses four different agents: Two of them represent the international decision makers on the level of
NATO and the UN, another one the level of the local commander of the peacekeepers in Srebrenica,
and the fourth one the level of the leader of the Bosnian Serbs.
The scenario implemented in the simulation describes a risky political and military situation. A safe
area is attacked by the Bosnian Serbs. NATO and UN have to decide about a political and military
mandate. If the mandate is decided, the peacekeepers have to implement it. When there is a direct
threat to the safe area the peacekeepers can call for air strikes to deter attacks. Whether air strikes will
take place or not has to be decided by consensus between NATO and the UN.
The results for PAS suggest that a multi-agent based simulation of political decision making is a useful
tool for the analysis of crisis development. The experimental data derived from the simulation runs
support the position according to which cognitive modeling may enhance the understanding of
decision making in political crisis situation.
Keywords: multi-agent based simulation, political decision making, cognitive modeling
Using GIS and Multi-agent Systems for Interactive Design of Policy in Natural Resource
Management
Rhodora M. Gonzalez, University of the Philippines, Department of Geodetic Engineering,
[email protected]
The complex problems of natural resource management (NRM) require correspondingly complex
syntheses of insights and tools from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. This
285
includes bringing modern technologies and artifacts closer to people who need them most in
alleviating environmental problems. One way to effectively do this is for scientists and laypersons to
engage in collectively monitoring change in the environment and making it visible for all concerned to
be aware of and hopefully, change their errant ways. With geographic information systems (GIS) and
multi-agent systems (MAS) modelling and simulation, the dynamics of the landscape brought about by
natural and human activity systems may be formally represented and analyzed interactively. Taking
what such technologies can offer into natural resource management processes can lay the groundwork
to support interactive design of policy, that is, more direct interplay between science and local
perceptions. Possibilities can be better articulated and scrutinized by simulating scenarios before
directives are formed; causes and reasons can be identified, and management process and policy can
be guided. This contributes a means to devise more effective ways to exchange new and existing
knowledge among policy- and decision-makers, and better communication of knowledge to be used by
the public.
This paper is about an ongoing exploration in harnessing MAS modelling and simulation in analyzing
environmental status and designing policy to cope with changes in mountain agriculture. Increased
land abandonment, tourism, and invasive tree species are altering the landscape and pose a problem to
the community that depends on open grasslands for pasture. A monitoring process using GIS was
initially created among scientists and local government to help inhabitants and National Park officers
in bringing forth images of the changed environment that they inevitably manage together. MAS
modelling techniques and capabilities were further used to better understand how the changes come
about and how they are inter-related; simulation results were used in analyzing information about
tradeoffs among real alternatives. Lessons are drawn in bringing multi-disciplinary endeavors closer
into policy-making. The potentials and weaknesses in harnessing computerized earth observation and
simulation technologies for NRM are discussed.
Keywords: Multi-agent systems, natural resource management, interactive policy design, GIS,
participatory modelling and simulation
Ioannis D. Katerelos and Andreas Koulouris, Psychology Department, Panteion University, L.Sygrou
136, 17671 Athens, Greece, [email protected], [email protected]
In this paper we shall present the Multiple Equilibria Regulation (MER) Model of opinion dynamics in
Cellular Automata Topology. As we have stated in our previous article[Katerelos, I. & Koulouris, A.
(2004) Seeking Equilibrium leads to Chaos: Multiple Equilibria Regulation Model. Journal of
Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 7, no 2, http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/7/2/4.html], for
certain parameter’s settings the behaviour of the system exhibits transient chaos (unpredictable but
rests in a final steady state). In order to approach empirical reality, we introduce a cellular automata
topology. One weakness (inherited by the Bounded Confidence Model) of MER model is that every
agent is potentially in position to communicate with every other agent if and only if, their opinions
differ in a degree less or equal than the bound of confidence. This functional postulate assumes that
there is not any geographical (or any other kind of) obstacle excluding the magnitude of bound.
Nevertheless, in real life, two (or more) individuals may never communicate just because they will
never meet each other. Consequently, in a more realistic scope, we must consider first a topology of
the agents in question and then take into account their opinions. Thus, one can hypothesise that a
geographical pattern of interaction between agents must be taken into account.
Cellular Automata contribution has been proven crucial, since the introduced topology converts the
behaviour of our system in a noteworthy way: from transient chaos to “pure” chaos. This is to say that
the system is not only unpredictable on the long run but, in addition, it will never rest in a final steady
state: prediction is only possible for a short predictability horizon.
Keywords: MER Model, simulation, cellular automata, prediction, chaos, opinion dynamics
286
SESSION: INFORMETRIC AND TEXT BASED PROCEDURES FOR
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND ANALYSIS
Organizers: H. Peter Ohly and Maximilian Stempfhuber
Contact: Social Science Information Centre; Lennestr. 30, 53113 Bonn, Germany , [email protected],
[email protected]
Keywords: Citation Analyses, Scientific Productivity and Networks, University Ranking, RetrievalWeighting, Information Mining, Cross-Concordances, Integration of Heterogeneous Data
Abstract
The aim of this session is to present new insights into formal ranking and linking procedures based on
knowledge organization systems or statistical and text analytical algorithms, and to discuss restrictions
and possibilities of these approaches in the information field. Of special interest are methods
applicable to several of the different types of information which can be found in digital libraries: fulltext documents, bibliographic descriptions, metadata for statistical data, web sites, process produced
traces and structural patters of these.
Digital libraries with their wealth of different data types and sources rise new challenges when
analytical methods for linking or ranking are applied to new types of data or to merge data from
heterogeneous sources. In the field of Social Sciences, the integrated retrieval of text-based
information, metadata and empirical data plays an important role for the scientific community. How
can informetric and text based procedures support this? What standards are necessary to apply them to
different data types? How can their results be merged to yield predictable results?
Especially for evaluation purposes the quantitative analysis must be enhanced by qualitative decisions
and background information. Applications are information retrieval, resp. analyses of literature
databases and internet sites, extraction and combining of text information for information purposes,
ranking and networking of science actors and knowledge and input-output-analyses of scientific
institutions. There should be also space for a critical consideration of indicator quality, reality
constraints, and economy of information.
Part I: Bibliometric Mining
Bibliometric Mining
Peter Ohly, Social Science Information Centre, Lennestr. 30, 53113 Bonn, Germany, [email protected]
Bibliometrics are known as the analysis of structures and processes in scientific communities by
analyzing process-produced library data. Library catalogues, bibliographic online databases, internet
pages and more are serving as such a data source. Well-known problems for cross-section analysis are
the definition of universe, the definition of a unit, the sampling procedure, and the validity relation.
Mining tries to retrieve individual hidden information by selecting, aggregating or linking information.
Though largely dependent on thresholds and logic structures the questions of appropriate evaluating,
ranking and comparing remain. Content related information - the greatest part in bibliometric
considerations - is even more sensitive and must be value-added by semantic and text-statistical
relationships.
Keywords: bibliometrics, informetrics, information mining, information retrieval
Automating the Analysis of Co-Words in Contexts: Measuring the Meaning of “StemCells” and “Frankenfoods” in Different Domains
Iina Hellsten and Loet Leydesdorff, University of Amsterdam, ASCoR, Kloveniersburgwal 48,
1012CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected], [email protected]
Co-words have been considered as carriers of meaning across different domains in studies of science,
technology, and society. Words and co-words, however, obtain meaning in sentences, and
287
sentences/messages gain their meaning in contexts of use. At the science/society interface words and
co-words can be expected to have different meanings at the different sides of the interface. For
example, whereas ‘energy’ is strictly defined in physics, this concept is often confused with ‘energy
carriers’ in public debates about energy shortages. In other words, these different sides use different
codes of communication for providing meaning to words. Furthermore, meanings may change over
time.
Given these differences in meaning in different domains and over time, we search for a reflexive
mechanism that enables us to study co-words in contexts. The empirical questions are: To which
extent can words and co-occurrences of words carry meaning across domains? What could be
considered as reflexive mechanisms for the function of the translation? How can translation
mechanisms between different codes of communication be operationalized?
In the sociology of translation and actor-network theory, the specification of the domains followed the
translation (as a construct). In our design, the contexts (domains) are first operationalized
independently of the specific words carrying meaning at the interfaces: one can compare the usage of
words in a newspaper with the usage of that same word in scholarly discourse. We distinguish
between two types of metaphors as reflexive mechanisms for the comparison of co-words across the
domains: symbolic metaphors and words as messengers of meaning. “Energy,” for example, functions
as a metaphor in the above case although it is a common word.
The study is based on our earlier work: one of us has studied symbolic metaphors (e.g.
“Frankenfood”); the other author has focused on how distributions of specific control terms (e.g.,
“stem-cells”) relate textual domains in a sub-symbolic mode. Both are more codified than average
words and co-words, and thus they may serve as tools for “translation.” We will analyze two debates
(on gm-foods and on stem-cell research) that have recently flourished at the science/society interface.
We will first show techniques and routines that we developed to download the data available in webbased sources such as search engines, the Web-of-Science database, electronic archives of newspapers,
and journals. Secondly, we will demonstrate our techniques and routines for conducting automated
text analysis on this data, and finally, the procedures for visualizing the data as semantic maps, based
on the co-occurrences and proximity of the words used. The presentation contributes to the
quantitative text analysis tradition, and points to new avenues that relate the study of co-word analysis
in context with the sociological quest for the analysis and processing of meaning.
Keywords: codification, translation, mapping, metaphor, co-occurrences, interfaces
Josiane Mothe, Bernard Dousset and Désiré Kompaore, Institut de Recherche en Informatique de
Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse CEDEX 04, France, [email protected]
Large-scale analysis to understand the state of the art and the evolution of scientific communities and
research topics become possible thanks to the availability of large sources of scientific literature.
Number of methods are used to achieve this type of analysis. Co-citation analysis is among the most
popular as it allows many different types of highly informative analysis to discovery the structure of a
domain. A co-citation can be extracted when two references appear in the same published paper. When
Journal co-citation is analysed, information on how two journals are co-cited and the relationships
among journals can be extracted. On the other hand, co-authoring analysis can also be used to identify
groups of scientists and their inner structure. Free text analysis provides complementary information.
Mining the document content and combining it with other meta data such as author, affiliation, date of
publication informs on the topics of interest and their evolution. Such domain mapping is possible
when using various data analysis methods. Classification and factorial analysis are among the ones we
use when analysing a domain.
In this paper we will present the approach we developed as well as the system based on this approach
(named Tétralogie). It is composed of several modules that implement a knowledge discovery process.
Such a process begins by selecting data or documents from one or several sources on a targeted
domain. Then the documents are pre-treated in order to extract the useful information (meta data and
concepts from the free text). This information is then mined using different data analysis methods
288
including Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering and Correspondence Factorial Analysis in order to
find hidden information or knowledge. The results are presented under the form of multi-dimensional
and interactive views. In this paper, the overall process will be presented through a case study.
Keywords: information mining, data analysis, domain knowledge
Part II: Information Analysis
Comparing a Knowledge-Based Economy: In the Case of South Korea and the
Netherlands
Han Woo Park1, Loet Leydesdorff2, Heung Deug Hong3 and Sung Jo Hong4
1
YeungNam University, South Korea,[email protected]
2
3
Miryang National University, South Korea, [email protected]
4
Dongguk University, South Korea, [email protected]
The competitive advantages of a knowledge-based economy can no longer be attributed to single
nodes in the network. The ‘knowledge infrastructure’ of a nation-state can be operationalized in terms
of networks. For example, Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff (1997) proposed to consider the networked
knowledge infrastructure in terms of a triple helix of university-industry-government relations. For the
study of the structure of a knowledge-based economy, this paper proposes a triangulation strategy.
More specifically, ‘knowledge infrastructure’ in the three institutional domains can be measured using
different indicators: scientometric, patent, and webometric indicator. This methodological strategy is
particularly useful in order to examine the networks among universities, industries, and governments
in terms of their effects on the development of science, technology, and innovation.
The paper employs this triangulation strategy to examine the current state and problems of South
Korea and the Netherlands through the comparison of the respective knowledge bases of the two
countries. The Netherlands can be used as a benchmark for the comparison with South Korea because
of its rapid rise as a global hub of the (scientific and innovative) knowledge and (digital) information
community. A comparative study of the knowledge bases of a national economy in the Asian and
Western regions, respectively, has hitherto not yet been covered by existing studies, since these have
been focusing on developments in North-American and/or Western-European nations. Furthermore,
past research has usually dealt with conditions that encourage the spread of knowledge-based
dynamics (e.g., ICT) in the economy across nations. Little attention has been paid to explaining the
differences in the endogenous development of knowledge-based economies among countries. This
study tries to fill this gap in the existing literature.
Keywords: scientometrics, webometrics, international comparison, science, technology, innovation,
knowledge, triple-helix
Graph-Based Representations of Motion Pictures: An Attempt to Discover Statistical
Features of Aesthetic Merit
Gregory H. Leazer, Jonathan Furner and Rachel Napper, Department of Information Studies;
University of California, Los Angeles, USA, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Traditional information retrieval (IR) approaches such statistical representations of term frequency and
distribution have limited application in the retrieval of motion pictures. The traditional approaches are
most successful with the retrieval of textual documents with relatively stable and homogeneous
linguistic features where the terms used in a document are an accurate representation of the
document's topic. While this paper does not argue for a broad and rigorous distinction between works
of fiction and non-fiction, topicality is a less significant feature with general literary or artistic
documents, where narrative and other aesthetic features become the principle components for
289
characterizing a document. This is especially true for cinema, where textual components (in the form
of caption data) will have even less use as it is supplemented by non-textual features such as imagery
and music that cannot be represented by typical term-based models.
We describe the use of three alternative methods for clustering films in an IR system. A large filmperson incidence matrix is generated by listing the principle cast, directors, producers and
screenwriters associated with each film. These social features provide a partial representation of the
artistic merit of a film because the people associated with a film are an accurate (though partial)
representation of a film's aesthetic characteristics. These attributes are used to measure distances for
all pairs of films by creating a distance matrix: any two films are considered to be adjacent if there is
any overlap in the people associated with both films. The distance between each pair of films is
modelled as a graph and measured by the shortest path used to connect them through their adjacent
members, using a technique that is similar to those used in the analysis of small-world social
phenomena. The second and third distance measures are our innovation and involve the creation of a
similarity matrix and the creation of a graph that expresses the amount of overlap in the people
associated with any two films using Dice's coefficient. A "product distance" matrix is derived that
expresses the distances between any two films based on the product of the similarity weights on a path
that connects those films. We also derive an "accumulative difference distance" matrix for which the
similarity weights are subtracted from one. Distances are based on the sum of these difference weights
on a path that connects two films.
The distance, product distance and accumulative difference distance matrices are applied to the
Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and described. Empirical findings include the observation of smallworld networks consistent with findings from other studies of collaborative activity. We also report
how the three distance measures are used to generate rankings from a user-defined set of relevant
films.
Keywords: social networks, information retrieval, motion picture retrieval, document clustering
Mike Thelwall, School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wolverhampton,
Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB, UK, [email protected]
The importance of the Web for publishing and seeking information is a powerful argument for the
need for social scientists to develop sound methods to analyse it. In this paper I will introduce
Webometrics, quantitative web research that has grown out of infometrics. Webometric research is
concerned with measuring web phenomena and using the results to make inferences about
characteristics of the pages or their creators. Hyperlinks have been the most common object of study,
but there has been little agreement about what they should represent. I will give a brief summary of
one strand of hyperlink research and then draw out some methodological lessons for quantitative web
research.
Experts in citation analysis have conjectured that hyperlinks may be usable in an analogous way to
citations: counting links to web pages/web sites/countries could be used to measure their online impact
or to track the flow of scholarly communication. After many studies of this issue, hyperlinking
between university web sites has been shown to be very different to citations in patterns of use. The
findings, summarised below, point to the care needed to interpret any hyperlink data.
Why are inter-university links created? Relatively few, probably less than 1%, are directly equivalent
to citations in the sense of connecting two scholarly pieces of work equivalent to journal articles or
conference papers. Many links are purely symbolic, not referring to information but acknowledging a
relationship between the source and target university, such as joint membership of a research project.
About 90% of inter-university hyperlinks indicate some kind of scholarly connection, however, with
the rest relating to recreational, administrative or support activities.
Are inter-university link counts useful? Counts of links to a university can be used to estimate its
research productivity, or, if this is known, can be used to assess whether its web presence is at the
level to be expected for its research productivity.
290
For those analysing hyperlinks outside of academic sites, the most important lesson that can be learned
from this research is the need to assess the meaning and value of link counts through (a) investigations
of the purpose of random samples of individual links, and (b) correlating link counts with related
measures that are hypothesised to be similar. Both approaches are needed: researchers should not
assume that obvious reasons for link creation are the ones that are used in practice.
Keywords: web, informetrics, webometrics, hyperlink, scholarly communication
Part III: Digital Libraries
Maximilian Stempfhuber, Social Science Information Centre, Lennestr. 30, 53113 Bonn, Germany,
[email protected]
Digital – or virtual – libraries try to combine information from various sources and in different
formats. Metadata play an important role in searching for this information, especially in situations
where the original data (e. g. full-text documents or survey data) are not directly accessible for
searching. In addition to finding and harvesting metadata, the integration of this differently structured
and encoded metadata in a single retrieval model is not an easy task as well. Standardization is one
way of dealing with heterogeneity and complexity, but models have to be provided for the remaining
part that can not be standardized. The ways of dealing with this heterogeneity are methods of
intelligent mappings between metadata schemes or knowledge organization structures. How, when and
to what extent such mappings can be constructed automatically and for what type of data or domain
they can be applied successfully, has to be evaluated.
Keywords: digital libraries, meta data, information retrieval, heterogeneity
Searching and Browsing Multiple Subject Gateways in the Renardus Service
Michael Day, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom, [email protected]
This paper describes the main features of the Renardus cross-search and cross-browse service.
Renardus is made up of a number of participating subject gateway services. Cross searching is based
on the Z39.50 protocol. A review of data models in use by partner services helped define a minimum
set of Dublin Core-based metadata elements that could be utilised as a common model for the
Renardus service. This provides the basic infrastructure for interoperability between all participating
gateways. The Renardus Service also uses classification mapping to enable subject browsing across all
gateways with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) across. The paper outlines the use of
classification systems by Renardus partner gateways, the general mapping approaches taken by the
project, the definition of mapping relationships, and provides some information on technical solutions.
There follows a demonstration of how the mapping information is used within Renardus to support
browsing and advanced searching and of several features that have been implemented to aid end-user
navigation in deep subject-browsing structures.
Keywords: information retrieval, metadata, subject gateways, cross-search, classification mapping
Ontology Switching for the Social Sciences. Methods for the Underlying Corpus
Analysis
Robert Strötgen, University of Hildesheim, Institut für Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft
[email protected]
Semantic heterogeneity can be defined as the use of different documentation languages or ontologies
for different document sets in digital libraries or other integrated document collections. This is also an
important issue for the “Semantic Web” that aims to integrate documents from the Internet indexed
with different metadata sets. A user searching these collections may miss documents because he does
291
not use the right search terms. Automatic translation between terms of different ontologies (“ontology
switching”) is one approach to solve this problem. The underlying statistical methods based on corpus
analysis (co-occurrence of terms) allow the automatic identification of semantic relations (or “crossconcordances”) between terms from different ontologies.
These methods require parallel corpora with documents that are indexed with terms from different
ontologies. For the social sciences suitable corpora are very rare. Most documents are even completely
missing any metadata or subject description with controlled vocabulary in particular. Therefore,
special modifications of the ontology switching approach help to deal with this lack. One alteration is
simulating a parallel corpus for un-indexed document collections using machine learning (i.e.
Bayesian networks) and linguistic methods like stemming, morphology, part-of-speech tagging and
named entity recognition. Another change is translating not between two ontologies but between an
ontology and suitable free text terms. This demands much more effort because usually much more free
text terms than keywords exist in a document and they are uncontrolled. In order to diminish the
computation cost and to find useful relations some preparations on the corpus are necessary.
This talk will introduce into the concept of ontology switching and describe the special scenario and
experiments for the social sciences in more detail. As an outlook to further work, this domain will be
compared with the domain of patent documentation.
Keywords: information retrieval; semantic heterogeneity; semantic web; ontologies; machine learning
Bilateral Transfer Modules for the Conceptual Integration of Heterogeneous Document
Bases in Content Analysis
Xueying Zhang, Nanjing
[email protected]
University
of
Science
and
Technology,
Hong
Kong,
Nowadays users are confronted with a more highly decentralized and heterogeneous information space
than before. Although integrated thesauri and standardization efforts have been widely proposed as the
best methods for establishing compatibility and convertibility of indexing languages for over 40 years,
they are no longer sufficient to achieve the desired interoperability and efficiency. Transfer modules
are presented to interlink document sets flexibly before the vagueness treatment between documents
and query terms. In contrast to costly cross-concordances, the proposed transfer modules in this paper
are developed by the combination of the dependency coefficient in rough set theory and the indexing
specificity in information languages. The experiment indicates that these proposed modules could not
only designate explicitly semantic relationships but also find more correlated terms, especially with
low frequency of occurrence in the corpora. Further, sets of rules are introduced to filter sensible
results and to integrate results generated at different conceptualization levels. In addition, some
principles are presented to determine the maximum number of combination terms in creating “one to
multiple” relations and “multiple to multiple” relations. Finally, the experimental results are evaluated
by quantitative measures and compared with implemented cross-concordances and other statistical
measure.
Keywords: rough set theory; transfer module; indexing language; compatibility; content analysis,
heterogeneity
292
SESSION: TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
Organizor: Rainer Metz
Contact: Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, University of Cologne, Liliencronstr. 6, D50931 Cologne, Germany, Tel. (49) 221 4769436; -34 (Secretary), Fax (49) 221 4769455,
[email protected]
Keywords: time series analysis; trends, cycles, structural breaks, outliers; stochastic processes; causal
and intervention analysis.
Abstract
For the statistical analysis of social and economic processes methods of time series analysis are
indispensable. This methods allow the identification of patterns of development (trends and cycles), of
irregularities of common features and causal relationships. The most important basis for the statistical
models is the theory of stochastic processes. The session tries to bring together scholars whose starting
point is a concrete problem in socio-economic analysis for which they use specific times series
models. The contributions therefore should be not merely theoretical but oriented towards socioeconomic applications.
Comparison of Seasonal Variation of Births and Deaths in Urban and Rural Areas of
Silesia (Poland)
Zofia Mielecka-Kubien, Department of Statistics University of Economics, 40-226 Katowice, Poland,
ul. Bogucicka 14, [email protected]
Seasonal variation can be frequently observed in socio-economic time series. Because of different size
of populations and some formal properties of time series (additive or multiplica-tive relation among
their components) the range of seasonal changes is in many cases difficult to compare. On the other
hand there is often need of comparison of seasonal component in different populations or in time
series of different kind.
In the paper a simple method of standardization and estimation of seasonal indices is proposed. In
many cases the method enables comparisons of seasonal variation, and the results can be clearly
interpreted.
Theoretical considerations are illustrated by comparisons of seasonal cycles of birth and death
processes in the Silesian part of Poland between urban and rural subpopulations in the recent years.
Significant differences in the seasonal changes of the considered time series were found.
Keywords: seasonal component, births and deaths, comparisons
Population at Risk (PAR) Rates and other Denominators used to Measure
Unemployment Rates
Ray Thomas and Hasan Al-Madfai, 35 Passmore, Tinkers Bridge, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY, UK, Tel
44 1908 679081, Fax 44 1908 550401, [email protected]
Traditional measures using population denominators treat unemployment as a stock and indicate the
importance of unemployment as a social and economic condition, but fail to take account of
unemployment duration. Population at risk (PAR) unemployment rates measure flows between
unemployment duration groups and can be used to summarise the scale of inheritance of
unemployment between successive duration groups. PAR rates indicate labour market response to
unemployment through the use of time as a denominator.
Times series for Claimant (registered/insured) unemployment for Britain for the period 1985 to 2003
show declining PAR exit rates with increased duration of unemployment consistently through the
293
trade cycle. The stability of this relationship supports the treatment of duration as an explanatory
variable of the composition of unemployment duration groups and casts doubt on appropriateness of
the use of duration as an explanatory variable for investigation of exit probabilities in unadjusted
hazard functions.
A variability decomposition approach taking into account the inheritance between successive duration
groups is used to deal with strong seasonal variation. PAR rates for short duration unemployment
groups show earlier but less sensitivity to changes in labour market conditions than longer duration
groups. This difference supports the distinction between 'frictional' and 'structural' unemployment in
Beveridge's classic typology and denies the validity of hysteresis theories associated with the growth
of long term unemployment in the 1980s.
The paper examines the pros, cons and interpretations of unemployment rates using population and
time denominators. The topics covered include the use of different rates for policy making and
forecasting, and the availability and timeliness of supporting data on ILO unemployment from labour
force surveys and on registered and insured unemployment from administrative systems.
The paper discusses possibilities of application of PAR approach to other datasets relating to
population stocks.
Keywords: unemployment, population at risk, denominators, seasonal variation, stocks, flows
Auto-regressive Time Series Cross Section Analysis (TSCS) for Proportions Data with
Random Coefficients. A Flexible Model and its Application in Regional Science
Michael Windzio, EMPAS, University of Bremen, Germany, [email protected]
In many studies of sociological, economical, political and geographical science, units of observation
are spatial units such as countries, regions and constituencies. Moreover, dependent variables
measured as proportions data are very common in these fields. Focusing on change over time and
using data consisting of time series of each spatial unit, the structure of data and the family of
statistical models are called “Time Series Cross Section” (TSCS) Analysis. In most cases, the error
structure of these models must account for first or higher order autoregressive residuals.
This paper deals with the question of how to estimate such models in a flexible way, whereby two
issues are being elaborated:
The first issue concerns the problem of how to correctly model proportions data. This kind of data
easily leads to similar pitfalls as binary state space data does, if modelled as a dependent variable.
Following W. H. Greene, the solution is similar as well: the dependent variable can be transformed via
the logistic link function and the model linearly estimates effects on the log odds of the dependent
variable.
Secondly, the dependent variable’s process of change over time is of particular interest. But assuming,
however, that every spatial unit undergoes the same curve of change over time may be unrealistic. In
order to relax this assumption, the TSCS Analysis can be generalized to a random coefficient model.
Linear and non-linear effects of time can be modelled in a flexible way which allows unique curves of
change over time for each spatial unit.
The advantage of the random coefficient model is twofold: it offers a solution to the problem of the
heterogeneity of units being a nuisance, since the flexible treatment of temporal change profiles avoids
misspecification (e.g. if a linear process of change does not fit to all units). Furthermore, it allows the
heterogeneity of units to become a matter of interest because each profile of change can be plotted
over time and compared with other profiles. This comparison could result in a typology of change
profiles.
The paper offers a short outline of the Random Coefficient TSCS model. Moreover, some empirical
results are presented in order to underline the flexibility of this model.
Keywords: random coefficient model, TSCS Analysis, longitudinal data, panel analysis
294
SESSION: THE STATISTICAL ESTIMATION OF LINEAR AND NONLINEAR STOCHASTIC DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
Organizor: Hermann Singer
Contact: Lehrstuhl für Angewandte Statistik und Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung,
FernUniversität Hagen, Tel.: 02331 987 2615, [email protected]
Keywords: Stochastic differential equations; Parameter estimation; Discrete time measurements;
Sampling; State space models; Filtering
Abstract
Stochastic differential equations (SDE) describe the time evolution of quantitative state vectors in
continuous time. In the social sciences and economics, however, only discrete time measurements are
available (e.g. daily, weekly, quarterly etc.). Then, the drift and diffusion parameters of the continuous
time system (SDE) must be estimated on time series or panel data.
The transition probability between measurements, as required for the likelihood function,
can be computed exactly only in the linear case (LSDE), whereas for nonlinear systems, (in general)
only approximations can be obtained.
More generally, a measurement equation can be joined (continuous-discrete state space model) in
order to model measurement error and latent variables.
The session will invite papers on the parameter estimation of SDE and
state space models including
- Application of linear systems (LSDE)
- Linearisation (Extended Kalman filter EKF etc.)
- Analytical approximations
- Monte Carlo approximations
- other numerical approaches
Hermann Singer, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany, [email protected]
This article gives a short review of key issues and of existing estimation methods
in differential equation modeling. It covers both linear and nonlinear
stochastic differential equations (SDE) and continuous-discrete
statespace models including panel data.
Keywords: Ito calculus; sampling; exact discrete model; transition densities; extended Kalman filter;
nonlinear filtering
A Comparison of Different Procedures to Estimate the Damped Linear Occilator for
Panel Data
J.H.L. Oud, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, [email protected]
There is a growing interest in the application of the damped linear oscillator in panel research (Boker,
2002; Oud, 2002; Singer, 1993, 2003) of partially observed systems. Examples in psychological
research are discussed by Boker. The damped linear oscillator is a special case of differential equation
modeling, which since Newton is the standard approach of dynamic phenomena in natural science.
Different procedures, exact and approximate, have been used to estimate the damped linear oscillator.
In his software package LSDE (Linear Stochastic Differential Equations), Singer used the exact
discrete model (EDM) and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm in combination with a quasiNewton algorithm. Oud used also the exact discrete model but in combination with structural equation
295
modeling (EDM/SEM procedure). In addition to this procedure, which requires highly nonlinearly
oriented SEM software, Oud also proposed the less demanding approximate ADM/SEM procedure. A
final approximate procedure was proposed by Boker: the multivariate linear differential equation
(MLDE) procedure. The four procedures will be compared in a simulation study and their advantages
and drawbacks expounded.
Keywords: damped linear oscillator, stochastic linear differential equations, panel data.
Multivariate Multilevel Models of Dynamical Systems using Latent Differential
Equations
Steven M. Boker and Stacey S. Poponak, University of Notre Dame, USA, [email protected]
Multivariate longitudinal data frequently measures systems of variables that both change over time
and influence one another over time. One method for dealing with systems that have an intrinsic
dynamic, i.e. which influence their own level over time, is to model the variables as a differential
equation. Such models are particularly well suited for systems that have a "set-point" or equilibrium
around which the variable fluctuates. A simple form of such a model is a second order linear
differential equation that under some parameter constraints becomes a damped linear oscillator.
Suppose two variables are measured longitudinally and mutually influence one another's behavior.
Such a system of variables can be modeled as simultaneous differential equations with coupling
between them. Each variable regulates its own behavior as well as the behavior of the other variable.
simple metaphor for this type of system is two pendula with a spring between them. Consider the
example of feelings of intimacy between a husband and wife. For each person, these feelings are likely
to fluctuate from day to day around some equilibrium value. The husband's feelings of intimacy are
likely to have an effect on the wife, and her feelings of intimacy are in turn likely to influence her
husband. These individuals are unlikely to have the same equilibrium values or the same model
parameters as one another. Each husband and wife might have their own equilibrium level and each
married couple might have their own frequency and strength of coupling of their feelings to one
another.
We propose a model and method that allows estimation of a mixed effects latent differential equation.
This method simultaneously (a) estimates latent variables from multiple indicators, (b) estimates the
derivatives of these variables, (c) estimates effects between these variables, and (d) allows these
effects to vary across groups (e.g. married couples). We use the structural equation modeling program
Mx to fit this mixed effects latent differential equation model to a sample set of daily diary data of
self-reported feelings of intimacy from a study of marital social relations.
The advantages and disadvantages of this approach over standard multigroup latent growth curve
modeling are discussed. The primary advantages accrue when (a) one does not have a true zero for
time against which to align all groups or (b) one expects that exogenous influences will disrupt
stationarity.
Keywords: dynamical systems, random coefficients, latent variables,
differential equations.
Continuous-time Modeling of Bi-directional Influences between Family Relationships
and Adolescent Problem Behavior
Marc J. M. H. Delsing
In the behavioral sciences, the cross-lagged panel design has become an increasingly popular tool to
disentangle the over-time influences two variables have on one another. Traditionally, cross-lagged
panel analyses are performed in discrete time. This approach, however, has several important
disadvantages. A major problem, for example, is that results from discrete-time analyses are highly
dependent on the length of the time interval between measurements. Consequently, results of
researchers using different time-intervals are difficult to compare and often seem to be contradictory.
The problems associated with discrete-time analysis can be solved by means of continuous-time
296
analysis, using stochastic differential equations. The present contribution presents an application of
this continuous-time modeling procedure to the assessment of the bi-directional influences between
family relationships and adolescent problem behavior.
Lutz-M. Alisch and Alexander Robitzsch,
[email protected]
Technische
Universität
Dresden,
Germany,
In order to ascertain whether a sample of curves under fluctuations is a realization of a dynamical
system disturbed by noise, it is convenient to look at two different approaches. Given a sample of
curves such that they are n realizations of a stochastic process, our concern is to identify an SDE (first
or second order) with solutions which would converge to the observed trajectories sufficiently strong.
The main idea here is to estimate an SDE from one trajectory and to show that the other curves from
the sample correspond to the stochastic flow generated by the SDE. From a second point of view it is
possible to estimate the (second order) differential operator via a method developed out of the
statistical toolbox of functional data analysis (FDA) called random principal differential analysis
(RPDA) which allows one to study the space of solutions. In detail we will discuss the estimation of
an SDE of the form dX_t= b(t,X_t) dt + sigma(t, X_t) dW_t with b and sigma unknown coefficient
functions. We illustrate the estimation procedures with respect to empirical data. Then we compare the
results with those obtained by using parametric SDE-techniques, hierarchical modelling and PDA (to
get an estimation of an ODE with time varying coefficient functions).
Moment Equations and Hermite Expansion for Nonlinear Stochastic Differential
Equations with Application to Stock Price Models
Hermann Singer, FernUniversität, Hagen, Germany, [email protected]
Exact moment equations for nonlinear Itô processes are derived. Taylor expansion of the drift and
diffusion coefficients around the first conditional moment gives a hierarchy of coupled moment
equations which can be closed by truncation or a Gaussian assumption.
The state transition density is expanded into a Hermite orthogonal series with leading Gaussian term
and the Fourier coefficients are expressed in terms of the moments. The resulting approximate
likelihood is maximized by using a quasi Newton algorithm with BFGS secant updates. A simulation
study for the CEV stock price model compares the several approximate likelihood estimators with the
Euler approximation and the exact ML estimator (Feller, 1951).
Keywords:Stochastic differential equations; Nonlinear systems;Discrete measurements;Maximum
likelihood estimation; Moment equations;Extended Kalman Filter;Hermite Expansion
STREAM: GENERAL STATISTICS
SESSION: ASSESSMENT OF MODEL FIT
Organizor: Tamas Rudas
Contact: Department of Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eotvos Lorand University and
TARKI, Budapest, fax: + 36 1 372 2912, [email protected]
Abstract
This session is a continuation of a similar one held at the conference in 2000 in Cologne. Statistical
models are routinely used in data analysis. In some situations, a formal test of fit, and in some others
the measurement of the goodness-of-fit is of interest. Assessment of model fit refers to both activities
and it is carried out under a number of varying circumstances, and technical and philosophical
297
frameworks. These include the effects of different sampling schemes and sample sizes, assumptions
concerning data quality, specifications regarding subject matter significance, the use of computer
intensive methods, Bayesian or frequentist frameworks, etc.
Abstracts of proposed contributions to the session – theoretical, methodological or applied – are
welcome in all aspects of assessment of model fit. Papers emphasizing particular problems – and
hopefully proposing solutions – relevant in social science applications are particularly encouraged.
Each speaker in the session is expected to have about 20 minutes for presentation and if the talks (or,
at least, part of them) will address related issues, a short discussion may also be organized. Authors are
asked to submit their abstracts to the session organizer by e-mail.
David Firth, University of Warwick, UK, [email protected]
In social science as in other areas of application, maximum penalized likelihood is often a valuable
alternative to maximum likelihood, for fitting statistical models to data. Examples include: ridge
regression and its generalization to non-linear models; models (such as generalized additive models)
which include smoothing-spline components; reduced-bias estimation of generalized linear models;
and pseudo-Bayesian incorporation of prior information on model parameters. Important applications
include model-based estimation of small-area statistics from national surveys, and small-sample
logistic regression analysis. The standard analysis of deviance for model assessment and model
choice, based on a sequence of likelihood-ratio tests, does not apply directly when the likelihood is
penalized. Similar considerations apply also to information criteria such as AIC. The problem will be
reviewed and possible solutions explored, with particular emphasis on the most difficult case where
the penalty is not a function of parameter values alone.
Keywords: ridge regression, shrinkage, bias reduction, logistic regression, orthogonality
Pei-shan Liao and Su-hao Tu, Center for Survey Research, TYRC, Academia Sinica, Taiwan,
The issue of permissiveness toward premarital sexual or intimate behaviors for different age groups,
gendered subjects, at different levels of intimate relationships, has been a focus among researchers.
Considering the progressive nature of intimate behaviors, the items designed to measure attitudes
toward premarital intimacy permissiveness have been found to form a reliable Guttman-type scale.
However, few studies have thoroughly examined the appropriateness of applying such Western-driven
measures to different social contexts and cultures, particularly in societies that are generally
conservative toward sexual attitudes.
This paper aims to examine the scalability of intimacy permissiveness measures in Taiwan by using
island-wide survey data. The premarital sexual or intimacy permissiveness scale (PSP or IPS),
including items used in previous studies, has been widely used and with little attention to its reliability
and validity. Revisions of these scales have, nonetheless, lacked methodological examination. A
reliable premarital intimacy permissiveness scale is needed to ascertain whether the attitudes of people
in Taiwan toward various forms of intimate behavior remain conservative. Among models for scaling
analysis, Guttman scaling model and two latent class models —the latent-distance model and
Goodman’s scale model— were employed to examine the scalability of the scale measures.
The data were drawn from the 2002 Taiwan Social Change Survey (Questionnaire No. 2), conducted
by the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica. The respondents for this survey were randomly
selected by using stratified sampling and face-to-face interviews. A total of 1,983 completed
interviews were obtained. This study found that the premarital intimacy permissiveness measures were
able to form a reasonable Guttman-type scale based on three scaling models. In order to further
298
validate such a scale, group comparisons were conducted between gender and age cohorts. Gender and
age differences were found consistent with previous studies and mostly reconfirmed the
appropriateness of the PSP measures designed for the Taiwan Social Change Survey.
Keywords: Intimacy permissiveness, Guttman scale, latent class models, scalability
Additive and Multiplicative Effects in a Fixed 2 x 2 Design using ANOVA can be
difficult to Differentiate: Demonstration and Mathematical Reasons
Johannes A. Landsheer1, Godfried van den Wittenboer2 and Gerard H. Maassen3
1
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, The
2
Department of Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, The
Netherlands
Several researchers have expressed doubts as to whether ANOVA is fit to detect interaction in a fixed
2 x 2 design. To study this, values of a dependent variable are created with linear construction
formulae, with and without a product term. Our simulation demonstrates that when the dependent
variable results from a product term, ANOVA often fails to detect a significant interaction effect,
while at the same time two strong additive main effects are indicated. As a consequence, multiplicative
models are rejected in favor of an additive model. Mathematically it is shown that the ANOVA results
can indicate strong main effects as the result of a solely multiplicative contribution of both factors. It is
recommended to abandon the fixed ANOVA model for the study of interaction effects and use a
regression model with assessed level values of each independent variable instead.
Keywords: ANOVA, data modelling, simulation, interaction, power, interpretation
How to Evaluate the Fit of Linear and Generalized Multilevel Models
Wolfgang Langer, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Soziologie, Germany
In the early nineties Bryk & Raudenbush (1992,2002) and Boskers & Snijders(1994,1999) have
proposed two methods of R2s to evaluate the fit of the between- and within-context-regressions, using
the principle of proportional reduction of error. Nobody uses the pseudo-r2s proposed in literature (for
instance Langer 2000) to evaluate the fit of hierarchical generalized regression models like the binary
or ordinal logit/probit model. I suggest the maximum-likelihood-r2 developed by Maddala (1986) and
Long (2000) to assess the overall fit of hierarchical linear models. To evaluate the fit of binary and
ordinal multilevel logit regression models I propose the Aldrich&Nelson pseudo-r2 (1984) with the
Veall&Zimmermann correction (1992,1993,1994). I present two empirical examples using data from
educational and victimization research to show how to apply these pseudo-r2s to real data.
John Hendrickx1, Ben Belzer2, Manfred te Grotenhuis2 and Jan Lammers2
1
Freelance, [email protected]
2
Department of Methodology, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands, [email protected],
Belsley (1991) proposed evaluating collinearity in regression models by adding random disturbances
to suspected variables and assessing the consequences for parameter stability. This paper extends this
basic principle to models with categorical variables. Categorical variables are randomly misclassified
such that the destination category is random for unordered variables and near the original category for
ordered categorical variables. This technique can be applied to nonlinear models such as logit and
probit as well as linear regression. Macro programs are presented for implementing the technique.
Keywords: collinearity, regression, categorical, assumptions, nonlinear
299
Testing the Fit of Conditional Independence with a Continuous Control Variable
Wicher Bergsma, Eurandom, University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Many tests of independence between two random variables are widely available, for example, the chisquare test, tests based on the correlation coefficient and Kendall's tau, or Hoeffding's test of
independence. In this talk a method is presented using which these tests can be also applied to the
testing of conditional independence with a (possibly continuous) control variable. Briefly, the question
is addressed regarding the generalization of the method: how to test whether a given unconditional
model fits for all the values of a control variable.
Tamas Rudas, Department of Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eotvos Lorand University
Budapest, Hungary; and TARKI Social Research Centre, Budapest, Hungary, [email protected]
The talk presents a general framework for the analysis of survey data with the fact that some
observations are missing taken into account. The approach presented aims at taking the unobserved
part of the data into account when assessing model fit. The true distribution is modeled as a mixture of
an observable and of an unobservable component. To assess model fit in this context, the mixture
index of fit is used. The mixture index of fit does not postulate that the model of interest may account
for the entire population, rather it considers the true distribution as a mixture of a component where
the model fits and of another one where the model does not fit. The fit of the model with missing data
taken into account is assessed by equating these two mixtures, one describing the observational
process and the other one representing model fit, and asking, for different rates of missing
observations, what is the largest fraction of the population where the model may hold true. In this
framework a diagnostic procedure will be discussed and applied to survey data.
Keywords: missing data, mixture index of fit model fit
SESSION: NEW METHODS
METHODOLOGY
Organizor: Nathaniel Beck
Contact: Department of
[email protected]
Politics,
NYU,
IN
726
POLITICAL
Broadway,
7th
(AND
Fl.,
NY
SOCIAL)
10003,
USA,
Keywords: Bayesian analysis, spatial models, transition models, measurement
Abstract
This sessions has a variety of papers which explore new methods used by political scientists and
related social scientists. Some papers consider a variety of methods for data sets that have not
previously been seen as amenable to analysis; others discuss state of the art methods with great
potential.
Nathaniel Beck1 and Jonathan Katz2
1
New York University, USA
2
Caltech, USA
The analysis of time-series--cross-section (TSCS) data continues to burgeon. Discussions of the
methodology to analyze such data are also burgeoning, with at least 4 separate papers appearing this
300
year (in addition to several related time series papers). We would like to take this opportunity to
consider various methodological suggestions and update our own views on TSCS analysis.
Amongst the issues we consider or reconsider are:
a. Differences between TSCS and "panel" data
b. Fixed effects
c. Fixed effects with a lagged dependent variable
d. Modeling dynamics (the issue of lagged dependent variables)
d'. The consequences of minor misspecifications in modeling dynamics
e. Improved modeling of spatial effects
f. Modeling heterogeneity
The approach will consist of analytics, Monte Carlos and comarisons in
"real" data.
References
Nathaniel Beck (NYU) and Jonathan Katz (Caltech) Time-Series--Cross-Section Data: 2004
New Directions in Spatial Analysis: Space is more than Geography
Nathaniel Beck1 and Kristian Gleditsch2
1
New York University, USA
2
UCSD, USA, and PRIO, Oslo, Norway
Most applications of spatial statistics and spatial econometrics have considered only dependence over
geographic space. In the social sciences, however, the relevant metric may not always be geographic
space. In this paper we extend techniques for dealing with spatial dependence to alternative metrics.
We consider two applications from international relations and cross-national research. Many
applications examine dyadic data, where each observation reflects the interaction of two units A and
B. In such studies, two dyads composed of the same state are unlikely to be dependent on one another.
We also consider estimating a model where we examine the contribution of different metrics to
dependence among observations. More specifically, we estimate a spatial autoregressive model of
democratic institutions, treating a country’s level of democracy as conditional on other states that are
geographically close, connected through economic linkages, and cultural links.
American Public Opinion in the 1930s and 1940s: the Analysis of Quota-Controlled
Sample Survey Data
Adam Berinsky, Department of Political Science, Massachusetts, Institute of Technology, USA
The late 1930s saw the birth the survey research enterprise. Given the importance of public opinion
during these critical years in American politics, it is perhaps surprising opinion poll data from this
time have largely been ignored by political scientists.
One reason why these data may remain unexamined is that early polls were conducted using methods
now viewed as shoddy. Modern opinion polls are conducted using probability sampling methods.
However, opinion polls in the U.S. before the 1950s were conducted using less expensive quotacontrolled sampling methods. The particulars of this method varied across survey organizations, but
all polling firms sought to interview certain predetermined proportions of people from particular
segments of the population. The goal of this method was presumably to obtain a descriptively
representative group of citizens.
But, in practice, these techniques failed to gather representative samples for two reasons. Not all
pollsters were interested in obtaining descriptively representative samples. Gallup was most interested
in predicting elections, so he drew samples to represent each population segment in proportion to votes
they usually cast in elections, rather than in proportion to number in the population. Thus Gallup' s
"representative" sample was intended to represent the voting public, not the full population. Because
301
Southerners, Blacks, and women turned out at low rates in the 1930s and 1940s, these groups were
deliberately underrepresented. For instance, Gallup designed his samples to be 65 to 70 percent male
through almost the entire war.
As troubling as these deliberately induced sample imbalances may be, the practice of quota sampling
also introduced a number of unintended biases. Apart from having to fulfill certain demographic
quotas, interviewers were given great discretion to select particular citizens to poll. Since interviewers
preferred to work in safer areas and tended to survey approachable respondents, the "public" they
interviewed often differed markedly from the public writ large in a number of important ways. For
example, comparisons between census data and AIPO data show that Gallup's respondents were better
educated than the mass public at the time. The 1940 census indicated that about 10 percent of the
population had at least some college education. But almost 30 percent of a 1940 Gallup poll sample
had a college education.
Political scientists who are aware of the limitations with polls conducted before 1950 have arrived at a
simple solution: They reject the polls out of hand. But rather than discard this valuable data, I have
developed statistical methods to account for the non-random manner in which the respondents were
selected. Specifically, I have developed specific analytic strategies to correct for the biases of the data
at both the individual and aggregate levels. At the individual level, to correct for the sample selection
and interviewer-induced biases introduced by the quota-control sampling method, researchers should
introduce statistical controls for: (1) the variables that made up the quota -- such as gender, region, and
occupation (2) the education level of the respondent, when available, and (3) a series of fixed effects
for the interviewer number, where available. At the aggregate level to correct for the sample selection
and interviewer-induced biases researchers should use post-stratification weights to bring the
distribution of the variables in the sample in line with those in the census
Estimating Spatial Autoregressive Coefficients in Spatial Lag Models
Robert J. Franzese Jr. and Jude C. Hays, University of Michigan, USA
We explore some of the methodological problems that complicate estimation of spatial autoregressive
coefficients in standard spatial-lag models. For analysts directly interested in the spatial relationships
in their data, accurate estimation of this coefficient is essential, but at least two kinds of problems arise
in this context. One stems from the endogeneity of the spatial lag in the standard model; the other is
due to imperfect measurement of the spatial lag. One way to estimate the autoregressive coefficient is
to include the spatial lag in the model despite its endogeneity, a procedure sometimes called the
Generalized Population Potentials (GPP) estimator (Land and Deane 1992). A couple of instrumentalvariable IV estimators have been proposed to address the endogeneity problem, but the relative
performance of these estimators, especially in non-infinite samples, is unknown (Anselin 1988). We
provide a set of experimental results that compares the GPP and IV estimators under a wide range of
conditions.
Another kind of problem arises because the true spatial lag is not directly observed. Prior to
estimation, analysts make choices about the weights in the "spatial-diffusion" matrix, which choices,
being imperfect, leave measurement error in the spatial lag. Oftentimes analysts choose arbitrary
weighting structures that may reduce the variance in the measured spatial lag relative to the true spatial
lag-for example, when the average value of the dependent variable in the other n-1 units is used as a
proxy for the true spatial lag (Franzese 2002). We explore the possibility that this induces a "reverseattenuation" bias in estimates of spatial autoregressive coefficients.
Recently, scholars have begun to include multiple spatial lags in their models as a way to test
competing hypothesis about the sources of spatial interdependence (e.g., Simmons and Elkins 2004).
These hypotheses generate different weights in the spatial-diffusion matrix and therefore different
(imperfectly measured) spatial lags. We argue these spatial lags contain measurement errors that-given
missing data and boundary problems-are likely to correlate. In other words, when spatially important
units are excluded from the sample, some measurement error enters in the same direction across the
different lags. We examine the extent to which such correlated measurement error in multiple spatial
lags complicates hypothesis testing (Achen 1985).
302
Jannes de Vries1, Nan Dirk de Graaf1, Rob Eisinga2
1
Department of Sociology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Department of Methodology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Parental occupational status, denomination and voting behavior affect the voting behavior of
respondents, even while holding constant respondents' own occupational status and denomination.
Information on parental occupation, denomination and voting behavior is usually supplied by their
adult sons and daughters, who are the respondents in survey research. This information is likely to
contain measurement error since the information adult children supply is about a situation in the
(sometimes far) past, and since this information is not about themselves (proxy information). For
example, the influence of parental voting behavior could be overestimated because respondents bias
answers about their parental voting behavior towards their own voting behavior. This paper
investigates whether the conventional retrospective measurement of family background leads to biases
in the estimates of effects of family background on voting behavior. The data we analyze stem from
three cross-sectional surveys from the Netherlands (Family Surveys Dutch Population 1992, 1998, and
2000). In these surveys three informants (primary respondents, one of their parents, and one of their
siblings) were interviewed, and all three of them supplied information about parental occupation,
denomination and voting behavior. Three structural equation models are estimated to assess whether
conventional research yields reliable estimates of family background. The first model uses only
retrospective information given by respondents. The second model includes the information supplied
by the parents themselves and by one sibling. Parental occupational status, denomination and voting
behavior are now latent variables, each having three indicators: each informant forms one indicator.
This is a model with random measurement error. The third model is estimated using the three
informants again, but now errors in the answers that respondents give, are allowed to correlate with
characteristics of the respondents. The error terms in respondents' information on parental
occupational status, parental denomination and parental voting behavior are correlated with
respondents' own occupational status, denomination, and voting behavior. This is the model with
systematic measurement error, and we argue that this model optimally yields the effects of parental
background on voting behavior.
Thomas Widmer1 and Vera Troeger2
1
Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland, [email protected]
2
Swisspeace, Berne, Switzerland, [email protected]
This paper explores the independently developed contributions offered by two streams of research:
event data analysis and social network analysis. The first approach, event data analysis, deals with data
collecting enterprises in the field of international relations used to circumscribe and explain interstate
interactions. This approach was first introduced in the seventies and saw a second wave of strong
advances since the mid nineties, especially based on new artificial intelligence supported data
collecting procedures. The second approach, embedded in the theoretical developments in the field of
domestic and comparative politics, is the so-called social network analysis approach. The last two
decades have witnessed various innovations in the methods used to analyze data gathered through
standardized questionnaires or based on written evidence in a comparative setting. In this context, one
of the most recent innovations is the analysis of dynamic networks. This contribution demonstrates
that the combination of these two approaches within the event data based network analysis (EDNA)
framework has three central advantages. On a theoretical level, our approach to EDNA allows a more
stringent, reasonable application of the theoretical hypothesis at hand in various fields of political
science. In a methodological perspective we show, that EDNA has decent advantages - especially its
explanatory power - compared to the approaches so far used in both schools. On a practical level, we
show how EDNA can be used to support a sound early warning system that allows for efficient
analysis that is better suited to understanding the complexity of the world system. Network analysis so
303
far either analyses statically cross-sections of valued graphs, as the quadratic assignment procedure for
example does or dynamic binary networks by p* or markov chain models that base on logistic models.
The challenge is to apply dynamic models to valued graphs where the dyads are either formed by
counts, e.g. the frequency of interactions or scaled values, e.g. the mean degree of conflict of
interactions. To analyze such valued networks dynamically one has to account for different underlying
distributions, e.g. negative binomial or poisson distributions for event counts or normal distributions
for scaled data. Another problem is not only to consider the serial dependence of successive networks
but also account for contemporary dependence. That is: the interaction within a dyad not only depends
on past values, however, it as well depends on the interactions of the dyadic actors with other actors
during the same period. Our paper accounts for all mentioned problems at a time and proposes an
integrated dynamic network model for the degree of conflict within an actors network.
Markus Gangl (corresponding author) and Thomas A. DiPrete, Social Science Research Center Berlin
(WZB), Reichpietschufer 50, 10785 Berlin, Germany, Tel. (030) 25491-141; Fax (030) 25491-222,
[email protected]
Having close linkages with the counterfactual concept of causality, nonparametric matching estimators
have recently gained in popularity in the statistical and econometric literature on causal analysis. In
this paper, we first alert social scientists to key features of the Rubin causal mode (RCM, also known
as the counterfactual concept of causality) that has become the standard tool for statisticians and
econometricians to formalize the problem of causal inference in (social science) applications based on
observational rather than experimental data. We then discuss the empirical implementation of a
counterfactual analysis by propensity score matching methods that provide a stringent nonparametric
framework for thinking about and drawing causal inferences in the social sciences. We describe the
assumptions underlying matching methods relative to standard regression analysis. We emphasize the
utility of the counterfactual framework for both micro and macrolevel empirical work and illustrate the
application of matching estimators in an analysis of the causal effect of unemployment on workers'
subsequent careers.
SESSION: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN NONPARAMETRIC ITEM
RESPONSE THEORY
Organizers: Klaas Sijtsma and L. Andries van der Ark
Contact: Tilburg University, The Netherlands, [email protected], [email protected]
Keywords: automated item selection procedures, Mokken scale analysis, non-parametric item
response theory, ordinal measurement, test and questionnaire data,
Abstract
Test or questionaires are often designed to measure the respondents' score on a hypothetical construct.
Examples are aggression, neuroticism, political attitude, religiosity, arithmetic ability and verbal
intelligence. Nonparametric item response theory
models are based on sets of assumptions that pose few restrictions on the data, but still are restrictive
enough to obtain ordinal measurement of persons and items on the basis of the total score on a test or
questionnaire. The essential part of nonparametric item response theory is the ordinal relationship
between the expected scores on the items in the test and the latent trait that represents the hypothetical
construct.
In this session new developments in nonparametric item response theory are presented. Examples of
appropriate topics for this session are: Mokken scale analysis, procedures for selecting items into
distinct subsets (examples of such procedures are MSP and
304
DETECT), estimation procedures, invariant item ordering, differential item functioning, person-fit
analysis, methods for missing data handling in test and questionnaire data using few assumptions, and
applications of nonparametric item response theory to the construction of new tests and questionnaires
or the secundary analysis of available data.
Detecting Discontinuity On a Cognitive Developmental Ability: A Comparison of the
Binomial Mixture Model and the Latent Class Model.
Samantha Bouwmeester, Department of Methodology and Statistics, Tilburg University, The
The nature of cognitive change is an important topic in cognitive developmental theory. In particular
the question whether cognitive development is characterized by broad developmental stages (Piaget’s
Theory) or by continuous change (Information Processing Theory) was important for decades (Flavell,
1970; Brainerd, 1978). Nowadays the emphasis has changed from broad developmental stages into the
discontinuity or continuity in the development of specific abilities. For example, Thomas (1989)
studied discontinuity in classification performance; Formann (2003) studied discontinuity in the waterlevel-task; Hosenfield, Van der Maas, and van den Boom (1997) studied discontinuity in analogical
reasoning; and Van der Maas (1998), and Jansen and Van der Maas (2002) studied discontinuity in
balance scale tasks. An advantage of this move is that discontinuity / continuity can be investigated
empirically and modeled statistically. In particular the binomial mixture model (BMM) is used to
study discontinuity. When using the BMM the peaks and gaps of a frequency distribution of a numbercorrect score on a particular cognitive ability are described by a number of binomial distributions. A
disadvantage of this BMM, is that the existence of multiple strategies might not be observable by
peaks or gaps in the frequency distribution and therefore the binomial distributions might not be the
appropriate distributions to detect different strategies. Moreover, by analyzing the frequency
distribution of number-correct scores it is assumed that a particular number-correct score describes
maximal one strategy that seems only realistic when a Guttman scale or Rasch model fits the items of
the test. Finally, the BMM assumes an equal difficulty level for all items in the test, which makes the
model restrictive. An alternative model is the latent class model (LCM). In fact the BMM is a
restricted LCM. In a latent class model, the item responses are analyzed instead of the number-correct
scores. Therefore, number-correct scores are allowed to describe different kind of strategies.
Moreover, no binomial distributions are assumed and the difficulty level of the items can differ. In our
study we compared the BMM and the LCM on a number of aspects using empirical cross-sectional
data collected by a test measuring transitive reasoning. Because the two kinds of models are nested,
their fit could be compared directly. It was concluded that the LCM is a more appropriate and realistic
model to determine the existence of multiple stages than the BMM.
Keywords: binomial mixture model, cognitive modelling, discontinuity, developmental change, latent
class model, transitive reasoning
References
Brainerd, C. J. (1978). The stage question in cognitive-developmental theory. The behavioral
and brain sciences, 2, 173–213.
Flavell, J. H. (1970). Stage-related properties of cognitive development. Cognitive
Psychology, 2, 421–453.
Formann, A. K. (2003). Modeling data from water-level tasks: a test theoretical analysis.
Perceptual motor skills, 96, 1153–1172.
Hosenfield, B., Van der Maas, H. L. J., & van den Boom, D. C. (1997). Detecting bimodality
in the analogical reasoning performance of elementary schoolchildren. International
Journal of Behavioral Development, 20, 529–547.
Jansen, B. R. J., & Van der Maas, H. L. J. (2002). The development of children’s rule use on
the balance scale task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 81, 383–416.
305
Thomas, H. (1989). A binomial mixture model for classification performance: A commentary
on Waxman, Chambers, Yntema and Gelman (1989). Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 48, 423–430.
Van der Maas, H. L. J. (1998). The dynamical and statistical properties of cognitive strategies:
Relations between strategies, attractors, and latent classes. In K. M. Newell & P. C. M.
Molenaar (Eds.), Applications of nonlinear dynamics to developmental process modeling (pp. 161–176). Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
A Markov Chain Approach for Ranking Individuals from Item Responses
Matthew S. Johnson, Baruch College, CUNY New York, USA, [email protected]
The raw score has long been used to rank individuals from their item response data. When the design
is not balanced, for example, if different respondents receive different sets of items then the use of the
raw score may not be justified. This paper examines the efficacy of a ranking system developed as an
extension of one suggested by Callaghan, Porter, and Mucha (2003) for paired comparisions data. The
ranking system posits a latent voter whose job is to select the “best” individual in the sample. The
voter moves from one individual to another according to a Markov chain. The transition probabilities
of the Markov chain are formed by assuming that the latent voter changes his opinion of who is “best”
according to the following rules:
First the voter randomly selects another individual in the sample to compare with the current “best”
examinee.
If the two individuals have no items in common, then the voter chooses to move to the new selected
individual with probability one-half.
If the two individuals do have items in common, then the voter randomly selects one of the common
items to compare the two individuals.
If the two individuals receive the same score on the item then the voter randomly chooses one of the
individuals with probability one-half.
If the responses are not identical, then the latent voter moves chooses the individual with the higher
score on that item with probability 0.5+∂, where ∂, some number between 0 and 0.5, is a sort of
discrimination parameter that may vary by item.
The individuals are ranked according to the limiting distribution of the Markov chain. This limiting
distribution represents the likelihood that a given individual is the “best” in the sample.
In addition to describing the ranking system, the paper compares the method with suggested
alternatives from the literature, including raw scores, normits, and parametric methods. The paper
shows that the ranking system is equivallent to ranking by the raw scores when the design is ballanced
and discusses properties of the limiting distribution of the Markov chain. The ranking system is
demonstrated utilizing data from both attitudinal surveys and educationg testing.
Keywords: Markov chains; nonparametric IRT; scaling; attitude measurement
A Bayesian Framework for the Monotone Homogeneity Model of Non-Parametric Item
Response Theory
George Karabatsos, Department of Educational Psychology, Program of Measurement, Evaluation,
Assessment, and Statistics (MESA), College of Education, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA,
[email protected]
This presentation introduces a general Bayes inference framework useful for analyzing dichotomousscored item responses, under the assumptions of the Monotone Homogeneity (MH) model of nonparametric item response theory, which nests the unidimensional one-, two-, three-, and four parameter
logistic models as special cases. Given a matrix of binomial parameters, where the rows are the
different rest-score groups, and the columns are the test items, the monotone homogeneity model is
wholly represented by an order-constraining prior distribution on these parameters, which assigns zero
306
probability to item response functions that are non-monotonic over the latent trait (i.e., over the restscore). A Gibbs sampler is presented, that allows for fast estimation of the posterior distribution of the
binomial parameters under the monotonic constraints implied by the MH model. Furthermore, any set
of test data can be statistically compared with the posterior predictive distribution of the model, in
order to rigorously test the global, item, and person fit to the MH model, as well as to test the
assumption of local independence. Moreover, the posterior predictive distribution can be easily
extended to test invariant item ordering, and for testing item bias. A demonstration of the Bayes
inference framework is provided through the analysis of real test data from the National Assessments
of Educational Progress. Extensions of the framework are discussed, which include the introduction of
the Bayesian-hierarchical version of the MH model, which nests the ordinary MH model as a special
case.
Multiple Imputation of Item Scores in Test and Questionnaire Data, and the Influence
on Psychometric Results
Joost van Ginkel, Department of Methodology and Statistics, Tilburg University, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
Missing data can be a serious problem in psychological research. Listwise deletion is the most
commonly used method for dealing with missing data, although more sophisticated methods are
available, based on multiple imputation. In general these methods work well, but are often too
complicated to understand for social scientists that have no statistical background. In the context of
test and questionnaire data several easier imputation methods have been developed as well.
The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the easier imputation methods to a more
complicated method under several conditions. In a simulation study we compared the results of
Mokken scale analysis and reliability analysis for complete test data with the results for imputed test
data. Seven multiple imputation methods were studied: random imputation, two-way, two-way with
normally distributed errors, response function with completely observed cases, response function with
incompletely observed cases, corrected item mean substitution with normally distributed errors and
multivariate normal imputation.
The simple methods two-way with normally distributed errors and corrected item mean substitution
with normally distributed errors performed better than the more complicated method multivariate
normal imputation. Furthermore, the bias of the results due to imputation was generally very small.
Keywords: multiple imputation, missing data, multivariate normal imputation, two-way imputation,
response function imputation, Mokken scale analysis, item nonresponse
A Nonparametric IRT Model for the Circumplex: Generalization to Polytomous Data
Wijbrandt H. van Schuur,
[email protected]
Department
of
Sociology,
University
of
Groningen,
The circumplex model is an Item Response Theory model for the measurement of subjects and items
on a circular latent trait. Examples in psychology can be found in the study of personality (the Big
Five) and emotions, and in sociology in the study of human values and vocational interests. The
circumplex model can be regarded as an additional tool within Facet Theory. In the circumplex model
subjects and items are located on the circumference of a circle. In the model for dichotomous data,
each item is represented with two item step parameters, indicating the beginning and end of the arc
along the circle that represents its latitude of acceptance. Subjects are represented with one location
parameter. Subjects who are represented within the latitude of acceptance of an item will respond
positively to the item in the deterministic model, or have a high probability of responding positively to
the item in the probabilistic model. A coefficient of homogeneity is used, analogous to Loevinger's
307
coefficient of homogeneity in the Mokken scale, that is based on all quadruples of items. The response
patterns 1010 and 01010 in an ordered quadruple violate the model.
In the model for polytomous data, the highest item category is represented as a single arc, whereas
lower item categories are represented as two arcs, located to the left and right of the arc for the highest
category. Response patterns that are not either monotonous or single peaked violate the model. A
procedure for calculation scale values for the polytomous model is proposed, as well as the
generalization of the coefficient of homogeneity, and several other model diagnostics. A substantive
application is given.
References
Mokken, R.J., Van Schuur, W.H., & Leeferink, A.J. (2001). The circles of our minds: a
nonparametric IRT model for the circumplex, in: Boomsma, A, Van Duijn, M.A.J. &
Snijders, T.A.B. (Eds.), Essays in item response theory. Lecture notes in statistics,
Vol. 157, (pp. 339-356). New York: Springer
Tracey, T.J.G., & Rounds, J.B. (1997). Circular structure of vocational interests. In: R.
Plutchik & H.R. Conte (Eds.) Circumplex models of personality and emotions.
Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Matthijs J. Warrens, Department
[email protected]
of
Psychology,
Leiden
University,
The
Netherlands,
Guttman (1941) proposed a generalization of principal component analysis to multivariate categorical
data. The method is known under many names but will be referred to, following McDonald (1983), as
classical optimal scaling (abbreviated as COS). The method has some interesting properties when
applied to categorical scores with an assumed latent dominance structure. Such data are usually
analyzed by unidimensional cumulative item response models, either parametric or nonparametric
(Mokken, 1971).
The work of Schriever (1985) on the dichotomous case is extended to the polytomous case. Conditions
are specified under which the category scores of the unidimensional COS are ordered. The results are
demonstrated on generated data, conforming to the polytomous perfect scale and the graded response
model.
Keywords: Classical optimal scaling, ordered category scores
References
Guttman, L. (1941). The quantification of a class of attributes: a theory and method of
scale construction. In The Committee on Social Adjustment (Ed.). The prediction
of personal adjustment (pp. 319 – 348). New York: Social Science Research Council,.
McDonald, R.P. (1983). Alternative weights and invariant parameters in optimal scaling.
Psychometrika, 48, 377 – 391.
Mokken, R.J. (1971). A theory and procedure of scale analysis. The Hague/Berlin: De
Gruyter/Mouton.
Schriever, B. F. (1985). Order dependence. Dissertation, CWI-Tact 20. Amsterdam: Center for
Mathematics and Computer Science.
308
SESSION: GRAPHICAL MODELLING
Organizor: Nanny Wermuth
Contact: Chalmers/ Gothenborg University, Mathematical Statistics, 41296 Gothenborg, Sweden,
[email protected] and Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz, Germany,
[email protected]
D.R. Cox, Nuffield College, Oxford, United Kingdom, [email protected]
Graphical representations play a number of constructive roles in the analysis and interpretation of
relatively complex systems. The establishments and checking of conditional independencies
establishes and confirms the structure of the graph. The role of triangular representations of such
systems is discussed and some other developments of statistical analysis are reviewed. An empirical
example is given.
Computational Aspects of Chain Graph Models with Mixed Response Variables
Vanessa Didelez, University College London, UK, [email protected]
Chain graph models are used to represent the dependence structure in multivariate data, where some
variables are regarded as reponses, some as explanatory and some variables take the role of
intermediate variables. They can help investigating the data generating process and may reveal
interesting direct and indirect relations. However, when the multivariate responses are of mixed scale,
these models are difficult to fit.
The task can be simplified by exploiting collapsibility allowing the decomposition of the multivariate
model into lower dimensional or even univariate regressions. In this talk, I will motivate the use of
chain graph models with a study on self-care in later life. Simple graphical conditions for collapsibility
will be given. Implications for model selection as well as for latent variable models will be discussed.
Checking for a Confounder in Models Generated over Directed Acyclic Graphs
Elena Stanghellini1 and Giovanni M. Marchetti2
1
University of Perugia, Italy, [email protected]
2
University of Florence, Italy, [email protected]
We discuss a method to assess whether, in a non-parametric context, a marginal association between
two observed variables is confounded by associations to a common third unobserved variable. We
partition the random vector Y into two subsets, the observed variables and one single unobserved
variable. We assume that the data generating process can be described by a parent graph, i.e. by a
directed acyclic graph complemented by a full ordering of the variables. We assume that the ordering
is known from a priori information.
The object of our inference involves the generating edge matrix, a matrix form of the parent graph.
This is an upper triangular binary matrix having ones along the main diagonal and an ij-element, for
i<j, is 1 if and only if node j is a parent of node i. Given the parent graph, the structure of associations
implied for the observed variables can be derived by combining directly probability statements (see
e.g. Dawid, 1979), by using the a separation criterion for directed acyclic graphs (Pearl, 1988) or by
transforming the generating edge matrix (Cox and Wermuth, 2004).
But knowledge of the structure of associations among the observed variables only, does not in general
permit to uniquely reconstruct the edge matrix of the parent graph. We explore situations in which this
reconstruction is possible and discuss the underlying assumptions.
309
An Application of Marginal Log-linear Models to Examine Changes in Social Mobility
in Hungary During the Transition Period
Renáta Németh, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest Hungary,[email protected]
The talk will analyze social mobility data for Hungary from the years 1987, 1992 and 1999. The main
concern is put on testing Donald J. Treiman’s industrialization hypothesis that was posed in 1970 and
is still widely cited today in the context of transition. The objective variables involved in Treiman’s
hypothesis are completed with subjective social position and subjective social mobility, aiming to take
into account perception as a pathway through which objective factors have an impact on individual
behavior.
The fitted models are graphical models based on directed acyclic graphs and the values of marginal
log-linear parameters (as proposed in Rudas, Bergsma, 2004) are used to gain insight into the strengths
of associations among the variables and the details of the computations will be illustrated. From a
substantive point of view, the main findings include that mobility trend between 1987 and 1992 had an
opposite direction to the trend between 1992 and 1999, showing a quick and sensitive reaction to the
economic changes. That is, when investigating transition process we should distinguish these two
periods.
Tamas Rudas1 and Wicher Bergsma2
1
Tarki Budapest, Hungary, [email protected]
2
Eurandom, Eindhoven, Netherlands, [email protected]
Cox and Wermuth (1996, 2004) discuss a great variety of graphical models to analyze multivariate
dependencies. These include models based on directed acyclic graphs, and on partially directed
graphs, graphs with solid and dashed edges (both arrows and lines). In general, models with arrows
correspond to complex regression-type models with possibly several response variables.
Bergsma and Rudas (2002) developed a theory of marginal models for categorical data, based on
marginal log-linear parameterizations. These parameterizations generalize the multivariate logistic
transformation of Glonek and McCullagh (1995) and the standard log-linear parameterization.
Statistical models based on directed acyclic graphs are marginal models (see Rudas and Bergsma,
2004). The talk will investigate some of the more general regression-type models based on partially
ordered graphs with solid and/or dashed lines from the point of view of their natural parameterizations.
In these parameterizations the conditional independencies implied by the graph are represented by
zeroes among the marginal log-linear parameters and the remaining, non-restricted parameters can be
interpreted as measuring the strength of certain, possibly quite complex, effects allowed by the model.
The application of this theory to the continuous case will also be considered.
Paola Vicard1, Marco Di Zio2 and Mauro Scanu2
1
Università Roma Tre, Italy, [email protected]
2
ISTAT, [email protected], [email protected]
Dealing with data sets affected by partial non-responses is a, pervasive problem in statistical surveys.
A common approach to, deal with partial non-response is to replace (i.e. impute) missing, items with
artificial plausible values, under the assumption that, the missing data mechanism is Missing At
Random (MAR, see Rubin, 1976). The main reason why the approach based on imputation is so
widely used is that it produces a complete data set that can be easily analysed with the usual statistical
techniques. A wide variety of imputation techniques has been developed (e.g. see Little and Rubin,
2002).
310
While most of them have desirable properties when studying univariate characteristics, i.e. tend to
reproduce the univariate distributions, the preservation of relationships among variables is still a
problem to be furtherly studied. Bayesian Networks (Cowell et al., 1999) are a well-known tool to
study the relationships among variables in complex surveys. Consequently they can be usefully
applied for imputation. In this work we present an overview of some approaches based on Bayesian
networks to impute missing items. Some comparisons with standard imputation techniques will be
provided.
SESSION: THE NETS BETWEEN NEURAL NETWORKS AND
NETWORK ANALYSIS. FUZZY LOGIC, COMPLEXITY AND/ OR
NETWORK ANALYSIS SOCIAL THEORY
Organizers: M. Ampola and Dott. A. Givigliano
Contact: University of Pisa, Italy. [email protected], [email protected]
Keywords: Network Analysis, Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks, Languages, Complexity Social Theory
Abstract
The study and the analysis of the social reality as a relational network could bring to a double point of
view. The first one concern a reading of the social world as a complex multidimensional network of
relationships, made of one dimension for each relation. The dimensions aren't strictly distinguished,
but they could be seen as a complex unity (following the idea of complexity expressed by Edgar
Morin). The second point of view concern the classical and recent network analysis approaches, which
identify the relations as a set of interactions among differents points in the social space.
Is it possible to unify this two approaches? The complex approach and the network one have of course
a logic behind them: which is this logic? And is it one logic or different kinds of logic? The aim of this
session is to analyze this two points of view and the
possible convergence and differences between them today. Is it a problem of data-analysis or there are
other kinds of reasons?
Social Network Analysis, Social Theory and Research Design: Experiences from an
Italian Contexts
Andrea Salvini, Department of Social Sciences, University of Pisa, Italy, [email protected]
Over the last few years Social Network Analysis has experienced a further process of advance at the
technical-methodological acquisitions level (just think for example to the use of sophisticated
statistical tools applied to networks dynamics analysis), but also at the level of the spread in not only
Anglo-Saxons scientific contexts (f.e. in France and Italy). However, the increase of awareness about
methodological soundness of this approach hasn't still found - in Italy at least - a correspondent
richness of surveys and studies in which such awareness finds application, save due exceptions. In
literature many technical contributions are found, but there are insufficient references to empirical
experiences in which that approach turned out to be actually useful, f. e. in the field of social politics.
The present work has a twofold purpose: on one hand, to give the picture of the problems affecting the
relationship between Social Network Analysis theoretical reference and methodological approach,
showing how these problems influence the construction of a consistent research design in empirical
research. Concerning this, the relations between some theoretical approaches - such as Structuration
Theory and Exchange Theory - and Social Network Analysis will be investigated, and the
potentialities in terms of constructing integrated and consistent processes of research will be pointed
out.
On the other hand, the purpose is to represent some concrete experiences of social research carried out
in Italy, in particular in Tuscany, about the topic of social service and volunteering, in which it has
311
been tried to link up some of the already mentioned theoretical references with Social Network
Analysis practice. These research experiences have utilised the ego-centred networks approach in
order to elaborate relational indicators able to interact - through the construction of suitable models with other indicators obtained through the application of "traditional" methodologies.
To conclude, we intend to support that only the integration between the "new" relational approach and
the others "conventional" forms of research may allow to valorize Social Network Analisys
techniques, and to acquire more suitable tools and processes to the comprehension of social
complexity.
Keywords: Methodology, Social Network Analysis, Structuration Theory, Exchange Theory.
The Complex Dispositional Space of the Social Relation and the Nets between Social
Networks and Neural Networks. The Problem of the Language.
Alfredo Givigliano, Department of Social Sciences, University of Pisa, Italy. [email protected]
A modality of reading social reality inside an approach of research founded, structured and projected
on a perspective which belongs to the family of the network analysis, concerning its interpretative
function, integrated with a complex reading of the same reality, it can be built on the base of a space of
the possibilities of the subject that becomes a space of the dispositions inside, by and in function of
language.
Such modality doesn't concern only the possibility of analysis of the single subject, but above all the
description and reconstruction of the space of the possibilities, than the space of dispositions, of the
social relationships in their complexity. In this case the language, the every day life language, is more
clearly identifiable from a side as the object that allows to study the relationships, from the other, it is
the tool inside the sociology for this study.
A strategy and a project of research, from a logical and methodological point of view, and of
techniques one, that inserts this reading inside a matrix of network analysis, as it regards the phase of
the analysis of the data, it can be constructed on the base and in function of the use of specific neural
networks. The nets in matter, would work not only as a tool of comparison, but also of determination
of the same topology of the space of the dispositions.
According to this idea the social relationships don't individualize something static but something
dynamic that exploiting, in phase of description, the vague structure of the relationships themselves,
allows to build a continuum of the same vagueness, therefore, not to assume this characteristic in
definitive and substantive way, but to report it to the specific dynamics and situations of the
phenomenon that the researcher intends to study and to analyze.
A particular attention, inside this perspective, it must be sets to the study and the analysis of the
language, of the natural languages and of the sociology own, which structure the relationships
themselves, as well as the social relationship that results to be the one of the researcher towards his
own object of study. The hypothesis to be analyzed and to develop is the tension among the two
languages that it resolves inside the same natural language, that determines that sociology one
according to logical and epistemological modality.
Keywords: Space of possibilities, Space of dispositions, Complexity, Vagueness, Social Network
Analysis, Neural Networks.
Simone Gabbriellini, Laboratory
[email protected]
of
Social
Research,
University
of
Pisa,
Italy,
The analysis of the relational data seems to be so more difficult according to the researcher’s range of
action. A methodology, founded upon the use of neural networks, allows to leave on background, in
the analysis phase, the theoretical formalization of the distribution of the relationships that forms the
social data in examination, according to the statistic tradition, leaving this involvement bypassed by
the software.
312
With the opportune construction of indexes, it is possible to analyze the matrix of weights produced by
the net, nevertheless it doesn't give us back any function able to approximate the course of the
analyzed phenomenon, cause we didn’t give the function first, at the beginning of the process!
A neural network is an object able to reproduce, with a minimum amount of error, the intensity of the
relationships that tie the values of the variable that we build from the segment of reality that we want
to examine.
This ability cause the net to be comparable to a liquid which we can dose the stringiness: too diluted, it
is not able to generalize from the training set to real set of analysis, becoming too tied to the
peculiarities of the first one (a problem called overfitting); on the contrary, if we make the fluid too
much viscous, preventing it to slip in every ravine of our object, it will become able to make
generalizations, but not able to gather the peculiarities of our object. The aim of the neural social
researcher is, in this case, not the choice of a theoretical distribution to analyze data, but the choice of
the correct values of the parameters of the net that manage its abilities of analysis.
It is in a some way a methodology that works case by case: it can produce scenaries and simulations,
but doesn't make generalizations in the traditional statistic sense of the term. Is this a consequence to
which we have to undergo, a sort of implicit renouncement, or is this a precise operational choice, in
consequence of assuming social reality as something not forceable by generalizations that can result, at
the end, only misleading, only partial representations able just to produce uncorrect images of the
relational world?
Is the network approach always correct? Which are the limits and the risks in the use of a neural
approach tout-court?
Is there any problem for which would be more correct a less complex approach?
Keywords: neural, network, social, research, relational, data.
Stefania Milella, Laboratory of social research, University of Pisa, Italy, [email protected]
The concept of social capital has met with success in sociological analysis, which uses it in order to
study a lot of social phenomena. It's a complex and multidimensional concept, marked out by the
interaction between a subjective dimension and a structural dimension. This paper proposes to identify
some significant dimensions of the concept of social capital, making an overview of the most
important theoretical contributions about the topic. In particular, we refer to relational approach about
social capital (Bourdieu, Coleman), that supports that social capital consists of the resources deriving
from social relations tissue in which a person is embedded. Bourdieu uses the concept of social capital
in order to explain the processes of reproduction of social classes, as third kind of capital coming up
by the side of human capital and economic capital. According to Bourdieu, social capital consists of
opportunity of access to material and symbolic resources that the individual uses in his/her relational
life. The first source of social capital is family, subsequently the actor increases and continually
modifies his/her endowment of social capital through the access to different relational ambits
(Bourdieu, P., 1980). In Coleman's relational vision, social capital is constituted by resources deriving
from social relation tissue in which social actors are embedded. While human capital is an individual
attribute, social capital exists in the social relations, and provides resources that can be used by the
individuals in order to realise interests and goals that would not be attainable in its absence (Coleman,
J. S., 1990). Within this theoretical frame, it comes out that social capital and social networks are
tightly linked, but, at the same time, they demand a distinction at a conceptual level. Social capital is
incorporated into social relations, but it can't be simply identified with them. While social networks
may be both opportunities and constraints for action, social capital is always productive, because it
refers to resources used by social actors in order to realise their interests. Social capital productivity is
influenced by social networks features, but it also depends on particular resources activated in social
ties. Sociological analysis deals with social capital both as individual resource and as collective
resource; from this theoretical perspective it comes out that social capital is a situational concept,
escaping a rigid definition, demanding of being analysed and interpreted referring to social actors and
their social networks, and to the particular context in which social action is carried out.
Keywords: social capital; social networks
313
SESSION: MISCELLANEOUS
Organizor: Karl van Meter
Contact: National Center of Scientific Research, 59 Rue Pouchet, 75017 Paris, France, tel/fax 33 (0)1
40 51 85 19, [email protected]
Barry Schouten, Statistics Netherlands, Methods and Informatics Department, Room 241, PO Box
4000, 2270 JM Voorburg, The Netherlands, tel. (+31) 70 3374905, fax. (+31) 70 3375990,
[email protected]
Estimates for population statistics can be seriously biased in case response rates are low and the
response to a survey is selective. Methods like poststratification or propensity score weighting are
often employed in order to adjust for bias due to nonresponse.
One problem that many adjustment methods have in common is the choice which of the available
auxiliary variables to use. In the case of poststratification it must be decided what strata are defined. In
the case of propensity score weighting adjustment cells must be formed that have comparable response
probabilities in order to keep a low variance.
In this paper we use the generalised regression estimator to adjust for nonresponse and we propose a
selection strategy of weighting variables that simultaneously accounts for the relation with response
behaviour and the relation with the important survey questions. The selection strategy is applied to the
Integrated Survey on Household Living Conditions (POLS) 1998.
The selection strategy aims at the minimisation of the absolute bias that is maximally possible under
an assumption that is weaker than the usual Missing-at-Random (MAR) assumption. We assume that
stratum means may be biased by nonresponse, but that the relative distances between the stratum
means are approximately preserved.
Keywords: Nonresponse bias, Nonresponse adjustment, Weighting model, Missing-at-Random, NotMissing-at-Random, Poststratification.
Stephan
Boes,
Department
[email protected]
of
Statistics,
University
of
Dortmund,
Germany,
The duration of studies is an important topic of discussion in educational policy at the step into a
knowledge based economy. It is measured on international standards (OECD) by a rough transition
model called Chain Method, which calculates the transitions from one year of studies to the next with
data on two consecutive study years. The Chain Method is based on several assumptions, so it gives a
result which only applies to these assumptions, and it is based on censored data. In Germany, about ten
per cent of university students are censored.
The OECD uses the duration of study to calculate cost of study over the whole study course. A method
similar to the Chain Method is used by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Educational
Affairs of the German Laender (Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK). They use it to calculate forecast of
student numbers in the German system of Higher Education.
The methods used can be given a formal background. We will show that the methods are special cases
of the demographic life table technique. Our paper will give results for the calculation of the duration
of studies using different assumptions within life table surroundings and some approaches beyond
censoring.
We use data of the German Federal Statistical Office of several consecutive years to calculate and
compare “survival probabilies” for students in their course of study. Different assumptions on the Lx,
based on demographic standards and real life experiences, lead to different results. The analysis of the
314
data before the censoring point gives rise to assumptions about their development beyond this point.
The outcome is a range for the true duration of studies.
Results for Germany from different agencies are compared with our range of results. We will further
give results about differences in study behaviour between male and female students and about the way
the reducing of drop-out rates and restrictions to long-term enrolment would influence the duration of
studies. It will also be shown what the different results mean to the student forecast of the KMK.
Keywords: Education Statistics, Transition Model, Life Table techniques
STREAM: DATA COLLECTION, SAMPLING AND NONRESPONSE
SESSION: IMPROVING THE VALIDITY OF FRAUD RESEARCH
USING INSTRUMENTS FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Organizer: Gerty Lensvelt-Muldersand Peter van der Heijden
Contact: Utrecht University, Department of Methodology and Statistics, Postbox 80140, 3508 TC
Utrecht, The Netherlands, Tel: +31302535857, Fax: +31302535797, [email protected]
Keywords: Fraud, research methods, white collar crime, underestimations
Abstract
Fraud is a penetrative phenomenon with the power to disrupt the economy and to attack the
foundations of the welfare state. Obtaining accurate information on the types and extent of fraud is
therefore extremely relevant, but reliable and valid information on the prevalence of fraud is hard to
obtain. Official statistics on fraud tend to underestimate the size of it because of large non-response
rates and low validity of the data due to social desirable answering and down right lying.
In this session we want to give fraud researchers a chance to present a paper that can add to the quest
for methods that enhance the validity of fraud estimates and decrease dark figures.
The aim of this session is to give a broad overview of the methods that are used nowadays and to
enhance our insight in different forms of fraud. The session should be interesting for a broad range of
fraud researchers. For this session we especially invite researchers that study social security fraud,
organisational fraud and white-collar crimes using instruments form the social sciences to present a
paper and add to the discussion in this important field.
Evaluating the Validity of (Vicarious) Self-Reports of Deviant Behavior Using Vignette
Analyses
Stefanie Eifler, University of Bielefeld, Postbox 100131, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany, Tel. 0049(0)521-1064643, fax 0049-(0)521-1066479, [email protected]
Focus of this paper are vignette analyses of delinquent and criminal behavior. Vignette analyses (or
scenario techniques) use descriptions of hypothetical situations which are presented to subjects within
the framework of a survey. Vignette analyses have been used to measure attitudes towards social
situations as well as behavioral intentions evoked by the hypothetical situation presented. Vignette
analyses are established as a research instrument in the study of social norms employing a factorial
survey approach (e.g. Opp & Jasso, 1997, Rossi & Anderson, 1982). Scenario techniques have been
also used to simulate everyday life behavioral decisions of actors, especially in the field of deviant and
criminal behavior (cf. Eifler, 2001). However, vignette analyses measure behavioral intentions only,
they are not suitable to reveal any information about behavioral decisions of actors in the presence of
real opportunities. In addition, the similarity of behavioral intentions measured using scenario
315
techniques – in vitro - and behavior measured in vivo remains unknown since no studies evaluating the
validity of vignette analyses have been carried out so far (cf. Finch, 1987). Against this background
the study presented here consists of an empirical examination of the validity of vignette analyses in the
field of criminal and deviant behavior. Data collected using scenario techniques on the one hand and
using non-reactive approaches or non-invasive observations on the other hand are compared
systematically. It is shown that for some forms of criminal behavior vignette analyses and noninvasive observations reveal similar results while for other forms of deviant behavior vignette analyses
lead to underestimations of the behavior in question. The results are discussed with regard to their
methodological implications.
Keywords: validity, vignette analysis, factorial survey approach, self-report, criminal behavior,
deviant behavior
Statistical and Technical Methods for the Detection and Prevention on Interviewer
Fraud in Data Collection
Joe Eyerman, Paul Biemer, Craig Hill, Joe Murphy and Chris Ellis, RTI International, 3040
Cornwallis Road, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, Tel: (919) 541-7139,
Fax: (919) 316-3867, [email protected]
Data falsification and interviewer fraud can significantly increase the costs of survey research and
introduce bias in study estimates. This threat has been magnified in recent years as cash incentives for
respondents have become more common and greater in amount. This has increased the value of fraud
for the individual interviewer by making the cash payments a significant part of the return on
falsification. As a result, a new class of white collar criminal may be attracted to the data collection
field, further threating the validity of our data. Furthermore, decreasing response rates and increasing
pressures on interviewers to achieve high response rates may encourage falsification.
RTI International has developed a suite of statistical and technical methods for the early detection,
attribution, and remidiation of fraud in the data collection process. This paper will report on the overall
fraud detection process employed by RTI and will highlight three techniques currently being used or
developed for fraud detection in large, federally sponsored surveys. Included will be a discussion of
Computer Assisted Recorded Interviewing (CARI) methods currently employed at RTI to detect fraud.
This paper will also discuss data mining techniques currently being applied to survey metadata and
response data to detect patterns of fraudulent behavior. Finally, this paper will review some of the
emerging research at RTI that uses text mining and voice recognition software to evaluate fraudulent
patterns in text fields and recorded interviews.
We believe these techniques may be broadly applicable to fraud research in all areas of the social
sciences. In addition, we believe these techniques could be improved by drawing on the advances
made in other fields of fraud detection.
Keywords: Fraud, CARI, Text Mining, Data Mining
Research Designs for Fraud Studies: How to Chose the Optimal Research Design?
Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders and Peter van der Heijden, Utrecht University, Department of Methodology
and Statistics, POBox 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands, Tel: +31302535857, Fax:
+31302535797, [email protected]
We will start this paper with a short expose of different methods that can be used to study the
prevalence of fraud in society. Secondly we will discuss a scheme that we developed to guide the
choice of a method dependent on the question that is asked, the level of information that is needed and
the accessibility of data or respondents.
As a rule estimating the extent of fraud is rendered difficult because of the so-called dark numbers
problem. It is therefore very important to know which research method will result in the most valid
316
results, dependent on features of the research question. A literature study revealed that research
methods could be classified into three broad clusters, i.e. surveys methods, methods for secondary data
analysis and random audits. Seldom it is the case that there is just one single method that can perfectly
estimate the prevalence of a specific form of fraud, or the amount of financial damage that it causes. It
is the researcher’s task to choose a (combination of) method(s) that guarantee(s) an optimal match
between research question and research method. For this purpose we developed a protocol that takes
into account the features of the information that has to be collected, the features of different forms of
fraud, and the assumptions of different research methods.
Keywords: fraud, CAI, randomized response, network scale-up, capture-recapture, multiplier
methods, random audits
SESSION: PREVENTING, DIAGNOSING AND ANALYZING MISSING
DATA
Organizors: Joop. J. Hox and Edith D. de Leeuw
Contact: Utrecht University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Abstract
Social research often produces data sets with missing data, either because respondents refuse to
participate in the research altogether, or because they do not provide data on some subset of variables.
In some cases, the missingness is created by design. In most cases, the missingness is created
unintertionally. The first important issue is therefore what measures can be taken in the data collection
phase to reduce the expected amount of missing data. After the data are obtained, we must deal with
two important tasks. First, it is important to diagnose the pattern of missingness. This can provide very
practical
information. For instance, we may find that most of the missing values concern only one specific
variable. If this variable is not central to our analysis problem, we may delete it from our analysis,
rather than keeping it, and therefore having to delete many cases. We would also like to know if the
missingness forms a pattern, or if it is related to some of our observed variables. For if we discover a
system in the missingness pattern, we may try to include that in our statistical analyses. The second
task is to produce sound estimates of the parameters of interest, despite the incompleteness of the data.
There are two major approaches to this problem. One is to make the data complete by imputing the
missing values, and then do the analysis on the completed data. The other is to use a method, typically
a likelihood-based procedure, that allows us to model incomplete data directly.
This session aims to address all important methodological and statistical aspects of the missing data
problem in social research.
Antonio Alaminos, Mathematical Sociology. University of Alicante. Spain, [email protected]
One of the main concerns is the nature of the missing values. Lets consider extremes for simplicity. If
missing at random we have not to care about. But if missing shows structures that covariate with
substantive variables we have to make decisions. There are, in fact, severals options to take. We are
speaking about one country, one mode. But if you go cross-cultural (or more precisely, crossstatenations) and mixed modes (like WVS, ISSP, and others) many questions raise. For example, the
simple one. What are we comparing?
Reports and books usually go straight into variables distributions and coeficient comparisons. This is
possible because the analist presume "tabula rasa" effect from data collections procedures. But this is
not, frecuently, the real situation. This paper will expose the mixed missing mode imprint in
international surveys. This will help to evaluate how deal with this problem. Also, to consider the real
meaning of observed cross-national differences.
317
Social Distance, Interviewer’s Perception of Rapport and the Types of Invalid Response
Su-hao Tu1 and Pei-shan Liao2
1
Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica, 128 Sec. 2 Academia Road, Nankang, Taipei 11529,
Taiwan, Tel.: 886-2-27884188 ext. 515, Fax: 886-2-27881740, [email protected]
2
Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Inspired by social distant theory, the extent to which the respondent volunteers to give an answer is
associated with the similarity of characteristics between the respondent and the interviewer (Groves et
al. 1992). While social distant theory emphasizes role-independent variables, i.e. the characteristics of
the interviewer and the respondent, little attention in the previous literature has been put on rolerestricted variables such as the interviewer’s perception of his/her rapport with the respondent.
This paper thus examines different types of invalid response associated with social distant and
interviewer’s perception of interview rapport separately and jointly. The invalid response implying the
respondent’s willingness to provide a substantive answer include “refusal’, “no opinion” and “don’t
know”. In addition, we try to examine whether social-distant and/or rapport-perception effects would
change for questions of a different nature.
Four datasets analyzed are from Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) conducted in 2000 and 2001.
2-level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM2) is used under the recognition of the possible importance of
interviewer effect and the assumption that the interviewers’ work is not randomly assigned.
Keywords: social distant, interview rapport, invalid response, interviewer effect
Socioeconomic Status of Survey Respondents with Missing Household Income Data
Michael Wood, Department of Sociology, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA,
[email protected]
Survey data commonly contain relatively higher nonresponse on income and related items. Modern
methods of data imputation offer solutions to item nonresponse, but such methods hinge upon the
assumption that nonresponse is not related to the variable being estimated. This paper investigates
sources of income item nonresponse using a U.S. national sample dataset (n=2000), conducted by
face-to-face interviewers. The survey included questions about financial attitudes and knowledge as
well as an assessment of respondent socioeconomic status made by the interviewers. Three main
questions are investigated: 1) Is income item nonresponse related to income and socioeconomic status
(especially, higher socioeconomic status)? 2) What, if any, differences in financial attitudes
characterize income nonresponders from responders? 3) Does nonresponse on the income item
correlate with generalized item nonresponse? The data analysis shows that: 1) Income item
nonresponse is not significantly related to socioeconomic measures here, 2) Lack of knowledge about
money and financial matters is related to income nonresponse, but income nonesponders are not
generally different from responders on financial attitudes and beliefs, 3) a significant portion of
income nonresponders reflect generalized nonresponse to survey questions.
Keywords: missing data, income item nonresponse, data imputation, financial attitudes
Statistial Editing and Imputation for Social Data
Frank van den Eijkhof, Department of Methods and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht
University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Also working for Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in The Hague, Voorburg, The Netherlands
Improving the quality of datasets by cleaning raw data is mostly aimed at identifying missing values
(item nonresponse) and finding univariate outliers, after which some imputation technique is
performed. Official statistical bureaus do have more information; they investigate the possible and
impossible combinations of values in records. The resulting constraints are called edits. An example of
318
an edit for censuses is, that a person cannot be married and be of an age lower than 16. Statistical
editing consists of changing values in records such that no more univariate outliers exist and that all
records are made consistent with the edits. Combining statistical editing and imputation is difficult,
and Statistics Canada currently uses an approach (the Nearest-neighbour Imputation Method or NIM)
based on nearest-neighbour imputation to solve this problem. For each record that is inconsistent with
the edits (a failed record), a set of donors is taken from consistent records, selected on their distance to
the inconsistent record. For each donor all variables are considered for which changing the value of the
failed record into the analogue value of the donor positively influences the consistency of the edits. An
exhaustive search is done for all possibilities, and sets of changes that render the failed record
consistent with the edits are kept. A selection on these solutions is done to ensure a minimal change of
the failed record, and the resulting solution is applied to the inconsistent record. We will show our
investigation regarding the robustness and results of the NIM. For comparison part of the census of the
United Kingdom (from 1991) is used.
Keywords: Missing data, Statistical editing, Data Analysis, Imputation
SESSION: NONRESPONSE
Organizer(s): Claire Durand1 and John Goyder2
Contact: 1Department de Sociologie, Universite de Montreal, Canada, [email protected]
2
Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Canada, [email protected]
Keywords: non-response, unit non-response
Abstract
This session has papers on any aspect of survey nonresponse. Topics would include (but are not
restricted to):
nonresponse on specific types of survey such as electoral surveys;
response maximization (e.g. call management in telephone surveys, training and selection of
personnel, incentives,...);
theoretical approaches (e.g. leverage-salience exchange theory, social psychology of interaction and
persuasion,...);
research on the consequences of nonresponse;
studies of panel attrition in longitudinal surveys;
cross-cultural and cross-national studies in nonresponse;
trends in non response in different settings and countries.
Part I: Increase Response Rates
The Influence of Advance Contacts on Response in Telephone Surveys: A Meta Analysis
Edith De Leeuw, Joop Hox, Elly Korendijk and Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders, Department of Methodology
and Statistics, Utrecht University, [email protected]
Recently, the leading position of telephone surveys as the major mode of data collection has been
challenged. Telephone surveys suffer from a growing nonresponse, partly due to the general
nonresponse trend for all surveys, partly due to changes in technology specifically influencing
contactibility by phone.
One way to counteract the increasing nonresponse is to increase the number of contacts. In mail and
face-to-face surveys advance letters have been shown to be an effective extra contact and raise
response. This inspired researchers to perform experiments with advance letters in telephone surveys.
Like an advance letter, leaving a message on an answering machine can be seen as a precontact and
319
opportunity to influence survey participation. Therefore, in this meta-analysis we present a
quantitative summary of empirical studies on the effectiveness of two types of precontact on the
response in telephone surveys. In the first part we summarize the effect of advance letters on response
in telephone surveys. In the second part we look into the effectiveness of a second type of precontact:
leaving a message on answering machines.
Keywords: telephone interview, advance letter, prenotification, (telephone) answering machine,
response, refusal
Mansour Fahimi1, Roy Whitmore, James Chromy, Margaret Cahalan2 and Linda Zimbler3
1
Research Triangle Institute, 6110 Executive Blvd., Suite 420, Rockville, MD 20852-3903, Tel: (301)
230-4675, Fax: (301) 230-4647, [email protected]
2
RTI International, USA 3National Center for Education Statistics, USA
Nonresponse has become one of the major challenges to conducting high quality survey research
because the quality of survey estimates is contingent upon a high response rate. Now, more than ever
before, securing a respectable rate of response is an objective that is hard to achieve in most surveys.
This paper provides a summary of the results obtained from an experiment conducted to assess the
effectiveness of incentives for increasing the response rate, overall and in particular for hard-to-reach
individuals.
Data for this research come the from the 2003 field test of the National Study of Postsecondary
Faculty (NSOPF), conducted for the National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of
Education. This nation-wide study involved collection of data from faculty at postsecondary
institutions. The experiment consisted of a design where two levels of incentives for nonresponse
follow-up were nested within three levels of incentives for early response.
Keywords: Nonresponse, Incentive, and Experimental Design
New Evidence on Amount of Payment on Prepaid Incentives on a Mailed Questionnaire
John Goyder1, Guil Martinelli2 and Steve Brown3
1
[email protected]
2
Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
3
Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Research on cash incentives administered in prepaid mode, on mailed questionnaires, has consistently
suggested that rates of response do not increase dramatically as the amount moves from a token to a
substantive amount. James and Bolstein (POQ, Winter 1992 ), for example, found that a $10 payment
in cheque form produced no increment over a $5 cheque. Based on two premises, the present research
re-examines this question. First, inflation continually erodes the value of a $5 payment, seemingly the
most plausible optimal amount for mailed questionnaires conducted in Canada. It is time to re-visit the
issue of amount of payment. Secondly, our design, unlike many others, was mixed mode. After three
mailings on a survey administered in Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), in which random halves
received either (Cdn) $5 or $10 in cash, the final follow-up was by telephone. We can thus track the
effect of the different amounts both over the three postal waves and as the mode of contact switched to
telephone. Our finding was that $10 over $5 makes no measurable difference within the mailed portion
of the fieldwork., but did quite dramatically improve the co-operativeness of sample listings once they
were telephoned. The analysis also examines item nonresponse by payment condition.
320
Gerry Nicolaas and Nina
[email protected]
Stratford,
National
Centre
for
Social
Research,
UK,
There is overwhelming evidence that respondent incentives can improve survey response rates.
Furthermore, meta-analyses of various experiments have shown that pre-paid incentives are more
effective than promised incentives, monetary incentives are more effective than non-monetary
incentives, and response rates tend to increase with the value of the incentive.
It is generally assumed that an increase in response rates will improve the representativeness of the
sample. However, this is not necessarily the case. First of all, incentives must improve response rates
substantially to reduce non-response bias. Second, it is possible that incentives could have highly
selective effects that increase the differences between respondents and non-respondents and
consequently increase non-response bias.
In this paper, we will make the case for tailoring the use and type of incentive to the design of the
survey and to the characteristics of under-represented groups in the survey. We will use information
from an incentive experiment, which was carried out to assess the effect of conditional differential
incentives on response rates and non-response bias on the National Travel Survey for Great Britain.
The results of this experiment showed that conditional incentives can increase full household cooperation. Furthermore, linking the incentive amount to household size was an effective method for
reducing the under-representation of larger households. However, the results also showed that
incentives can have selective effects on certain sub-groups. Whether these selective effects will reduce
non-response bias depends on their strength and direction.
Keywords: non-response, unit non-response, incentives, response rates, sample representativeness
The Drop-off Pick-up Method: An Alternative Approach to Reducing Nonrespone in
Mail Surveys
Amy Ross-Davis and Shorna R. Broussard, Purdue University, Department of Forestry and Natural
Resources, 195 Marseteller Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA, [email protected]
In this research, we explore the efficacy of using a personal delivery method for surveys as a means to
decrease nonresponse bias. We selected two 9-mi2 sampling sites in north-central Indiana for the dropoff pick-up method and 12 9-mi2 sampling sites in the same region for the Tailored Design Method.
Surveys were delivered to a census of forest landowners who owned at least 1 acre of forestland in the
study area. Landowners assigned to the Tailored Design Method sites received a series of five
mailings: pre-notification letter, survey with cover letter and packet of Eastern redbud seeds (Cercis
canadensis) as an incentive, reminder/thank you postcard, 2nd copy of survey and cover letter, and 3rd
copy of survey and cover letter via priority mail. Landowners in the drop-off pick-up sites received a
hand delivered copy of the survey with a cover letter and a packet of Eastern redbud seeds (Cercis
canadensis) as an incentive. Articles were published in local newspapers of each community prior to
delivery to alert local residents of the study. This paper will report on the cost effectiveness of this
method comapred to the Tailored Design Method, the efficay of this delivery method in terms of
increasing respone rate, and will also include a detailed methodology of the Drop-Off Pick-Up
techniuque as an alternative for mail surveys.
Keywords: non-response; survey methodology; drop-off pick up method
Nicole Schoebi and Dominique Joye, SIDOS: Swiss Information and Data Archive Service for the
Social Sciences, [email protected]
In Switzerland, experiences have shown that response rates are low, sometimes even less than 50% in
face to face survey. This could be the case even after a high number of contacts or attempt of refusal
321
conversion. The realisation of the Swiss part of the ESS 2002 has documented some important results
in this sense.
Among others, one hypothesis could explain partially the nonresponse rate in Switzerland: we have a
sample of households and select, when in contact with the household, a person which will (eventually)
answer to the questionnaire: This is normally done according the Kish method. Such a procedure can
have two difficulties:
in some cases, we have to convince two persons in order to have an answer: one giving the household
composition, the second one answering to the survey. The refusal of one is of course enough to stop
the process;
such a way to contact the people is sometimes seen as contradictory by the respondents: from one side,
we say that it is very important that a person answers, when, in the same time, we are using a random
way to “choose” this person. A lot of potential respondents do not understand that their opinions are be
very important for us but, at the same time, are randomly chosen inside the household or the fact that
we are perhaps looking for another person that the one actually contacted and ready to answer!
According to this, an experiment is actually realised in Switzerland, trying to break the survey process
in two phases: one where the household composition is done, by saying that we are doing a very brief
survey on life conditions (formation, work and residential conditions), asking also the permission to
recall later for another survey; a second one realised two month later with questions on social
integration, political orientation and attitude about surveys. In any case, we will have some
information of the people refusing the second survey but having given the household composition in
the first step.
A second experience is linked to this first one by giving to some respondent (randomly chosen) a
relatively high incentive (15 €) in case of refusal in order to see the impact of this for refusal
conversion.
Keywords: Nonresponse, selection of respondent, refusal conversion
Part II: Trends and Longitudinal Data
The Long-Term Effectiveness of Procedures for Minimising Attrition on Longitudinal
Surveys
Jon Burton, Heather Laurie and Peter Lynn, UK Longitudinal Studies Centre, Insitute for Social and
Economic Research, University of Essex, UK, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
A commonly accepted view is that longitudinal surveys are both expensive to run and present data
quality problems if levels of attrition from the survey are high, especially where there is evidence of
differential patterns of attrition for particular groups within the sample which may introduce some bias
into estimates from the data. There are also concerns about maintaining overall sample sizes for those
with continuous longitudinal records as well as the size of sub-groups of interest within the
longitudinal sample. Longitudinal surveys therefore go to great lengths to try and keep respondents
participating in the survey using a variety of means to do so. During fieldwork, these typically involve
a range of tracing procedures, refusal conversion programmes or the re-issuing of non-contacts for
further attempts. These procedures are costly to implement even though they affect a relatively small
proportion of the sample at any given year of a survey wave. Nonetheless they are considered central
elements for ensuring the long term viability of a longitudinal survey. Despite a large literature on
attrition there is little evidence on the actual value of these types of procedures for the quality of
longitudinal data and it is this question which primarily concerns us in this paper.
The paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from 1994 to 2002 to assess the
long term effectiveness of procedures for minimising attrition in maintaining sample sizes and for data
quality. We focus here on two procedures: refusal conversion, and attempts to ‘track’ mover
households to a new address. Since 1994, the BHPS data has collected information on these processes
322
of tracking and refusal conversion during fieldwork. These data allow us to examine how successful
these procedures have been in maintaining the viability of the sample over time.
We first examine the longevity of successful refusal conversion. Are we simply postponing drop out
for a wave or two, or is the procedure effective at retaining units in the sample for many waves? We
then compare sample sizes and sample characteristics, both overall and for subgroups, across multiple
waves, with and without refusal conversion. With regard to tracking movers to new addresses, we
examine success rates and their impacts on sample sizes and sample characteristics. We also examine
the combined effects of both procedures. Finally, we make a preliminary assessment of the effects of
the procedures on data quality through comparing key survey estimates.
Mood and Socio-Economic Status Bias in Survey Nonresponse: Results from an 11Wave Panel
Femke De Keulenaer and Katia Levecque,
University
of
Antwerp,
Belgium,
The literature on socio-economic status (SES) and psychiatric disorder bias in survey nonresponse
reports inconsistent findings. The literature has dealt at length with the likelihood of SES bias,
however a number of studies report curvilinear effects, other studies find that participation decreases
with SES, while still others conclude that lower SES groups are more likely to participate in surveys
than higher SES groups. The scarce literature on psychiatric morbidity bias in survey nonresponse
reports findings going form no significant effect of psychiatric disorder on nonresponse to a moderate
or strong tendency of sick persons not to participate.
This paper considers the representativeness of the Panel Study of Belgian Households (PSBH) over its
11-year history form 1992 to 2002 given the dynamics of entry and exit from the panel. The PSBH
informs us about a wide range of topics, such as health, working conditions, housing and social
relations. The first wave of the data collection was conducted in 1992 by face-to-face interviewing in a
stratified multistage probability sample. Since then, data collection was continued on a yearly basis.
Both household and individual data were gathered using a standardised questionnaire, which in the
former case was administered to a reference person of the household. In the latter case, all individuals
aged 16 or more were asked for personal information, including depressed mood (as measured by the
HDLF-scale).
Earlier analyses of attrition from the PSBH revealed that attrition probabilities were not random and
decline with duration. In this paper, we want to assess whether SES and a depressed mood are factors
that increase the risk of noncontact and noncooperation in the PSBH by analysing survey nonresponse
in two phases. We hereby account for the fact that attrition of individuals in the PSBH can be the
result of a decision-making process at household level, and/or a decision of the adult individual
himself. We begin our analysis by looking at the response behaviour of households. Attrition in this
analysis phase reflects survey nonparticipation caused by failed contact or lack of cooperation at
household level. In the second phase of analysis we concentrate on participating households and assess
whether the nonresponse behaviour of individual household members within these households can also
be explained by SES and a depressed mood.
In order to explain why certain households or individuals are at higher risk to attrite from the panel,
we will estimate year-by-year attrition probabilities using discrete-time logit models. The discrete-time
logit approach is particularly effective at handling time-dependent covariates and covariate-time
interactions. This makes it possible to incorporate changing respondent characteristics and to test if
attrition behaviour changes with the duration of the panel.
Keywords: attrition, socio-economic status, depressive mood, Panel Study of Belgian Households
323
Survey Attrition and Estimation Strategies in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Trena M. Ezzati-Rice and David Kashihara, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, Agency
for Healthcare Quality and Research, [email protected]
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, is an ongoing longitudinal panel survey designed to produce estimates of health care
utilization, expenditures, sources of payment, and insurance coverage of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. The MEPS-Household Component (HC) consists of an overlapping panel
design in which each new panel of households is interviewed a total of five times over a period of 30
months to yield use and expenditure data for two calendar years. The sample of households selected
for the MEPS-HC is a sub-sample of households who completed the prior year’s National Health
Interview Survey (NHIS), another large ongoing national health survey. A key design feature of the
MEPS is the capacity to conduct both cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses to address
current and emerging health care policy issues. The adjustment strategy used in MEPS to compensate
for survey nonresponse includes: (1) an adjustment for dwelling unit nonresponse to account of
household nonresponse after round 1 among those households sub-sampled from the NHIS and (2) a
nonresponse adjustment to account for survey attrition at the person level. To inform the specification
of nonresponse adjustment strategies to compensate for survey attrition, this paper examines and
compares the characteristics of participants in the initial round of data collection for a recent MEPS
panel with those who discontinue their participation in subsequent rounds. The identified auxiliary
variables are compared with those currently used in MEPS to compensate for survey attrition. Also, to
assess the effectiveness of the nonresponse adjustment strategies used in MEPS to minimize the
impact of nonresponse bias in the resulting survey estimates due to sample attrition, national
healthcare expenditure estimates are compared using annual, panel-specific, and longitudinal data.
This study is part of ongoing efforts to ensure the accuracy of the MEPS survey estimates.
Keywords: nonresponse, survey attrition, longitudinal panel survey
Determinants of Mail Survey Response Rates over a 30 Year Period, 1970-2000. An
Analysis of Community Studies at the German Institute of Urban Affairs
Volker Hüfken, Department of Social Science, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf,
Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany, [email protected]
One of the most difficult questions to answer about response rates to mail surveys concerns whether
response rates have been declining in recent years. Another question about which little is known is the
extent to which characteristics of particular survey populations influence the level of response. 340
studies were analysed. The final response rate averages 56 %. The type of population, the length of the
questionnaire affected final response independent of reminders. Results indicate too, that year of study
did have a significant effect on the mail survey response rates.
Keywords: mail survey, response rate over time,
Understanding why People take part in Surveys: The Case of the Families and Children
(panel) Survey
Miranda Philips, Shaun Scholes and Debbie Collins, National Centre for Social Research, UK,
[email protected]
An important factor in ensuring the robustness of panel survey data is that it continues to be
representative of the population group of interest. This can be achieved in a number of different ways
including:
the use of a refreshed panel sample design, whereby new cases are added to the study at specified
intervals so allowing changes at the aggregate level to be examined; and
324
the maintenance of the existing panel, through activities such as tracing movers, keeping in touch
exercises, use of advance letters and incentives.
The latter point is commonly adopted on panel surveys yet there is little evidence to demonstrate how
effective such strategies are in reducing panel attrition, whether different strategies work better with
different types of respondents and why these strategies work.
This paper explores these issues, drawing on work carried out on the Families and Children Study
(FACS). FACS is a government-funded longitudinal panel survey, which follows families with
children to monitor how their circumstances change over time. The survey has been running since
1999 and families are interviewed every year. The survey includes a refreshed panel sample design to
allow changes at the aggregate level to be examined. From the outset the survey also adopted a
number of panel maintenance strategies aimed at minimising panel attrition, such as tracing movers,
keeping in touch exercises and incentives. After the third wave of data collection in 2001 it was
decided to carry out a piece of qualitative work with FACS respondents to explore:
the factors affecting initial and on-going participation in the study;
the factors affecting the withdrawal of co-operation; and
the effectiveness of existing panel maintenance strategies.
A number of recommendations for improvements to existing panel maintenance strategies were made,
specifically in areas concerned with informing respondents about the nature and purpose of the study,
securing respondents’ (ongoing) participation, in providing reassurance about participation in the
survey, and with dealing with panel refusals.
A number of these recommendations were implemented in the subsequent round of the study (2002).
Analysis of response data allowed us to evaluate the impact of the implementation of these strategies
as a whole on reducing panel attrition for the survey, both overall and for different types of
respondents. This paper presents the findings of this evaluation and makes recommendations for
further research.
Keywords: panel attrition, panel maintenance strategies, respondent’ motivation
Nonresponse trends in the United States National Health Interview Survey, 1997-2003
Howard Riddick, Survey Planning and Development, Division of Health Interview Statistics, National
Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, Maryland, USA.
The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is one of the major data collection systems of the
National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The NHIS
uses a multistage sample designed to represent the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the
United States. A new sample is drawn for each annual survey. The questionnaire is administered in the
household using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and has three major collection
components: the family, the sample child and the sample adult. Basic information is collected on all
family members from an adult living in the household. Additional information is collected for one
randomly selected sample adult and one randomly selected child. A knowledgeable adult reports for
the sample child, while the sample adult self-reports.
Trends in nonresponse will be presented for the household, sample adult, and sample child. Efforts
undertaken to improve or maintain response rates will be presented and discussed. Such efforts include
an interviewer incentive program, modifying the interview close out period in one region to allow for
more weekend days for interviewing, conducting a split sample test of refusal aversion training
emphasizing active listening and role playing, and the sponsorship of a response rate summit in
February 2002. Sponsored by the United States Census Bureau and the Interagency Household Survey
Nonresponse Group, the purpose of the summit was to provide a forum for discussion among experts
in the field about how to address concerns related to the decreasing response rate trend in household
surveys. Expert panel members included representatives from university survey centers, private survey
companies, and from Statistics Canada. Panel recommendations will be discussed.
Keywords: nonresponse
325
Part III: Cinficence in Surveys and Motivation to Answer
Understanding Nonresponse of the Twelfth Graders in the National Assessment of
Education Progress: Social Isolation Theoretical Approach
Young Chun, American Institutes for research, 1990 K Street NW Suite 500, Washington DC 20006,
[email protected]
The purpose of this paper is to explain ‘nonresponse of twelfth graders’ in national assessments such
as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) according to “social isolation theory” and
using models of nonresponse measurement developed by Groves and Couper (1998). We have used
data on 12,000 twelfth graders in the 2000 High School Transcript Study (HSTS) and linking 2000
NAEP surveys of students, teachers and principals all collected by the National Center for Education
Statistics. By identifying factors central to reducing nonresponse at three levels of analysis (i.e.,
student, school, and social-psychological perception), we have the findings that address both
theoretical implications for the external validity of a social isolation theory of nonresponse and
practical implications about measures of interventions to be recommended to reduce nonresponse in
the national assessments of students.
Unit Nonresponse among Foreigners Caused by Non Willingness to Participate in
Survey Research. An International Comparison of Strategies Dealing with the Problem
Remco Feskens, Joop Hox, Hans Schmeets, Gerty Lensvelt-Mulders, Department of Methodology and
Statistics, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, tel. ++31-30-253 14 90,
[email protected]
High non-response rates among ethnic minorities are a major cause of concern. There are in particular
problems with the willingness to cooperate in a survey- earlier research suggests that refusals to
cooperate are the main cause of non-response. The major consequences of non-response, increasing
costs for reaching a desired response rate and more seriously, the reduction of validity are especially a
problem among ethnic minorities because they are likely to differ systematically from other groups.
In this paper we will make an international comparison of strategies used to reduce non-cooperation
among ethnic minorities. This because little is known about eventual differences in strategies trying to
minimize non-response among ethnic minorities caused by refusals.
We discuss an international comparison of the non-willingness of foreigners to participate in survey
research, their profile and the tailor made strategies used by the national statistical agencies of the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The effectiveness of these
tailor made strategies will be evaluated.
It will not only be of theoretical interest to see what strategies other countries use in trying to reduce
nonresponse among foreigners. This paper will also present some useful recommendations regarding
tailored strategies in persuading ethnic minorities to participate in survey research. This may help
increase the validity of survey research and ideally make it also more cost-effective than the present
used strategies.
Keywords: unit nonresponse, refusals, hard to contact groups, tailor made strategies.
326
Task Dedication, Task Alienation and What Data Collection Instruments Mean to
Respondents
Patricia A. Gwartney1, Vikas Kumar Gumbhir1 and Anthony Leiserowitz2
1
Department of Sociology, 1291 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1291, USA, 541-346-5007
2
Decision Research, 1201 Oak Street, Eugene OR 97401, USA, 541-485-2400
[email protected]
This paper continues the authors’ explorations of the meanings survey respondents ascribe to surveys,
censuses and political polls and how those meanings affect latent aspects of survey participation. We
find that survey respondents’ meanings about data collection instruments, as well as their ability to
visualize those meanings, independently affects item response and nonresponse. We frame the
research with symbolic interactionist concepts we call “task dedication” and “task alienation” and
affective imagery analysis from word association research in cognitive psychology.
Survey instruments include keywords, e.g., “community” and “election,” that evoke different
subjective meanings in respondents and vary by their knowledge, beliefs, values and demographic
characteristics. Yet methodologists have paid little attention to keywords in survey introductions,
questions, and answer categories – and even the word “survey”.
For the past few years, we have sought to uncover certain keywords’ differential meanings for
respondents and to map their distribution across populations. In one subproject, we experimented with
using “survey,” “census” and “political poll” as stimuli in word- and image-association questions. We
randomly assigned 806 respondents to receive one of the following question pairs:
What is the first thought What is the first thought that What is the first thought that
that comes to mind when comes to mind when you comes to mind when you
the
term
“U.S. hear the term “political
you
hear
the
word hear
poll”?
census”?
“survey”?
And what is the first picture And what is the first picture And what is the first picture
or image that comes to or image that comes to mind or image that comes to mind
mind when you think of a when you think of the “U.S. when you think of a
“political poll”?
census”?
“survey”?
To explore conceptual ambiguity in respondents’ understandings of these terms, we employ affective
image analysis to classify their subjective meanings and multivariate analysis to examine their
correlates. Respondents who answered the word association questions with a concrete visual image
about a survey, census, or political poll we label “visualizers.”
One key finding is that survey respondents’ ability to visualize significantly correlates with taskdedicated behaviour as they completed the interview. Specifically, visualizers exhibit significantly
reduced item nonresponse (“don’t know” and “refuse” answers), more words answering open-ended
questions, and shorter surveys, net of standard control variables, including cognitive sophistication.
We find that item response and nonresponse also varies consistently by certain meanings that survey
respondents assign to data collection instruments.
Keywords: Item nonresponse, telephone surveys, symbolic interaction, affective imagery
Measuring the Respondent’s Attitude towards Surveys.
Geert Loosveldt and Vicky Storms, K.U. Leuven, Department of Sociology, Van Evenstraat 2B,
Leuven, Belgium
Measuring the respondent’s attitude towards surveys is not obvious. In the paper some of the
measurement problems will be examined. The key problem is that a survey must be used to measure
the respondent’s attitude towards surveys. One of the most problematic aspects of collecting
information about attitude towards surveys by means of a survey is the fact that it is not possible or a
least extremely difficult to measure this attitude for a relevant group of people who refuse to
participate in the interview. One can assume that the respondent’s attitude has an effect on the
327
respondent’s decision to participate in the interview and that refusers have a more negative attitude
than respondents. As a consequence the measurement of the respondent’s attitude towards surveys is
extremely sensitive for non response error and will be biased in a positive direction. The analysis of
the relationship between the respondent’s attitude and indirect indicators of the respondent’s
willingness to participate in an interview (doorstep reactions, evaluation of doubts to participate,
evaluation of future participation in surveys, …) will be used to investigate this assumption.
One can also assume that the respondent’s attitude towards surveys is related to other substantive
attitudes which are relevant to ‘the survey taking climate’ (feelings of insecurity, trust in institutions,
political alienation, social involvement …). Results of this analysis in combination with information
about the bias in the measurement of the respondent’s attitude towards surveys will be used to evaluate
measurement bias in these substantive attitudes.
In the analysis data will be used from the survey ‘Cultural shifts in Flanders: 2002’. In this survey a
‘General attitude towards surveys scale’ was used. The results of the analysis support the assumption
that the measurement of the respondent’s attitude towards surveys is biased in a positive direction and
that this information can be used to evaluate bias in the measurement of other substantive attitudes.
Keywords: non response error, measurement error, the survey taking climate
Does the Performance Matter? A Multilevel Analysis of the Effects of Individual and
Performance Characteristics on Response in Audience Research
Henk Roose, John Lievens and Hans Waege, Ghent University, Ghent-Social Science Research and
Methodology & Cultural Policy Research Centre ’Re-Creatief Vlaanderen’, Belgium,
[email protected]
This paper focuses on the effects of characteristics of the performance on the decision to cooperate in
an audience survey. Respondent related correlates of survey response, such as topic salience, gender,
age, educational attainment, etc. were already analysed in the specific survey setting of audience
research. Little is known, however, if and to what extent features of a performance might influence
survey response in an on-site audience survey.
Non-contacts in on-site audience research tend to be related to the on-site physical impediments faced
by the contacting agencies and with the characteristics of the playhouse in which the performance is
staged. Characteristics of the audience and the performance itself are less salient.
With refusals this is different. Both individual as well as performance features influence the
inclination to cooperate. Using a multilevel logistic regression model we map response behaviour in
audience research, simultaneously taking into account the characteristics of the members of the
audience and some features of the performance, such as length, genre, complexity, size of the
playhouse, etc. Results are interpreted within an explicit theoretical framework based on rational
choice and social exchange perspectives.
We collected the data by means of a two-stage sampling procedure and analyse the survey
participation to a postal survey in the second stage, ignoring the nonresponse in the first. The data are
part of an extensive audience survey in cultural institutions in Flanders, in which the audience of more
than 50 cultural institutions was enrolled in a study on arts participation.
Keywords: audience research, response, multilevel analysis
Survey Experience, Generalized Attitudes Towards Surveys and Respondents’
Willingness to Answer Questions in Subsequent Surveys
Modeling", L13,15, University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Tel: +49(0)621-1813432, Fax: +49(0)621-181-3451, [email protected]
This paper analyzes the effects of the evaluation by respondents’ of their last survey interview on their
attitudes towards surveys in general and whether these attitudes have an effect on their cooperation in
328
future surveys. Data from a locally defined random probability sample is used to answer these
questions. Firstly, subjects are found to differentiate between three dimensions when evaluating their
survey experience. These dimensions are the burden respondents experienced during their last survey
interview, how they judged its ‘entertainment value’ and how irritated they felt themselves to be by
confusing questions. According to our second finding, only the burden experienced affects how
subjects evaluate surveys in general. This association is found to be substantially stronger when the
evaluation of the burden experienced in past interviews is cognitively more accessible as measured by
the time needed to generate these judgments. This accessibility is found to be affected by the mode of
administration of subjects last survey interview. According to our third result, respondents’ with a
critical attitude towards surveys in general are more likely in the complete interview to answer ‘don’t
know’, to refuse to answer questions and to be judged by the interviewer to be in general less willing
to answer questions. However, the predictive power of attitudes towards surveys for respondents’
cooperation depends on the cognitive accessibility of these evaluations: fast attitude judgments are the
better predictor for the subjects’ willingness to answer questions. The cognitive accessibility of
attitudes towards surveys is found to increase with the number of subjects’ survey interviews in the
past. In summary, the burden experienced by respondents in past survey interviews impairs their
evaluation of surveys in general and thereby increases the prevalence of non-response in following
surveys. In this way, survey researchers themselves partly determine the conditions for their future
work.
Keywords: Attitudes towards surveys, item non-response, respondents’ burden, response latencies,
survey experience
SESSION: AIDED RECALL TECHNIQUES IN SURVEY INTERVIEWS
Organizors: Wander van der Vaart
Contact: Vrije Universiteit, Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen , Afdeling Methoden en Technieken,
De Boelelaan 1081-c , 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: Questioning procedures, recall accuracy, autobiographical memory, empirical tests
Abstract
In many disciplines information on past behavior and life events is central to scientific theories and
empirical research. The most frequently used method to obtain this information, is to reconstruct the
past by means of retrospective questions. Since retrospective data often suffer from recall error, social
researchers at times employ aided recall techniques to enhance data quality. Respondents are provided
with checklists, cues, landmarks, time frames and the like. Timeline procedures and event history
calendars integrate a number of such techniques and appear to be promising instruments in survey
research. Still, the application of aided recall techniques often concerns ad hoc solutions that lack a
proper theoretical framework.
The session concerns research on theoretically based principles of aided recall techniques in surveys
and their empirical tests. Center of attention are the (social) cognitive processes underlying aided
recall techniques and their implications for questioning procedures and questionnaire design. While
the primary focus of the matter is on retrieval processes, connections may exist with each of the major
components of the response process - comprehension, retrieval, judgment and estimation, reporting. In
addition, issues may be raised as to what extent aided recall techniques can go together with
standardization of survey research and whether they can be tailored to different types of respondents,
recall tasks and modes of data collection.
329
Improving the Quality of Retrospective Reports: Calendar Interviewing Methodologies
Robert F. Belli, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Gallup Research Center, USA, [email protected]
Event History Calendars (EHCs) are predicted to encourage respondents to use idiosyncratic cues
available in the structure of autobiographical memory, improving the quality of retrospective reports.
Although structured, EHCs encourage a more flexible interviewing style in comparison to traditional
standardized Question-List (Q-list) methods. Such flexibility allows the introduction of effective
retrieval cues that include already-reported events from respondents’ pasts that cannot be easily
scripted in advance. Three methodological studies have directly compared the quality of retrospective
reports from EHC and Q-list interviews. 1) The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 2-year
Calendar Methods Study used paper and pencil instruments and focused on events that occurred 1 to 2
years previously. Interviewers and respondents were randomly assigned to EHC (n = 309; 84%
cooperation rate) and Q-list (n = 307; 84% cooperation rate) conditions. Prior year panel reports from
the PSID were used as a standard of comparison. In data quality comparisons that examined
retrospective reports of the occurrence and timing of residence changes, employment and
unemployment histories, spells of missing work, and receipt of social entitlements, the EHC
significantly outperformed the Q-list in 12 of 23 comparisons, and the Q-list provided better
retrospective reports in only one of them. 2) The Lifecourse Intimate Partner Violence Study used
paper and pencil EHC (n = 40) and Q-list (n = 359) instruments in face-to-face interviews. Although
there were no validation data, results supported the EHC providing better quality retrospective reports
of intimate partner violence among a cohort of African American women aged between 18 and 54
years. Specifically, the EHC provided significantly more reports of intimate partner violence, and
reports of first exposures at younger ages for the older women. 3) The PSID Lifecourse Health and
Economic Measures Study used computerized instruments. Lifecourse PSID panel reports were used
as a standard of comparison. Respondents and interviewers were randomly assigned to conditions,
with data collected on 313 EHC (94% cooperation rate) and 318 Q-list (97% cooperation rate)
respondents. For most outcome measures, the EHC outperformed the Q-list in data quality, including
residential changes, cohabitation, amount of annual employment, and health status history. There was
no advantage in EHC interviews for unemployment and marriage histories. EHCs provide better
quality retrospective reports in both telephone and face-to-face modes, in both paper and pencil and
computer-assisted instruments, and in shorter (2-year) and lifecourse reference periods. Advantages of
EHC interviews occur without a substantive increase in interviewing time.
Keywords: Retrospective reports, calendar methods, data quality
Collecting Event History Data about Work Episodes Retrospectively: What Recall
Errors Occur and how can we Prevent them?
Maike Reimer, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, Center for Sociology and the Study of
the Life Course, Berlin, Germany, [email protected]
Event histories describe time periods as temporally ordered sequences of events or episodes and
transitions that capture the individual’s movement through a state space reflecting relevant
institutional features of a given life domain. In this paper, I examine how and how reliably episodes
and transitions are constructed when collecting work histories in a retrospective survey, and describe
the improvements in the data collecting procedure that were developed to prevent recall error.
I compare data from standardized interviews in the “East German Life History Study" (EGLHS) that
were collected once in 1992 and once in 1996. The recall task in the EGLHS is threefold: respondents
have to 1. place their work-related activities and roles at a given point in the past within the state
space; 2. reconstruct a transition into the next state, and 3. date start and end of the episode down to a
month.
Inconsistencies between reports are produced at all three stages of the reconstruction process. In the
later interview, about 44 % of the respondents omit or insert episodes, fuse or de-fuse episodes,
330
characterize episodes and transitions differently, move transitions into and out of the reference period
or produce completely different sequences. Overall, the later sequences show less change and are more
conventional, but changes in any direction occur. Reconstructions are also influenced by the changes
of labor market institutions and experiences from 1992 to 1996. Inconsistent reports are especially
likely where the organizational structure of memory does not correspond well to the state space.
Based on these findings, a computer-assisted data collection instrument for telephone interviews called
“L-DEX” is currently being developed, which helps interviewers and respondents to cooperatively
reconstruct the sequences as intended. In a calendar-like module they can go back and forth in time
and relate episodes within and across domains to access individual memory structure and to check and
resolve temporal inconsistencies. Special attention is paid to the crucial role of the interviewer as
“reconstruction guide” and interface between social scientific concepts, data/standardization
requirements, and memory processes.
Keywords: event history data, aided recall techniques, recall accuracy,
Influence Dating Formats on the Telescoping Effect and the Distribution of
Autobiographical Memory
Steve M. J. Janssen1, Antonio G. Chessa1 and Jaap M. J. Murre2
1
2
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
The effect of different formats for dating news and personal events was examined in two experiments.
In the first, subjects could choose between ago (e.g. “three weeks ago”) and calendar formats (e.g.
“June 15, 2003”), while in the second, they were assigned to either the ago or the calendar format
condition. We measured temporal displacement of news events and distribution of autobiographical
memory ages. We found in both experiments backward telescoping for recent news events and
forward telescoping for less recent news events. The ago format led to smaller errors in dating recent
events, but larger errors in older events. Furthermore, in the second experiment participants who had
to date personal events in the ago format reported more events that occurred recent, while subjects
answering in the calendar format reported more events that occurred less recent.
Keywords: Dating formats, telescoping, autobiographical memory.
Timeline Methods and Related Aided Recall Applications in Social Sciences and Health
Studies: a Review.
Wander van der Vaart, Department of Social Research Methods, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The
In the research practice of sociologists and health scientists concerns about the quality of retrospective
reports has given rise to the use of so called timeline methods. These aided recall procedures aim to
help respondents to gain better access to long-term memory by employing a graphical time frame in
which life history information can be represented.
Most considerations on timeline methods are to be found in life course research in sociology and
especially in health behaviour and treatment studies in health sciences. Both disciplines focus on the
retrospective reconstruction of (series or sequences of) behaviour and events during an extended time
period and share similar concerns about recall bias. In life course studies, respondents are typically
asked to recall their history on domains like employment, education, relationships, residences,
financial behaviour, et cetera. Health studies usually focus on more specific topics like risk behaviour
(e.g., alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviour) and medical events (e.g., cancer diagnosis, clinical
treatments, hospitalisation).
Timeline methods are widely employed in the health science, but they often lack sufficient theoretical
foundation. In quantitative life course studies relatively little attention has been devoted to research on
331
timeline methods, though some research indicates that they may have beneficial effects on data
quality.
This paper reviews applications of timeline methods in both disciplines in order to obtain more insight
into the potential benefits of timeline methodology and its effective mechanisms.
Keywords: Timeline methods, aided recall, recall accuracy, autobiographical memory
SESSION: DATA COLLECTION
Organizers: Katja Lozar Manfreda and Marek Fuchs
Contact: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploscad 5, 100 Ljubljana,
Slovenia, [email protected]
Abstract
In recent years data collection techniques have diversified: web-enabled surveys, mobile phone
surveys, electronic diaries, mixed mode surveys are just few of the recent developments. Many of
these data collection techniques have undergone serious assessments in terms of their impact on
coverage, non-response and measurement error. Others have received little attention from a
methodological point of view so far.
The session aims to bring together scholars from different backgrounds and organizational settings in
order to discuss the methodological impact of the new data collection techniques on the survey
process. Hence it is the goal of the session to improve the awareness that even though these data
collection techniques are new in terms of the technology or the communicational channel involved,
they are still to be judged according to the traditional standards of data collection. Thus, making use of
the advantages of these techniques should not compromise well established criteria of data quality.
Papers presented in this session should report results from evaluations using one data quality indicator
or another. If possible, papers may report results from experimental comparisons with other data
collection techniques.
Patterns of Mobile Phone Usage and their Impact on Participation in Mobile Phone
Surveys
Vasja Vehovar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, [email protected]
The popular use of mobile phones in developed countries created also an increasing trend of fixed
telephone noncoverage. As the majority of EU countries crossed the 80% penetration rate of mobile
phones, they also crossed or approached the 10% share of mobile-only households. Finland is on top
of this trend with 35% of mobile-only household in 2003, what actually prevents the fixed telephone
probability sample surveys of the general population. There exist sever problems with this surveys
mode, particularly the issues of costs, frames and legislation. However, the experiences with mobile
phone interviewer surveys in many countries showed that the cooperation problems remain on
approximately same level as with fixed telephone surveys.
This paper concentrate on another potential problem of this survey mode: the impact of the attitudes
on the mobile phone usage (including the patterns of usage) on survey participation. For this purpose,
the representative sample as well as the mobile phone sample were conducted: both included the
questions that characterized the segments of users according to the usage pattern and corresponding
attitudes. Based on this data, the users were structured into three segments: intensive pragmatic users,
intensive emotional users and less intensive users. The basic hypothesis was that the first and the third
group showed some specific contact rate patterns. However, with the second group, composed of
emotional users (they care about their mobile device and they developed certain relation or attachment
with it), we encountered specific measurement problems.
332
Comparing Anonymous and Non-Anonymous Research Methods Asking Sensitive and
Socially Desirable Questions.
When You See What Do You Get? Differences between Face-to-Face, Online and DesktopVideoconferencing Research Methods asking Sensitive and Socially Desirable Questions.
Hans-Ullrich Mühlenfeld, University of Bremen, Institute of Empirical and Applied Sociology
(EMPAS)
Celsiusstrasse, 28359 Bremen, Germany, Tel: +49 421 218-2673, Fax: +49 421 218-7474,
[email protected]
Research findings show that sensitive questions and questions about socially desirable behaviour
provoke a) the tendency to give a socially desirable answer and b) variance between more or less
anonymous interview modes. This paper investigates the tendency to give socially desirable answers
between three interview modes: a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI), a web-based
questionnaire (ONLINE) and an innovative method called Internet Assited Personal Interview (IAPI),
which uses a desktop video conference system to facilitate communication between the interviewer
and the interviewee. All three methods differ in anonymity, with the CAPI as the least anonymous
interview situation and the ONLINE as the most. Consequently, the interviewee's reaction to sensitive
questions and questions concerning socially desirable behaviour should differ between modes. The
results of a study using 90 undergraduate psychology students revealed interesting differences between
the three interview modes, showing that the IAPI is almost as efficient at asking such questions as the
CAPI.
Keywords: social desirability, computer mediated communication, interview mode effects, video
conference
Improving Questionnaire Design through the Provision of Electronic Access to Large
Scale Survey Questionnaires in the UK
Martin Bulmer, Harshad Keval and Julie Lamb, ESRC Question Bank, Department of Sociology,
University of Surrey, UK, [email protected]
The construction of questionnaires is an essential element in improving data collection techniques in
social survey research. The ESRC Social Survey Question Bank is an innovative attempt within the
UK social research community to make available the questionnaires from major social surveys via a
freely accessible web site: URL; http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk. The surveys selected for inclusion are in
the main major national surveys using probability sampling, the majority conducted by the Office for
National Statistics and the National Centre for Social Research. The Question Bank holds the majority
of these survey questionnaires in PDF format, easily accessible and searchable via the WWW,
amounting currently to approximately 30,000 pages, extending back to 1991. The whole of the United
Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, is covered. Some fifty surveys are at present included.
The Question Bank, established as part of the UK Centre for Applied Social Surveys, was set up in
1995 to improve the quality of UK survey research and in particular to try to improve survey
measurement. In addition to providing access to questionnaires, many of which were not readily
accessible previously, the Question Bank attempts to present commentary upon the measurement of
different survey variables, written by experts, as well as to provide access to the Harmonisation project
of the Office for National Statistics which seeks to standardise survey measurement across
government surveys. This aim of trying to achieve a degree of concordance in survey measurement
across different surveys is, as others have found, extremely problematical.
The approach adopted by the Question Bank to this problem has been an inductive one, to make a very
large amount of material available to easy access on the WWW, and to invite the user to search this
material using a powerful search engine on the QB site. This requires ingenuity and insight on the
user’ part to bridge the gap between concept and variable, or between the abstract idea and the actual
question. Sometimes this is easier to achieve than in other cases. The commentary is intended to
sensitise the user to some of the issues which can arise, but the amount of material on converting
333
concepts into variables is not extensive. The Question Bank relies upon the user drawing their own
conclusions about the comparability of questions and the most appropriate questions to include in the
type of survey which the user is designing.
Keywords: Question Bank, questionnaire, question, survey design, WWW
Effects of Survey Sponsorship and Mode of Administration on Respondents’ Answers
about their Racial Attitudes
Modeling", L13,15, University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany, Tel: +49(0)621-1813432, Fax: +49(0)621-181-3451, [email protected]
This paper analyzes whether or not the type of survey sponsor affects respondents’ answers about their
racial attitudes, and if so, which processes might be responsible for this effect. This is done with a split
ballot experiment where the survey sponsor was either specified to be a university or a commercial
company. It was assumed that respondents perceive positive racial attitude answers to be more socially
desirable when they are interviewed by an academic sponsor and that they adapt their response
behavior accordingly. One explanation for such sponsor-induced effects is that they are based on
impression management strategies and are entirely interviewer mediated in the sense that subjects
assume interviewers to share the desirability judgments of the respective sponsor organization. This is
tested by randomly assigning subjects to either an interviewer- or a self-administrated mode of data
collection, whereby the interviewers’ ability to perceive and sanction the responses is systematically
varied. Respondents from a random probability sample (N=218) answered the items of the blatant- and
subtle-prejudice scales after being randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. As
expected, university sponsorship provoked more positive racial attitude answers. However, these
differences were only found for interviewer- but not for self-administered interviews. Starting from an
identical average response behavior under the condition of high response privacy, the university
sponsor provoked more positive and the commercial sponsor more negative attitude reports when
interviewers recorded the answers. This interaction effect between the type of sponsor and the privacy
conditions proved to be statistically significant for the responses on the blatant- but not for the subtleprejudice scale. In summary, different types of sponsors seem to influence the expectations
respondents perceive on the part of the interviewers and thereby subjects’ beliefs about which answers
are situational instrumental in order to obtain social approval.
Keywords: Mode of administration, racial attitudes, social desirability, sponsor,
SESSION: SAMPLING METHODS
Organizor: Siegfried Gabler
Contact: Centre for Survey Research and Methodology, Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
Abstract
The session wil present new developments on the field of sampling and/or estimation methods. There
are papers dealing with issues such as:
Adaptive sampling, Coordinate sampling, Telephone sampling, Small area estimation , Variance
estimation, Weighting, Design effects.
334
Part I
Renáta Németh and Ildikó Zakariás, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Hungarian National
Center for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary, [email protected], [email protected]
In cases when the target population is the adult population of a certain area, it is reasonable to use an
accessible list of adults for the sampling design that is usually a multi-stage, stratified design with
equal sampling probabilities of individuals (Design A). However in certain cases (area sampling,
telephone surveys) this type of survey design is impossible to apply; the same holds in cases when
there is no such list of individuals available. This problem is often sorted out by using a different type
of two-stage design: households are selected first with almost equal sampling probabilities, and then
one adult member of each selected household is chosen applying a quasi-random procedure e.g. Leslie
Kish grid, last birthday method etc (Design B).
When evaluating the representativity of samples obtained by design B, researchers often refer to the
undersampling of males and overrepresentation of elderly people, originating the phenomenon from
the practical realisation of the interview, e.g. males being more difficult to find at home, and less
willing to participate.
In our paper some theoretical evidence will be given that explains the representation problems without
considering these assumptions (Renata Nemeth, working paper, 2003, www.lisproject.org). According
to our findings the major disadvantage of design B to design A lies in the resulting unequal selection
probabilities of individuals that can have severe consequences: the derived sample will not be
representative for even basic demographic characteristics of the population such as age or sex. It will
be proved that this effect is inherently connected to the sampling method and not to practical
problems. The literature does not prove this connection, nor does it normally mention it.
According to the results the expected performance of design B will vary country by country; this effect
will be examined for different countries where design B is in use.
In our lecture we will also provide empirical evidence underlining the theoretical significance of the
problem: the results of the Hungarian National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Hungarian
National Center for Epidemiology (HNCE) in 2000 and 2003 applying design A will be directly
compared with other Hungarian surveys applying design B; the differing levels of representativity will
be clearly revealed. The different types of weighting methods (Horwitz Thompson estimator) and the
differing design effects will also be examined.
In cases when the implementation of both design A and design B is feasible, it may be worth
considering the above mentioned aspects. We did the same in 2002 when the HNCE joined the WHO
World Health Survey covering 70 countries. Although the WHO sampling plan suggested design B
with the Leslie Kish grid as a sampling design, referring to the above findings and also to the existence
of a proper quality list of the Hungarian adult population we suggested the implementation of design A
instead; the proposal has been accepted by the WHO.
Keywords: sampling frame, Leslie Kish grid
Methods for Achieving Equivalence of Samples in Cross-National Surveys
Peter Lynn1, Siegfried Gabler2, Sabine Häder2 and Seppo Laaksonen3
1
Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, UK, [email protected];
2
Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen (ZUMA), Mannheim, Germany, [email protected], [email protected];
3
University of Helsinki, Finland: [email protected]
A central objective of the European Social Survey (ESS) is to improve the quality of cross-national
survey design and implementation. This requires advances in the standards of survey methodology in
335
many countries and advances in the conceptualisation and implementation of ideas of standardisation
and comparability.
In this paper, we will describe the procedures that were used to ensure equivalence of the sample
designs used in the 23 countries participating in round 1 of the ESS. This involved the careful
specification of the permissible parameters of the sample design as well as ongoing interaction
between the ESS sampling panel and the ESS national co-ordinators in each country.
A number of aspects of these procedures were novel and we will focus particularly on these and will
attempt to evaluate the success of each. These include:
Specification of the national sample size in terms of the “effective sample size” of interviews;
Provision of guidance on how to predict the design effect due to variable selection probabilities
( DEFFP ) and the design effect due to clustering ( DEFFC ), and how to use these predictions to
determine the necessary sample size;
Intensive procedures for interaction between the members of the sampling panel, between the
sampling panel and the national co-ordinators, and between the sampling panel and the ESS central
co-ordinating team.
Keywords: Cross-national surveys, design effects, European Social Survey, sample design
Chris Skinner and Marcel de Toledo Vieira, University of Southampton, United Kingdom,
[email protected]
The design effect measures the inflation of the sampling variance of an estimator as a result of the use
of a complex sampling scheme. It is usually measured relative to the variance of the estimator under
simple random sampling. Many social survey designs employ multi-stage sampling, leading to some
clustering of the sample and this tends to lead to design effects greater than unity. There is some
empirical evidence that design effects from clustering tend to decrease the more complex the analysis.
For example, design effects for regression coefficients are often found to be less than design effects for
the mean of the dependent variable in the regression. Evidence of design effects close to unity for such
analyses may be used by some analysts of survey data to justify ignoring the sampling design in
complex analyses. In this paper we present some evidence of an opposite tendency, for design effects
to be higher for complex longitudinal analyses than for corresponding cross-sectional analyses. Our
empirical evidence is based upon data from the British Household Panel Study. This survey follows
longitudinally a sample of individuals selected in 1991 by two-stage sampling, with clustering by area.
Data are collected in annual waves. Our analyses are based upon a subsample of women aged 16-39.
The dependent variable is a gender role attitude score, derived from responses to six five-point
questions, and treated as a continuous variable. Covariates include age group, economic activity and
educational qualifications. Longitudinal regression models include random effects for women. Data
are analysed for five waves of the survey when the gender role attitude questions were asked. The
design effects for the regression coefficients are found to increase the more waves are included in the
analysis. A similar tendency is observed for estimates of the time-averaged mean of the dependent
variable. A possible theoretical explanation is provided. The implication of these findings is that
standard errors in analyses of longitudinal survey data may be very misleading if the inital sample was
clustered and if this clustering is ignored in the analysis.
Keywords: clustering; design effect; longitudinal analysis; random effects model;
Impact of the Geographical Size of Clusters on the Precision of Survey Estimates
Kevin Pickering and
[email protected]
Sarah
Tipping,
National
Centre
for
Social
Research,
UK,
The samples for most large-scale face to face surveys in the UK are selected to be clustered within
geographical areas. This is done to make the fieldwork more manageable and, as a result, reduces the
336
costs for the survey (for a fixed sample size). There is a negative impact of clustering a sample and
that is a reduction in the precision for survey estimates – the greater the level of clustering, the lower
the precision of the estimates. This reduction in precision is observed because respondents within the
same cluster tend to be ‘more similar‘ than people in the general population.
In order to issue larger sample sizes within a set budget, there has been a tendency in recent years for
the samples for some Government surveys to be clustered within smaller geographical areas.
Therefore, rather than samples being clustered with Postcode Sectors (where the average number of
addresses is 2700 per sector) or Wards (where the average number of addresses is 2360), there has
been a trend towards clustering samples within half- or quarter-Postcode Sectors or Wards.
This presentation will investigate the impact of different geographic sizes for clusters (full-, half- and
quarter-postcode sector) on the precision of estimates for a number of Government surveys, including
the Health Survey for England, the National Travel Survey and the Survey of English Housing. By
comparing the loss in precision from using smaller clusters against the gains in cost efficiency, we will
assess the net effect on efficiency (i.e. precision per cost) of different levels of clustering on survey
estimates.
Keywords: clustering, precision, cost efficiency, Postcode Sector
Part II
GenD: An Evolutionary Algorithm for Re-sampling in Survey Research
Daria Croce1 and Cinzia Meraviglia2
1
University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy: [email protected]
2
University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy: [email protected]
The paper presents a method for generating new records in databases of limited size (200-500 cases)
by means of an evolutionary algorithm (close to, but different from, a genetic algorithm). This method
can be of aid when budget constraints limit the number of interviews, or in case of a population that
shows some sociologically interesting trait, but whose small size can seriously affect the reliability of
estimates, or in case of secondary analysis on small samples.
The applicative ground is given by causal research designs with one or more dependent and a set of
independent variables. The estimation of new cases – i.e. cases inferred by the algorithm on the basis
of the observed density function of the variables considered – takes place according to the
maximization of a fitness function (see, among others, Eberhardt, Simpson and Dobbins 1996). The
procedure outcomes a number as large as needed of new “virtual” cases, which (should) reproduce the
statistical traits of the original population. The algorithm used is GenD, designed and implemented by
Semeion Reserach Centre (Rome) (Buscema 2004); among its features there is an innovative crossover procedure, which tends to select individuals with average fitness values, rather than those who
show best values at each “generation”.
Our aim is to show how the estimation of “new” cases takes place, as well as to evaluate it from a
methodological point of view. Some preliminary trials show that the “virtual” data generated by the
algorithm are not only close to the observed sample in respect of many statistical indicators (mean and
standard deviations, value range, univariate and multivariate distribution, etc.), but they also consent
better estimation of the parameters of causal models. The quality of the new data will be tested by
means of traditional statistical models as well as neural networks, according to a particularly thorough
design (see Fig. 1): 1) the observed sample is half-splitted, only a half is analyzed via traditional
techniques or neural networks; 2) cross-validation is performed to find out how good the parameter
estimates are; 3) GenD calculates the pseudo-inverse of the estimated parameter matrix; 4) the best
individuals at each generation form the “virtual” new population; 5) “virtual” data are tested against
the second half of the observed sample (which has never been used since now, except than in crossvalidation); 6) if virtual data consent a better or equal performance (i.e. better estimate of the inverse
of the parameter matrix), routine statistical analysis is performed to examine the functional distribution
described by the new data.
337
As a new set of trials, GenD will be applied to a small data set from a survey on the role social capital
in the reproduction of inequalities in a local area of North Western Italy. The questionnaire generated
over 500 variables, mostly regarding the working life history of the interviewees. This new trial is part
of a set of analyses to be performed in the context of a national research project for updating the Italian
Scale of Social Desirability of Occupations (de Lillo and Schizzerotto, 1985).
Fig. 1.
Sample
(N = 400)
Training sample
(N = 200)
Causal analysis
(standard techniques/
neural networks)
Testing sample
(N = 200)
Cross-validation
GenD → pseudo inverse parameter
matrix (testing sample left aside)
“new” records
Causal analysis performed on
the “new” sample; results tested
against the testing sample
Analysis of the
References
“new”sample
Buscema M. (2004, forthcoming), Genetic doping algorithm (GenD): Theory and applications, Expert
Systems, May, vol. 21,
n. 2
de Lillo A. and Schizzerotto A. (1985), La valutazione sociale delle occupazioni (Social evaluation of occupations), Bologna,
Il Mulino
Eberhart R., Simpson P. and Dobbins R. (1996), Computational intelligence PC tools, London, Academic Press
Nina Baur and Christian Lahusen, University of Bamberg, Germany, [email protected]
When analyzing social change, researches frequently face the problem that new research questions
arise. For these questions almost never survey data are available. Very often, the can researchers
neither use retrospective interviews. In such cases, researchers have only two possibilities: They can
start a new survey. However, this excludes the possibility of studying former change which might be
the actual research question. The alternative is to construct a new data set using process-generated
data. Social scientists rarely reflect sampling problems arising from and strategies for using this data
type. Using the media discourse on unemployment as an example (focussing on newspapers for
practical reasons), we suggest solutions for process-generated data. Researchers face three types of
over layered sampling problems:
Bias of Available Data I (Data Production Process): When using process-generated data, researchers
cannot control the process of data production. Data are already biased during production.
Bias of Available Data II (Data Selection Process):The more time passes, the more of the original data
decay or are deliberately destroyed. This process, too, is biased, as humans have to actively want to
preserve data available for later use. The researcher can influence neither data production nor data
selection process. However, both process influence what data are available at all. Researchers cannot
338
change this situation. They only can estimate biases by qualitatively analyzing production and
selection contexts. They also can triangulate media data with other data.
Sampling Strategies for Process-Generated Data: Very often the amount of process generated data is
so large that researchers has to sample them. For sampling media data, researchers need a multi-saged
sampling procedure: First the question arises, which media to choose. The next question is which
issues to choose. The third question is which articles to choose from one single issue.
For the third question, we suggest simply sampling all relevant articles from one issue. However,
researchers face a trade-off between this and the following sampling stage: They can either analyse
many issues out of few newspapers (Strategy 1) or few issues from many different newspapers
(Strategy 2). In Strategy 2, the chosen issues might not be typical for the discourse in this single
newspaper. In Strategy 1, the chosen newspaper might not be typical for the overall discourse. In order
to analyse discourses, researchers also need to focus change over time, thus facing a third problem: If
the time span is large, researchers can only sample few issues per time unit – they might miss
important fluctuations in discourse. If the time span is small, researchers might miss important longterm shifts in the discourse.
We tried to solve this problem by generating two separate samples. Each sample can be used to
estimate sampling errors the other sample. For Sample 1, one newspaper was chosen that we presumed
to be “typical” for the discourse. The time span was very short (1997 to 2000). Thus minimising
sampling problems on the second selection stage, as three issues per week could be analysed. For
Sample 2, we chose ten different newspaper using the most different cases design. We also extended
the time span (1964 to 2000), selecting only issues from every 4th year in order to eliminate effects of
election and economic cycles. For selected years, we chose issues starting from a reference day.
Starting from this date we used adaptive sampling strategies to choose as many relevant issues as
possible.
Keywords: Process-Generated Data, Sampling Bias, Multi-Staged Sampling, Adaptive Sampling, Most
Different Cases Design, Longitudinal Research, Time Units, Time Span, Validity, Information
Accessibility
Estimating Domestic Tourism Expenditure in Developing Economies: Lessons from
India
Rajesh Shukla and Pradeep Srivastava, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER),
Parisila Bhawan, New Delhi, India, [email protected]
The paper focuses on two central albeit inter-related questions. First, how should data on domestic
tourism be generated? This is difficult question even in the context of OECD economies, but more so
in developing countries with different institutional infrastructure and resource constraints. Second, it
also addresses the issue of credibility; in a sense raison de etre’ of the Tourism Satellite Accounts
(TSA) framework. More specifically, we seek to evaluate based on the Indian experience different
possible modules of an inter-institutional platform that can contribute to enhancing credibility of the
TSA in a developing country context.
The Indian experience in developing a TSA is distinct for at least two reasons: first, the Government
has commissioned a dedicated survey of domestic tourism and, second, the responsibility has been
entrusted to a non-government organization, albeit one that is respected and has high credibility. These
distinctions, virtually by definition would also constitute caveats in any attempt at generalizing to a
broader context.
Given these caveats, this paper has used the experience of domestic tourism data generation in India to
highlight issues that may confront other countries undertaking similar processes. Household budget
surveys, although active in India, are undertaken only once every five years on large samples, and on
thin samples in other years. Since data already existing was relatively old, scarce and not readily
amenable for use in a TSA, it was decided to undertake a dedicated household survey of domestic
tourism. The survey would measure both number of tourists of various types and their expenditures.
339
The sampling design adopted recognized the heterogeneity of distribution of tourists in the population
and weak priors on this underlying distribution. Consequently, the survey developed a sampling frame
in the last stage of its multistage stratification, with the belief that the higher costs would be more than
made up by the benefits in precision of estimates and other factors. In view of seasonal nature of
tourism, the survey was undertaken in two rounds during the reference period of one year.
The survey methodology put considerable emphasis on the role of training, which was found
extremely useful in negating preconceived (and ill informed) notions about tourism in the general
population, conveying accurately to investigators and respondents concepts and definitions underlying
TSA, and enhancing enthusiasm and motivation in the investigators.
Keywords: Tourism Satellite Accounts, Domestic Tourist, Usual environment, Multi-stage sample
design.
Sampling Undocumented Immigrants in Brussels via Snowball Sampling: Theoretical
and Practical Considerations
Mila Paspalanova, KU Leuven, Belgium, [email protected]
The proposed paper concentrates on the problematic of sampling undocumented Eastern European
immigrants residing in Brussels. By focusing explicitly on two groups of undocumented immigrants
e.g. the Polish and the Bulgarian immigrants we would present theoretical and practical arguments for
justifying the chain referral method or the snowball sampling procedure as the only available method
for sampling understudied and unknown populations.
The paper proceeds by firstly presenting a broad overview of the research traditions in the field of
sampling the so called hidden or hard to reach human populations. The discussion of the advantages
and the limitations of this non-random sampling procedure would be presented and exemplified in the
light of classical and contemporary studies (such as the ones of Biernacki & Waldorf (1981), Eland
Goossensen et al. (1997), Faugier & Sargeant (1997), Sudman (1972), Welch (2001)) adopting
snowball sampling as a sampling tool.
The second part of the paper would focus on the specific characteristics of the undocumented Eastern
European immigrants in Brussels witch make the application of random sampling techniques
practically impossible. In the same line of presentation we would also touch upon the situation of
sampling (or better said of non-sampling) and studying undocumented populations in Brussels until
now and we would illuminate the overall neglect of the need of applying any sampling procedure in
the research on undocumented immigrants.
In the final section of the paper we would present the practical ways of implementing snowball
sampling for identifying undocumented immigrants in Brussels and we would discuss upon the
encountered methodological problems. Similarities and differences in comparison with other related
studies employing snowball sampling would be drawn. To conclude we would present the initial
results of the sampling of undocumented Eastern European immigrants in Brussels.
Keywords: snowball sampling, hard to reach populations; undocumented immigrants; Brussels
References
Biernacki, P., Waldorf, D. (1981) Snowball Sampling. Problems and Techniques of Chain Referral Sampling. Sociological
Methods and Research, Vol. 10, 2, 141-163.; Eland-Goossensen, M., Van de Goor, L., Vollemans, E., Hendriks, V.,
Garretsen, H. (1997) Snwoball Sampling Applied to Opiate Addicts Outside the Treatement System. Addiction Research,
Vol. 5, 4, 317-330.; Faugier, J., Sargeant, M. (1997) Sampling Hard to reach Populations. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Vol.
26, 790-797.; Sudman, S. (1972) On Sampling of Very Rare Human Populations. Journal of the American Statistical
Association, Vol. 67, 338, 335-339.; Welch, S. (2001) Sampling by Referral in a Dispersed Population. Public Opinion
Quarterly, Vol. 39, 2, 237-245.
340
Using Adaptive Sampling Methods in the Analysis of Social Phenomena on the WWW
Robert Ackland, Centre for Social Research, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian
National University, [email protected]
Over the past 10 years, the Internet has become an important tool for communication, with individuals
and organisations increasingly using e-mail and the World Wide Web (WWW) for day-to-day
personal and professional interactions. While the WWW is largely seen as a new information and
communication media, it is also highly effective in facilitating the formation and maintenance of
networks and this has particularly been evident in area of politcal and social movements. Social
scientists are turning to the Internet as a rich source of data for research on interactions and the
formation of networks, but currently do not have appropriate methods for collecting and analysing
Web data. Given the potentially huge quantities of data that can be collected from the WWW, one
particular problem facing social scientists is: how to construct appropriate samples for further
analysis? In this paper, Web data collected as part of a study into the networking behaviour of
Australian political parties wll be used to illustrate the applicability of different methods of adaptive
sampling for the study of social and political phenomena on the WWW.
Keywords: online communities, Web mining, graph theory
STREAM: LATENT VARIABLES MODELLING
SESSION: LATENT GROWTH CURVE STRUCTURUAL EQUATION
MODELS, AUTOREGRESSIVE AND HYBRID MODELS
Organizors: Jost Reinecke1 and Peter Schmidt2
Contact: 1University of Trier, Germany, [email protected]
2
Keywords: Growth Curve Modelling, longitudinal Data, Structural Equation Modelling,
Autoregressive Modelling
Abstract
In the last years a fastly growing literature has been dealing with the use and new applications of latent
growth curves within the structural equation modeling approach. Previously, growth curve modeling
was mainly discussed in developmental psychology. In sociology and political science autoregressive
models have been mostly applied to model longitudinal data. In several papers, Bollen and Curran
have compared the strengths and weaknesses of latent growth models and autoregressive models for
modeling longitudinal data and proposed hybrid models to combine them. In this section we want to
bring in papers which take up this issue and compare these three types of models. Special attention is
given to the problem which type of information in growth curves and autoregressive models can be
modeled and gained. Besides more fundamental papers we look for applications in sociology, political
science and social psychology. These applications should also include intervention and evaluation
studies.
341
Combining Autoregressive and Semiparametric Mixture Models: Investigating the
Selection-Facilitation Effect of Peers on Antisocial Behaviors
Eric Lacourse1, Daniel Nagin2 and Richard E. Tremblay1
1
University of Montreal, Canada, [email protected]
2
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Being part of a delinquent group has been shown to facilitate antisocial behavior. Different analytical
approaches have been used to show this socialization effect. Recent work, in the field of structural
equation modeling (Curran & Bollen, 2001) demonstrated that it could be useful to combine an
autoregressive and a growth curve model to describe complex processes that consider both population
heterogeneity and state dependence. The present study expands on this work by combining both the
autoregressive and semi-parametric mixture model (Nagin, 1999) using data from the Montreal
Longitudinal Experimental Study. Although these statistical methods are often used separately there
are many advantages to combine both. One main advantage of this combined analytic approach is to
estimate the effects of time varying covariates (e.g. delinquent peers) on distinct developmental
trajectories of antisocial behavior (e.g. early onset, late onset, desisters). Furthermore, this method
enables the researcher to simultaneously model the association between trajectories of distinct but
related behaviors, and to estimate the common heterogeneity using a set of risk factors. Potential
extensions and limitations of this modeling strategy will be discussed.
Keywords: semiparametric mixture model, antisocial behavior, autoregressive model
Pay Off and Impact of Varying the Intercept in Latent Growth Curve Modeling
Manuel C. Voelkle, University of Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
Latent growth models have become an increasingly popular approach to model change over time.
Naturally, the focus lies primarily on the latent linear or nonlinear slope factor, whereas the latent
intercept is just a by-product that is often merely considered due to reasons of completeness, rather
than substantial interest. In many cases, however, researchers are not just interested in predicting
individual growth curves, but also in predicting between subject variance at a specific point in time.
By adjusting the factor loading vector of the latent intercept, the position of the intercept can be easily
altered to any – observed and even unobserved – point of measurement.
It will be illustrated, how changing the factor loading vector of the latent intercept, can be used to
obtain more reliable estimates of between subject variance at a specific point of time. Paying closer
attention to the position of the latent intercept, may also help to understand and resolve many alleged
paradoxes and phenomena in the analysis of change, such as the Law of Initial Values (Wilder, 1957,
Lacey & Lacey, 1962), the Overlap Hypothesis (Anderson, 1939, Bloom, 1964), or the Fanspread
Effect (Campbell & Erlebacher, 1970). Theoretical and empirical evidence from the field of skill
acquisition will be provided to demonstrate the superiority of this approach over conventional
regression analyses, and implications for the concepts of reliability and validity will be discussed.
Keywords: Latent growth curve modeling, latent intercept, factor loading matrix, reliability, validity,
skill acquisition
References
Anderson, J. E. (1939). The limitations of infant and preschool tests in the measurement of intelligence. Journal of
Psychology, 8, 351-379.
Bloom, B. S. (1964). Stability and change in human characteristics. New York: Wiley.
Campbell, D. T., & Erlebacher, A. (1970). How regression artifacts in quasi-experimental evaluations can mistakenly make
compensatory education look harmful. In J. Hellmuth (Ed.), Compensatory education: A national debate (Vol. 3). New York:
Brunner/Mazel.
Lacey, J. I., & Lacey, B. C. (1962). The law of initial value in the longitudinal study of autonomic constitution:
Reproducibility of autonomic responses and response patterns over a four year interval. In W. M. Wolf (Ed.), Rythmic
functions in the living system: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 98, 1257-1290.
Wilder, J. (1957). The law of initial value in neurology and psychiatry. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 125, 73-86.
342
Latent Growth Curve and Interaction Modeling: The Case of Travel Mode Choice
Fan Yang Wallentin, Peter Schmidt and Eldad Davidov
In recent years, a growing number of scholars has tested interaction and non-linear effects in their
models. Many of these studies tested interaction effects between perceived behavioural control (PBC)
and intention in the theory of planned behaviour. However, only a small number of them applied
structural equation modeling. In these few studies, the utility of latent growth modeling has remained
largely unexplored. In this study, we compare Maximum Likelihood and Robustified Maximum
Likelihood to estimate the effect of the interaction of the slopes of PBC and intention in the theory of
planned behaviour on the slope of the changing behaviour over three points in time. We apply real
data collected in Frankfurt on travel mode choice of people moving to live in the town.
Anomia, Left right Orientation and Group Related Enmity.
Steffen Kühnel, Peter Schmidt and Elmar Schlüter
In this paper we present results of a three wave representative panel of the german adult population
dealing with group related enmity in the german ppulation. We present results and compare
Autoregressive models, latent growth models and hybrid models dealing with the relationships
between anomia, left right orientation and three facets of group related enmity that is discrimination of
foreigners, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. This includesthe modelling of observed and Latent
Means. In a summary we compare the strengths and weaknesses of the three approaches for testing
hypotheses concerning change processes.
Keywords: Autoregressive, latent growth and hybrid models
SESSION: MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING AND FACET THEORY
Organizors: Patrick Groenen1 and Ingwer Borg2
Contact: 1Rotterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
Abstract
Using multidimensional scaling (MDS) in combination with facet theory (FT) has proved to be a
successful approach in many fields of the social sciences. Some prominent examples are Schwartz’s
universal circumplex structure of values; the radex of work motives by Elizur and others; and the
multiplex of protest behaviour by Levy and Guttman. The approach consists of partitioning an MDS
representation of the empirical items by projecting the different facets, facet by facet, onto the MDS
space in an attempt to partition it into regions that contain only points which are classified in the same
way by the facets.
Using MDS and FT is not a main stream methodology which makes it difficult to keep track with
developments. Applications are scattered in many fields, and data-analytic innovations are often
technical, appearing in journals not read by many social scientists. The goals of the symposium is to
offer a forum for state-of-the-art reviews, both technically and theoretically-empirically, and for
presentations of series of empirical research that definitely is cumulative in nature. The intention is to
show how MDS and FT can be used today in systematic theory construction.
343
Wijbrandt H. van Schuur, Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
The idea behind Facet Theory is to understand complex concepts in a research domain by analytically
dissecting their different aspects or facets, and find out how they are interrelated, such that proper
classification leads to a proper description (i.e., measurement of aspects of concepts and measurement
of individual persons) of the phenomena to which the concepts refer.
In this paper I mention five areas in which facet theory can be improved: 1) the formulation of the
mapping sentence, 2) the indirect or holistic approach to data analysis, 3) the direct or analytical
approach, 4) substantive (social) scientific theories, and 5) the organizational structure of the Facet
Theory Association.
Ad 1) The classification of facets (e.g., in stem, modifying, response, axial, polar or modular facets)
requires further investigation. Classifications within a single facet often do not follow elementary rules
of logic.
Ad 2) The indirect or holistic approach to data analysis hinges on a too specific concept of similarity,
and too specific approaches to the analysis of such data. Within Similarity Structure Analysis (SSA)
there is too much emphasis on the visualization of the first dimensions for all items. The zero-point on
polar and modular facets are often not well understood. Alternatives to SSA (e.g., additive tree
models, correspondence analysis) are not sufficiently pursued.
Ad 3) The direct or analytical approach profits insufficiently from recent advances in probabilistic
item response theory models. This does not only include probabilistic versions of the Guttman scale
(e.g., the Rasch model or the Mokken model), but also IRT models with non-cumulative item response
functions (e.g., latent class analysis, unfolding, or the circumplex model).
Ad 4) An interpreted picture is not the end stage of research, but only a first step. There is too little
cumulativity in understanding the theoretical meaning of the facets, and in their application to other
types of study.
Ad 5). The Facet Theory Association (FTA) should be an organization that adheres to specific
scientific principles, and not to any specific human being, however brilliant. It must be willing, if
necessary, to cut the umbilical cord with its founder.
References
Borg, I. & Shye, S. (1995). Facet theory. Form and content. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the
Social Sciences, 5.
Ley, S. & Elizur, D. (2003). Facet theory. Towards cumulative social science. Ljubljana: University of
Ljubljana, Center for educational development
Questionnaire Design and Data Analysis using Facet Approach: The Case of the
International Census on Attitudes toward Languages
Kazufumi
Manabe,
School
[email protected]
of
Sociology,
Kwansei
Gakuin
University,
Japan,
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the utility of Facet Approach developed by L. Guttman and
his group by using the example of the questionnaire design and data analysis of the International
Census on Attitudes toward Languages. This census was conducted in 28 countries/areas of the world
from 1997 to 1998 by our research team at the National Language Research Institute in Japan. Facet
Approach is composed of three parts:
Facet Design. This involved the construction (Structuples) and use of Mapping Sentences for
questionnaire design.
Facet Analysis. This includes Scalogram Analysis, Partial Order Scalogram Analysis, Smallest Space
Analysis, Median Regression Analysis, and so on.
Facet Theory. The First Law, The Second Law, and the Law of Polytone Regressions have been
proposed and tested in diverse empirical contexts.
344
I attempt to summarize the basic ideas of Facet Approach by focusing on the above three areas, which
I believe are useful for the systematic design of a questionnaire survey. Facet Design can be used to
analyze questionnaires to determine the completeness of the information gathered. Some examples of
such analyses are shown. Facet Theory guides the data analysis in that it identifies meaningful and
interpretable relations which can be explored statistically. In this paper I demonstrate three different
kinds of data analysis (Facet Analysis) guided by Facet Theory.
Keywords: facet approach, facet design, facet analysis, facet theory, international census, languages
Anna S. Naumenko, [email protected]
Nowadays there’s a strong need in creating precise psychodiagnostical instruments. In Moscow State
University laboratory for computer psychodiagnostics we’re trying to invent and explore a new type of
psychodiagnostical test, which combines the approaches of multidimensional scaling and repertory
grid technique, proposed by G.A. Kelly. This is an attempt to find a compromise between
ideographical and nomothetical techniques, between gaining qualitative non-standardized and
statistical standardized information. The author of the new approach, professor Alexander G.
Shmelyov has given it a name of situational operational grid. The task of the proband is to choose
out of the proposed list one operation/behavioral type for each situation or to rank the degree of an
acceptability of proposed operations/behavioral types for each situation. As a result the researcher gets
estimations’ matrix (operations x situations).
This test type is mostly used for evaluating the professional competence of different professions
representatives. The situations are very specific for the concrete profession; that means: they vividly
describe typical daily work occasions of this or that professional. Sometimes suitable pictures or
portraits of the characters are used to enrich the situations descriptions and to make them more
plausible. That demands careful operational analysis of the professional activity; that is usually made
beforehand.
To present time in our lab were constructed 3 situational operational grids suited for TV journalists’,
realtors’ and top-managers’ competence assessment. All tests were validated using the results of
expert professionals and novices diagnostics. In every professional group was shown significant
difference between experts and novices.
Keywords: multidimensional scaling, repertory grid technique, situational operational grid,
professional competence estimation
Explaining the Structure of Values of an Ideal Organization by Schwartz‘s Universal
Value Theory
Ingwer Borg1, Patrick J.F. Groenen2, Wolfgang Bilsky3 and Karen A. Jehn4
1
ZUMA, Germany, [email protected]
2
Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
3
U Münster, Germany
4
Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands
Shared values are arguably the most fundamental component of culture. To measure personorganization fit, O’Reilly et al. (1991) have developed an instrument, called the OCP or the
Organizational Culture Profile, that is based on value judgments. It uses 54 value items such as being
innovative, being people-oriented, risk taking and working long hours. The individual is asked to Qsort these items into nine ordered categories by (a) his or her personal view of the desirability of these
values in an ideal organization, and (b) in terms of how well these values characterize a particular
organization. The resulting two distributions are the basis for computing a person-organization fit
345
measure that is used to explain such dependent variables as commitment, satisfaction, performance,
and conflicts.
So far, there is little research on the structure of the OCP items. O’Reilly et al. (1991) report the results
of an exploratory factor analysis. It shows eight factors such as innovation, risk taking or attention to
detail. The data of Jehn et al. (1997) essentially replicate this factor structure. Yet, one wonders on
how one should interpret differences in the number or the composition of factors, since there is no
guiding theory. Bilsky & Jehn (2002) proposed to use Schwartz’s universal theory of values (Schwartz
& Sagiv, 1995) for that purpose. They classified the OCP items into the typology of this theory, and
then checked whether the item intercorrelations could be represented in an MDS plane such that the
respective points would fall into regions reflecting this typology. The results roughly confirmed this
conjecture.
We here show that using a confirmatory MDS approach (Borg & Groenen, 1997), the OCP value
items perfectly fit into the Schwartz theory with very little additional stress compared to the
exploratory MDS solution used by Bilsky & Jehn (2002). We enforce a four-quadrant solution that can
be interpreted to reflect two value dilemmas: the individual must decide to either favor an emphasis on
results or on harmony on the one hand, and similarly decide on whether he or she prefers risk-taking
or rather sticking to rules. Most of the factors of a standard exploratory factor analysis of the OCP
items can, moreover, be explained by the two-dimensional MDS solution. Thus, there exists a good
theoretical basis for the OCP items that, moreover, suggests much simpler organizational culture
assessments in practice.
References
Borg, I. & Groenen, P. (1997). Modern Multidimensional Scaling. New York: Springer.
Bilsky, W. & Jehn, K.A. (2002). Organisationskultur und individuelle Werte: Belege für eine gemeinsame Struktur. In M.
Myrtek (ed.), Die Person im biologischen und sozialen Kontext (pp. 211-228). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
Jehn, K.A., Chadwick, C., & Thatcher, S.M.B. (1997). To agree of not to agree: the effects of value congruence, individual
demographic dissimilarity, and conflict in workgroup outcomes. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 8, 287305.
O’Reilly, C.A. III, Chatman, J., & Caldwell, D.F. (1991). People and organizational culture: a profile comparison approach to
assessing person-organization fit. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 487-516.
Schwartz, S. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: theoretical advances and empirical tests in countries.
In M. Zanna (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. New York: Academic Press.
Schwartz, S. & Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture-specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 26, 92-116.
SESSION: CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS
Organizer: Jörg Blasius
Contact: University of Bonn, Seminar of Sociology, Adenauerallee 98a, 53113 Bonn, Germany,
[email protected]
Keywords: Simple correspondence analysis, multiple correspondence analysis
Abstract
In recent years a new technique has become more and more attractive in social science statistics:
correspondence analysis. In the last decade, the number of theoretical publications as well as published
empirical applications of correspondence analysis have increased enormously. However, there is still a
large gap between the theory and the practice of the method.
The aim of the session is to bring together theoretical and applied researchers in all the areas of social
sciences where correspondence analysis is currently used, notably sociology, psychology, education,
and political sciences. Contributions which combines theoretical aspects and social science
applications are particularly welcome. Themes of the conference include all forms of correspondence
analysis and related techniques: Simple, multiple, joint and multiway correspondence analysis,
homogeneity analysis and biplots.
346
Nordic Business Researchers’ Use of Research Methodology: An Assessment of
Researchers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
Tor Korneliussen, Bodø Graduate School of Business, 8049 Bodø, Norway, [email protected]
This paper investigates the following research questions: Do business researchers in the Nordic
countries use different research strategies and how are these research strategies related to each other?
At the 15th Nordic Conference on Business Studies in 1999, 352 Nordic participants were provided
with questionnaires, which 178 of them returned. The respondents were asked to explain to what
extent they generally use twelve research methodologies. We used Likert-type items with five
categories each, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.
Applying nonlinear principal component analysis, we choose a two-dimensional space the first of
which is described as “qualitative vs. quantitative methodology”. This dimension seems to contrast use
of “qualitative methodology” versus use of quantitative/experimental methodology. The second
dimension seems to contrast development of formal theory versus empirical research.
With respect to dimension 1, we can see that Norway reported the highest degree of use of quantitative
methodology. Although both Sweden and Finland report high use of qualitative methodology,
Denmark has the highest use of qualitative methodology. Business researchers in Norway seem to be
quite quantitative-oriented, while researchers in Sweden, Finland and Denmark are more qualitativeoriented. This finding is statistical significant at the .10 level.
Dimension two mirrors normative versus descriptive research methodologies. There is no statistically
significant difference between the researchers of the Nordic countries with respect to this dimension.
To visualize the structure of responses in the two-dimensional space, we use biplots of the indicators.
The reported findings show that business researchers in the Scandinavian countries tend to use
different research methodologies. Norwegian researchers reported the highest use of quantitative
methodology. Although both Sweden and Finland report high use of qualitative methodology,
Denmark has the highest use of qualitative methodology. Business researchers in Norway seem to be
relatively quantitatively oriented, while researchers in Sweden, Finland and Denmark are more
qualitatively oriented.
Keywords: research methodology, non-linear principal component analysis, biplot
Using Combined Methods to Develop Sociological Concepts. An Exploration of the
Concept of Social Capital using Correspondence Analysis and Case Studies Research
Francesca Odella,
Dept. Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy,
[email protected]
The paper focuses on the methodological implications of combined methods, and specifically the
application of correspondence analysis to qualitative research. Using material from an empirical
research on social capital at local level, the paper illustrates how the joint use of qualitative and
quantitative techniques facilitates exploration of specific dimensions of sociological concepts. In
particular, the paper will describe the use of data collected via semi-structured interviews in
correspondence analysis. The aim is to develop multidimensional perspectives from data collected
thought case studies and to catch relational and cultural aspects of the concept of social capital. On the
basis of such analysis, the paper will then discuss the advantages and the constraints of the
transformation and coding of qualitative data.
Keywords: correspondence analysis, case studies, social capital, combined techniques
347
The Analysis of Lifestyle Groups and Social Milieus in Germany Using Cluster and
Correspondence Analysis
Ingvill C. Mochmann1 and Yasmin El-Menouar2
1
Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, Cologne, Germany, [email protected]
2
Seminar of Sociology, University of Bonn, Germany, [email protected]
In previous decades the analyses of lifestyle groups and social milieus have been quite popular in all
social science disciplines, in particular in Germany. Cluster analysis and correspondence analysis are
applied in order to find homogeneous groups in areas as leisure, consumption and voting behavior.
Usually, no differentiation is made between lifestyle groups and social milieus, although the concepts
differ with respect to the stability and tenacity of the groups found. In this paper the existence of
lifestyle groups and social milieus in Germany by means of cluster and correspondence analysis. In the
first step, lifestyle groups in Germany will be analyzed using cluster analysis. In the second step,
bivariate analyses between lifestyle groups and several external variables in the areas of social
structural characteristics, organizational membership, cleavages, interest representation and party
preference will be carried out. Finally, a correspondence analysis including the lifestyle groups and
external variables will be carried out with the aim to identify political social milieus in the electorate
of eastern and western Germany. The aim is to show how correspondence analysis can be used to
differentiate between lifestyle groups and social milieus as well as its use for the identification of
social milieus in modern society.
Keywords: cluster analysis, correspondence analysis, lifestyle groups, social milieus, electoral
behaviour
International Comparison with Correspondence Analysis. Attitudes towards Same Sex
Partnership as an Empirical Example
Maria Rohlinger, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, University of Cologne, Germany,
[email protected]
In the mid nineties, various European countries discussed legislative initiatives towards liberalisation
of same sex partnership. The topic tentatively evokes large contrasts of pro’s and con’s within the
given societies. Primary investigators of the group of researchers, setting up the frame of International
Social Science Programme (ISSP) choose to integrate the question concerning the acceptance of same
sex partnerships into their questionnaires in 1994, thus allowing to portrait the background of the
political discussion in the context of a wider scale of values and social predispositions.
Comparisons of the nature of integrating simultaneously sets of multiple indicators parallel to social
background, conceptualised within an international frame, are demanding for the data reduction
techniques to be applied. Correspondence Analysis allows in the given example for a visualization of
different attitudes in most of these aspects.
Keywords: correspondence analysis, international comparison, same sex partnership
Renato Salvatore, Department
[email protected]
Economia
e
Territorio,
University
of
Cassino,
Italy,
In many social research surveys, large available sets (frames) of multivariate data, such as censuses,
must be exploited to achieve the best cognition in the interactions between categorical variables. The
reason is that some aspects of phenomena that we utilize to describe the underlying well-known
connections between the main research variables, can lead us to a better specification of a subsequent
348
survey plan, e.g. a stratified sampling plan. One of the main objectives of a stratified sampling is to
reduce the variance of the mean estimation for survey variables, splitting population in homogeneous
strata. This causes a consequent reduction of the survey costs, due to the high level of homogeneity in
the strata, where strata are represented by categories of descriptive variables that are related with those
of the survey. The desired gain in homogeneity of the population strata can be achieved through
complementary use of correspondence analysis and cluster analysis, driving to meaningful clusters.
They can be considered the strata that solve, in some way, the homogeneity maximization problem.
But population strata must be considered for another purpose: they could be domains of interest, in
which we can evaluate the survey variables mean estimates. Clusters cannot be used for this objective,
and we must inevitably exploit categories of descriptive variables.
In this paper, the multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis techniques are used in order to
detect the best set of categorical variables that satisfy the demand of an increased homogeneity of
population strata. A ranking of categorical supplementary variables is listed, based on an aggregate
measure in the factorial desired space of the distance between centres of gravity of categories and
cluster centroids. An application is analysed in which the objective is to reduce the general costs of an
agri-environmental impact assessment sample survey. The data are those from Italian 2000
Agricultural Census, the sampling technique is the optimum multivariate allocation based on the
convex programming approach.
Keywords: multiple correspondence analysis, stratified sampling, optimum allocation
Henry Rouanet and Brigitte Le Roux, Université René Descartes, Paris, France, [email protected], [email protected]
The formal approach used by Benzécri to develop CA was not an accidental matter of notation, but an
integral part of the construction (Benzécri & coll, 1973). The properties of CA are entirely founded on
the underlying mathematical theory, essentially abstract linear algebra , as found in the classical
mathematical books by MacLane, Halmos, etc.: finite-dimensional vector space, homomorphism,
scalar product, etc. The cornerstone of the formal-geometric approach is the measure vs. variable
duality, which formalizes the distinction between two sorts of quantities: those for which grouping
units entails summing (adding up) values, such as weights, frequencies, etc., we call them measures
(like in mathematical measure theory), versus those for which grouping units entail averaging values,
such as scores, rates, etc., we call them variables. This duality is reflected in the duality notation (alias
transition notation), putting lower indices for measures and upper indices for variables. See Rouanet &
Le Roux (1993), Le Roux & Rouanet (2004).
In the paper, we describe measure vs. variable duality in CA at the following two crucial stages of
geometric modelling: i) Construction of clouds and the chi-square metric. The marginal frequencies of
the table firstly provide reference measures over rows and columns. Secondly, they define Euclidean
isomorphism from variable vector spaces to dual measure vector spaces, hence scalar products and
Euclidean norms, therefore they determine without arbitrariness the chi-square metric over those
spaces. ii) Principal directions of clouds and principal coordinates. The fundamental mathematical
result is that the solution of spectral equations is the singular decomposition of two adjoint
homomorphism and/or the associated bilinear form. Applying these results to CA immediately yields
the transition equations and the reconstitution formulas.
CA is a case in point to exemplify the superiority of the formal approach to multivariate statistics over
the usual matrix approach.
Keywords: correspondence analysis, geometric data analysis, formal approach, linear algebra
References
Benzécri J.P. & coll.(1973). Analyse des Données, Volume 2, Analyse des Correspondances. Paris, Dunod.
Rouanet H. & Le Roux B. (1993). Analyse des Données Multidimensionnelles Paris, Dunod.
Le Roux B., Rouanet H. Geometric Data Analysis (in press). Dordrecht, Kluwer.
349
Johs. Hjellbrekke and Olav Korsnes, Department of sociology, University of Bergen, Norway,
Elite studies typically focus on how to separate between the various types of elites. Do the elites
constitute a homogenous group or not? The criteria for internal differentiation, for instance between
political, administrative and economic elites, have usually been related to societal sectors, specific
societal task, levels of power or to functional criteria,
In this paper, we follow a different line of investigation, and identify elite configurations on the basis
of their space of position taking, i.e. the agents’ attitudes and standpoints towards a wide range of
political, cultural and social issues. Drawing inspiration from Bourdieu’s (1989) and Bourdieu &
Saint-Martin’s (1978) analyses of the French field of power, and following the approach first outlined
in Le Roux & Rouanet (1998, 2004) and Chiche et al. (2000), we will demonstrate the advantages of
multiple correspondence analysis in an examination of position specific homogeneity and
heterogeneity, and also of cross-cutting oppositions, in the Norwegian elites’ opinions.
We will follow a two-step strategy, where we first identify the main polarizing opinion dimensions in
the space of position taking. This will be done through an analysis of the respondents’ answers to 40
statements regarding ecology, economics, equal rights, feminism, neo-liberalism, nationalism,
religious issues and welfare state issues. Secondly, through a detailed investigation of the cloud of
individuals, and by using new tools in geometric data analysis, we will first examine how these
dimensions affect the various groups internally. Thereafter, particular emphasis will be put on the
degree of group separation and group overlapping. In this way, not only the elite configurations but
also their intersections will be revealed.
The data originate from a survey by the Norwegian Power and Democracy Project, distributed to 1711
people in top positions within the Norwegian society; positions within politics, academia, larger
private and public companies, the central administration, the church, the judicial system, the military,
cultural institutions and larger managerial and occupational organisations.
Keywords: multiple correspondence analysis, geometric data analysis, elites, Bourdieu
References
Bourdieu, Pierre (1989) La noblesse d’état. Paris: Ed. de Minuit
Bourdieu, Pierre and de Saint-Martin, Monique (1978). "Le patronat". In Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, nr.
20/21, mars-avril 1978, pp. 3-83.
Chiche, J., Le Roux, B., Perrineau, P. and Rouanet, H. (2000). "L'éspace politique des électeurs francais à la fin des années
1990". In Revue francaise de science politique, vol. 50,3, juin 2000, pp. 463-488.
Le Roux, Brigitte and Rouanet, Henry (1998). "Interpreting Axes in MCA: Method of the Contributions of Points and
Deviations". In Blasius, Jörg and Greenacre, Michael J. (eds.). Visualization of Categorical Data. London: Academic Press,
pp.197-220.
Le Roux, Brigitte and Rouanet, Henry (2004). Geometric Data Analysis Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Processes of Social Differentiation in an Economic “Social Field”
Lennart Rosenlund and Odd Einar Olsen, Høgskolen i Stavanger, Aalborg Universitet, Norway
[email protected]
This paper includes an effort to apply Pierre Bourdieu’s analytic framework to a social universe to
which it, according to our knowledge, never has been systematically applied; that of organisational
studies. It has been inspired by a remark by him in his late writing, when he, after a long period of
apparent lack of interest turned his analytic eye towards the economy (Bourdieu 1997, Bourdieu
2000). He suggests that the enterprise as a social complex social entity is well suited to be approached
analytically by the help of one of his key concepts; the enterprise as a social field. What will be
examined are analyses based on data collected from what appears – at the outset - to be a highly
homogenous social group; the data analysed consists of answers to a questionnaire distributed among
managers and specialists employed by two major industrial actors and some of their subsidiaries
within the Norwegian oil industry.
350
The social reality this concept aims to account for consists of a separable entity of the “global” social
structure (the space of social positions as it is outlined in the Distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) that is
presumed functioning according to a (semi-) autonomous logic of its own. In this, the social agents
hold specific positions and are engaged in struggles over values that are of importance to all (various
forms of capital). The concept has double analytical edges corresponding to the “two orders” of social
reality. There is, on the one hand, an “objective” invisible system of social positions in which each and
all of the social agents belonging to the field have a specific position, which tend to have bearings on
the way they form and perform; their practices, via their habitus(es). Seen in this way, a social field is
an objectivation or representation of the main forces of social differentiation and thereby an image of
the prevailing power relations in the field.
On the other hand, there are – precisely - social practices, or human symbolic activities - which are
products of their habitus(es) - that unfold in perpetual struggles and competition that the social agents
are engaged in, in the field. The concept of social field aims at giving the best possible representation
of both aspects of the social reality, both the “structural” aspect and the symbolic one, the latter of
which may be viewed as a system of position-takings, or stances.
The paper will examine the structure of this particular social field seen as a system of social positions.
The analysis has been undertaken by the help of GDA (Geometric Data Analysis) or multiple
correspondence analysis on the basis of profiles of various forms of capital among the analysed
respondents. We are going to consider a three-dimensional representation of the constructed social
field as an optimal representation of the prevailing system of power relations within this social
universe. Further, the analyses consider secondary characteristics of the field such as relations to
division of labour, prevailing hierarchies of knowledge, demography, system of classification of jobs
and departments, trajectories within the field (previous jobs) and affiliation to the local community.
Lastly, we shall consider the constructed social field as a system of position-takings, i.e. how positions
in the ”objective” social field are reflected in oppositions and divisions with regard to how the social
agents perceive and value different aspects of their work. This last section is based on an excerpt of a
battery of questions developed by one of the commercial opinion poolers in Norway (MMI) to
measure “working climate”.
Keywords: multiple correspondence analysis, geometric data analysis, social fields, organisational
studies, Bourdieu
References
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction – A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Bourdieu, Pierre (1997) Le champ économique, Actes de la recherché en sciences socials, 199, Paris, Septembre 1997
Bourdieu, Pierre (2000) Les structures socials de l’economies. Paris: Seuil.
Le Roux, Brigitte & Rouanet, Henry (2004). Geometric Data Analysis Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Brigitte Le Roux1 and Jean Chiche2
1
Université René Descartes, Paris, France, [email protected]
2
CEVIPOF, Paris, [email protected]
The motivation for devising Specific Multiple Correspondence Analysis (Specific MCA) was the need
to analyse questionnaires with non-responses, getting rid of the constraints of complete disjunctive
coding while preserving the structural properties of MCA. In the paper, the method is presented within
the general framework of Geometric Data Analysis, then we deal with the special case of
questionnaires, following the line of the paper by Le Roux (1999) and the book by Le Roux &
Rouanet (2004).
We first recall the properties of principal directions and variables of a Euclidean cloud. Then we apply
these properties to a protocol for which individual profiles are measures, and we derive the properties
of bi-weighted Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Then, we recall the formulas of MCA viewed as
a particular bi-weighted PCA.
351
We then compare Specific MCA to standard MCA, writing inequalities between eigenvalues and
studying the rotation of principal subspaces when one goes from the global analysis to the specific
one. Finally, we outline two applications of specific MCA: Bourdieu (1999), on the publisher space in
France, and Chiche et al. (2002) on the political space of French electors.
Keywords: multiple correspondence analysis, geometric data analysis, questionnaires.
References
Bourdieu P. (2000). Une révolution conservatrice dans l’édition, Actes de la recherche en Sciences Sociales, 127.
Le Roux B. (1999). Analyse spécifique d’un nuage euclidien, Mathématiques, Informatique et Sciences Humaines, 37, 65-83.
Chiche J., Le Roux B., Perrineau P., Rouanet H. (2002) . L’espace politique des électeurs français à la fion des années 1990.
Revue française de Science politique, 50, 463-487.
Le Roux B., Rouanet H. Geometric Data Analysis (in press). Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Frédéric Lebaron, University of Picardie, France, [email protected]
The space of the educational, academic and professional trajectories of central bank governors,
alternate governors, and monetary policy board members proves the coexistence and rivalry between
different types of "symbolic capital". There are for example "insiders", who come from the central
bank institution on the one hand, and "outsiders", whose legitimacy may be academic, economic or
political, on the other hand. There are leaders, who come from the financial world and the private
sector on the one hand, and then leaders who come from the political or university areas. Central
banks are the places where these different forms of symbolic capital affront each other and combine.
Multiple correspondence analysis helps to reveal the structure of this very particular social space
inside the economic world, and to answer specific comparative questions related to the social
characteristics of central bank leaders from different regions. This paper will present the utility of
MCA to treat these particular sociological problems.
Ken Reed, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, [email protected]
Greenacre (1984) demonstrates how correspondence analysis can be used to visualize change over
time. He illustrates this with a correspondence analysis of a table cross-classifying disciplines and time
periods to tabulate change over time in the numbers of doctorates awarded in each discipline.
This paper presents a simple method of displaying change when multiple variables are used to
characterize objects at multiple points in time. The analysis itself it quite straightforward:
correspondence analysis is applied to a matrix constructed by stacking the data table for each time
point. In the example used in the paper, data are collected on the characteristics of staff in all
Australian universities for three time periods (1993, 1996 and 2000). These tables are stacked so that
each university appears three times in the matrix (once for each year).
The drawback in this technique is that it increases the complexity of the resulting display because each
object is represented by as many points as there are time periods (three, in this case). Part of the appeal
of correspondence analysis is its ability to provide simple displays of complex data structures. The
added complexity of increasing the number of data points can be managed by displaying objects as
lines that represent their trajectory over time through a multidimensional space.
Keywords: correspondence analysis; visualization; analyzing change.
352
The (Missing) Importance of Dimension One in Factor Analytic Approaches
Jörg Blasius1 and Victor Thiessen2
1
University of Bonn, Germany, [email protected]
2
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, [email protected]
In the social sciences, factor analytic approaches are used to detect the underlying dimensions of the
domain of interest. For example, one may wish to examine the dimensions of attitudes towards work.
With ordinally-scaled items, one usually applies principal component analysis (PCA) followed by
varimax rotation. A main problem in this approach is the importance attributed to each of the
dimensions.
Several well-known techniques, such as the scree test and the eigenvalue criteria can be applied to
solve this problem. These methods have in common that the first k eigenvalues are used for
interpretation. The eigenvalues are in descending order: the first eigenvalue is always treated as most
important, the second as second-most important and so on, since they sequentially extract diminishing
amounts of variation in the data. However, data from survey research always contains response errors,
response styles, and other forms of non-substantive variation. Furthermore, the first dimension might
reflect primarily the degree of agreement / disagreement towards the object of interest – and this might
be caused to a considerable extent by the response behaviour of the respondents. In this case,
dimension one (or dimension two) has a very simple interpretation; in the case of job satisfaction on a
metric scale it differentiates only between those who are satisfied in general and those who are not.
Applying PCA to this kind of data, the first dimension might reflect this general agreement; varimax
rotation improves the visibility of the item structure whereby the interpretation of the first dimension
usually changes, i.e. the interpretation as response style or as agreement/ disagreement disappears.
Considering the ordinality of the items, non-linear principal components analysis (NLPCA) is the
more appropriate method. Within an iterative process the category values (e.g. 1,2,3,4,…) are replaced
by optimal scores and at the end of the process the PCA-algorithm can be used to perform NLPCA.
The structure of this solution is already optimised and cannot be improved via varimax rotation. Using
several examples, we will demonstrate and compare both methods for the interpretation of the first k
dimensions.
Keywords: principal components analysis, non-linear principal components analysis, response
structure, response style
A Measure of Asymmetries in Brand-Attribute Dominance Relationships:
Correspondence Analysis of Matched Matrices
Anna Torres-Lacomba, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, [email protected]
Brand image is measured to manage brand-equity with implications among the entire marketing
program, which should be coordinated to create congruent and strong brand associations.
Relevant literature related with to brand-attribute associations has been characterized to be
“incomplete”, just measuring brand-by-brand tables, (with respect to a set of attributes) or, if
complete, (measuring brand-by-brand tables and attribute-by-attribute tables for a set of brands), to be
quite conceptual (Farquhar & Herr, 1990). For example, when measuring advertising effectiveness we
need to assess effects on both, brand and attribute dominance (i.e., measuring new, positively
evaluated associates being evoked by the brand after the introduction of a new advertisement (attribute
dominance) and measuring new cues that are likely to evoke the brand (brand dominance)) (Holden &
Lutz, 1992).
We present correspondence analysis (Greenacre, 1984) as a visual tool that facilitates simultaneous
consideration of both analyses due to a particular way of coding data named CA of matched matrices
(Greenacre, 2000). Besides offering a map that enables us to visualize strength and uniqueness in
brand associations, it captures asymmetries in strength between brand-by-brand and attribute-by-
353
attribute analyses, with the implication that both analyses can be determinant to take managerial
decisions. As an illustration, we expose a study of brand associations for a set of brands of deodorants.
Keywords: brand-attribute dominance, asymmetry in strength, correspondence analysis.
References
Farquhar, P. H, Herr, P.M., & Fazio, R. H. (1990). “A relational model for category extensions of brands”, Advances in
Consumer Research 17, 856-860.
Greenacre, M.J. (1984). Theory and Applications of Correspondence Analysis. Academic Press, London.
Greenacre, M.J. (2000). “Analysis of matched matrices”, Working Paper at Universitat Pompeu Fabra 539.
Holden, S.J.S.& Lutz, R.J. (1992). “Ask not what the brand can evoke; ask what can evoke the brand?”, Advances in
Consumer Research, 19, 101-107.
Applying Correspondence Analysis and Logistic Regression in a Survey on Self Healing
Methods
Zerrin A∏an, Levent Terlemez and Sevil Şentürk, Anadolu University,Turkey, [email protected],
[email protected] and [email protected]
One of the oldest instincts which the human being has is protection, especially against diseases.
Protection is one of the basic parts of self healing process. Self healing is an extensive process which
comprises many methods ranging from non medical mixtures or applications to home made medicines.
Self healing process can be defined as acting to cure own medical problems without any professional
support. The method – having a present medicine that is in the refrigerator or suggested buy a friend used in self healing process is not chosen randomly. There are many sociological variables which
affect the self healing process and they are worth to be the subject of a survey since the results of such
a survey can be used to guide people who face medical problems.
In order to determine such methods used for public and personal health, a public survey was carried
out on 750 individuals (age 15-56) who live in the province of Eskisehir in Turkey. The priority of the
alternatives, for example, visiting a pharmacy, applying a particular method or visiting a doctor was
inquired.
Logistic regression is a method which is useful to explain the relationship among response variables
and independent variables, where response variables are observed in two, three or more categories. In
this study, we have used logistic regression and a complementary study, correspondence analysis, to
show the relationship graphically. The relationship among the behaviours of individuals and their
demographic characteristics were modelled by using logistic regression, and correspondence analysis
is applied as an complementary study.
In application, first of all, the effect of age, sex, marital status, education level, occupation and income
level as well as present health condition, on appreciating self health, is explained by a model. As a
result of that model, it can be said that the effect of age, occupation and present health condition is
reasonable. After analyzing that model, the relationship between categorical variables (age, sex,
occupation, preferred precautions, and worth of personal health ) is shown graphically by multicorrespondence analysis.
Keywords: self healing, logistic regression, correspondence analysis
Comparing Nonlinear Principal Component Analysis with Factor Analysis and Ordered
Logistic Regression with an Application to Country Data
Dicle Taspinar and Ozlem Deniz, Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey, [email protected],
[email protected]
Ordered categorical dependent variables can be related with both quantitative and qualitative variables
by using an ordered logistic regression model. But this model estimates the probability of the observed
units being in the declared categories, not the relation between them. The first known studies on this
354
subject were prepared by McCullagh (1980). In ordered logistic regression analysis there has to be no
multicollinearity as in other regression analysis. The multicollinearity problem can be solved by
applying factor analysis to the independent variables that converts them into independent factors. Nonlinear principle component analysis, which is an optimal scaling method, can be an alternative twofactor analysis where the independent variables are categorical. In this study the countries ranked by
the UNDP’s Human Development Index have been used and the effects of factor analysis and nonlinear principle component analysis were compared in order to solve the multicollinearity problem in
ordered logistic regression. In conclusion, a model stating the development statuses of the countries
was defined.
Keywords: non-linear principle component analysis, ordered logistic regression, optimal scaling
Power Analysis and Sample Size Determination in the Context of Correspondence
Analysis
George Menexes and Iannis Papadimitriou, Department of Applied Informatics, University of
Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, [email protected], [email protected]
The Correspondence Analysis is mainly considered as a descriptive technique designed to analyse
simple two-way and multi-way tables containing some kind of correspondence or association between
the rows and the columns. The nature of the resulting information is similar to the one produced by the
Factor Analysis techniques. The method facilitates the exploration of the categorical variables’
structure included in the table. The most common type of that kind of tables is the two-way frequency
cross-tabulation table. In the case of two variables where the data have been collected using the simple
random sampling scheme, the statistical significance of the total inertia of the table can be tested by
means of the X2 distribution. If the total inertia is considered an index of a global effect size, then the
observed power of the X2 test of independence can be estimated. This test is recommended and applied
in order to evaluate the rejection of the null hypothesis (no association between the two categorical
variables). Generally, the power γ of a statistical test is defined as the probability of detecting a
statistical significant difference or a relationship between the measured variables, if it actually exists
within the population. The power is equal to 1-β (β is the Type II error rate) and it is related to α (Type
I error rate), the effect size, the sample size n and the sample variance. The relationship form is such
that power increases when the effect size, α and n increase. On the other hand, it decreases when the
variability of data increases. In the context of the Statistical Power Analysis proposed by Cohen, the
minimum required sample size can be estimated, a priori, in such a way that a predetermined effect
size can be detected as statistically significant by the X2 test, at significance level α with power γ.
Initially, this study examines the mathematical relation between the total inertia and the effect size
proposed by Cohen for two cross-tabulated categorical variables. After that, the relation between total
inertia and other association measures are presented. At this stage, a methodology for a priori and
post hoc Power Analysis of the X2 test is proposed using the square root of total inertia as a measure of
effect size. Using the proposed methodology, the minimum required sample size can be estimated in
case of a survey or of an experimental study in which the Correspondence Analysis method will be
applied. Finally, a generalization of the method is attempted in the multivariate case. The MS-EXCEL
spreadsheet (enhanced with the π-face add-in) was used to carry out all the necessary computations.
Keywords: correspondence analysis, chi-square test, sample size, power analysis
355
SESSION: CLASSIFICATION AND VISUALISATION
Organizor: Simona Balbi
Contact: Dipartimento di Matematica e Statistica, Università "Federico II" di Napoli, Italy,
[email protected]
Abstract
Statistics has always pursued the goals of classification and visualisation as two of its main objectives.
Nowadays, this assertion is more effective, because researchers usually deal with huge masses of data
to be studied and to be interpreted. In the frame of Multidimensional Data Analysis, the aim of
synthesising the structure of relations in the data has always been faced by giving special attention to
the possibility of providing a visual perception of information, related to the identification of typical
behaviours within the phenomenal variability. In the field of social sciences important results have
been obtained by using this quantitative approach.
However, a session with this title has not been thought only for paying a tribute to tradition, with the
aim of presenting (innovative) solutions to classical problems, or interesting applications of standard
techniques. The main idea consists in focusing attention on problems related with knowledge
extraction from huge data sets, and on the possibility offered by new technologies and computational
tools. Papers dealing with complex situations, e.g. unstructured data bases, like the one composed by
documents, are also solicited
Carlo Natale Lauro1, Germana Scepi1, Giuseppe Giordano2
1
Dipartimento di Matematica e Statistica, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy,
[email protected]
2
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Statistiche , Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
From a Customer Relation Management point of view, business strategies must not be oriented only to
retain existing customers, but also to widen the customer base. Information about the customer is the
key to success.
Different marketing strategies can be followed for creating a good relationship with customers and for
satisfying their needs. A specialisation strategy consists in designing different products/services
according to consumer preferences. Therefore, homogenous segments of consumers are defined. Each
segment is a class of consumers with similar preferences and the segments are as much as possible
different each other. Specialised products are so offered in order to maximise Customer Satisfaction in
each class. Clustering methods are generally applied for defining a suitable number of homogenous
classes according to some statistical criteria. In particular, a-priori information is often used in order to
characterise the typology of consumer.
Differently, a market covering strategy is followed looking for an ideal product, which reflects the
preferences of the most part of consumers. Factorial techniques allow obtaining a suitable synthesis of
different preference structures and representing them on a common subspace defined in order to
minimise the information loss.
In this paper, we propose a strategy based both on a clustering method and a factorial approach to
Conjoint Analysis called Factorial Conjoint Analysis (FCA) proposed by Lauro, Giordano, Verde
(1998).
Our strategy aims at defining market segments according to the preferences expressed by consumers
and consists in successive and iterative steps of factorial syntheses and classification of the
preferences. This approach allows to get, at the same time, the identification of an optimal preference
model for each market segment and a common model as a synthesis of the individual preferences.
We shall show, also by an application on a car tires preference data-set, the main results of our
strategy that can be now synthesised in the following points:
1. the definition of an individual model synthesis;
356
2. the visualisation and interpretation of Conjoint Analysis models;
3. the identification of group models;
4. the definition of general hierarchical model for groups.
From the Customer Satisfaction viewpoint, the proposed approach allows to define classes with
homogenous preferences, hence specialised products can be offered in order to maximise
satisfaction in each class. Furthermore, the common model is the best synthesis of consumer
preferences as a whole and, consequently, an ideal product can be offered in order to satisfy
the most part of the market.
Keywords: Preferences analysis, Customer Satisfaction, Factorial techniques, Clustering methods
The Typological Non Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis: Theory and Application
for Social Research
Marilena Fucili and Danilo Leone, D.S.A. S.r.l. Consulting and Training, Italy, [email protected],
[email protected]
Two-step procedures based on the sequential application of a factor analysis technique and a clustering
algorithm have became commonly used in social studies for classification purposes (Greenacre, 1984).
If it is available a priori information about the asymmetrical role played by different qualitative
variables Non Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis (Lauro, D’Ambra, 1984) can be used, in the first
step, in order to aggregate homogeneous units according with their particular structural dependence
relationships. However such procedures hardly synthetize collective behaviours, beliefs or attitudes
when data sets include several and heterogeneous sub-structures.
The aim of our work is to propose an innovative approach to contextually identify and describe local
structural relationships which are able to explain different aspects of the dependence of a set of
categorical variables on another or more sets. We propose a Typological approach (Diday, 1980)
focused on searching for the optimal separation of C sub-sets of units (local factorial sub-models) in
such a way that the summation of their explicatory power measures is major than the global model’s
one.
In the first step of the iterative algorithm the units ui, with i=1,...,N are initially assigned to C groups in
order to obtain the starting partition. Indicators of incremental advantage in reallocation are computed
for each unit ui originally assigned to the cluster c, evaluating each potential transition from the cluster
c to the clusters c’=1,...,C, with c’≠ c. The positive and major indicator will identify the cluster in
which the unit has to be reallocated to improve the explicatory power of the so-defined sub-models. At
each step it is reconstructed the partition according with the performed change. The convergence is
obtained when no other transition is able to increase the heterogeneity explained by the dependence
model synthetized by the local factorial models. Once obtained more sub-models it is possible to
perform separate analysis of local factorial planes. Finally we suggest a method able to produce a
global optimal compromise model in the style of Multiple Factor Analysis (Pages, Escoufier, 1998)
Theory and advantages of the suggested method will be illustrated by means of examples on real data
sets.
Keywords: non symmetrical factor analysis, cluster analysis, typologies
M. G. Grassia, F. Pintaldi and L. Quattrociocchi, ISTAT - Department for statistical production and
technical-scientific coordination, Labour Force Survey, Via A. Ravà, 150 - 00142 Roma, Italy, Tel.
+390654225049,
Fax.
+39065430853,
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
In order to comply with EUROSTAT standards, during the year 2002 the Italian National Institute of
Statistics (ISTAT) started to design a new Labour Force Survey. After an experimental phase, the new
survey is now carried on in parallel with the current one and will substitute it completely in June 2004.
357
Innovations in the new survey concerned both contents and technical aspects. In particular, in the
collection of data, we passed from a PAPI technique to a mixed technique: it is used the CAPI
technique for the first family interviewee and the CATI for the confirmation of the three following
interviews. The questionnaire for the new survey is particularly complex and consists in a general
opening part which collects information on the family’s demographic characteristics and 12 sections,
10 of which are repeated for each family member. The amount of information collected in the different
waves is very big, and is very important exploit it to achieve other results a part from the employment
rate.
The aim of this paper is analyse all the collected information in order to investigate labour
characteristics and identify several homogenous profiles of labour forces in Italy, not necessarily based
on classical distinctions like, for example, employees and not employees or self- employees and vs.
employees.
In this way, will be possible to analyse the evolution of the labour market, verifying the changes of the
profiles by years. The homogenous profiles are obtained on the basis of the microdata in each wave of
the Survey using a multidimensional approach (Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Cluster Analysis
and Symbolic Marking Technique).
The analysis consist in four steps: 1) the use of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) for data
reduction of some categorical variables on the characteristics of work into a few principal dimensions;
2) the use of cluster analysis and symbolic marking technique in order to identify homogenous
profiles; 3) the comparison of the profiles at different times/waves and the measure of the their
variation; 4) ) a graphical representation of the profiles that permits to visualise the relationship
between the profiles, their similarity or dissimilarity and their changes.
Keywords: New Labour Force Survey, MCA, Cluster Analysis, Symbolic Marking.
SESSION: IMPROVING SURVEY METHODOLOGY: THE EUROPEAN
SOCIAL SURVEY
Organizor: Ineke Stoop1 and Willem Saris2
Contact: 1Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands
PO Box 16164 2500 BD The Hague The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Keywords: Cross-national research, optimal comparability, questionnaire design, translation,
sampling, non-response
Abstract
In August 2003, the first data from the new, bi-annual European Social Survey (ESS) will be released
and be freely available to researchers all over the world. This survey is jointly funded by the European
Commission, the European Science Foundation and the National Science Foundations within 24
European countries. It focuses on changes in attitudes, values and behavioural patterns in the context
of a changing Europe, and aims at achieving the highest standards of cross-national survey research,
attempting to match the quality standards of the best national surveys. With the help of experts from
different fields, a Central Coordinating Team has developed the survey design, the questionnaire and
strict guidelines on issues such as random sampling, translation, response rates and fieldwork
documentation. In each participating country a national coordinator and a local survey organisation
have taken care of conducting the fieldwork. By August 2004 a wide range of quality assessments
studies and methodological papers should be available, both by those who were involved in the project
from the beginning, and by social research methodologist all over Europe.
Further information on the ESS is to be found at: www.europeansocialsurvey.org.
358
Measuring Attitudes towards Immigration across Countries: Potential Problems of
Functional Equivalence in the ESS
Nina Rother, Center for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA), B 2.1, P.O. Box 12 21 55, D68072 Mannheim, Germany, Tel: +49/(0)621/1246-285, Fax: +49/(0)621/1246-100, [email protected], www.gesis.org/zuma
This paper analyses the functional equivalence of attitudes towards immigration in internationally
comparative research. Methods include secondary analysis of ESS 2002/2003 data (immigration
module) and some preliminary cognitive tests. Data-analytical tools employed range from
multidimensional scaling to variance-analytic procedures. The results show that some of the ESS
measures might not be regarded as functionally equivalent.
To know about attitudes towards immigration is essential not only for researchers but especially for
politicians. Immigration plays a more and more important role in European societies nowadays, as can
be seen in growing concerns of refugee issues or the importance to lower restrictions for highly skilled
migrants that are needed in certain industries. In order to provide a knowledge base on attitudes
towards immigration in Europe, a special module on attitudes towards immigration was included in
the ESS round 1. However, attitudes towards immigration are not easy to measure and especially to
compare across cultures. Different migration histories and policies in the different European countries
make it hard to think of a shared understanding of what immigration and immigrants are.
A cross-cultural comparison of attitudes towards immigration can only be done when functional
equivalence is given, i.e. that the same construct is measured in all cultures. Hence, this has to be
tested before analysing the data on the substantive level. Functional equivalence of data can be
affected by three sources of biases: construct bias, method bias and item bias. In order to analyse the
functional equivalence of ESS immigration attitudes measures two distinct analytical strategies are
employed. The first is made up by a secondary analysis of the ESS 2002/2003 data. However, in many
cases, evidence from secondary analysis is not conclusive and additional studies are needed, such as
cognitive tests and split-ballot experiments. For this purpose, the results of some cognitive tests
conducted in 2003/2004 are presented. Data-analytical tools employed range from multidimensional
scaling to variance-analytic procedures.
The results show that some of the ESS measures might not be regarded as functionally equivalent.
Some possible solutions are outlined.
Keywords: comparative research, cross-cultural survey research, ESS, functional equivalence,
construct bias
Jeroen Boelhouwer, Social and Cultural Planning Office, The Netherlands, [email protected]
The Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) developed an integrative tool for measuring
quality of life: the living conditions index (LCI). LCI combines eight domains of the living conditions
into one single index (housing, health, mobility, leisure activities, consumer durables, social
participation, sport and holiday activity). The index was developed in 1974 and results have been
published ever since.
As the index is based on Dutch data, developments for the country are followed over time and
comparisons are made between social groups in Dutch society. However rich this information is, no
comparison can be made with other countries. This means we cannot tell whether the situation in the
Netherlands is (developing) better or worse than for example in Spain or Belgium.
However, because of the growing integration within the European Union, the question of comparison
between (member) states becomes more and more important. One of the main goals of the Maastricht
Treaty was the improvement of living conditions in the member states. Therefore there is a growing
attention for social monitoring and social reporting. Current reports, like The social situation in the
European Union, comprise various indicators in social issues. They lack, however, an integrative
measuring instrument. With the European Social Survey a great source for comparison is available.
359
The paper will seek for an integrative index for quality of life based on ESS data. SCP developed a
conceptual model for measuring living conditions that will be used for the analysis. At the centre of
this model are the living conditions, measured as a multi-dimensional concept. By doing so various
domains of quality of life, like housing, leisure time and participation, are examined at the same time.
Further, the model considers education, employment and income as individual resources for realising
good living conditions. As against the actual situation, as measured by the composite index, another
part of the model is made up of individual evaluations of their situation: are people satisfied and
happy?
The last two topics will be addressed describing the theoretical model in which the composite index is
placed. As the main goal of the paper is to explore possibilities for constructing a composite index
which is meaningful and useful for describing and comparing quality of life in different states of the
European Union.
Keywords: living conditions index, quality of life, monitoring, living conditions, the Netherlands,
composite index
Development of a Standardized Interviewer Questionnaire for International Research
into Interviewer Effects on Nonresponse and Data Quality
Joop Hox1 and Edith de Leeuw2
1
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Plantage Doklaan 40, NL-1018 CN Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel + 31 20 622 34 38, cell phone:
+ 31 6 53 69 3815, fax + 31 20 330 25 97, [email protected]
Interviewers play a key role in contacting and convincing potential respondents and recent research
has focused on the role of interviewer attitudes and behaviour on nonresponse (Campanelli et al, 1997,
De Leeuw et al, 1997), Groves & Couper, 1998; Stoop, 2003). As part of this effort, several
interviewer questionnaires were developed and analysed (for an overview see Hox & de Leeuw, 1998;
Hox, de Leeuw, et al, 2002), and the need arose for one standardized questionnaire to stimulate
international research. Therefore, IQUEST was developed, a questionnaire for both face-to-face and
telephone interviewers. IQUEST incorporated the accumulated knowledge of the earlier interviewer
questionnaires, omitting questions that did not work based on both psychometric and substantial
analysis. Also new questions were added based on new theoretical and empirical insights. A master
version was developed containing context information about the questions; English was used as lingua
franca (Harkness et all, 2003). This master questionnaire was checked for clarity and intercultural
translatability, and made available to countries participating in the European Social Survey (ESS)
2002. As the ESS 2002 used highly standardized questionnaires and data collection procedures,
including strongly standardized field methods and non-response registration, this is an ideal situation
to study interviewer effects cross-nationally.
In the present paper, we present the first results of this effort. We give an overview of available
translations of the interviewer questionnaire and the results of psychometric analyses on the
questionnaires cross nationally.
Keywords: questionnaire development, psychometric properties, index construction, master
questionnaire, available translations
Improving Survey Methodology: The ESS. Index and Measurement: The Cultural
Borders of Meaning
Antonio Alaminos, Mathematical Sociology, University of Alicante, Spain, [email protected]
ESS is, very probably, one of the most significant efforts to improve social survey methodology. No
doubt, its aimed by the "best practices" spirit. In that sense, to put at work extensively the "manuals"
of survey methodology is certainly a qualitative jump in quantitative research. The starting point is
optimal to reach excellence.
360
This paper point out some comparability problems arriving from questions wording and translations,
that emerges when testing measurement cross-culturally. Even with the best control on translation and
wording, the invariance on theoretical meaning may not be reached. This is the case when questions
define and stand for indicators of something different. For example, when measuring a latent variable.
Then, questions and variables try to capture a different reality that the language suggest. For
simplicity, we will deal with one of the most obvious: the concept of government from a cross-cultural
approach. The conclusions will suggest some considerations to improve comparability.
Manfred Max Bergman, Nicole Schoebi and Dominique Joye, SIDOS: Swiss Information and Data
Archive Service for the Social Sciences, Switzerland, [email protected]
The response rate of a survey is an important quality criterion for making population inferences. These
rates may depend in part on past experiences and propensities of the respondent, the skill of
interviewers to create a positive rapport within the first few seconds of contact with respondents, the
perceived sensitivity or complexity of the survey topic, question and questionnaire design, etc. Various
techniques are employed to boost response rates in populations that often suffer from survey fatigue.
However, such strategies may have detrimental effects on data quality.
Repeated follow-up contact with initial non-respondents tends to increase the survey response rate
although it is not clear to what extent the quality of response from follow-up contacts differs from
other respondents. More precisely, it is unclear to what extent reluctant participants simply give in to
social pressure by formally obeying instructions without necessarily committing themselves to the
demands of the questionnaire, or whether they indeed comply after having been convinced about the
value of their participation.
Based on detailed event recording during data collection for the Swiss portion of the European Social
Survey (2002), we will investigate the effects of various response propensities and degrees of response
acquiescence on a number of data quality indicators. As participation and response style relates to
various demographic and social variables, such as age, education attainment, and social position, we
will include these in our analyses. More generally, we will explore interaction effects between
response propensity, socio-demographic background, and data quality.
Moreover, this survey included a methodological experiment, in which a sub-sample was contacted in
a centralised manner, while the remaining sample was contacted directly by the interviewer. Results
from this quasi-experiment will supplement our investigation on response propensity and
acquiescence.
Keywords: nonresponse, bias, survey quality
Geographical Variations in Electoral Participation: Evidence from a Multilevel Analysis
of the European Social Survey
Ed Fieldhouse and Mark Tranmer, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University
of Manchester, UK, [email protected], [email protected]
Turnout at general elections across Europe is in decline. For example in the U.K. in 2001 turnout
declined to 59%, the lowest level since 1918. Reported turnout in the European Social Survey across
the 21 countries for which data are currently available is 74% (though this is likely to be an overestimate due to non-response bias and misreporting of vote). This paper examines national and
regional variations in turnout and uses multilevel models to understand contextual and compositional
explanations of such variation. Contextual variations may arise, in part, because of election specific
factors such as the closeness of the major parties in the polls, or the number of parties competing in an
election. These variables are consistent with rational choice explanations of turnout which predict
voting is a function of the costs and benefits of voting and also the likelihood of an individual electors
361
vote making any difference (i.e. where an election is not closely fought, the perceived likelihood of
casting a decisive vote is reduced). However, previous studies have shown that such explanations are
likely to provide only a partial insight into individual level variations in turnout. Thus we turn to two
other major theories to explain these variations: social capital and civic voluntarism. In addition we
explore how different key groups (e.g. ethnic minorities and young people) vary in their participation
across different countries, and how well these differences between such groups are accounted for by
these models. Finally, we look at wider measures of political activity, and consider how these are
related to electoral participation.
Keywords: European social survey, multilevel models, electoral participation.
Hans Bay, SFI-SURVEY, Denmark, [email protected]
The European Social Survey (the ESS) is a new, academic-driven social survey designed to chart and
explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour
patterns of its diverse populations.
The central aim of the ESS is to develop and conduct a systematic study of changing values, attitudes,
attributes and behaviour patterns within European policies. Academically driven but designed to feed
into key European policy debates, the ESS will try to measure and explain how people’s social values,
cultural norms and behaviour patterns are distributed, the way in which they differ within and between
nations, and the direction and speed at which they are changing.
A two-dimensional map (European Value Map) is constructed upon 21 questions. The questions
(named 21-item Basic Human Values Scale, developed by S. Schwartz) are grounded in theory and
well tested internationally. The two dimensions in the map are: The individual possibilities and
behaviourism in the society.
These two dimensions can be found in all the countries, when the countries are analysed separately. It
is demonstrated that the two dimensions are identical. Therefore the two dimensions are constructed
from the total sampling. The total sampling covers 18 countries and 32,102 respondents.
In the European Value Map 18 European countries are placed and thereby a comparison between the
European countries can be made.
Keywords: ESS, two-dimensional value map, factor analysis.
Analysis and Relation between Social Variables and Economic Variables in the
European Social Survey and World Bank and UNDP Reports: The Social Capital and
Economic Capital at the European Countries
Juan Sebastián Fernández Prados1, Jaime Andreu Abela2 and Antonia Lozano Díaz3
1
University of Almería, Spain, [email protected]
2
University of Granada, Spain
3
CentrA Foundation, Spain
Our main goal is to confirm and to explore the hypothesis of the relation existing between the social
capital and the economic capital or economic development of the countries.
On one hand, we have highlighted three main components of the concept of social capital
(participation in associations, civic and political engagement and interpersonal trust), from the
definitions elaborated by different authors like Putnam, Coleman, Fukuyama, etc.
We have analyzed the questionnaire of the European Social Survey and we have obtained three
indicators for the study of the social capital in the different European countries: associations rate
(percentage of population from one country that has taken part in at least one in the last 12 months),
civic, social and political participation rate (percentage of population from one country that has carried
out a civic or social action in the last 12 months) and level of interpersonal trust (arithmetic mean of
362
the following scales: "Most people can be trusted”, “most people try to take advantage of you” and
“most of the time people helpful”).
On the other hand, we have highlighted mainly two indicators utilized to measure and to rank the
countries of the world regarding their economic development or economic capital, gross domestic
product per capita PPP current international $ (GDP per capita, used by the World Bank) and the
Human Development Index (HDI, created by the United Nations Development Programme). In the
database of the World Development Indicators (2003) of the World Bank we can find more than 500
variables containing information of 208 countries of the world and, likewise, in the last Human
Development Report of the UNDP (2003) we can also find hundreds of statistical and a dozen of
indexes created ad hoc such as the gender -related development index (GDI), human poverty index
(HPI), etc. of 175 countries including all the countries studied in the European Social Survey.
The statistical treatment used to examine the relationships between the two groups of indicators, social
capital and economic capital, was, firstly, to elaborate a description of all the social and economic
variables of the countries; secondly, to obtain the correlation coefficient (r) and statistic of the
regression (R-square) from the matrix of correlations of all the variables and from different linear
regression models; finally, we carried out a series of Simple Scatter plots of the most important results.
Keywords: Social Capital, Economic Development, Human Development Index, European Social
Survey.
Jurjen Iedema and Ineke Stoop, [email protected]
In 2002 and 2003 the first round of the European Social Survey was held in a number of European
countries. Between 1500 to 2500 respondents per country were questioned and this usually took
several months to accomplish. During this period important events on a national or worldwide scale
could influence respondents’ answers. During that time the (coming) war in Iraq was such an event
and, for example, in Spain soldiers were sent to Iraq by the government whereas a large majority of
the Spanish people were opposed. Consequently, one might expect that Spanish respondents would
show a decrease in trust in government. In this way we looked at the influence of events in each
country on a number of questions, especially trust in political institutions. On some of these opinions
large variation in time was observed and occasionally one could summarize these as linear or
curvilinear trends. The predictability of these trends from events that took place in the country varied.
Keywords: contextual information, external validity
Some Methods for Investigating Validity and Reliability of Questions in the European
Social Survey
A. J. Kutylowski, Buskerud College, Oevrefoss 8d/11, 0555 Oslo, Norway, tel. +(47) 21910596,
[email protected]
The core module of the European Social Survey questionnaire is supplemented with a replication
module containing a number of questions which purport to be indicators of the same kind as questions
in the core module yet differ in one or more ways as to the manner they were asked.
Purpose of the presentation is to investigate efficacious statistical modelling of the information as to
the agreement between two or more manners of asking the question. The issue of interest deals with
the basics of survey instrumentation in the European Social Survey, namely whether a change in the
format of the questioning leads to change in the substantive interpretations of the finding, i.e. with the
validity and/or reliability of the measurement instruments.
Publications of the ESS coordinating team appear to favour MTMT “approach” to resolving these
issues. Here a different approach will be presented, based on direct modelling of joint multivariate
distributions of alternative question wordings and/or formats. Log-linear models will be used for
363
structural representation of the distributions and special parametrizations of the models, either
previously proposed in the statistical literature or entirely new will be employed to formulate and test
hypotheses inherent in the design of the replication module. A general symbolic notation will be used
to express the structural parametrizations, so as to make it straightforward for researchers to carry out
similar analyses in the context of their own investigations based on the study’s data.
With respect to some questions a latent variable approach will be appealing: here we shall show how
to link relevant graphical log-linear models for ordinal variables with the nonparametric latent factor
modelling.
Examples will presented showing how the proposed methods help in an investigation with respect to
whether some response categories can be collapsed;
whether there is a “middle” category;
whether it is feasible to proceed under the assumption of approximately equal intervals between
categories of the response.
Keywords: log-linear models, agreement, opinions, attitudes, latent variable, ordinality, European
Social Survey 2002.
Geert Loosveldt and Michel Philippens, Centre for Survey Methodology, Centre for Data collection
and
Analysis,
Department
of
Sociology,
Catholic
University
Leuven,
[email protected]
Survey researchers are since long concerned with the fact that interviewers can introduce an additional
source of variation in survey-estimates. It is assumed that this is most likely to occur when interviewer
behaviour departs from standardized procedures. In this paper we argue that the frequency of
idiosyncratic interviewer behaviour and accordingly the size of interviewer-variance are mainly a
function of the quality of the survey organisation (e.g. quality of interviewer training) and the amount
of problems respondents encounter when answering questions. In order to test this proposition we used
data from several countries participating in the European Social Survey (ESS). By comparing the size
of interviewer-variance across countries we hope to learn more about the factors and conditions that
influence the presence of interviewer-effects. In a first section of this paper we will test whether
countries differ significantly with respect to the size of interviewer-variance on a set of items designed
to measure ethnocentrism attitudes. This will be done by modelling interviewer-variance as a function
of the respondent’s country in a multilevel regression model. Next, we will introduce to our model a
number of variables associated with the answering behaviour of the respondent - i.e. degree of
understanding questions, motivation and reluctance (as evaluated by the interviewer) and presence of
item-nonresponse. This will allow assessing whether and to which extent country-differences of
interviewer-variance can be attributed to differences in problematic respondent behaviour. Finally, we
will try to explain the remaining country differences in interviewer-variance by comparing the quality
of survey organisation across countries.
Keywords: ESS, interviewer effects, multilevel modelling, survey quality
International Benchmarking: Are we Comparing Apples to Oranges?
Frank Stroobandt, Mariska Storm and Hans Waege, University of
Ghent,
Belgium,
International benchmarking is a process by which an organisation compares its results or performance
indicators with organisations in foreign countries. Public authorities increasingly use this instrument to
plan, evaluate, and improve their policies. Although benchmarking can be a valuable tool for
policymakers, there are some risks involved. In this paper we focus on the difficulties and pitfalls
regarding the selection of countries or regions that are included in an international benchmarking
project. Our aim is to develop a methodology which assesses the relevance of comparing a given
364
country or region with other countries or regions. This methodology is tested in the field of cultural
policy.
It is a remarkable fact that the selection of countries or regions in international benchmarking is
usually taken for granted. The decision to choose certain countries or regions is generally based on
practical criteria such as the availability of data and the belonging of a country to a supranational
entity, e.g. the European Union. When the selection process is not methodologically substantiated,
benchmarking may lead to irrelevant comparisons and distort the policy decisions that are based on it.
The methodology we developed consists in matching the countries or regions that are considered for
benchmarking on a series of contextual indicators. The latter were defined and selected during
focusgroups with Flemish policymakers. The indicators that are involved in the matching procedure
are parameters of the economic, social, demographic, juridical, political, and financial factors that
operate in a given country or region. Since the methodology is tested in the cultural field, we also
defined measures that control for the contextual factors, e.g. subsidy structure, with regard to this
domain.
The matching procedure was applied on an international cultural benchmarking project that was
initiated by the Flemish government. The results show that some countries and regions such as The
Netherlands and France are more relevant as reference point for Flanders than others European
countries. We note that certain non-European regions, for instance Québec, match better with Flanders
than regions that are situated in Europe.
We conclude that the quality of an international benchmarking process is also determined by the initial
stages in this process, namely the selection of the countries or regions that are benchmarked. Using a
matching process with regard to benchmarking projects in other policy fields is recommended.
Keywords: international benchmarking, comparability, quality, methodology, cultural policy.
Modeling Events for ESS: Toward the Creation of an Autonomous Tool for Survey
Research
Theoni Stathopoulou, National Centre for Social Research, Greece, [email protected]
The European Social Survey has supplemented its questionnaire with the creation of the event
database in order to methodologically integrate the survey responses. The aim of this database is to
record and evaluate the impact of historical circumstance, as reported by the media, in the shaping of
attitudes. While event data analysis is a powerful methodological tool in the field of international
relations for crisis monitoring, its application in the case of the survey has presented some difficulties,
particularly concerning the combination of the macro and micro levels of analysis. In order to
overcome these difficulties, it is proposed here that event data be approached as an autonomous tool.
Such independence empowers and broadens our analytical capabilities, allowing the better evaluation,
monitoring and utilisation of the events. This approach would better serve the needs of this particular
survey in the long run, and may also be of use to surveys of a similar nature.
The proposed model is based on the simultaneous analysis of the three main components of the event
database: time, space (the total countries), and events. Using multi-dimensional analysis, and taking
into account the serious homogenisation problems apparent in the data, we will attempt to highlight:
the continuous flow of events;
the possible impact of the events within each country and across countries diachronically;
the shifting of the thematic event categories within countries; and
the appearance of new thematic categories.
To this end, lexicographic analysis with parsing techniques will be carried out on the total available
event reports of each country. Subsequently, cluster analysis will be used to associate the countries
with the thematic event categories in order to reveal the “event identity” of each country, which affects
the attitudes of the respondents, and to understand the processes involved in the development of these
identities. This model aims at the creation of a dynamic (the entry of new events each month),
diachronic (analysed by month) system, which will monitor, map, and compare the evolution of the
events in time and space.
Keywords: events, text-mining, ESS, multidimensional analysis.
365
STREAM: INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
SESSION: COMPARABLE DATA ACROSS COUNTRIES
Organizor: Willem Saris1 and Ineke Stoop2
Contact: 1University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected]
2
Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands
PO Box 16164 2500 BD The Hague The Netherlands, [email protected]
Keywords: comparative research , cross cultural, reliability, validity, sampling theory, survey
research, non-response, functional equivalence
Abstract
In the design of the European Social Survey (ESS) that is going on in 23 countries of Europe a
maximal effort has been made to obtain comparable data across countries. This means that:
the samples have been made maximally comparable
strict rules have been formulated for the fieldwork
rules have been formulated for the translation of the questionnaire in different languages
in all countries extra questions have been asked to estimate the reliability and validity of the questions
in order to correct for measurement error
event data have been collected to understand possible differences due to specific events
In this session different members of the Central Coordinating team of the ESS will present the
procedures they have developed to maximize comparability across countries
Roger Jowell
Comparability in cross-national attitude surveys has always been notoriously difficult to achieve.
Cultural incompatibilities and methodological variations affect questionnaire design, sampling,
fieldwork, response rates and coding. Problems of ‘non-attitudes’ and social desirability biases
abound. The political or social context varies by nation and across time. The 22-nation European
Social Survey – started in 2001 and funded by the European Commission, the European Science
Foundation and the academic funding agencies of all participating nations – tries to mitigate these
problems by means of a wide range of innovative methods. Thus even in its first round the ESS
achieved rigorous probability samples of a similar ‘effective’ size and quality in all participating
nations, as well as achieving unusually high standards of translation and fieldwork and higher
response rates. Accompanying the main dataset is a meta dataset containing details of questionnaire
development and testing, contact and calling strategies, a separate file of event and context
information, and a comprehensive and transparent technical report. It is therefore also a rich resource
for methodological research. The ESS’s fully-documented dataset was made available on-line in
September 2003, only months after the end of fieldwork. Its quality and outreach suggest that the
detailed organisational networks created to implement the ESS, together with meticulous design and
documentation protocols, embedded expertise and ambitious targets, added up to a winning formula
for ensuring impressive cross-national equivalence.
Keywords: Comparative Attitudinal Research, Survey Methods, Equivalence
Willem E. Saris, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In cross-cultural research a problem is that the questions have to be translated in different languages.
In each language each question has a specific quality expressed in a reliability and validity coefficient.
It has been shown that the data quality has a very strong effect on the relationships between variables:
366
the quality of a question can decrease relationships but can also incorrectly increase correlations. In
cross-cultural research the problem is that , even if the questions have been translated perfectly, the
quality can vary from country to country and this means that the relationships between the variables in
the different countries are incomparable.
In the paper I will present evidence of this phenomenon on the basis of data of the ESS. I will also
show how one can take these differences in data quality into account so that the relationships between
variables are comparable across countries.
Trapped in Translation? ESS Translation Protocols provide a Key
Janet Harkness, ZUMA, Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
The ESS translation context is complex: multiple languages, a source questionnaire finalized before
translation begins, numerous countries sharing a language (e.g., French and German), and language
minorities over 5% provided with their own translations, country budgets already stretched by other
requirements for ESS fielding.
The EU funded a work package to provide translation guidelines and requirements for countries
participating in the ESS. The guidelines provided are based on ongoing basic and applied research in
survey translation on how to implement survey translation and assessment through a holistic, teambased process.
The commonly used and originally envisaged procedure of back translation was successfully replaced
with TRAPD – a translation, review, approval(adjudication), pre-testing and documentation protocol.
Results and feedback from the first round of the ESS are positive and an increasing number of
international projects are incorporating the basic idea of TRAPD in their translation production
processes. At the same time, basic research within the ESS framework and in other studies suggests
that questionnaire design is the ultimate issue.
The paper outlines the theory and practice of TRAPD and using data from the ESS and other studies
demonstrates how translators can help improve questionnaire designs.
Seppo Laaksonen1, Siegfried Gabler2, Sabine Häder2 and Peter Lynn3
1
University of Helsinki, Finland
2
Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen (ZUMA), Germany
3
Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, UK
The ESS has used innovative methods to ensure that the samples interviewed in round 1 are of the
highest possible quality and are comparable between countries. In this presentation, we will describe
why it was important for the ESS to pay close attention to sample design and outline some key
achievements of the ESS with respect to sample design.
There is considerable variation between countries in the constraints upon sampling (existence of and
access to population registers and other sampling frames) and in usual survey practice. ESS has tried
hard to minimise the impacts of this variation on the representativeness of the samples. The aim was to
achieve samples in each country that represent the same population (all ages 15+, all de facto residents
– not just citizens) and provide a similar level of statistical precision. A precondition of comparability
is that probability sampling must be used in each country. In addition, the ESS specified the level of
precision that should be achieved, in terms of a statistical concept, the effective sample size. Countries
were provided with guidance on how to apply this concept to their situation and how to interpret the
implications by a central team of sampling experts. This team also helped the national teams to
identify and implement appropriate sampling frames and sampling methods and good ways to
maximise response rates. A fundamental belief of the ESS is that this co-operative approach with
367
constant multi-way dialogue is more likely to achieve functional equivalence than the application of
standard procedures.
We will describe the key aspects of the sample specification and how the support and assistance was
given to each country. We believe that these processes represent a significant advance on the
implementation of other cross-national surveys and have resulted in a higher quality survey product.
Keywords: cross-national surveys, sample designs, functional equivalence
Data Quality Assessment in ESS Round 1: Between Wishes and Reality
Jaak Billiet and Michel Philippens, K.U. Leuven, Belgium
The quality assessment of the obtained data from first round of ESS is based on a conceptual
framework of a pragmatic approach to data quality assessment1. It combines aspects of the total survey
error approach that are focused on output evaluation, and the total quality management approach,
which is concentrated on process evaluation. It was intended to cover the process and output aspects of
both the sample obtained, and the registered responses. For practical reasons, not all elements of the
full pragmatic approach could be addressed in the first round of ESS, but the most important ones are
covered. The utilisation of extensive uniform contact forms was crucial. Most of the countries
performed well on this. Documenting the process of contacting the sample units within several
sampling designs and contacting strategies, obtaining information about the reasons of non-contacts
and refusal, constructing comparable non-response rates over countries, and obtaining information
about co-operative respondents, reluctant respondents, and non-respondents were the main functions
of the contact forms. The paper evaluates the performance of the participating agencies, and discusses
the possibilities of improvement. The study is mainly based on the analysis of contact forms data, but
also on substantial data from the main questionnaires.
1
Loosveldt, G., A. Carton & J. Billiet (2004), “Assessment of survey data quality: a pragmatic
approach focused on interviewer tasks”. International Journal of Market Research, vol. 46 (1): 65-82.
Jurjen Iedema and Ineke Stoop
In the early stages of the preparation of the European Social Survey, during the final years of the
previous century, when the construction of an event data inventory was planned as a corollary to
survey data collection, the most disruptive events most people had in mind that could influence
individual reactions to certain questions were national elections. The 9-11 terrorist attacks in the USA
in 2001 and its aftermath showed that events could have an infinitely more far-reaching effect on
values and opinions. When designing the actual data collection for the event inventory early 2002, it
was still assumed that similar high impact events would occur only very sporadically. Now, with a war
in Iraq that seems to be still going on, the importance of collecting event data during fieldwork seems
more pertinent than ever before.
The fact that the fieldwork of the first wave of the ESS took place in period when war was being
prepared with uncertain consequences, when the influence of international organisations was under
discussion and when European countries were seriously divided among themselves, is something
future users of the ESS should be aware of, especially as the study has been set up as an important
asset for historical micro analysis. The impact of the war in Iraq on the social and political fabric of
Europe is something substantive researchers should especially take into account as this international
event translated itself or was related to many distinctive national events, such as attitudes towards the
Blair and Aznar government in the UK and Spain, the outcome of the Dutch and German national
elections, the enmity between the USA and France and Germany, the involvement of the Polish army,
368
public demonstrations and anti-war rallies, etc. The single event of the war in Iraq thus may have
influenced societies in a way which was not uniform across countries
To pinpoint the impact of the national ‘Iraq’ events, the involvement of local reporters is required who
can relate events to the contents of the ESS-questionnaire. During fieldwork they forwarded perceptive
overviews of what kept people – or more precisely – newspapers busy during the final months of 2002
and the first of 2003. From the media reported event inventory of the national reports it can be seen
that the ESS 2002/2003 was conducted in turbulent times: reports mention regime changes, terrorist
attacks, major floods, heated public discussions on immigration and asylum seekers, political
wranglings, financial scandals, planned revisions of social protection regimes, economic decline and
national elections. When analysing attitudes, the event inventory should provide the necesary
background.
The complete overview of the events that took place in the participating countries during fieldwork is
publicly available at the ESS-websites, together with an overview of websites with country data,
containing both aggregate statistics and system descriptions.
SESSION: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN DESIGNING
IMPLEMENTING CROSS-CULTUREL SURVEYS
AND
Organizors: Janet Harkness1 and Edith D. de Leeuw2
Contact: 1ZUMA, Postfach 12 21 55, D-68072 Mannheim, Germany, [email protected]
2
Edith de Leeuw, MethodikA, Plantage Doklaan 40, Nl-1018 CN Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
[email protected]
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design and implementation, multipopulation sampling, multi-cultural survey instruments, quality control, non-response and survey
errors
Abstract
Cross-Cultural Surveys have become increasing important both from a theoretical and an applied
policy view. Understanding complex realities and generating and testing social theories is one of the
main issues in social science. Going from the limitations of one culture, nation, or group to comparing
groups, cultures and countries, enables researchers to distinguish between ‘local conditions’ and
‘universal regularities.’ As our world grows from a local to a global one, policy makers and
economists have an urgent need for comparative high quality international data.
A Process Quality Approach to the Testing and Evaluation of Cross-Cultural Surveys
Johnny Blair and Linda Piccinino, Abt Associates Inc., USA, [email protected],
[email protected]
Instrument development for cross-cultural surveys often must contend with problems that have not
been widely addressed in the literature. Survey methodology has not focused much on these issues,
though it has some tools and theory to do so (Schwartz, 2003; De Leeuw & Hox, 2003).
Using recent examples from health surveys in Africa and Asia we present development of processes to
ensure quality in survey instruments used across purposes.
Survey instruments designed for one cultural context sometimes are not easily adapted to fit additional
contexts. Often much of the design of instruments involves technical staff who are not native to the
target country, or instruments that are developed for one country must be modified for use in another.
Client demands and resource constraints, however, might make using the same instrument for more
than one culture a necessary, although often not an optimal, solution. Evaluation of surveys that are
intended for other cultural contexts should rely on processes to test whether the index survey and its
369
proposed modifications are suitable to the next context. The need for comparability of selected
questionnaire items and the preservation of time trend data add another level of complexity to the task.
We develop a process or series of stages to show the types of problems that can be addressed by
alternative testing approaches such as focus groups, cognitive testing and conventional pre-testing
methods. The stages of testing or pre-testing are comprehensive, starting from testing of all sections
of the current instrument through testing on target populations, and additional testing of flawed or
significantly changed questions. The type of pre-testing or testing method, whether focus groups,
behavior coding, or conventional testing, should be conducted in stages to (1) identify problems and
(2) verify that revisions made have addressed the problems. Expert review, while beneficial, should
not be viewed as a substitute for these methods of testing.
This paper describes a process approach for the combined use of these multiple tools for instrument
development in cross-cultural surveys.
Keywords: pre-testing, questionnaire design, measurement error
Language, Usage, and Cultural Context: Challenges to “Functional Equivalence” in
Questions
Michael Braun and Janet Harkness, European Center for Cross-Cultural Surveys, ZUMA, P.O. Box 12
21 55, D - 68072 Mannheim, Germany, [email protected], [email protected]
In cross-lingual, cross-cultural studies, appropriate language and translations often play a key role in
securing intercultural comparability. Sometimes language as language seems to be the foremost issue,
sometimes more a blend of language, language use, and culture. At other times, problems of
“functional equivalence” have less to do with language and how it is used than how cultural contexts
frame respondents’ understanding of questions. We explain how--against the backdrop of specific
cultural contexts--cognitive and communicative processes can trigger different interpretations of
survey items.
The paper provides illustrations of each of these challenges to “equivalence” and demonstrates how
cultural contexts—linked to language or not—relate to respondent perceptions in ways similar to
question contexts; these last play a prominent role in the social-cognition approach to survey research.
Often enough, the effects of language system and usage and cultural context may be hard to
disentangle. The paper explores the relationship between language-anchored features and nonlinguistic aspects of survey questions in context that create problems for “equivalence” or
comparability. Selected examples illustrate the usefulness of an integrated framework in trying to
come to terms with social science research across cultures and language.
Keywords: Boundary Crossing Data Use, Measuring Accuracy in Complex Surveys
Developing a Low-Cost Technique for Parallel Cross-Cultural Instrument Development:
The Question Appraisal System (QAS-04)
Elizabeth Dean, Rachel Caspar, Georgina McAvinchey, Rosanna Quiroz and Leticia Reed, RTI
International, USA, [email protected]
Many different approaches are used to prepare instruments for multicultural administration, depending
on the scope, schedule and budget of the study. Sequential questionnaire development, the most
common approach to developing cross-cultural instruments, is also the most affordable. Using the
sequential approach, instrument designers formulate and pretest an instrument in the source language,
then translate the final version into the target language(s) using as much culture-specific tailoring as is
possible. On the other hand, the parallel approach to multilingual questionnaire development
incorporates target cultures into the design and pretesting process. The disadvantage to parallel
development is that it is expensive, time-consuming, and subject to version control problems
(Harkness, Van de Vijver, and Johnson 2003). As researchers design a growing number of instruments
370
across languages and cultures, the need arises for low-cost techniques for parallel instrument
development.
RTI’s Question Appraisal System (QAS) is a coding tool used for pretesting instruments. The QAS is
supported by an item taxonomy that describes the cognitive demands of the questionnaire and
documents the question features that are likely to lead to response error. These potential errors include
comprehension, task definition, information retrieval, judgment, and response generation. This
appraisal analysis is used to identify possible revisions in item wording, response wording,
questionnaire formats, question ordering, and instrument flow. As a tool designed to address potential
measurement problems during the development phase of instruments, the QAS is eminently suited to
incorporate language issues and provide a relatively low-cost methodology for identifying potential
problems due to cross-cultural and cross-linguistic application of instruments.
This paper will present a revised and expanded QAS that enables survey developers to assess
linguistic and cultural issues within instruments, including:
errors likely to be introduced during translation,
differential levels of comprehension across cultures,
idiomatic vocabulary,
potential complications to programming, such as gender specification and sentence structure around
filled-in text, and
culturally inappropriate references.
When the new QAS taxonomy is finalized, it will be used to evaluate an instrument that is currently in
the field in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese. To validate the revised QAS, the results will
be compared to item nonresponse data from questionnaire’s field administration and to data collected
during in-depth interviews with interviewing staff. This paper will present the final revised QAS and
an assessment of its effectiveness in predicting cultural problems in the field.
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design,
forms appraisal coding
References
Harkness, J., Van de Vijver, F., and Johnson, T., (2003), Questionnaire Design in Comparative Research, in Harkness, et. al,
(eds), Cross-Cultural Survey Methods, New York: Wiley. – Pages 19 – 34.
Patricia M. Gallagher and Floyd J. Fowler, Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts
Boston, USA
We currently are fielding a survey designed to test an approach to enhancing the cross-cultural
comparability of Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS) instruments that follows a model
proposed by Gary King, Christopher Murray, et al. (2003). The technique involves the use of
"anchoring" vignettes that present hypothetical examples of health care at various levels of efficacy.
Respondents are asked to assess the care presented in the hypothetical scenarios. They are also asked
to use the same response choices presented for the vignette assessments to self-assess the domain of
care described in the vignettes. The responses to the vignette items can be used to create comparable
inter-rater measurements to adjust self-assessments.
The study involves surveying parallel samples (total n=1200) of Latino, African American, and white
members of MassHealth, the State of Massachusetts medical insurance (Medicaid) program for lowincome residents. The first step in this test was to develop the vignettes. The development work
involved two rounds of focus groups (n=6) with members of the target populations and the translation
of the vignettes into Spanish.
The sample members each receive a Canadian-style dual-language (English/Spanish) instrument that
includes the anchoring vignettes developed in stage one and a subset of core CAHPS items. Standard
mail survey protocols are being followed, with an initial mailing of the questionnaire packet, followed
by a reminder/thank you postcard, and the mailing of a second questionnaire packet to all
nonrespondents.
371
Analysis of the data collected will allow the identification and quantification of differences in the ways
that different cultural groups use CAHPS response scales. In addition, we will have the tools to
calibrate self-assessments to adjust for interpersonal differences in the use of the response scales.
References
King, Gary; Christopher J.L. Murray; Joshua A. Salomon; and Ajay Tandon. ``Enhancing the Validity and Cross-cultural
Comparability of Measurement in Survey Research,'' American Political Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 4 (December, 2003),
567-584; reprinted, with printing errors corrected, Vol. 98, No. 1 (February, 2004): 567-583.
Eleanor Gerber, US Census Bureau, Statistical Research Division, [email protected]
Interest in examining surveys in a cross-cultural perspective has risen as surveys have been fielded in
complex, multi-national and multi-ethnic contexts. Survey response and respondent behavior in
general is understood to vary by cultural, ethnic and linguistic factors. The aim of this paper is to
examine some key concepts by which these behavioral differences may be understood. An
understanding of these factors is useful both in predicting where differences may occur and in guiding
future research. The data on which this paper are based are drawn from qualitative work over more
than a decade surrounding the US decennial census.
For this discussion, culture is regarded as a set of mental constructs; definitions, assumptions, values
and beliefs by which people construct and interpret the world. It is the central insight of anthropology
that these beliefs differ by culture. However, this single conceptual insight does not do justice to the
complexity in respondent behavior to surveys nor to the range of differences to which survey
designers should attend. These factors include:
Conceptual differences: An example is the race categories in the US census, which are problematic for
persons from Latin America, who often do not find acceptable categories for themselves.
Social adaptation: Some relevant differences are not codified in belief, but represent common
structural adaptations to external circumstances. Thus, immigrant households from many different
systems of belief adapt to high rents by sharing space, regardless of varied ideals of household
structure. In addition, wide similarities in attitude towards government data collection are shared by
diverse groups with similar histories of conflict with the Federal Government. These social adaptations
can create wide similarities in behavior among very diverse groups.
Assimilation: Despite very different beliefs, it often does not take immigrants long to learn what they
consider to be the expected response. Thus, although “Hispanic” is an unfamiliar concept, many
immigrants adopt it as a self-identification in the US context.
Different understandings of respondent behavior. The survey itself is a cultural representation.
Respondents have a set of cultural expectations about what surveys are and how to participate, which
vary by previous experience.
These factors affect survey design and procedures, and should be the subject of further research.
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design, nonresponse and survey errors
Timothy Johnson, Young Ik Cho, Allyson Holbrook, Diane O’Rourke and Richard Warnecke, Survey
Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
Although cultural variations in survey question interpretation have now been well documented, along
with cultural differences in survey-related behaviors such as nonresponse, extreme-responding and
acquiescence, little guidance is available to researchers regarding specific question design strategies
that might be useful in minimizing variations in interpretation. This paper will address this issue by
first reviewing current conventional wisdom regarding cross-cultural question design strategies. It will
then present original behavioral coding data from 350 interviews with respondents representing four
distinct cultural subgroups in the United States (non-Hispanic White, African American, Mexican
372
American and Puerto Rican). Using survey questions as the unit of analysis (n = 14,000), nested
within survey respondents, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is employed to examine the effects of
five questionnaire design features on cultural variations in question interpretation difficulties. The five
design features examined include (1) type of response options used, (2) level of question abstraction,
(3) question length, (4) question reading level, and (5) question type (behavior vs. opinion). The main
findings of these analyses indicate that the use of vague quantifier response options disproportionately
increase the question comprehension difficulties of minority respondents, relative to non-Hispanic
Whites. Based on these and other findings, we offer a revised set of question design recommendations
for the development of questionnaires to be used in cross-cultural surveys.
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design, multi-cultural survey
instruments
Socio-Cultural Factors in the Question-Response Process: A Comparative Coding
Analysis of Latino and Anglo Cognitive Interviews
Kristen Miller1 and Gordon Willis2
1
National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Rd; Hyattsville, MD 20782, USA, 301-458-4625,
[email protected]
2
Concepcion Trevino Eason
This paper will describe project, conducted by the U.S. CDC National Center for Health Statistics and
the NIH National Cancer Institute, in which nearly 70 cognitive interviews on health topics were
conducted among Latino and Anglo participants (in both English and Spanish) in rural, urban and
suburban locations in the United States. Questions were asked on issues that perennially produce
problems in cognitive testing, including reports of chronic health conditions that involve technical
terms, and of cancer screening tests. Further, questions were included on disease risk factors that we
suspected may show cross-cultural variation, such as diet, nutrition, and physical activity. Finally, we
included a question on perceived health status, in order to assess potential between-group conceptions
of health in general. Cognitive interviews were conducted using intensive verbal probing techniques,
and interviewers recorded subject responses to a series of targeted probe questions designed to
elucidate the comprehension and further cognitive processing of the survey items. Further, somewhat
unique to this study, interviews were coded, allowing for both quantitative and qualitative comparative
analyses, to examine the ways in which socio-cultural factors (e.g. language, cultural values and
tradition, socio-economic status and geographic region) might impact the survey response process.
Codes were based on a question-response model, depicting (1) the respondent's interpretations of key
terms, (2) the process for making judgments and decisions, and (3) the presence of response error and
response error type. The paper will present findings related to overall trends concerning identified
problems, and in particular, will determine the extent to which variations in responses point to
differential item functioning across the range of groups studied, whether defined according to culture,
socio-economic status, geography, or some other critical variable(s). Based on the obtained results, we
will discuss implications for survey research conducted within a multi-cultural context, and for the
practice of questionnaire development, evaluation, and pre-testing. Finally, the discussion will point
toward specific directions for future methodological investigations that are critical to the development
of international and other cross-cultural surveys, especially those that make use of systematic forms of
coding of cognitive interview outcomes.
Keywords: question response, question design, socio-cultural factors
What are we talking about ?Interviewing and Interpretation for a Biographical Survey
in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cross-cultural/ Cross-National Survey Research Session
Martine Quaglia, INED, National Institute for Demographic Studies, France, [email protected]
To conduct a survey in a foreign country requires some adaptations to the context in which the survey
is to be made. One of the main questions has to do with how the research is going to fit into a national
373
or international demand for reliable data on the subject and therefore combines with those conducted
by national scientists and institutions directly concerned and interested in the results.
But furthermore, it has to deal with survey methodology , questionnaire design, and interviewing
related to the sociological and cultural context in which the survey is taking place.
What are the basic methodological requirements to be fulfilled in order to get in touch with the
population we have to meet ? Adaptation also has to do with questionnaire organization and
formulation. The questions have to fit into an environment which is not always familiar to the research
teams. Although interviewers are generally recruited locally, they are not always aware of the
researcher cultural point of view, and its consequences on the questionnaire formulation and
organization. More over, when the interviewer doesn’t speak the language of the respondent, an
interpret will assist the interviewer. Interviewers and interprets have to adjust their own perception of
familiar and perfectly known concepts to the new environment. Words refer to many different
concepts depending on how, where, or/and when they are used. Every social science researcher has
once been confronted to the different meanings of a question, according to the country or environment
in which the question is asked. No survey can be done (and no reliable data can be found) without an
interviewer or an interpret who knows what he is talking about, that is, what the survey is looking for,
and what the researcher and respondent linguistic and therefore cultural codes are. A close look at a
training session for a biographical survey conducted in two villages of the Boo country in Mali
(Hertrich 1996, Quaglia 2004) should underline some of the questions raised from a methodological,
and ethical point of view.
Keywords: cross-cultural survey methodology, cross-cultural interviewing, cross-cultural
questionnaire design
References
Véronique Hertrich, Permanences et changements de l’Afrique rurale. Dynamiques familiales chez les Bwa du Mali , Paris,
Centre français sur la population et le développement, XXII + 548 p. (Les études du CEPED, n°14) 1996.
Martine Quaglia, Rapport de mission, Mali, décembre 2003-janvier 2004. « Mise à jour des enquêtes chez les Bwa du Mali »,
Paris, Ined, mars 2004.
Jutta Thornberry1, Michele Bloch2, Robert Goldenberg3, Norman Goco1, Don Jackson1 and Nancy
Moss4
1
RTI International, USA, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
2
National Cancer Institute, USA, [email protected]
3
University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, [email protected]
4
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, USA, [email protected]
Globally, tobacco use ranks among the leading causes of preventable, premature death. In most highincome nations, tobacco use is stable or decreasing, due to decades of research and program and policy
interventions. Conversely, in developing nations, tobacco use is increasing, and may continue to do so
among women who have traditionally had low rates of tobacco use. Understanding the knowledge,
attitudes, and behaviors regarding tobacco use of pregnant women in the developing world would
contribute to developing interventions aimed at (1) maintaining and supporting women’s and girls’
non-use of tobacco products and (2) helping users to quit. However, there are many challenges in
collecting common data across different countries and cultures. These challenges are magnified when
research capacity building is also a goal, and novice researchers must be taught standardized survey
techniques.
The Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research was established by the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to respond to the most critical existing
and emerging health problems of women and children, globally. International, multidisciplinary teams
of investigators, organized into research units, work collaboratively to answer scientific and/or public
health questions to improve health, and to prevent premature disease and death among women and
374
children in developing countries. Currently, the Network is composed of 10 research units, located in
Southern Asia, Central and South America, and Africa.
The Tobacco Use Survey is the first common protocol to be implemented by the Network. For the
survey, a convenience sample of 750 women, 18-46 years of age and at least 3 months pregnant will
be identified in hospitals and clinics in each of 10 countries: the Congo, Zambia, Uruguay, Argentina,
Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and Tibet. A face-to-face interview, ranging from 20-40
minutes, will be administered. Each site will pretest the questionnaire before the instrument is
finalized, train data collectors using standardized training materials, and collect the data using
standardized oral procedures in the respondent’s language.
This paper will discuss the following challenges of implementing a common survey in 10 countries:
Developing a questionnaire with common, yet country-specific content.
Conducting quality control measures to check language translations;
Incorporating feedback from the pretest;
Ensuring standardized training in data collection procedures;
Conducting quality control measures to verify data collection procedures.
Keywords: Cross-cultural methodology, multi-cultural survey design and implementation, multicultural survey instruments, quality control
Attitude Scale Development in Countries which send Illegal Immigrants
Kees van der Veer1, Reidar Ommundsen2, Hao Van Le3, Krum Krumov4 and Knud S. Larsen5
1
Vrije University Amsterdam, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Research
Methodology, De Boelelaan 1081c, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, tel: +31 20 4446866
(office) or +31 6 29070050, [email protected]
2
University of Oslo, Norway
3
National Institute of Psychology,Vietnam
4
University of Sofia, Bulgaria
5
Oregon State University, USA
This study reports on the utility of a Likert type scale measuring attitudes toward illegal immigrants in
two samples from sending nations. The purpose of the current study is to investigate attitudes toward
illegal immigration in net sending countries; i.e. in this case in samples from Bulgaria and Vietnam.
What items of the illegal immigration scale (Ommundsen & Larsen, 1999) are the most and least
significant contributors to attitudes in those net sending countries, based on item analysis? Previous
research indicated that it is not possible to develop unidimensional Mokken scales which are robust
and economical in samples from nations which have positive net illegal migration rates. The attitudes
toward illegal immigrant scale was administered to 219 undergraduates from Sofia University in
Bulgaria, and 179 undergraduates from Hanoi State University in Vietnam. Results yielded a scale
with no gender differences, and acceptable alpha coefficients. Item analysis identified the most
contributory and least contributory items, with considerable overlap in the two divergent samples. A
varimax factor analysis produced a complex, but meaningful structure.
Keywords: cross-cultural methodology; multi-cultural survey instruments; scale development
Behavior Coding of Multilingual Survey Interviews: What Can We Tell by
Systematically Listening?
Gordon Willis1, Elaine Zahnd2, Sherm Edwards3, Stephanie Fry3, David Grant4, Nicole Lordi2
1
National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA
2
Public Health Institute, USA
3
Westat, USA
4
University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research, USA
Assessment of the cross-cultural equivalence of survey questions poses a particularly vexing problem
for multilingual surveys, due to the complexities that survey administrators face in evaluating the
375
quality of interviews conducted in languages they do not speak. For interviewer-administered
questionnaires, investigators cannot simply listen to interviews (as through telephone monitoring), and
may not be able to explain findings such as widely discrepant mean interview durations across
languages. More generally, we normally lack systematic opportunities for judging how questionnaires
function when translated. As a potential solution to this problem, the current project applies behavior
coding, first developed by Charlie Cannell and colleagues at the University of Michigan, to the crosscultural, multilingual domain. This methodological study utilized the California Health Interview
Survey (CHIS), a bi-annual telephone-administered survey conducted by the University of California
at Los Angeles, in partnership with the Public Health Institute and the California Department of Health
Services, and fielded by Westat. The project uses the 2003 CHIS as a vehicle for developing means for
assessing the cross-cultural equivalence of survey questions through the application of behavior
coding across English, Spanish, and Korean interviews. Trained, bilingual coders analyzed digitized
recordings of over 300 fielded interviews. Coders listened for instances in which questions exhibited
problems associated with the behavior of interviewers or respondents, including interviewer failure to
read questions as written or to probe appropriately, and respondents’ requests for the question to be reread, requests for clarification, failure to provide codeable responses, expressions of uncertainty in
their responses, extraneous commenting, and so on.
In a general attempt to distinguish effects of culture from those due to language translation, coding
was done for a set of English-language interviews of Hispanics and Koreans, and for another interview
set conducted in either Spanish or Korean. All bilingual (Spanish-English and Korean-English) coders
conducted coding in both their native language and in English, so that their English language coding
performance could be assessed by the investigators. Through the quantitative aggregation of results of
these behavior-coded interviews, the researchers will determine whether the targeted questions
function as intended in each targeted language, and across cultures. Further, where overt evidence of
difficulties arises, we will attempt to judge whether this is a general problem with the question, is due
to mistranslation, is culturally specific, or might be due to some other confounding factor. Finally, we
will discuss the relative merits of behavior coding as a means for evaluating cross-cultural
equivalence, in a way that considers the operational as well as the scientific aspects of the endeavor.
Keywords: Cross-cultural equivalence, behavior coding, translation
Comparability of Attitude Measures towards Social Inequality. The Level of
Equivalence in the ISSP 1999, its Implications on Further Analysis and the Presentation
of Results
Mag. Vlasta Zucha, Institute for Social Research and Analysis (SORA), A- 1150 Wien, Linke
Wienzeile 246, [email protected]
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a large-scale survey program conducted since
1983, which is covering special topics over time and different nations. The data is available for
scientific research and offers extensive opportunities for the analysis of different social phenomena.
In cross-national research high comparability of results is necessary and therefore researchers should
pay attention to several dimensions of equivalence analysing this cross-national data. Yet testing of
several forms and levels of equivalence is very time- and cost-intensive. Multiple methodologies must
be applied to cross-national and cross-cultural data to assure comparability of measures and test
comparability of data in the phase of data analysis.
By analysing the ISSP 1999 (special topic: “social inequality”) the optimal level of equivalence for
testing theories and understanding complex social realities will be addressed. The research focuses on
the construct equivalence in cross-national research and examines whether the theoretical construct is
universal for the countries under investigation or not. Depending on the purpose of an empirical study
and research design, for most studies in social sciences structural equivalence might be adequate and
sufficient.
A secondary analysis of the ISSP-data from 1999 was conducted, in which equivalence of attitudes
towards social inequality was tested for three countries – for Austria, Czech Republic and Germany.
376
After choosing the theoretical framework several techniques and statistical methods were

Recent Developments and Applications In Social

Transcription

Similar documents

case study shleppers

meeting respondents on their home turf

Mathew Hall, Peter Hegedüs, Josip Maras, Marco Mori, Zoltán

Make Money with Paid Online Surveys

Sportingbet - Forestview

PROMOTION CRITERIA EMPLOYED IN PARASTAT ALS: A CASE

Survey Solutions with a Human Touch

Do Mobile Respondents Differ from Online Survey

NorthCross Center - Blackwood Development Company

Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP), founded