Evidence in Practice

Learning objectives To revisit the ‘Key Issues’ we have covered on the psychology course To learn about what content analysis means and why it is used. To investigate how to carry out a content analysis. To look at how a content analysis may be summarised and conclusions drawn. To look at the issues associated with doing a content analysis.

Key Issues? What do we mean by Key Issue? What are the relevance of Key Issues to the psychology course? What kinds of question require you to use your key issues? Identify the Key Issues you have examined

What is content analysis? Content analysis is a research method used to measure the number of times a behaviour or event occurs within one or several forms of media (or other artefacts). e.g. songs, TV, books, magazines, computer games, newspapers etc. The process is similar to that of an observation although is indirect as you are not observing people directly.

Content analysis Quantitative Is often linked with analysis of documents. Most documentary evidence is qualitative but it is possible to turn qualitative evidence in to quantitative. Quantitative content analysis involves categorising the information in some way in order to make comparisons between documents. So you may count the column inches devoted to women's sport for example. Speeches, books, television programmes or reports can be analysed using content analysis

Quantitative content analysis Strengths You can make comparisons see patterns and trends Makes complex text easier to analyse. You can find meanings or biases at a glance You can repeat the analysis to test reliability Weaknesses It can distort the truth. You will only find info on the categories you originally look for. This means you can easily create a bias Does not give context i.e. through analysis you can lose the original depth and detail

What happens in a content analysis? See hand out on the blog Sample: a content analysis is different from other research methods in that the sample is not a group of people. The sample will be the artefacts that are to be analysed. This needs to be representative. For example, if looking at gender stereotypes in car adverts that appear in magazines, you would need a wide range of different magazines to get a representative sample. If you only used men ’ s magazines, your sample would be biased, and you may not be able to generalise your results.

coding system Coding System: Similarly to an observation, the researcher has to create a coding system, which breaks down the information into categories. So for each advert, you may first identify the gender of person in the car advert, and then tally what they are depicted doing. These behavioural categories might be: Driving the car Passenger in the car Washing the car Loading up the boot Sitting on the bonnet Looking at the car Etc.....

quantitative analysis. The researcher would then tally each time a particular behaviour is included. This is called a quantitative analysis. Gender stereotypes in car adverts Tallies Driving the car Passenger Cleaning the Car Buying a car

qualitative analysis.An alternative to having a coding system like above is to do a qualitative analysis. This is where the researcher has discovered certain themes and chooses a particular example to illustrate this theme. Instead of counting the data, the relevant information is described (hence qualitative rather than quantitative).

Results: the researcher then looks at the data he has collected, and draws conclusions. For example, thinking back to anti drug campaigns, you may find that government backed campaigns to prevent drug abuse use more instances of the biological effects of drug taking, compared to a non-government backed campaigns (i.e. what you might find in a soap opera or a pop song) You may therefore conclude from this that there is a need to accommodate the awareness of the biological effects of drugs in to non-government backed anti- drugs strategies, in order to make them more effective.

Strengths and weaknesses of content analysis High ecological validity No chance of demand characteristics. Replicable Reliability can also be assessed using inter-observer reliability Observer bias Culture bias (Ethnocentric) We cannot draw cause and effect relationships

Conducting a content analysis You need to: 1)Make a list of any factors that can be used to help to prevent binge drinking (these should come from AS and Health Psychology). Decide what categories will be on your list 2)From this list of drug prevention concepts you need to outline them in categories that could be measured as preventative. Decide what categories will be on your list sample 3)Decide on the sample you need to study e.g. a representative sample which will allow you to discuss your key issue. What sampling decisions do you have to consider?

Conducting a content analysis 5) Briefly describe your sources and how you sourced them. Remember to make this a fair representation. 6) Tally (count) the number of binge drinking prevention behaviours that were used. 7) Draw a visual representation of quantitative data. 8) Were there any qualitative comments that could be made? 9) Write up your findings and draw a conclusion.

Real life example … A content analysis was Cumberbatch Conducted by Dr Guy Cumberbatch Gauntlett ‘Smoking, alcohol and drugs on television’ and Sally Gauntlett on behalf of Ofcom into ‘Smoking, alcohol and drugs on television’ Ensure you have read this piece of research before next lesson (see blog also p328 Brain text book)

Possible Exam question (a) Describe how you undertook your Content Analysis (4) (b) Using evidence explain what conclusions you drew from your content analysis. (6)