1. Chapter 12 Indirect Data Collection: Working with Observations and Existing Text
Zina O’Leary

2. Indirect Data
Indirect data is data that exists regardless of a researcher’s questioning, prompting and probing.
It is found in social situations, documents, databases, and artefacts and is not created by the researcher for research processes.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

3. Observation
A systematic method of data collection that relies on a researcher’s ability to gather data through their senses.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

4. Types of Observation
In conducting observations, researchers can be anything from removed to immersed:
 Non-participant - in this role, the researcher does not become, nor aims to become, an integral part of the system or community they are observing.
Participant - in this role, the researcher is, or becomes, a part of the team, community, or cultural group they are observing.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

5. Types of Observation
Researchers need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of full disclosure:
Candid - the researcher offers full disclosure of the nature of their study and the role the observations will play in their research.
Covert - can be non-participant, i.e. watching pedestrian behavior at an intersection, or watching interactions at a school playground. But they can also be participatory. This involves researchers going ‘undercover’ in an attempt to get a real sense of a situation, context, or phenomenon.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

6. Types of Observation
Observational techniques can range from highly structured to unstructured:
Structured - highly systematic and often relies on predetermined criteria related to the people, events, practices, issues, behaviors, actions, situations, and phenomena being observed.
Semi-structured - observers generally use some manner of observation schedule or checklist to organize observations, but also attempt to observe and record the unplanned and/or the unexpected.
Unstructured - observers attempt to observe and record data without predetermined criteria.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

7. What You See Isn’t Always What You Get
Observation provides the opportunity for researchers to document actual behavior rather than responses related to behavior.
However, the observed can act differently when surveyed; and researchers’ observations are likely to be biased by their own worldviews.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

8. Filtering Observations
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

9. The Observation Process
Taking the world in through our senses needs to be tackled systematically in order to ensure we can:
take in a full range of sensory inputs
keep biases in check
aim for saturated understanding.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

10. The Observation Process
The collection of credible data through observation requires:
thorough planning
careful observation
thoughtful recording
reflexive review
considered refinements
appropriate analysis.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

11. Recording Observations
Recording observations involves preservation of raw data through audio recordings, photographs, and videos or capturing impressions through note taking and journaling.
Observations can be quite subjective so it is important to confirm through strategies that ensure thoroughness and confirmation.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

12. Existing Text
Existing ‘texts’ are traces of social activity that include official data and records, electronic/internet material, corporate data, personal records, the media, the arts, and social artefacts.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

13. Existing Texts Working with existing texts allows researchers to:
be neutral
capitalize on existing data
explore what people produce
and eliminate the need for physical access to research subjects.
But researchers need to work through data not expressly generated for their particular research question(s).
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

14. Textual Analysis Textual analysis involves:
planning for all contingencies
gathering ‘texts’
reviewing credibility
interrogating witting and unwitting evidence
reflecting and refining your process
and analyzing data.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

15. Document Analysis
Document analysis sees researchers working with pre-produced written, rather than generated, texts.
This requires researchers to consider two potential sources of bias:
the original author’s
and
their own.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

16. Document Types
Authoritative sources - documents that by their authorship or authority attempt to be unbiased and objective.
The party line - documents that have an ‘agenda’ or identifiable bias.  
Personal communication - letters, s, memoirs, sketches, drawings, photographs, diaries, memos, journals etc. that are personal and subjective.  
Multi-media - newspaper or magazine columns/ articles, current affairs shows, news reports, TV sitcoms, commercials, etc.  
Historical documents - records, minutes, and policy documents, or any other materials that have been authored or produced within a particular historical period.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

17. Historical Analysis Data includes:
Historical analysis refers to the exploration of various forms of data in order to better understand the past, including:
what happened
why it happened
and its implications.
Data includes:
testimony
social book keeping
secondary accounts
and social artefacts.
Gathering a full range of credible evidence can be a challenge.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

18. Cultural Artefact Analysis
Cultural artefact analysis refers to the exploration of various human-made objects in order to ascertain information about the culture of its creator(s) and users.
Measures include those of erosion i.e. wear and tear, and accretion i.e. things people produce or leave behind.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage

19. Secondary Data Analysis
Secondary data analysis refers to the exploration of existing data sets.
While this can save time and resources, you do not develop and ‘own’ the data.
Before any statistical analysis is attempted researchers need to assess both the relevance and credibility of their data sources.
Zina O’Leary (2009) The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. London: Sage