Conversation Analysis (CA) is a primary mode of inquiry for understanding how people talk with one another in everyday casual encounters, as well as in more specialized institutional settings involving bureaucratic representatives (e.g., medical, legal, educational, corporate, government). Research materials are naturally occurring audio and video recordings, and carefully produced transcriptions, of a broad range
Handwriting analysis, or graphology, as it is otherwise called, is the study of an individual’s handwriting sample done in order to make judgments about the individual’s personality traits or his or her tendency to behave in certain ways. The major use of contemporary handwriting analysis is as a staffing tool by business organizations. Job applicants
With the increasing migration of communication and information provision to the web, new research methods are emerging to cope with the challenge of understanding the implications of this change. Link analysis is the study of hyperlinks between websites in order to discover (1) why they were created and what they are used for, (2) online
Log-file analysis uses the records stored in the transaction logs of information retrieval systems, web search engines, and websites to offer valuable understanding of the interactions between these systems and people. This understanding informs system design, interface development, and information architecture. Log files (or transaction logs) are an unobtrusive and relatively easily method of recording
The basic medium of interpersonal and mass communication is text. Analyzing text helps in understanding the meanings of mass media messages and their potential effects, observing strategies and developments of rhetoric, identifying rules and structures of social communication, etc. Thus text analysis, comprising all kinds of qualitative and quantitative techniques of media content, discourse, and
Time-series analysis is a statistical procedure for describing the characteristics of one time series (e.g., a trend) or predicting the future development of one time series (forecasting), but it can also be used to analyze the impact of an event on a single time series (intervention analysis) and to analyze the correlations between two or
The essence of scientific research is explaining and predicting relationships among variables. Two or more variables co-vary and are related if their values systematically correspond to each other. In other words, as one value increases or decreases, the other value consistently or systematically increases or decreases. For example, researchers might observe the amount of Internet
For many inquiries in the field of communication research, the analysis of change is of great value. Classic diffusion research in the communication sciences deals with the diffusion of information in society, and it is important to know the dynamics of the diffusion process, as well as the factors that influence it. Media research considers
The term “network” denotes a central concept in the social sciences. The underlying idea of a structure that consists of elements (sometimes also called points, nodes, or vertices) and their relations (called lines, edges, arcs, or connections) has been used to illustrate and explain such diverse things as human action, information exchange in communication processes
A class of data analysis procedures for statistical hypothesis testing that, unlike parametric statistical analysis, makes no assumptions about the sampling distribution of a statistic being evaluated, nonparametric statistical analysis is also called distribution-free statistical analysis. The two terms have a slightly different meaning but are frequently used interchangeably. While nonparametric statistical inference is not
By no means all method textbooks discuss document analysis because there is disaccord as to whether this is an independent technique or whether it merely aims to apply different methods to a particular investigation material. There is also controversy as to what has to be understood by “document.” Used in a wider sense as a
Factor analysis is a data analysis procedure that aims at extracting a small number of factors from a large number of items, that is, from variables. The extracted few factors should be able to describe and explain the core characteristics of a phenomenon, without the loss of too much information. Hence, factors show the essence
Introduction Although the US, in comparison with other Western countries, was a latecomer to social insurance and the public provision of insurance for health services, it was largely in the America of the 1960s that formal economic analysis of health care first began to take root, and American ideas and practices have long since dominated
A correlation analysis is a statistical procedure that evaluates the association between two sets of variables. The association between variables can be linear or nonlinear. In communication research, however, correlation analyses are mostly used to evaluate linear relationships. Sets of variables may include one or many variables. Associations between two variables (two sets of one
Like qualitative content analysis and Grounded Theory, discourse analysis can be conceived as a qualitative empirical method of analyzing mostly recorded human communication. The term itself was first introduced to the public by Zellig Harris in the early 1950s, but used rather unsystematically. In general terms, discourse analysis serves for analyzing written or spoken language
The main aim of discriminant function analysis is to predict group membership of an object or a person by using as few characteristics (or set of predictors) as possible. Additionally, discriminant analysis is used to classify elements according to their characteristic properties. So if you know the answers a subject might give to a crucial
Cluster analysis is a collective term for a broad variety of statistical methods and procedures which share the purpose of reducing the complexity of large collections of elements by arranging these objects into groups. Clustering procedures try to identify homogeneous groups (clusters) of entities within an empirical data set by comparing their attributes. The elements
Cost–value analysis (CVA) is a type of formal economic evaluation that can be used to inform decision makers in a public health service about the value to the public of different health technologies and what ought to be the public health service’s maximum willingness to pay for them. In estimating value and limits to willingness
Introduction As healthcare costs increase because of the aging population and technological developments in healthcare, the need by healthcare decision makers for economic evaluations of new healthcare interventions becomes more important. A comprehensive economic evaluation of a new healthcare intervention requires an analysis of both the efficiency of the intervention compared with current treatment patterns
Introduction Decision-modeling is increasingly used or required by health technology funding/reimbursement agencies as a vehicle for economic evaluation. The process of developing and analyzing a decision analytic model as part of a health technology assessment (HTA) involves many uncertainties. Some relate to the assumptions and judgments regarding the conceptualization and structure of a model, others
Job analysis is a label given to the process of obtaining information about jobs, which includes both the description of what is done at work and the specification of what capabilities are needed to perform the work. It is one of the most widely used organizational data collection techniques and forms the foundation on which
A variety of job analysis methods have been developed over the years. These include work-oriented methods, which seek to describe what a worker does, worker-oriented methods, which seek to identify the characteristics needed to successfully perform job tasks, and hybrid methods, which combine elements of work- and worker-oriented methods. Because of space constraints, only methods
Cognitive task analysis (CTA) refers to a suite of scientific methods designed to identify the cognitive skills, strategies, and knowledge required to perform tasks proficiently. The goal of CTA is to use this information to improve instruction, training, and technological design (e.g., decision aids) for the purposes of making work more efficient, productive, satisfying, and
Factor analysis is a statistical procedure for describing the interrelationships among a number of observed variables. Factor analysis is used to measure variables that cannot be measured directly, to summarize large amounts of data, and to develop and test theories. There are two broad categories of factor analysis: exploratory and confirmatory. Exploratory factor analysis techniques
Task analysis is a fundamental concept within psychology, crucial for understanding the intricate processes involved in performing tasks and its applications in various domains. In this article, we delve into task analysis, focusing on its significance in the realm of school psychology. We explore different types and methods of task analysis, such as hierarchical, cognitive
The behavior analysis interview (BAI) is a set of 15 predetermined standardized questions designed to elicit differential responses from innocent and guilty suspects at the outset of a police interview. Police investigators who are reasonably certain of a suspect’s guilt may submit the suspect to persuasive interrogation techniques meant to break down the suspect’s resistance;
Transactional analysis (TA) is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes the ritualistic transactions of interactions and behaviors that occur between individuals. Developed by Eric Berne in the 1950s, TA focuses on social interaction, emotional well-being, and responsibility, involving life scripts that people develop based upon early childhood experiences. TA is an understandable, sophisticated structural analysis of
Content Analysis Definition Content analysis involves the systematic coding of information in archival records. It is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words or concepts within a set of texts. The process of content analysis involves first selecting the texts from which the information will be gathered and then deriving the
Path Analysis Definition Path analysis is a statistical technique that is used to examine and test purported causal relationships among a set of variables. A causal relationship is directional in character, and occurs when one variable (e.g., amount of exercise) causes changes in another variable (e.g., physical fitness). The researcher specifies these relationships according to