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    The Basics of Communication Research

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    Juli Ann
    The Basics of Communication Research

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    THE BASICS OF COMMUNICATION RESEARCH LESLIE A. BAXTER / EARL BABBIE THOMSON — WADSWORTH. Publisher Holy allen Editor: Anne hitzhel Assistant Editor: Amber Fawson Editorial Assistant: Breanna Gilbert, ‘Technology Project Manager: Jeane Wiseman Media Assistant ryan Das Marketing Manager: Kimberly Russell Marketing Assistant: cena Chandra Advertising Project Manager Sherika Brit COPYRIGHT © 2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Ine, Thomson Learning isa trademark used herein under icense, AALLRIGHTS RESERVED. No pat ofthis work covered bythe ‘copyright hereon may be reproduce or sed in any form or by ‘any means graphic, electtone, of mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution, formation networks, of information storage and retieval systems without the writen permission ofthe publisher Printed in canada 1234567 07 06 05 04 03 For mote information about our products, contact us at ‘Thomson Learning Academic Resource Center 1-800-423-0563 For permission to use materia from this text, contact us by: Phone: 1-800-730-2214 Fax: 1-800-790-2218 ‘Webs hp://wwrthomsonrightscom ‘Bxamviow and Examliew Pro® are registered trademarks of creations, Inc. Windows isa registered tademark ofthe Microsoft Corporation used herein under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh ae registered trademarks of Apple ‘Computer, In. Used herein under license Lbrary of Congress Control Number 2003102373 Student Eston: ISB 0-534-S0778.6 Instructors Elon: ISBN 0-634-50836-7 Project Manager, Editorial Production: Cally Linberg Print/Media Buyer: Doreen Suu) Permissions Editor: Kiely Sexton Production Service: Greg bt Bookwarks ‘Copyeditor: Donald Pharr ‘Cover Designer: Belinda Fernandez, Studio 8 ‘cover Images: cy Images ‘compositor: G&S Typeset Printer: Transcontinental Printing /Louisev Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning 10 Davis Drive ‘Belmont, CA 94002-3098 Asia “Thomson Learning 5 Shenton Way 401-01 Uc Building Singapore 068808 ‘Australia/New Zealand ‘Thomson Learning 02 Bodds treet Southbank, Victoria 3008 ‘canada Nelson 1120 Blrchmount Road “Toronto, Ontario MIK S04 canada Europe/Middle East/Africa ‘Thomson Learning High Holborn House ‘50/51 Bedford Row Landon WEIR ALR United kingdom Latin America ‘Thomson Learning ‘Colonia Polanco 11560 Mexico DF ‘Spain/Portugal Paraninfo Ccalle/Magallanes, 25, 126016 Made, spain CONTENTS IN BRIEF Preface xiv ANote from the Authors xvii part AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY ABOUT COMMUNICATION. 1 1 Human inquiry and Scientific inquiry about communication 2 2. Basic Buidng Blocks in Conducting Communication Research 17 3 Paradigms of Knowing in Communication Research 46 4 Logie Systems and Theory in Communication Research 68 5 The Ethics of Communication Research 84 Part? QUANTITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH 102 6 Conceptualization and Operationalization 106 7 The Logic of Sampling 131 8 Survey Research 166 9 Experiments 204 10 Quantitative Text Analysis 230 LL. The Basics of Quantitative Data Analysis 256 12. Inferential Statistics in Quantitative Data Analysis 271 Part3 QUALITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH 296 13. Participant Observation 300 14 Qualitative Interviewing 324 15 Social Text Analysis 347 16 Qualitative Data Analysis 365 APPENDIXES 381 ‘A Communication-Related journals 382 Using the Library 384 Research in Cyberspace 387 ‘A Sample Research Report/Proposal in APA. Style 392 APACItations 398 Estimated Sampling Error 400 Random Numbers 401 Constructing Indexes and scales 403 Distribution of Chi Square 413 Distribution of 415 Percentage Points of the F-Distribution 416 ‘Values of the Correlation Coeflicient for Different Levels of Significance 418 cos cm tom Glossary 419 References 431 Index 443, CONTENTS Preface xiv ANole from the Authors xvi Pare AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY ABOUT COMMUNICATION 1 Chapter 1 Human Inquiry and Sclentific Inquiry about Communication 2 Introduction 3 ‘Searching for Knowledge about Communication 4 Ordinary Human Inquiry about Communication 4 Tradition 5. Authority § Errors in Ordinary Inquiry about Communication ‘and Some Solutions 6 What's Really “Real’? 7 ‘The Foundations of Scientific inquiry about Communication 9 ‘An Empirical Enterprise 9 Social Regularities 10 Aggregates, Not Individuals 10 Knowledge Claims about Communication 11 ‘What Communication Researchers Study 11 The Dissemination of Communication Research 13 ‘Some Dissemination Sites for Communication Research 13) Main Points 14 Key Terms 15 Review Questions and Exercises 15 Continuity Project 15 Additional Readings 16 Chapter 2 Basic Building Blocks in Conducting ‘Communication Research 17 Introduction 18 ‘selecting and Narrowing Your Topic Area 18 Conducting a Literature Review 19 Reading Communication Research Reports 21 Different Forms of Communication Research Reports 21 Organization of the Quantitative Research Report 22 Organization of the Qualitative Research Report 25. Organization of the Multi-Method Research Report 27 Checklists for Reading Communication Research Reports 28 Determining Your Purpose 30 Exploration 30 Description 31 Causal/Functional Explanation 31 understanding 31 Determining Your Unit of Analysis 32 individuals 32 Groups 33 Organizations 33 Social Antifacts 34 Units of Analysis in Review 35 The Ecological Fallacy 38 Formulating Your Research Question or Hypothesis 38 Formulating Your Research Design 38 The Time Dimension 38 The Space Dimension 41 vii conrenrs Writing Up Your Research Proposal 43 Main Points 44 KeyTerms 44 Review Questions and Exercises. 44 Continuity Project. 45 Additional Readings 45 Answers to Units of Analysis Exercise 45 Chapter 3 Paradigms of Knowing in Communication Research 46 Introduction 47 Four Social Science Paradigms: An Overview 47 ‘The Positivist Paradigm 48 An Objective Reality 49 The Study of Variables 49 Positivist Theory 52 Generalized Laws 54 Quantitative Data $5 ‘The systems Paradigm 56 Characteristics of Systems 57 ‘A Comparison of Systems and Positivist Paradigms 58 ‘The interpretive Paradigm 59 “The Study of Meanings 59 The Study of Rules 60 Interpretive Theory 61 Qualitative Data 62 The Critical Paradigm 62 Critical Reflection 62 Some Critical Approaches 63 Paradigms Revisited: Some Concluding Remarks 64 ‘Objectivity and Subjectivity 64 ‘The Nature of Explanation 64 ‘The Advantages of Multi-Method Research 65 Nain Points 66 KeyTerms 66 Review Questions and Exercises 67 Continuity Project 67 Additional Readings 67 chapter 4 Logic Systems and Theory in Communication Research 68 Introduction 69 “Two Logie Systems 70 Constructing Theory by Starting Deductively 72 A Detailed Example 73 Linking Deductively Derived Theory to Observation, and Back Again 74 Hypothesis Testing 74 Using Deductively Derived Theories Heuristcally 77 ‘Constructing Theory by Starting Inductively 78 A Detailed Qualitative Example 78 A Delailed Quantitative Example 79 Using Inductive and Deductive Reasoning to Get Started in esearch 80 Relating Theory to Practice: Some Concluding ‘Thoughts 81 Main Points 82 KeyTerms 82 Review Questions and Exercises. 82 Continuity Project #2 Additional Readings 83, chapters “The Ethics of Communication Research 84 Introduction 85 ‘The Origins of Researcher Agreements about Ethical Conduct 85 Ethical ssuesin Conducting Communication Research 86 Voluntary Participation 86 No itarm tothe Participants 67 Anonymity and Confidentiality 88 Deception 89 Ethical Issues in Analyzing and Reporting ‘Communication Research 90 Objectivity and Ideology 90 Protection of Study Participants 91 Honesty and Integrity 91 Avoiding Plagiarism 92 Institutional Review Boards 93 Professional Codes of Ethics 96 ‘Two Ethical Controversies 96 Trouble in the Tearoom 96 Observing Human Obedience 98 Main Points 99 Key Terms 100 Review Questions and Exercises 100 Continuity Project 101 Additional Readings 101 Part 2 QUANTITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH 102 Chapter 6 ‘Conceptualization and Operationalization 106 Introduction 107 Measuring Anything That Exists 107, How Do You Know? 107 Conceptions and Concepts 109 Conceptualization 110 Indicators and Dimensions 110 The Interchangeability of Indicators 111 The Confusion over Definitions and Reality 111 Creating Conceptual Order 113 Operationalization 113 Cperationalization Choices 113 Levels of Measurement 115 Single or Multiple indicators 118 ‘Some Operationalization illustrations. 119 Definitions and Research Purposes. 120 Criteria for the Trustworthiness of Measures 121 Reliability 122 Validity 125 Who Decides what's valid? 127 Tension between Reliability and Validity 127 Main Points 128 Key Terms 129 Review Questions and Exercises 129 contents ix Continuity Project 129 Additional Readings 129 chapter 7 ‘The Logic of Sampling 131 Introduction 132 ‘The History of Sampling 132 President AlfLandon 132 President Thomas E. Dewey 134 Two Types of Sampling Methods 134 Nonprobability Sampling 134 Reliance on Available Participants. 134 Purposive or judgmental Sampling 135 Snowball Sampling 135 Quota Sampling 136 ‘The Logic of Probability Sampling 136 Conscious and Unconscious Sampling Bias 136 Representativeness and Probability of Selection 138 ‘sampling Concepts and Terminology 139 Distribution 140 Probability Sampling Theory 141 ‘The Sampling Distribution of Ten Cases 141 ‘Binomial Sampling Distribution 142 Populationsand Sampling Frames 148 ‘Types of Sampling Designs 150 ‘Simple Random Sampling 150 systematic Sampling 152 Stratified Sampling 154 Illustration: Sampling University Students 156 ‘Study Population and Sampling Frame 156 Stratification 156 sample Selection 156 sample Modification 156 Multistage Cluster Sampling 156 Multistage Cluster Sampling, Stratification 158 Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) ‘sampling 160 Disproportionate Sampling and Weighting 160 Probal ity Sampling of Messages: Some Examples 162 A Hypothetical Study: Sampling Grafltion Campus 162 x CONTENTS Probability Sampling in Review 163 Main Points 164 Key Terms 165 Review Questions and Exercises 165 Continuity Project 165, Additional Readings. 165 Chapter & Survey Research 166 Introduction 167 ‘The Challenge of Asking Good Questions 168 Guidelines for Asking Questions 170 Appropriately Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Questions 170 Question Clarity 171 Avoiding Double-Batreled Questions 172 Respondent Competence to Answer 173, Respondlent willingness to Answer 175 ‘Question Relevance 175 Simplicity of Question Wording 175 Avoiding Negative Wording 175 Avoiding Biased Wording 176 Using Composite Measures 176 Unidimensional versus Multidimensional ‘Composite Measures. 177 Indexes versus Scales 177 Some Standard Indexes and Seales 179 ‘Organization of the Questionnaire 184 Question Order 184 Questionnaire Layout and Design 186 Giving instructions 186 Pretesting the Questionnaire 187 Modes of Questionnaire Administration 187 Sel-Administered Questionnaires 187 Standardized Interview Surveys 190 ‘Telephone Surveys 194 New Technologies and Survey Research 195 ‘Comparison of the Different Survey Administration Modes 198 Strengths and Weaknesses of Survey Research 199 Secondary Analysis of Survey Data 199 Main Points 200 KeyTerms. 201 Review Questions and Exercises. 201 Continuity Project 202 Additional Readings 202 chapter 8 Experiments 204 Introduction 205 ‘Topics Appropriate to Experiments 205 ‘Threats to Internal Validity 206 Researcher-Related Threats 206 Participant-Related Threats 207 Procedure-Related Threats 208 Pre-, Quasi-, Classical, and Factorial Experimental Designs 209 ‘The Scientific Notation of Various Experimental Designs 210 Pre-Experimental Designs 210 ‘Quasi-Experimental Designs 212 ‘The Classical or "True" Experiment 216 Factorial Experiments 220 External Validity and Experiments 223 Laboratory Experiments versus Field Experiments 224 Evaluation Research 225 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Experimental Method 228 Main Points 228 KeyTerms 229 Review Questions and Exercises 229 Continuity Project 229 Additional Readings 229 chapter 10 ‘Quantitative Text Analysis 230 Introduction 230 ‘The "Texts’ in Quantitative Text Analysis 233 The Kinds of Questions Answered with Quantitative ‘Text analysis 234 ‘Sampling in Quantitative Text Analysis 235, Units of Analysis 236 ‘Sampling Techniques 239 Content Analysis 240 Coding in Content Analysis 240 Counting and Record Keeping 244 An Mlustration of Content Analysis 245 Interaction Analysis. 246 Coding in interaction Analysis 246 Analyzing Interaction Structures 250 An Illustration of interaction Analysis 281 Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantitative Text Analysis 252 Main Points. 253, Key Terms 254 Review Questions and Exercises. 254 Continuity Project. 254 Additional Readings. 254 Chapter 11 ‘The Basics of Quantitative Data Analysis 256 Introduction 257 Quantification of Data 257 codebook Construction 257 Data Eniry 258 Data Cleaning 259 Possible-Code Cleaning 259 Contingency Cleaning 259 Descriptive Statistics 260 Distributions 260 Central Tendency 262 Dispersion 264 Level of Measurement and Descriptive Statistics 266 Detail versus Manageability 266 ‘Subgroup Comparisons. 266 Main Points 268 Key Terms 268 Review Questions and Exercises 268 contents xi Continuity Project 270 Additional Readings 270 Chapter 12 Inferential Statistics in Quantitative Data Analysis 271 Introduction 272 ‘The Logic of Inferential Statistics 272 The Link Between Probability Sampling and. Inferential Statistics 272 Tests of Statistical Significance 273 The Logic of Statistical Significance 273, Type {and Type ll Statistical Decision Errors 277 ‘The Process of Making a Statistical Decision 279 Step |: Establishing Type land Type Il Error Risk Levels 279 ‘Step 2: Selecting the Appropriate Statistical Test 280 Step 3: Computing the Test Statistic 281 step 4: Consulting the Appropriate Statistical Table 281 Step 5: Deciding to Reject or Not Reject the Null Hypothesis 282 ‘A Sampler of Some Commonly Used Statistical Tests 282 chi Square 282 Totes 283 One-Way ANOVA 287 Factorial ANOVA 287 Pearson Product-Moment Correlation 290 ‘Some Summary Thoughts 291 Main Points 293 key Terms 294 Review Questions and Exercises 294 Continuity Project 294 Additional Readings 294 PREFACE Fp iba sat, ator scl ter fone ot De siete verona Cera balvecampoliste br isbn. Tea Stso/commareton Rear basen a Babes The nso Rath try aes o thei apenane ts Te Prt ox ch ins Me gn ths ook ote poles paprack beck erate to nt exon that ashe Pay Stegts cbt sash conenangon the tna eat ofeach tout commune, ty sesh ita to communicate reer areconmon tought scarce thes ose ntashate citer tenures tem tomer cre or fel outer Tsongas tomes ot ewig etaes of sol oer net cas when hye el oars questo thot com Mnmaton ebook ste tocorine te Bate dition of user-friendly prose and a multitude of concrete: trap pune le Sty cl commen fmonere technic yo commentato th fe Murr of 20nd th a goving ved maa arch Toy come mucaton esearch are cea rengen th Chante metas and alae meted nae ding commrieion fons, non, oozes Srtoutomes Gurpsl taste podes oak noch chanave metho and quae esse pe Screen te oun tems To0 of recat eh ccsboas gualaite nes ae rested na en chap and famed itn eo osc an evhar te ard of sunttatne reach We ik th thse aceeshne oftnpostioned lative the swcarchow ony oguaiane mete Ouro Stone oh tnd ofthe neces ra Compeherae undeaancg of ommunaton 20 inhederesdobetswatyconser tresach need to have confidence in the researcher's conclusions, However, as we shall see, these two kinds of methods ac- ‘complish trustworthiness indifferent ways. Both quanti tative methods and qualitative methods have strengths. and limitations, Both are valuable to the project of un- derstanding communication. Both merit attention to their unique, yet complementary, ways of achieving explana- tion and understanding, ‘This book is designed with two additional goals in ‘mind: to help readers leatn how to do communication re- search and to help readers learn how to read and eval date others’ communication research. In our view, these two goals are interconnected in a complementary way. Researchers rarely conduct studies on a topic of inter- ‘est without first reading and evaluating what is already known on the topic from past research, Further, research- fers benefit from knowing in advance of conducting a study the standards by which its trustworthiness will be assessed, AL the same time, consumers of research learn how to read and evaluate research studies by knowing the details ofhow they are done. In shor, producers of re- search need to know how tobe effective consumersofre- search, and consumers of research need to understand how research is done. We view producers/consumers of ‘communication research as the book's primary audience. “The book is organized into three main parts. Part | ex- ‘amines introductory issues of interest to both quantita- tively oriented and qualitatively oriented producers/con- ‘sumers. Chapter 1 continues Babbie's user-friendly style ‘of demonstrating to research newcomers that they have been doing research all of their lives, although perhaps. less systematically than the rigors of scientific inquiry Chapter I also introduces readers to the domain of com= ‘munication, discussing the kinds of issues addressed by ‘communication researchers and how students can ac ‘cess published communication research ‘Chapter 2 offers an overview ofthe research process, providing a step-by-step discussion ofthe major kinds of decisions that face researchersasthey plan a study. It dis cusses how to conduct a review of literature and how to read both quantitatively oriented and qualitatively ori- ented communication research. The APA style is dis cussed, This chapter concludes by presenting two check- lists of questions important to ask in conducting and evaluating research—one focused on quantitatively ori- ented research and ane focused on qualitatively oriented. research, Several appendices complement issues devel- coped in this chapter, including a list of communication- related journals, advice on how to conduct electronic searches in abstracts and indexes, research in cyber space, a sample research report/proposal laid out in APA, syle, and advice on how to handle citations in APA style. Much of this chapter is new to instructors familiar with Babbie's Basics. ‘We view research asa way of knowing, Ways of know ing cannot be evaluated outside of the researcher's un- deriying assumptions about the nature of reality, what ‘counts as a knowledge claim, and how we can come to know something. We call these assumptions paradigms of knowing. and Chapter 3 discusses four of the major sets of assumptions in which communication tesearch is {grounded the positivist paradigm, the systems paradigm, the interpretive paradigm, and the critical paradigm. Al- though the correspondence isnot absolute, quantitatively oriented research andqualitatively oriented research tend to be embedded in diferent paradigms of knowing, We think itis important for students to understand the basic assumptions that undergitd research, because these as- sumplionsleadtodiflerencesinhow trustworlhyresearch is defined. We are unaware of other communication re- search books that treat the issue of paradigms of know- ing as comprehensively as you will find in this chapter. ‘Chapter 4 emphasizes the role of logic and reasoning inthe research process. In Chapter 1, we indicate that sci- entific inquiry is built on two pillars: logic and observa- tion, This chapter focuses on the pillar of logic, providing. detailed treatment of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning, How these two formsof reasoning are used in quantitative research and qualitative research is ilus- trated in depth. The linkages between reasoning and the- ory are developed, demonstrating that different kinds of theory are used for different purposes in communication research, We are unaware of olher communication re- search books that devote such detailed attention to rea- ‘soning and logic in the research enterprise. Chapter 5 presents an in-depth discussion ofthe eth~ ies that guide communication research, We review the ethical standards that guide research, discuss some con- troversial violations of those standards in past research, and provide detailed discussion of institutional review Prerace xv boards (IRBs), including presenting a sample informed consent form and a list of questions commonly asked by IRBs. ‘ith the backdrop of introductory issues in hand, Part 2 of the book is devoted to issues and meth” cds of particular relevance to producers/consumers of quantitatively oriented communication research. The in- troduction to Part 2 provides an overview of how trust- worthiness is assessed in quantitatively oriented com- ‘munication research, Four eriteria are developed, which are woven into all ofthe chapters of Part 2: internal va. lidity, measurement reliability, measurement validity, and cexternal validity. Chapter 6 continues the Babbie tradition of a lucid discussion of conceptualization and operationalization, ‘We now focus that lucidity on communication concepts, \We provide a comprehensive discussion of exactly how reliability and validity of communication measures are established, Chapter 7is devoted largely to probabilty-hased sam- pling methods, although nonprobability sampling meth- ts are previewed for a return performance in Part 3 of the book. The Babbie tradition of establishing the logical Framework that guides probability sampling has been re- tained because it provides such a fruitful foundation for the discussion of inferential statistics, now developed in. Chapter 12, Chapter & is devoted to standardized questionnaires and interviews, Its organized into three sections: crite- ria for question development, question format and or ganization, and administration, Because the details of Constructing indexes and scales may be too advanced for some instructors’ purposes, we have developed these is ‘sues in depth in a separate appendix (Hi). Chapter 9 discusses pre-experiments, quasi-experi- ments, and classic experiments. We frame the chapler us- ing the design symbol notations and formats of the clas- sie work by Campbell and Stanley (1963) on this subject, For more advanced students, we include factorial exper- imentsin adltion tothe simpler designsin which a single independent variable is studied, Because evaluation re- search most commonly usesexperimental designs (quasi- experimental designs more particularly), we fold discus- sion of this applied method into this chapter as well. Chapter 10 provides detailed treatment of the two text-analysis methods most commonly found in commu nication research; content analysisand interaction analy sis. The two methods are presented as close cousins, although different in several respects. We provide step- by-step instructions on how to calculate unitizing re- liability and coding reliability. We are unaware of other vi PREFACE ‘communication research methods books that prabe these {wo methods in the detail found in this chapter ‘Chapters 11 and 12 function as an introductory “primer” of sorts to descriptive and inferential statistic. ‘Of course, the goal here is not to present a mini statistics book; rather, our goal is to emphasize the logic of statis- tics, We provide concrete step-by-step instructions and ‘examples in the calculation of several basic descriptive and inferential statistics, including measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode}, measures of disper- sion (range, standard deviation), standardized (2) scores, how to construct and interpret contingency (percent- age) lables, chi square, t-test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. Although we are aware that students can calculate these statistics using statist cal software, we believe that itis important for students tohave “hands-on’ experience with some basic statistics, thereby underscoring the logic of how statistics function in decision making by researchers, Part 3 shifts our attention to issues and methods rele- ‘vant to producers/consumers of qualitative communica tion research. The introduction to this part details four criteria by which the trustworthiness of qualitative 1e- search is assessed: dependability, credibility confiemabil- iy, and transferability, These four criteria are woven throughout all of the chapters in this part of the book. Part 2 emphasizes three methods (surveys, experiments, ‘quantitative text analysis), and Part 3 develops three methods as well: participant observation (Chapter 12), ‘qualitative interviewing (Chapter 14), and social text analysis (Chapter 15). Issues of sampling and conceptu- alization, as understood and applied by qualitative re- searchers, are woven throughout these three chapters, ‘Much ofthis part of the book is new to instructors fami jar with Babbie's Basics Participant observation takes many forms, and these are presented and illistrated in Chapter 13. A popular form of participation-observation research, the ethnog- raphy of communication, is presented in this chapter. This chapter frames participant observation as a dance, ‘complete with warm-up, execution, and closure phases. Each ofthese phases is discussed in detail, with concrete lscussions of the various issues that fleld researchers face in the study of communication. Attention is given to the nity- gritty details of how to take field notes as well. (Chapter M4 presentsunstructured and semi-structured interviewing, This method surfaces in many forms, in- chiding ethnographic interviews, in-depth interviews, narrative interviews, focus group interviews, and post- ‘modern interviews. The chapter discusses and illustrates. the range of types of questions found in qualitative inter- ‘viewing, in addition to a discussion of some important steps in executing the qualitative interview. Chapter 15 examines how qualitative researchers. study naturally occurring communication messages and ssymbols—what we call soca! texts. Communication crt- icism, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, narra- tive analysis, performative analysis, and semiotics are discussed as diferent ways to approach the analysis of social texts ‘Chapter 16 can be thought of as the qualitative coun- terpart of Chapters 11 and 12; it is devoted to a detailed treatment of the step-by-step process of how to analyze textual data qualitatively rather than statistically. Two specific analytic methoxs are illustrated in depth: the De- ‘velopmental Research Sequence (DRS) and Grounded Theory Development (GTD) Each of the book's chapters contains several bold- faced terms that are gathered in a glossary at the end of the book. Each chapter also includes several italicized words and phrases, marking their importance as addi- tional technical terms thatthe reader should note, Each chapter concludes with a detailed summary of main points, review questions and exercises, alist of key ‘words boldfaced throughout the chapter, terms to explore through InfoTrac College Edition (an electronic repository ‘of complete articles and abstracts relevant to communi- cation researchers), and a suggested continuity project, ‘The continuity project follows one topic—gender/sex differences in communication—throughout the book. In ‘each chapter, the reader can purse how the subject mat- ler of that chapter is relevant to the study of gender/sex differences in communication. Acknowledgments We thank two former editors at Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning: Todd Armstrong, who approached us with the idea for this book, and Deirdre Anderson, who worked ‘with us during the book's lengthy gestation, Leslie thanks the University oflowa fora sabbatical during which much ‘othe writing of this book took place. In addition, Leste thanks Erin Sahlstein, now a communication studies pro- fessor in her own right, for invaluable library assistance insearching for examples of various conceptsin the book. Last, Leslie thanks Ear! Babbie for his good humor and his intellectual generosity. Eat, for his part, is overjoyed by the opportunity to be Leslie's partner in sharing the ex- citement of social research methods with communica tion faculty and students, A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS Leslie A. Baxter I started olf college as a mathematics major but moved con to study communication because I wanted to under ‘and the human condition better: Duting my junior year, I walked into a research methods class followed by ani trodluctory satisties class, and I realized that I could bring both interests together in the scientific study of commu: nication. When | conducted a quantitative research study for my senior honors thesis, knew I was hooked for life. In graduate school, | was fortunate enough to encounter professors who urged me to gain expertise in qualitative methods as well as in quantitative methods. Throughout my career asa scholar, Ihave used both kinds of methods (often in the same study), and I've always been grateful for multi-method training. | am particularly interested in finding out how communication works in personal and familial relationships. Asa teacher, 've taught research methods to both un. dergraduate and graduate students for twenty-five years now-first at the University of Montana, then Lewis & Clark College, then the University ofCalifornia-Davis and now at the University of lowa, I ave used Ear! Babbie's research methods books for a good number of those years. Thus, when Wadsworth approached me about ‘writing The Basics of Communication Rescarch with Earl, ‘twas. joy to accept their offer. ‘When I'm not doing research or teaching, 'm busy raising my seven-year-old daughter. | have hopes of someday producing a perennial flower bed that will be the envy of the neighborhood. When its not gardening ‘season, | ike reading murder mysteries and books about us. history. Earl Babbie Writing is my joy sociology my passion. 1 delight in put- ting words together in a way that makes people learn ot laugh or both, Sociology shows up as.a set of words, also. It tepresents our last, best hope for planet-training our race and finding ways for us to live together | feel a spe- cial excitement at being present when sociology, at last, ‘comes into focus as an idea whose time has come. | grew up in small-town Vermont and New Hampshire: When | announced | wanted to be an auto-body me- chanie, like my dad, my teacher told me Ishould goto cok lege instead. When Malcolm X announced he wanted to bbe a lawyer, his teacher told him a colored boy should be something more like a carpenter. The diflerence in our experiences says something powerful about the idea of a level playing field. The inequalities among ethnie groups run deep, I ventured into the outer world by way of Harvard, the USMC, ULC. Berkeley, and 12 years teaching at the Uni versity of Hawall. Along the way, I married Shella two ‘months after our fist date, and we created Aaron three years after that: two of my wisest acts. | resigned from. teaching in 1980 and wrote full-time for seven years, un: tilthe call ofthe classroom became too loudto ignore. For ime, teaching is lke playing jazz. Even if you perform the ‘same number over and over, it never comes out the same twice, and you dont know exactly what itll sound like until you heae it. Teaching is like writing with your voice. A last, have matured enough to rediscover and ap preciate my roots in Vermont each summer. Rather than a return tothe past, it feels more lke the next turnin a ‘widening spiral. 1 cant wait to see what’ around the next bend PART An Introduction to Scientific Inquiry about Communication Human Inquiry and Scientific Inquiry about Communication Basic Building Blocks in Conducting Communication Research Paradigms of Knowing in Communication Research Logic Systems and Theory in Communication Research 1 2 3 4 5 The Ethics of Communication Research INTRODUCTION ‘The subject matter of this book is how to make knowl edge claims about communication, Our primary purpose {sto help you look at how to make claims about com- ‘munication, not what to know about it, Let's start by ex- mining a few things you probably already know about communication. ‘You probaly know that the ist electronic medium of communication was the telegraph. You probably know that the early ears of TV broadcast only black-and-white images. You probably know that American Sign Lan- guage (ASL) isa manual language used by many hearing- disabled persons. How do you know? Ifyou think for a minute, you'll see you know these things because somebody told them 10 you, Perhaps your instructor in a course on the history of ‘mass media told you about the telegraph and early TV, or _maybe you read iton a web-based encyclopedia page un- der “communication.” Maybe you saw someone signing in ASL at a public lecture and asked the person next to ‘you what that was. That's how you know: ‘Some of the things you know seem absolutely obvi- fous to you. If we asked you how you know astronauts in space can communicate with people on Earth, you'd probably say, “Everybody knows that.” There are a lot of things everybody knows. Of course, at one time, every ‘one “knew that people were confined tothe planet Earth, Most of what you know is a matter of agreement and belief. Litle of itis based on personal experience. A big part of growing up in any society infact, isthe process of learning to accept what everybody around you “knows* isso, Ilyou dont know those same things, you can't re~ ally be a part of the group. If you were to question seri- ‘ously the ability of astronauts to communicate while in space, you'd quickly find yourself set apart from other people. You might be sent to live in a hospital with other people who share your suspicion. Although it's important for you to see that most of ‘what you know isa matter of believing what you've been told, we also want you to see that there's nothing wrong. ‘with you in that respect. That‘ simply the way human so- cieties are structured. The basis of knowledge is agree ment. Because you cant learn through personal experi- ence all you need to know, things are set up so you can. simply believe what others tellyou. Youknow some things through tradition, others from "experts." There are other ways of knowing things, however. In contrast to knowing things through agreement, you can ITRODUCTION 3 know them through direct experience—through obser- vation. I you dive into a glacial stream lowing through the Canadian Rockies, you don't need anyone to tell You it's cold. You notice that all by yourself (although you learned from others to label the sensation “cok ‘When your experience conflicts with what everyone else knows, though, there's a good chance you'll surren- dlr your experience in favor of the agreement, For ex- ample, imagine you've come to a party. You think its a high-class affair, and the drinks and food are excellent. In particular, you're taken by one of the appetizers the host brings around on a tray: a breaded, deep-fried tid- bit that's especially zesty: You have a couple— they're de- licious! You have more, Soon you are subtly moving around the room to be wherever the hast is offering this tray of nibbles. Finally, you can't contain yourself any ‘more, “What are they?” you ask. “How can I get the rec~ pe?" And the host lets you in on the secret: "You've been eating breaded, deep-fried worms!” Your response is dra- ‘matic: Your stomach rebels, and you promptly throw up all over the living room rug, Awful! What a terrible thing. toserve guests! The point of the story is that both feelings about the appetizer would be quite real to you. Your initial liking for them was certainly genuine, but so was the feeling you had when you found out what you'd been eating. How- eve, It should be evident that the feeling of disgust you. hhad when you discovered you were eating worms was. strictly a product of the agreements you have with those around you that worms aren fit to eat. That's an agree- ‘ment you began the ist time your parents found you sit ting ina pile of drt with halfofa wriggling worm dangling from your ips. You learned that wormsare notacceplable food in our society when your parents pried your mouth ‘open and reached down your throat forthe other half of the worm, Aside from these agreements, what's wrong with ‘worms? They're probably high in protein and low in calo- ries. Bite-sized and easily packaged, they're a distibu- tor’s dream. They are also a delicacy for some people ho live in societies that lack our agreement that worms: are disgusting, Some people might love the worms but be turned off by the deep-fried breading Thus, the question of making knowledge claims about ‘worm eating is a complicated business, Making knowl- edge claims about anything is complicated. This book studies how we can make claims about what we know about communication, A CHAPTER 1 HUMAN INQUIRY AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY ABOUT COMMUNICATION SEARCHING FOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COMMUNICATION Knowledge about reality sa ticky business, You've prob ably already gotten the suspicion that some othe things you "know may not be "true," but how can you really know whats "eal"? People have grappled with this ques: tion for thousands of years. ‘One answer that hasarisen out ofthat grappling is fence, which offers an approach to both agreement real- ity and experiential reality. Scientists have certain criteria that must be met before they'Ilaccept a knowledge claim about something they haven't personally experienced. In general, an assertion must have both logical and empiri al support It must make sense, and it must not contra dict actualobservation. Why doearthbound scientists ac~ ‘cept the assertion that i's cold on the dark side of the moon? Firs, it makes sense, because the surface heat of the moon comes from the sun's rays. Second, the scien- tific measurements made on the moon's dark side con- firm the expectation. So scientists accept claims about things they dont personally experience—they accept an agreement reality—but they have special standards for doing so More to the point of this book, however, science of- fers a special approach to generating knowledge claims about communication through personallexperience. Epis temology iste science of knowing; methetoogy (a sub- feld of epistemology) might be called the science of ind- ing out. This book is an examination and presentation ‘of social science methodology used by communication researchers. In the rest ofthis chapter, well look at inguiry as an activity Well begin by examining inguiry about com- munication as a natural human activity, one we all have ‘engaged in every day of our lives. Nest, we'll ook at some kinds of errors we make in normal inquiry about ‘communication, and well conclude by examining what makesithe scienttic approach diferent We'llsee some of the ways the scientific approach guards against common human errors in inquiry: We will end the chapter by dis- ‘cussing in general terms the fel of communication stud ies, acusing on the kinds of claims about communica- tion made by communication researchers, Ordinary Human Inquiry about Communic: Practically all people exhibit a desire to understand their present communicative circumstances and to predict ther future circumstances, Our experience of the world ‘would be utter chaos—an overwhelming stream of unre- lated sounds, sights, and sensations—if we were unable to sort it out by attaching meaning. Meaning making, or “understanding, is a process of identifying relationships ‘among phenomena. When a baby gazes at a face and ‘comes to understand that upturned comers of the mouth, ‘accompanied by a slight narrowing of the eyes form a “smile,” meaning has replaced chaos, Whenever we en- ter a strange and familiar situation, we are anxious to Understand it—to render it intelligible. We seek to identify patterns and relationships not only torender intelligible our immediate communicative expe- riences but also to predict future circumstances, Children learn to pay careful attention to the way their parents. summon them (e.g., “Sweetheart, can you come here for ‘minute? versus Elizabeth Katherine Smit, come here right this instant"), based on the perception that sum- mons language is usualy related systematically to the kind of encounter they are likely to have with that parent, Moreover, we seem quite willing toundertake this pre- >» > ee oo > Be B- DBe ae aye > a> > Be k k Be RR & CCHAPTER 2 BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS IN CONDUCTING COMMUNICATION RESEARCH ‘Sample Statements 150% ofthe sample are women 10% of the sample are wearing an eye patch 40% of the sample have pital 20% of the familes have a single parent. 150% of he famies have tho chlren, 20% of the familes have no children, ‘The mean numberof children per family is 1.3. FIGURE 2:3 Mlustrations of Units of Analysis often associated with women in traditional women's cultures. (Waggoner, 1997, p. 256) [9] Using a sample of 1,080 Dutch elementary school children who were in Grades 2 and 4 at the outset of the research, this study investigated the longitudinal effects of television viewing on the frequency with ‘hich children read books and comic books at home, (oolstra & Van Der Voor, 1996, p. 4) {10} This study found that people who report high ‘communication apprehension with regard to employ’ rent interviews are recommended to be hited less fre ‘quently than those who report less apprehension (Ayres & Crosby, 1995, p. 148) Figure 2-3 gives you a graphic illustration of some dit- ferent units of analysis and the statements that might be made about them 4. Consult communication journals to locate examples of field-dependent and field-incependent research, 5, Identify a research topic in communication, Write up a literature review of a minimum of five research studies on the topic, using the citation guidelines of the APA style Continuity Project With the general topic area of gender/sex and com= munication in mind, ty to formulate several research questions that vary in their purpose and in their unit of analysis. Additional Reac ‘American Psychological Association (2001) Pufction manual of te American Psychological Assocation (th ed), Washing ton, De Author. The standard reference bok on No to ‘write up communication research fr publication in jour nals. Includes many excellent suggestions on wring sty, In addtion to the discussion of presentation and formating guidelines ‘Cooper, HM 1985). mtegrating rescarch: A guide fr erature reviews: Newbury Park, CA: Sage. The author leads you tough each sep inthe Hterature review process. Katze, Cook KH, Crouch, WE (1991, Evaating infor Imation: A guide for wsers of social cience rescarch. New York: Moca, Avery useful book that provides an extended ‘discussion of how to ead a research report, particulatly for ‘quanslatve research report, Rubin, RB, Rubin, A.M. 8 Pele, LJ. 2000), Communication researc: Strateges and sources (6h ed). Belmont, CA ‘Wadsworth. This isan oustanding book in describing how to const iterature review in communication and how to plan a research study. ‘Strunk, WJ, & White, EB. (1979). The elements ofsyte Grd ed). New York: Macmillan. An excellent litle ook on how townte well Read, reread, and reread it again 45 InfoTrac College Edition ‘ANSWERS TO UNITS OF ANALYSIS EXERCISE (PAGES 35-36) hep wwrwinfotrac-college.com/ ‘wadsworth/access htm! ‘Access the latest news and journal articles with nfo- ‘Trac College Eton, an essy-to-use online database of reliable, {all ength articles from hundreds of top academic journals. Con duct an electronic search using the following search terms: + repleation + fangulation » unitofanalysis + css-sectional study * longitudinal study quantitative research + qualtatve research ‘Answers to Units of Analysis Exercise (pages 35-36) 1. individuals (older adults) Social artifacts (Chinese TV programming by year) Social artifacts (marital rituals) Social artifacts (advertisements) Individuals (younger vs. older persons) Groups (decision-making groups) . Social artifacts (advice) Individuals (Mary Kay consultants) Individuals (Dutch children Individuals (interviewees) CHAPTER 3 Paradigms of Knowing in Communication Research What You'll Learn in This Chapter You'll see some of the basic theoretical points of view that structure social scientific inquiry about communication. This chapter will ay the groundwork for your understanding of the specific research techniques. discussed throughout the rest of the book Introduetion ‘The Critical Paradigm. en i fe Critical Reflection Four Social Science Paradigms: An Overview Se ‘The Positivist Paradigm An Objective Reality ‘The Study of Variables Positvist Theory Generalized Laws ‘Quantitative Data ‘The Systems Paradigm Characteristics of Systems Key Terms ‘A Compatison of Systems and Posiivist Paradigms a ee re ‘The Interpretive Paradigm ‘The Study of Meanings Continuity Project ‘The Study of Rules Additional Readings Interpretive Theory (Qualitative Data Paradigms Revisited: Some Concluding Remarks ‘Objectivity and Subjectivity The Nature of Explanation ‘The Advantages of Multi Method Research, Main Points| INTRODUCTION Imagine Researcher A, who is interested in finding out ‘why people ditfer in their anxiety levels when they speak inpublic. She wonders whether early life experienceswith adult caregivers have anything to do with anxiety levels experienced later in life, She locates a prominent theory of caregiver-child interaction, attachment theory. After reading about early-lfe attachment, she predicts that people with secure early-life attachment experiences are likely to be characterized by less communication arviety in public than will characterize people with insecure at- tachment experiences. In order totes tis prediction, she locatesa group of 200 first-year university stucents.on the first day of their required class in public speaking and col- lects quantitative data from them using already estab- lished measures of speaking anxiety when speaking in public and early-life attachment. She examines statisti- cally the extent to which people with secure and insecure carly-lfe attachment experiences vary in their speech anxiety levels. [Now imagine Researcher B, who is also interested in people's anxiety levels when they speak public He terested in how the communication system functions for people who are very high in speaking anxiety In particu- lar, he wants to know how the verbal, or linguistic, com- munication of such speakers functions in conjunction ‘with their nonverbal communication (for example, their body movements, their eye contact, and their facial ex- pressions). He videotapes speakers known to be high public speech anxiety and examines whether the verbal and nonverbal messages are synchronized and consis tent with one another. [Now imagine Researcher C, who is also interested in learning more about people's anxiety levels when they speak in public, This researcher takes out an ad in a local newspaper, seeking volunteers who perceive themselves, to-experience high anxiety when they speak in public. He interviews each volunteer in depth, seeking to under- stand, from their point of view and in their own words, ‘what anxiety feelsike to them. Do their palms sweat? DO they feel nauseated? He looks for commonalities among. his interviewees in what anxiety means to them as they experience it. He writes up his findings by describing these common themes in detail, quoting from his inter= views in order to illustrate these themes. Researcher D also has an interest in public speaking anxiety. She spends a year in a kindergarten classroom, observing the details of when and how children talk aloud. For example, she notes how these children come FOUR SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS: AN OVERVIEW 47 to understand the boundary between “private talk” for ‘example, whispering with the chikd seated in the adjacent chair) and "public talk” (talking in front of the whole class). She comesto understand that a key marker ofthis boundary, to the children and the teacher alike, is whether hand raising is required in order to speak. She notices who isencouraged and allowed to talk “privately” and “in public,” and who is discouraged from doing $0. Over the course of the year, she talks with the children about their anxieties in talking in various ways and in var~ ious contexts in the classroom, She writes up her obser- vations in the form of a critique of the early-education system, arguing that it systematically silences girls more sothan boysin speaking in public, citingher observations. {as supporting evidence for her claims, You may be wondering how we can describe these four researchers as interested in the same general topic ‘when their research inquiries appear so different! These four examples illustrate typical kinds of research you are likely to find in communication studies, Taken as set, these four examplesillustrate the four basic research, traditions, or paradigms, that dominate social scientiic research about communication: the positivist tradition, the systems tradition, the interpretive tradition, and the critical tradition. The purpose of this chapter is to in- troduce you to these four paradigms, trations that can be ldentiied within most social scientie felds, not just ‘communication. ‘Why is it important for you to understand these re- seatch traditions? Several reasons come to mind. First, ‘we want you to appreciate the diversity of approaches that communication researchers can lake in studying ‘what is seemingly the same general topic of interest. Sec- ond, the criteria by which we determine valid research vary somewhat from tradition to tration. It simportant to know which tradition grounds a particular study in order to know the criteria by which we can appropriately evaluate itsknowledge claims, Third, different paradigms of knowing are associated with different methods of re- search. When you read about a particular method, iis important to understand the tradition of knowing typi- cally associated with it FOUR SOCIAL SCIENCE PARADIGMS: AN OVERVIEW Because theories organize our observations and make sense of them, there is normally more than one way to make sense of things. Different points of view usually ‘48 CHAPTER 3 PARADIGMS OF KNOWING IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH yield diferent explanations and understandings, This is true in dai life: Liberals and conservatives, for example, ‘often explain the same phenomenon quite differently; so do atheists and fundamentalists We begin our examination, then, with some ofthe ma- for points of view that communication researchers em- ploy in the search for explanation and understanding. ‘Thomas Kuhn (1970) refers to the fundamental points of ‘view characterizing a science as its paradigms. In the history ofthe natural sciences, major paradigms include Newtonian mechanics, Einsteinian relativism, Darwin's ‘evolutionary theory, and Copernicus's heliocentric theory ‘of heavenly motion, to name a few. While we sometimes think of science as developing ‘gradually over time, marked by important discoveries and inventions, Kuhn says that it was typical for one par~ adigm to become entrenched, resisting any substantial ‘change. Eventually, however, asthe shortcomings ofthat paradigm became obvious, a new paradigm would ‘emerge and supplant the old one, Thus, the view that the sun revolves around the earth was supplanted by the ‘view that the earth revolves around the sun, Kuhn's clas- sic book on this subject is titled, appropriately enough, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Social scientisshave developed several paradigms for understanding social behavior. However, the fate of sup- planted paradigms in the social sciences has differed from what Kuhn has observed in the natural sciences, Natural scientists generally believe that the succession from one paracligm to another represents progress from a false view to a true one. No modern astronomer be- lieves that the sun revolves around the earth, In the social sciences, on the other hand, theoretical paradigms may gain or lose popularity, but they’te seldom discarded, As you'l see shortly, the paradigms in com- munication research offer a variety of views, each of ‘which offersinsightsthat the others lack—but ignores as- pects of communication that the others reveal Thus, each of the paradigms we're about to examine offers a different way of looking at communication. Each ‘makes certain assumptions about the nature of social re- ality, We advise you to examine each in terms of how it right open up new understandings for you, rather than to ty to decide which is true and which is false. Ulti- mately, paradigms cannot be true ot false; a8 ways of Jooking, they can only be more or less useful. Try to find ways that these paradigms might be useful to you. We'll return to this point atthe end of the chapter. THE POSITIVIST PARADIGM. When the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798- 1867) argued that society could be studied in the same ‘way that scientists studied natural phenomena, he launched an intellectual adventure that is still unfolding today, (Initially, he wanted to label his enterprise “social physics,” but that term was co-opted by another scholar) Prior to Comte's time, society simply was To the ex- tent that people recognized different kinds of societies ‘or changes in society overtime, religious paradigms gen- rally predominated in explanations of the dilletences. ‘The slate of social alfairs was often seen as a reflec tion of God's will. Alternatively, people were challenged to create a “City of God” on earth to replace sin and ‘godlessness ‘Comte separated his inquiry from religion. He felt that society could be studied scientifically, that religious beet ‘could be replaced with scientific objectivity. His “positive philosophy” postulated three stages of history. A theo- logical stage” predominated throughout the world until about 1300, During the next five hundred years, a “meta physical stage" replaced God with ideas such as “nature’ ‘and "natural law.” Finally, Comte felt he was launching the third stage of history, in which science would replace religion ‘and metaphysics—basing knowledge on observations through the five senses rather than on belief, Comte felt that society could be studied and understood logically and rationally, and that such study could be as scientific as biology or physics. ‘Comte's view came to form the foundation for subse- ‘quent development ofthe social sciences. In his optimism for the future, he coined the term positivism to describe this scientific approach—in contrast to what he regarded _as negative elements of the Enlightenment. ‘The positivist paradigm has undergone many refinements, revisions, and criticisms since its articula- tion by Comte in the mid-19th century. This tradition is ‘one of the mainstays of communication research today. Positivst research is marked by certain features: the belief in an objective reality knowable only through em- Pirical observation; the study of variables; the develop- mentof theories that enable prediction, explanation, and control; the search for generalized laws; and observa tions in the form of quantitative data. Researcher & in ‘our opening section illstrates someone grounded in the positivist research tradition. She was interested in identi- {ying the underlying causes of speech anxiety, focusing in particular on early-life attachment experiences with adult caregivers such as parents, ‘An Objective Reality In Chapter | we note that researchers hold different be- liefs about reality. Postivist researchers believe that there is an objective reality “out there,” independent of the researcher. Knowledge claims about this reality rest on empirical observations, Positivist researchers place an emphasis on objective ways to gather empirical observa: tions in order to minimize the subjectivity of the re- searcher. We will return to this point in greater detail in Chapter 6. Furthermore, reality is characterized by a pat- term of relations between phenomena such that every= thing can be explained as a result (effect) ofa real cause that precedes it, This reality is fragmentable, which ‘means that a researcher can discover one cause-and- effect law at atime, These laws are discoverable through the use of systematic, rigorous methods that minimize the subjective biases of the researcher. Communication researchers who adopt the positivist tradition believe that communication practices and patterns have an objective reality to them that awaits discovery through valid meth- xs. The primary methods used by positivist researchers are surveys (Chapter 8), experiments (Chapter 9), and ‘quantitative text analysis (Chapter 10). ‘The Study of Variables Positivist researchers don't study individuals or other so- cial phenomena per se; instead, they study features or characteristics about individuals or phenomena. These Features or characteristics are known as variables. Inthe instance of Researcher A in the introduction to this chapter, the variables under study were speech anx- iety and early-lfe attachment. People vary in their level of speech anxiety, jst as they vary in the kinds of early life attachment experiences they had with their adult caregivers. Because the idea of variables may be foreign to you, here's an analogy to demonstrate what we mean. The subject of a physician's attention is the patient. IFthe pa- tient is ill, the physician's purpose is to help that patient sgt well. By contrast, a medical researcher's subject mat- ter is different: a disease, for example. The medical re- searcher, adopting the positivist tradition, may study the physician's patient, but for the researcher that patient is relevant only as a carrer of the disease. The disease ‘would be the variable for the medical researcher. THE POSTVST PARADIGM 49 That is not to say that medical researchers don't cate about real people. They certainly do. Their ultimate pur- pose in studying diseases is to protect people from them, But in their actual research, patients are directly relevant only for what they reveal about the disease under study: Infact, when they can study a disease meaningfully with- ‘out involving actual patients, medical researchers do s0, Posiivist communication research involves the study of variables and the attributes that compose them. Posi- livist theories are written in a language of variables, and people get involved only as the carriers of those vari- ables. Here's a closer look at what positivist communica tion researchers mean by variables and attributes, Attributes or values are characteristics or qualities that describe an object or phenomenon—in this case, the communicative behaviors of person. Examples include: chatty, high-pitched, and rapid. Anything you might say to describe how you communicate or how someone else communicates involves an attribute. ‘Variables, on the other hand, are logical groupings of altributes. Thus, for example, chatly and reticent are at- tributes, and level of atkativeness is the variable com- posed of these Iwo attributes. The variable pitch level is composed of attributes such as high, moderate, and low. ‘And the variable of rate of spcakmg is composed of at- tributes such as rapid and slow. Instead of using adjec- tives such as rapkd or slow, we might want to substi- {ute the number of words spoken per minute, with each ‘number representinga possible atribute for the speaking rate variable. Sometimes it helps to think of attributes as, the “categories or “quantities” that can make up a vari- able. Figure 3-1 provides a schematic review of some sample variables often studied by communication re- searchers, Figure 3-1A provides a list of some concepts you might encounter in communication research. Fig- lure 3-1B indicates whether the elements in ths lst are variables of attributes. For each variable identified in 3-1B, Figure 3-1C indicates its possible attributes, For each attribute identified in 3-1B, Figure 3-1C indicates the underlying variable, Thus, for example, advice is an at- tribute of the underlying variable kind of social support along with such other attributes as monetary assistance However, the designation of variables and attributes is not absolute. To the researcher interested in discover- ing all of the kinds of social support, advice is an at- tribute. However, to the researcher interested in study= ing advice as a variable, the attributes might be whether the form of the advice was direct of indirect, or whether the advice was transmitted in face-to-face or mediated channels, 58 CHAPTER 3 PARADIGMS OF KNOWING IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH A Comparison of Systems and Positivist Paradigms Researchers who adopt the systems paradigm share some features in common with the positivist tradition, yet significant differences exist as well. Systems researchers, like positivist researchers, believe in an objective realty However, the realty they examine is not the patterned relationships of causes and effects among variables. In- stead, systems researchers believe that the social world is organized into systems composed of parts. The re- search agenda is that of discovering how the parts fune- tion together to sustain the system, Most systems researchers use the language of vati- ables, Equilibrium states are usually defined in terms of variables. For example, equilibrium for a marriage might be conceived as a couple's satisfaction with their bond. Disruptions to equilibrium would be reflected in lowered levels of satisfaction, ‘The interdependence of system parts and the fune- tioning of these parts are also described in the language variables. For example, the communication of marital partners can be described with respect to its degree of symmetry, lf a husband makes a controlling statement (eg, "Get your coat; lets go!"), which is met with another ‘controlling statement by the wife (e.g, “Calm down! There's no hurry"), the communication system in the ‘marriage is high in symmetrical, or matching, responses, Systems researchers, like positivist researchers, often work with quantitative data, relying on a quantitative text analysis method known as interaction analysis, (see Chapter 10}. Thus, to continue our example of the hhusband-wife pair, we could describe the percentage of times that the wife responds to her husbane!’s control ‘efforts through symmetrical control statements of her ‘own, Sometimes, however, systems researchers prefer to describe functional interdependencies among system parts nonnumerically, through words. For example, we ‘might find this qualitative summary of our husband-wie ‘communication system: “The husband and the wife tend to mirror each other in their talk, particularly when it ‘comes to utterances that have implications for power and control Some research from the systems tradition is idio- ‘graphic in nature. For example, a researcher might be interestedin studying the US. television industry asa sys- tem composed of economic, legal, and artistic compo- nents Such a research project focuses on ane system, not all television industries in the world. However, much systems research featutes a nomo- thetic approach, For example, family communication re- searchers often adopta systems perspective withthe goal ‘ofexplaining how all families function, not just one par- ticular family ‘The positivist and systems traditions differ in their approaches to explanation, Whereas the positivist re- searcher explains something by identifying generalized laws of cause and effect, the systems researcher explains. something by identifying how it functions, The positivist, researcher believes that one can discover reality variable by variable, whereas a systems researcher is committed to understand phenomena more holistically. How can you spot a systems study when you see one? Let's consider an example: Paul Taylor's (2002) descrip- tive study of hostage negotiations between hostage sus- pect and police negotiator. The researcher tells us in the Abstract to the article that his purpose was to “formulate a comprehensive definitional model ofthe interrelation- ships among communication behaviors in crisis negotia- tion (p. 7), Ullerances were coded into several behavioral 'ypes to enable Taylor to examine patterns of sequencing and interrelationship between behavioral ypes. His focus ‘was not on hostage suspects and police negotiators per se; rather, he was interested in the interaction between suspects and negotiators. His results pointed to an un- folding cylindrical structure in the interactions that char- acterize hostage negotiations. Although the term system ‘does not feature prominently in the stud, itis grounded inthe systems paradigm nonetheless. Taylor is interested in describing a communication system—the interaction between suspects and negotiators in hostage situations, His focus is not on the separate parts (e.g. suspect talk and negotiator talk) but rather on the intertelationships between these interaction parts. He examines how utler- ances function in producing the model of unfolding that he identified. The study relied on quantitative text analy- sis (interaction analysis, to be exact), and the system's functioning was described by applying statistical tess to the quantitative data Although they have some differences, systems and positivist traditions can be viewed as close cousins, at Jeast in communication research. A radically different tra- ition is the intetpretive paradigm. THE INTERPRETIVE PARADIGM In contrast to both systems and positivist researchers, ‘who believe that the social world is basically similar to the natural world, interpretive researchersbelieve that the human experience is profoundly different from the nat- ‘ural world, The interpretive paradigm encompasses a 64 CHAPTER 3 PARADIGMS OF KNOWING IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH creators of knowledge, and value both subjective and objective strategies for knowing.” (Belenky et al 1986, p. 15) "Constructed knowledge” is particularly interesting in the ‘context of our previous discussions. For example, the positivist paradigm of Comte would have a place neither for “subjective knowledge” nor for the idea that truth ‘might vary according to its context. The interpretive pat- ‘adigm, on the other hand, would accommodate these notions easily, ‘The critical paradigm is centered in relection and cri tique rather than empirical observation. However, when critical scholars engage in empirical work, they typically tuse the methods of qualitative research, PARADIGMS REVISITED: SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS ‘We began with Comte's assertion that an objective real- ity exists and that we can discover its laws of cause and ‘effect through systematic and rigorous empirical obser- vation, Since his time, social scientists have reacted to this position in diferent ways. In this chapter, we have discussed the primary paradigms that organize these re- actions in communication research. Let's discuss two of the main issues or faut lines that distinguish the para-

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