Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Empirical methods > 05_ Qualitative research 2 > Flashcards

05_ Qualitative research 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What are the characteristics of qualitative research?

A
  1. Perspective of the people beeing studied
  2. Reflexivity/ Explication of own role
  3. Attention to detail
  4. Emphasis on context
  5. Consideration of dynamic developments
  6. Flexibility and limited structure
  7. Conceptual considerations as outcome
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is the optimal process of qualitative research projects?

A
  1. General research questions
  2. Choice of data collection method(s)
  3. Selection of relevant subjects (sampling)
  4. Collection of relevant data
  5. Interpretation of data
  6. Conceptual and theoretical work
  7. Writing up findings/conclusions
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What are the key methods of qualitative data collection?

A

Collection of primary data

  • Survey
    Individual:
    semi    -structured, expert interviews
    Group interviews:
  • Observation
    Ethnography/participant observation
    Netnography
  • Experiment

Use of secondary data
- document analysis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Why are qualitiatve individual interviews so common?

A
  • Primarily involves qualitative individual interviews.
  • Focuses on capturing individual perspectives and experiences.
  • Often employed for addressing sensitive topics.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What is the difference between qualitative individual interviews and quantitative surveys?

A

Characteristics differentiating qualitative individual interviews from quantitative surveys:
- Reduced structure
- Substantial interest in the perspective of the interviewee
- Dominance of open-ended questions
- Encouragement of digressions
- Flexibility and freedom to change/expand interview during the conversation
- Encouragement of giving detailed answers
- Participating role of the interviewer

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What are the different alternatives of qualitative indivudal interviews?

A

Different alternatives:
– Unstructured interviews (conversations)
– Semi-structured interviews (most common form)
– Expert interviews
– Think-aloud interviews

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is the process of semi-structured interviews?

A

Arrival (incl. online and phone)
- Critical: Phase in which the relation between the discussion
partners is established
- Informal topics, do not mention the research topic

Presentation of research project
- Clearly define your objective and your methods
- Guarantee confidentiality
- Request permission for recording the conversation
Introductory questions
- Inquiries about background information (e.g., age, education, company size) for interview adaptation
- Ask about issues that are of special interest for the interviewee (avoid that these

Main part –>Central interview content

Closing the conversation
- Indicate approaching to the end of the interview some 5 to 10 min. before the actual conclusion
- Ask if all the focal aspects were sufficiently covered
- Thank for cooperation and emphasize data confidentiality

Follow-up:
- Make notes, e.g., about body language, interview environment, etc.
- Transcribe the interview
- Identify new questions and integrate them in the interview

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is the specific purpose of expert interviews and their form?

A

Specific purpose: reconstruction of expertise
– Respondents make no statements about themselves, but act as “key informants”
– Common field of application: manager surveys
– Limited to inquiring about explicit knowledge, problematic when interested in habitual/implicit knowledge

Form: semi-structured interviews

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are the challenges of expert interviews?

A

Particular challenges:
- Recruit a sufficient number of experts
- Threat of conversation being dominated by the expert
- Selection of experts: Corporate decision makers, Consultants, Scientists, Journalists
- Extra preparation effort needed
- Creation of shared language conventions
- Higher degree of structuring
- Potential abuse (e.g., to get information about competitors)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What are focus group interviews?

A

Group interviews: An unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group (6-10) led by a moderator who encourages dialogue among respondents

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What are the peculiarities of focus group interviews? (Special of focus group)

A

Peculiarities/special thing about Focus group interviews:

  • Simultaneous collection of several perspectives in a discussion (less costly than individual interviews)
  • Insight in group dynamics
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What are the variations of focus group interviews?

A

Variations:
– Brainstorming
– Group discussions
– Group interview
– Moderation method

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What are the advantages of focus group interviews?

A
  • Simultaneous collection of several perspectives in a discussion (less costly than individual interviews)
  • Relatively fast
  • Easy to execute
  • Allow respondents to piggyback off each other’s ideas
  • Provide multiple perspectives
  • Flexibility to allow more detailed descriptions
  • High degree of scrutiny
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What are the risks and what is important? (Focus group interviews)

A

risk:
“Social Loafing”: Free Riding

Important:
- Decisive role of the moderator

Composition of group is important:
– Avoid differences in power/influence
– Balance between homogeneity and heterogeneity
– Stranger vs. Known person
– Expert vs. Beginner in a particular fiel

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is Ethnography?

A

Ethnography: “Method, in which the observer participates in the daily life of the people under study, either openly in the role of the researcher or covertly in some disguised role, observing things that happen, listening to what is said, and questioning people, over some length of time

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

When is ethnography (participant observation) suitable?

A

Observations in a natural environment

Especially suitable when:
- The research object is embedded in a social sphere
- The realm of the research object is hardly visible from an outsider’s perspective
- It is unclear to what extent the research subjects would provide reliable reports
- Dynamic perspective instead of cross-sectional perspective

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What are the different modes of ethnography?

A

Modes:
– Open vs. covert / hidden observations
– Complete participant <-> complete observer
– Trainee, consultant, confidan

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the advantages of covert observation? (Method of ethnography)

A

No permission needed

No subject reactivity “subject’s knowledge that he is participating in a scholarly search may confound the investigator‘s data”:

  • Awareness of the observation: Change in behavior, i.e., due to impression
    management
  • Role adjustment: Guessing of the research objectives and corresponding change in behavior
  • Condition changes: Changes that are done to enable the observation in the first place (e.g., re-location of a meeting)
18
Q

What are the disadvantages of covert observations? (ethnography

A
  • Ethical problems:
    no “informed consent” by participants
    Violation of privacy
  • Blowing the cover endangers the whole research project (anxiety of researcher)
  • Access to organizations often tied to specific qualifications
  • Strong time commitment necessary
  • Hidden note-taking
  • No possibility of combination with other methods
19
Q

What is netnography?

A

Netnography is a qualitative research approach to analyze the consumer dialogue in online communities in order to gain valuable consumer insights, especially in the early stages of the innovation process

  • The empathic and non-obtrusive online observation allows the qualitative assessment of explicitly verbalized and implicitly existing needs, perceptions of consumer towards products, services, and brands
20
Q

What is documental analysis?

A

Documental analysis: “any methodological measurement applied to text (or other symbolic materials) for social
science purposes”

21
Q

What is the idea of document analysis?

A

Idea: Inferences about cognitions of people and organizations can be drawn based on the analysis of documents

22
Q

What are documents, and what are the criters for the evaluation of document quality?

A

Documents:
- “readable” (broader understanding that also encompasses photos)
- Not made for the research project itself
- No problem of subject reactivity, since no contact between observer and the subject of investigation

Criteria for the evaluation of document quality:
– Authenticity, trustworthiness, representativeness, comprehensibility

23
Q

What is specific in the data collection in qualitative research with regards to sample size?

A

Sample size:
- Iterative process: Does examining additional subjects generate new insights (theoretical saturation)?

  • Limited sample size due to data volume (e.g., due to high effort and costs connected with the interviews and
    their transcription)
  • Often between 15 and 30 subjects (current trend towards larger samples)
24
Q

What is specific in the data collection in qualitative research with regards to sample structure?

A

Sample structure:
- Random sampling impracticable
- Mostly combinations of two sampling strategies:
– Convenience Sampling
– Snowball Sampling

  • Selection criterion not (always) representativeness, but potential to gain (additional) insights (“Purposive Sampling”):
    – “typical” participants
    – “productive” participants
25
Q

What is the typical process of qualitative data analysis?

A

1.Material review
- Overview of available material
- Evaluation of source credibility
- Preliminary structure of the data

2.Data reduction
- Manageability of data
- Identification of relevant info
- Generaliizations to a more abstract level

3.Coding/Categorizing
- Development of category systems for the issues being examined
- Assign text to specific categories/constructs

4.Computation
- Summary of findings using basic quantifications
- Identification of clusters

5.Theory development
- Develop hypotheses about the relationships between the observed constructs
- Derive new research questions

26
Q

What are the goals of Material review and structuring?

A

Goals:
– Become familiar with the available material
– Fundamental evaluation of source (credibility)
– Preliminary structuring

27
Q

Why do we recude the data in the process of qualitative data analysis?

A

Data volume often large in qualitative research projects:
- Data reduction: Select, make abstractions, focus, and transform data
- Problem: Dropping information is an active and analytic decision

28
Q

What are the techniques and guidellines of data reduction?

A

Techniques:
- Quantification: Evaluation of cases on various dimensions
- Paraphrasing: Short expression of statements in one’s own words

Guidelines for paraphrasing:
- Consistent level of expression (as long as linguistic elements are not important)
- Elimination of all phrases without content
- Eliminate all repetitions and irrelevant information
- Proceed chronologically
- Consider seemingly irrelevant passages

29
Q

what is important in the coding process of qualitative data analysis?

A

Development:
– Deductive: theory-based
– Inductive: material-based

McKinsey’s MECE Principle: category systems should be…
… mutually exclusive
… collectively exhaustive

Also desirable:
– Homogeneity (all categories have the same level of analysis)
– Simplicity

MECE?
– Categorizing people by nationality
– Categorizing marketing activities in the categories product, price, sales, and promotion (the 4 P’s)
– Business functions: marketing, sales, R&D, accounting, production, shared services

30
Q

What is important in the theory development: what is grounded theory and the potential outcomes?

A

Grounded Theory: “[B]uild theory that is grounded in data.”

Potential outcomes:
- Concepts: label discrete empirical phenomena
- Categories: summarize concepts to arrive at more abstract units
- Hypotheses: considerations about relationships between concepts

Theory: “a set of well-developed categories … that are systematically related through statements of relationship to form a theoretical framework that explains some relevant social … or other
phenomenon.”
- Substantial theory: theory about relationships in specific context (e.g., socialization at the work place)
- Formal theory: theory about relationships in isolation of specific context (e.g., socialization theory)

31
Q

What are the coding mechanisms for theory development?

A

Coding mechanisms for theory development
– Open coding
– Axial coding: combination of phenomena, leading to emergence requirements, context factors, strategies and
consequences
– Selective coding: focus on core phenomenon and consideration of the relation of this phenomenon compared to
other phenomena

32
Q

What are the critera for evaluating qualitative research?

A

Clear dominance of quantitative empirical research in social science

Possible reasons: lack of quality standards for qualitative research

Disagreement about relevant criteria:
- objectivity / neutrality is universally recognized
- applicability of validity and reliability disputed

33
Q

What are the arguments for applicability?

A
  • Researchers have to convince their target groups of the reliability of their findings
  • Question whether researcher indeed measured what should be measured (validity) also applies to qualitative research
  • Question whether results are affected by random errors also applies to qualitative research
34
Q

What are argumments against applicability?

A
  • Qualitative research takes place in a different paradigm: “Understanding” instead of “Explaining”
  • Hence, criteria developed for quantitative research do not apply
  • Own criteria needed: credibility, neutrality, and internal consistency
  • Reliability refers to measurement, however easurement does not happen in qualitative research
35
Q

What does objectivity mean?

A

Objectivity: Findings independent of researcher

–>Lack of objectivity is the most common suspicion against qualitative research

-> It is a criteria for evaluating qualitative research

36
Q

What are the different understandings of objectivity in qualitative research?

A

different understandings of objectivity in the case of qualitative research:
– Researcher is part of the method
– Subjective impressions are explicitly addressed: Constructionism vs. Realism
– Ideally: all subjective influences are visible

37
Q

What is the assessment of objectivitity in qualitative research about?

A

Assessment of objectivity therefore relates to the assessment of transparency of the presentation of the
empirical methodology:
- High reporting standards in qualitative research
- Goal: Enable other researchers to replicate the study and the data analysi

38
Q

What are the requirements for documentation fpr objectivity as criteria in qualitative research?

A

Requirements for documentation:
- Portray the total research process starting from the design phase all the way to the preparation of the research paper
- Disclose the exact way data was collected
- Disclose the role of the researcher and the reactions evoked by the researcher
- Disclose the conditions under which research took place (e.g., funding)

39
Q

What is difficult in evaluating reliability as criteriia in qualitative research?

A

Reliability: absence of random errors
- Difficult to evaluate in qualitative research projects:
- Active role of the researcher in the process
- Replication of results is difficult:
“it is impossible to freeze a social setting”

Can only be applied to the data analysis process, particularly to the categorization

40
Q

What is the central conept of “Consensual validity?

A

Central concept: Inter-rater or inter-observer reliability (consensual validity)
- Answers the question whether two different researchers would allocate a certain object to the same category
- Existence of diverse coefficients
- Dominant measure: Cohen’s Kappa

41
Q

What is the application of validity in qualitative resarch?

A

Validity: absence of systematic error
–>Application in qualitative research mostly confined to assessing the data analysis

42
Q

What is the validation process in qualitative research?

A
  • Communicative validation: Contact the participants of the study and ask them whether they find the results plausible (“member check”)
  • Cumulative validation: Comparison of own research findings with the findings of other research projects
  • Argumentative validation: Use of conceptual arguments to emphasize the plausibility of the results
  • Operative validation: Compare predictions based on the result with real-life actions of the participants
  • Triangulation: Obtain another perspective on the research:
  • Data-
  • Researcher-
  • Theory-
  • Methodtriangulatio

Empirical methods (8 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions