Chapter Nine Flashcards
Inductive/Deductive
I: Begins with data collection results in theories, hypotheses, and concepts.
D: Begins with theories, hypotheses, and concepts and results in data collection
Constructionist
An ontological position (the antithesis of objectivism) according to which social phenomena and their meanings are continually being created by social actors; also known as constructivism.
Interpretivist
An epistemological position that requires the social scientist to grasp the subjective meanings that people attach to their actions and behaviours.
Naturalistic
A style of research designed to minimize disturbance to the natural or everyday social world.
Ethnography
Like participant observation, a research method in which the researcher is immersed in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaivour, asking questions, and analyzing what is said in conversations with both between subjects and with the fieldworker. As a term, “ethnography” is more inclusive than “participant observation,” which emphasizes the observational component. Written accounts of ethnographic research are often referred to as ethnographies.
Participant Observation
Research in which fieldworkers are immersed in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaviour, asking questions, and analyzing what is said in conversations both between the people under study and with the researcher. It usually includes interviewing key informants and studying documents. In this book, “participant observation” refers to the observational aspect of ethnography.
Unstructured Interviewing
An interview in which the interviewer is free to explore any topic, although an interview guide is often used. The questioning is usually informal and the content, phrasing and sequencing of questions may vary from one interview to the next.
Focus Groups
A form of group interview in which there are several participants (in addition to the oderator/facilitator); there is an emphasis in the quesioning on a particular topic or related topics; and interaction within the group and the joint construction of meaning is observed.
Discourse Analysis
An approach to the analysis of talk and other forms of communication that emphasizes the way language can create versions of reality.
Conversation Analysis
The fine-grained analysis of talk (recorded in naturally occuring situations and then transcribed) to uncover the underlying structures in interaction that make social order possible. Conversation analysis is grounded in ethnomethodology.
Critical Discourse Analysis
A type of content analysis that brings issues such as power hierarchies, structural inequalities, and historical political struggles to bear on the analyses of texts.
Texts
A written document or, in more recent years, anything (from paintings to buildings to theme parks) that may be “read” and analyzed for its symbolic value.
Participatory Action Research
Research in which local people affected by a particular social problem collaborate as equals with professional researchers and government officials to generate knowledge pertinent to the problem and to take action to ameliorate it.
Grounded Theory
An approach to the analysis of qualitative data in which the goal is to use the data to generate theory; the data collection and analysis proceed in an iterative (recursive) fashion.
“Sensitizing” Concepts
A concept that is not fixed in advance (as with an operational definition) but rather is treated as a guide that suggests what may be relevant or important in an investigation
Trustworthiness
A general criterion (composed of four more specific criteria) used by some writers in assessing the quality of qualitative research.
Internal Validity
A type of validity that is achieved if there is sufficient evidence that a causal relationship exists between two or more variables.
External Validity
A type of validity that is achieved if the results of a study can be generalized beyond the specific research context in which they were generated.
Respondent Validation / Member Validation
A process whereby researchers provide the people with whom they conducted research with an account to their findings and request their feedback on it; sometimes called member validation.
Thick Description
A term coined by Geertz (1973) to refer to detailed accounts of a social setting or people’s experiences that can form the basis for general statements about a culture and its significance in peoples’ lives.
Life History
A method (often referred to as the biographical method) that emphasizes the inner experience of individuals and its connections with larger societal events throughout the life course. It usually entails life history interviews and the use of personal documents as data.
Structured Interviewing
One in which all respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order with the aid of a formal interview schedule.
Structured Observation
Often called systematic observation, this is a research method in which the researchers follow explicitly formulated rules regarding not only what they should look for, but when and where, and how they should record what they have observed.
Common Contrasts Between Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Table 9.1)
Quantitative: Numbers, Point of View of Researcher, Researcher Distant, Theory Testing, Structured, Generalizable Knowledge, Hard Reliable Data, Macro, Behaviour, Artificial Settings.
Qualitative: Words, Points of View of Research Participants, Researcher Close, Theory Development, Unstructured, Contextual Understanding, Rich Deep Data, Micro, Meaning, Natural Settings.
