Final Flashcards
1
Q
Qualitative Research
A
- concerned primarily with people’s experiences and putting that into words and images
- it is usually inductive
- tends to be interpretivist
- often constructionist
- takes a naturalist perspective
2
Q
Types of Qualitative Research
A
- ethnography/participant observation
- qualitative interviewing
- focus groups
- discourse/conversation analysis
- content analysis
- participatory action research
3
Q
Main Steps of Qualitative Research
A
- establish a general research question
- select a relevant site and subjects
- collect the data
- interpret the data
- conceptual and theoretical work
- tighter specification of the research question - collect further data
- writing up findings/conclusions
4
Q
Blumer 1954: definitive concepts
A
- defined with nominal and operational definition
5
Q
Blumer 1954: sensitizing concepts
A
- provide only a general sense of reference and guidance as to the content of the concept
- begin with a broad definition and narrow through research
6
Q
Criteria for evaluating qual. research: credibility
A
- do the people studied agree with the interpretation of their thoughts and actions offered by the researcher?
- conducted through respondent (member) validation
7
Q
Criteria for evaluating qual. research: transferability
A
- can the findings be applied to other contexts or people not studied?
- “thick” description helps to determine whether transferability is possible
- provides enough info to conduct later comparison to finding from other studies
8
Q
Criteria for evaluating qual. research: dependability
A
- were proper procedures followed?
- can the study’s theoretical inferences be justified? (auditing, peer review)
9
Q
Criteria for evaluating qual. research: confirmability
A
- was the researcher objective and unbiased?
- did the researcher sway the results dramatically
- auditing can be used to examine this
10
Q
seeing through the eyes of the subjects
A
- empathy
- in-depth description and emphasis on context
11
Q
emphasis on process
A
- showing how events and patterns unfold over time
- a long time spent in the field allows researcher to understand individual and social change and its context
- semi and unstructured interviewing, life history approach
12
Q
flexibility and limited structure
A
- questions should be quite general
- there is usually little or no theory driving the research
- the topics explored in the research may change as study progresses
- allows researcher to find new directions of study
13
Q
ultimate goals of qualitative research
A
- seeing through the eyes of others
- bringing out a sense of process
- having a flexible and unstructured method of inquiry
- achieving a deep understanding of the new people or groups being studied
- pursue social justice and bring about social change
14
Q
critiques of qualitative research
A
- too subjective/impressionistic
- bias can result from personal relationships that develop during research
- may be unclear how a particular topic/theme became the focus of research
- difficult to replicate
- issues of generalization
- lack of transparency
15
Q
contrast between quantitative and qualitative research
A
- numbers vs. words
- pov researcher vs. pov particpants
- researcher distant vs. researcher close
- theories tested in research vs. theories developed from data
- structured vs. unstructured
- generalizable knowledge vs. contextual understanding
- hard reliable data vs. deep rich data
- macro vs. micro
- behaviour vs. meaning
- artificial vs. natural setting
16
Q
ethnography
A
- a study of people and their culture in naturally occurring settings
- goal is to describe the life of the community from the pov of participants and with as little impact from outside as possible
- researcher is immersed in a particular social setting for a long period of time
17
Q
ethnography vs. participant observation
A
- terms are essentially synonymous
- ethnography includes participant observations but also individual interviews, studying docs and artifacts from community
- ethnography refers to written account about the researcher
18
Q
access to the field
A
- key point for any ethnography
- open/public settings - may be difficult to make observations
- closed settings - some kind of boundaries or restrictions
19
Q
overt ethnography
A
- the people being studied know they are being observed
20
Q
covert ethnography
A
- the people being studied do not know they are being observed
- has many ethical concerns and is difficult to implement
21
Q
access to closed settings
A
- use friends, contacts, colleagues
- use help of a “gatekeeper” (controls access to setting and knows key participants)
- get someone in the org. to vouch for you
- offer something in return
- provide a clear explanation of your aims and methods
- be willing to negotiate
- in covert research: adopt and support a suitable social rule
22
Q
access to open settings
A
- similar to closed setting access
- ongoing access can be problematic: people get suspicious of motives, group members fear what they say will get around, participants may sabotage research
23
Q
ongoing access
A
to maintain access:
- play up your credentials
- play a role and construct a likable front
- be prepared and adaptable
24
Q
key informants
A
- participants who are particularly knowledgable and cooperative
- drawbacks of using them:
- researcher may ignore other members
- their view may not be representative of the groups as a whole and gets unduly represented in research
25
roles of ethnographies: complete participation
- covert operations
- the researchers adopt a secret role in group
- may skew data due to participant bias
26
roles of ethnographies: participant as observer
- researcher adopts role in group
- participants are aware who researcher really is
- risk of reactivity
27
roles of ethnographies: observer as participant
- researcher observes and interviews from the edge of group
- risk of reactivity
- risks incorrect interpretation of activity
28
roles of ethnographies: complete observer
- researcher does not engage participants at all
- no risk of reactivity
- but: researcher has limited info for understanding actions
29
analytic memos
- link observations to concepts
| - notes on data but not the data notes
30
visual ethnography
- uses visual material as sources of data, documents or illustrations of participant stories
- photovoice takes collaboration further (participants take photos of their daily experiences and interpret them in terms of their own perspectives and identities)
31
realist approach
- the material presented is taken as the"fact", the actual representation of reality
32
reflexive approach
- awareness of how researcher influenced what the materials reveal
- visuals may be "collaborative" with participants, may be subject to multiple interpretations by different people
33
institutional ethnography
- study of the daily practices in institutions and how those reveal power inequalities or ruling relations in orgs.
- relation between discourse and experiences (especially in written context)
34
purposive sampling
- involves searching for people who are likely to be a rich source of info on the group or setting under study
35
snowball sampling
- a viable contact is used to identify others who may be willing to provide info on the topic of study, who are then used to establish further contacts
36
theoretical sampling
- a type of purposive sampling
- meant to be an alternative strategy to discover categories and their properties to suggest the interrelationship in a theory
- can involve people, settings, events, time, contexts
- data collection continues until the point of theoretical saturation is reached
37
qualitative vs. structured interviews
- more open ended
- greater interest in the interviewees perspectives and concerns
- tangents are encouraged
- need to be flexible
- rich, detailed answers sought
- interviewee often interviewed more than once
38
unstructured interviewing
- the researcher uses only a brief set of points to introduce topics
- only thing defined is the broad topic of interest
- conversational
- no more than a short interview guide
- starts with a single broader question
- respondents answers are in a free form
39
semi structured interviewing
- the researcher has a list of questions or topics to be covered
- offers a somewhat longer interview guide
- interviewees are still free to reply in any way they choose
- questions may be asked out of order
- new questions may be devised and asked on the spot
- there is a clear focus on the topic of interest
- useful when more than just one interviewer/interviewee
40
preparing an interview guide
- establish some degree of loose order to the questioning process
- broad questions related to the research issue
- language that is understood by the participants
- no leading questions
- prompts to ensure sufficient personal info about participants is collected to contextualize the data
41
before the interview
- familiarize yourself with the setting to contextualize the data
- have good equipment and know how to use it
- use a quiet and private setting for interviews
- use good techniques (active listening)
42
kinds of questions
- introducing questions
- follow up questions
- probing questions
- specifying questions: factual
- direct questions: interviewee perceptions
- indirect questions: perceptions of others
- structuring questions/transition questions
- silence
- interpreting questions
43
interview
- listen: primary intent is to listen to your interviewee
- avoid: avoid bringing anxiety to the interviewee
- be: vignette questions can be used to ground interviewee's ideas and accounts of behaviour in particular settings
44
after the interview
note the following:
- how the interview went
- where it was conducted
- other issues and feelings raised during
- what was going on around the interview
45
reflexivity and co-constructed data
- reflect how your own interactions with participants affected: what was said, how it was said, what was left unsaid
46
focus group
- an interview with a group of 4 or more
- value is gaining access to the meanings that develop during the interactions with others rather than in isolation (naturalistic)
- morgan (1998) suggests 6-10 people
- moderator/facilitator
47
focus groups: selecting participants
- natural groups: people who already know each other or already have had some interaction
- may affect discussion
48
focus groups: limitations
- less control over discussion than an interview
- an unwidely amount of data may be produced
- data may be difficult to analyze
- varying personality traits in room
- difficult when sensitive issues, social hierarchy, strongly opposed oppositions
49
online interviews/focus groups: advantages
- usually smaller (6-8)
- several responses at once
- overcomes geographical issues and sensitive topics
- visual biases reduced
- less reactive response to mediator
- often a safe and friendly environment
50
online interviews/focus groups: disadvantages
- takes longer
- more difficult to establish rapport
- more difficult to probe
- higher non-response
- moderator cannot read body language
- can't identify distracted participants
- online connection may be lost
51
content analysis: documents
- any source of data that can be read and wasn't produced specifically for the purpose of social research
52
Scott's (1990) criteria for assessing quality of docs
- authenticity: genuine and of unquestionable origin
- credibility: free from error or distortion, factually accurate
- representativeness: typical of what its supposed to represent
- meaning: clear and comprehensible
53
content analysis: visual objects SCOTT
Scott (1990) 3 types of family photos:
- idealization: formally posed
- natural portrayal: candid
- demystification: revealing, atypical portrayal
- representativeness?
54
content analysis: govt docs
- includes census info, voting records, official reports etc
- can be seen as authentic and having meaning
- credibility? are the docs biased?
55
content analysis: mass media outputs
- newspaper, magazines, tv, films
- authenticity
- credibility
- representativeness
56
coding: two key concerns
1. designing a coding schedule
- the form where the data are recorded
2. designing a coding manual
- the set of instructions to coders
- lists what is to be coded, the categories subsumed under each dimension, the numbers that correspond to each category, general guidance
- inter and intra coder reliability
57
coding: potential pitfalls
- categories must be mutually exclusive and exhaustive
- instructions must be clear
- the unit of analysis must be clear
- pilot testing will reduce risks of error
58
content analysis without pre-existing coding scheme
- QCA looks for underlying themes present in a unit of analysis
- researcher decides what themes are to be extracted and how the presence of a theme is established
- themes are recurrent topics mentioned in text or recording
- themes could be anticipated or emergent in the text
59
ethnographic content analysis (ECA) (Altheide 1996)
- differs from QCA in that researcher is constantly revising the themes or categories as the data are examined
- emphasizes the context in which the docs are generated
- follows a recursive and reflexive movement between concept-development-sampling-data, collection data, coding data, analysis interpretation
60
semiotics
- the science of signs
- studies systems of communication and meaning by looking at signs
- seeks to expose hidden meanings in texts
61
semiotics: denotation
- the most immediate level of meaning
62
semiotics: connotation
- associative meanings, generally more abstract concepts that are invoked in presentation
63
semiotics: myth
- a broad set of cultural assumptions, beliefs, and values evoked and reinforced by media texts
64
hermeneutics
- theory and methodology of text interpretation (originally religious texts)
- meaning of text involve author's circumstances and context
- author's world view is important for deriving meaning
- context is critical to understanding
65
readers and audiences: active or passive?
- do readers accept the interpretation at face value or do they read with critique and evaluation?
- do they reinterpret what is written?
- social researchers interpret data through their own frame of reference
- conclusions reflect interpretations of a particular researcher, not all possible interpretations
66
discourse analysis
- post modern form of content analysis
- anti-realist: no objective reality waiting to be found
- tends toward a constructionist orientation
- based in large on work of foucault
67
discourse analysis: Gill (2000) 4 themes
1. discourse is a topic in itself
2. language is constructive
3. discourse is a form of action
4. discourse is rhetorically organized
68
discourse analysis: strategies: producing facts
- quantification rhetoric
- using variation in numbers to highlight contrast
- attention to specific details
- attention to rhetoric detail - the way argument is constructed
69
critical discourse analysis
- exposes the political nature of the examined texts, considers issues of power hierarchies, structural inequalities and historical political struggles
- social justice focus
70
conversation analysis: indexicality
- things like pauses and sounds have meaning that depends on the context in which they exist
71
conversation analysis: reflexivity
- examines how social order is created through communication
72
conversation analysis: links to quantitative research tradition
- fine-grained detailed analysis of talk
- structure of talk analyzed
- positivist orientation on replicability
- context means just the words said prior to a response
73
conversation analysis: assumptions
- talk is structured and forged contextually
| - analysis should be grounded in data
74
advantages of CA
- very transparent, easily replicated
- allows for longitudinal analysis
- unobtrusive method
- flexible
- overcomes social barriers
75
disadvantages of CA
- limitations due to the texts analyzed
- usually some inter and intra coder unreliability
- potential for invalid conjuncture
- difficult to answer "why" questions
- emphasis on measurement may make it atheoretical in nature
76
types of coding
- descriptive
- thematic
- line by line
- IPA
- in-vivo
77
analytic induction
- qualitative analysis is an iterative process
- a general research question is devised, some data are gathered, a hypothesis is proposed
- researcher continues to gather data until no contradictory cases are found
78
analytic induction: difficulties
- because all cases must be explained, the hypothesis generated may be too broad to be useful
- there are usually no guidelines on how many cases must be reviewed before the validity of the hypothesis is accepted
79
grounded theory
- derived from data, systematically gathered and analyzed through research process
- most widely used framework
- inductive, iterative process
- coding questions
80
grounded theory: basic features
- coding
- constant comparison
- theoretical saturation
81
coding in grounded theory
- includes labels given to issues/activities being observed
- starts in early stage of research process
- data are treated as potential indicators of concepts
82
coding in grounded theory: types
Strauss and Corbin (1990)
- open: identifies initial concepts that will be categorized together later
- axial: data are reviewed for linkages and re-organized
- selective: selecting the core categories
83
substantive theory
- observed patterns are related to each other and a theory is developed to explain connections
84
formal theory
- theory formulated at a higher level; requires data collection in different settings; applicable in a variety
85
grounded theory: criticisms
- differences between concepts and categories may be vague
- may not be as "theory-neutral" as claimed
- practical difficulties
- may not result in theory
- coding may result in fragmentation
86
narrative analysis
- researching the stories people tell to understand their life and the world
- focus on context and events, and interpretations people make of them
87
narrative analysis: 4 models
Riessman (2004)
1. thematic: explains what is said rather than how its said
2. structural: examines the way a story is told and what is emphasized to increase persuasiveness
3. interactional: examines dialogue between teller and listener
4. performance: examines narrative as a performance
88
mixed methods
- qual and quan research strategies have a great deal in common and can complement each other
- certain epistemological and ontological positions may be associated with particular research methods
- multi-strategy research
- 3 types of questions: explanatory, exploratory, convergent
89
problems with the quan/qual contrast
- behaviour vs meaning
- theories/concepts tested in research vs. those emerging from the data
- numbers vs words
- artificial vs natural
90
mutual analysis
- meta-ethnography can compare findings from different settings and contexts, not otherwise accessible to a single researcher
- reliability measure for coding
can occur in:
- thematic analysis
- quasi-quantification
- combatting anecdotalism through limited quantification
91
the embedded method's argument
- the use of a particular method implies acceptance of certain epistemological and ontological positions
- there is reason to question it: unsustainable
92
the paradigm argument
- the quan and qual approaches are bases on separate paradigms
- however they do have overlapping areas
93
epistemological arguement
- quan and qual are based on incompatible epistemological principles
- people making this claim also maintain that the two general orientations are ontologically incompatible
94
technical argument
- quan and qual are simply techniques that can be used without necessarily adopting a particular epistemological position
- the selection of a method is a decision about which window the researcher will open to look into the room
95
approaches to multi-strategy research: triangulation
- the use of quan research to corroborate qual findings and vice versa (ex. several observers, theoretical principles, sources of data and methods)
- can also take place within a research strategy (ex. using different quan methods in one project
96
approaches to multi-strategy research: facilitation
- the use of one research strategy to assist with research that uses a different strategy
- that may occur in a number of ways:
- suggesting hypotheses
- aiding measurement
- providing research participants
97
approaches to multi-strategy research: complementarity
- using 2 or more approaches where a single approach wouldn't be sufficient
- qual data can be used to interpret the relationship between variables found in quan research
- different methods can be used to study different aspects of a phenomenon
98
filling the gaps
- two-step approach to planning multi-strategy research:
1. priority decision: will the principle data gathering tool be qual or quan
2. sequence decision: should the complementary method be used first as a preliminary, or second as a follow up
99
the problem of generality
- tendency in qual research to present findings without evidence indicating how typical they are
- quan comparisons can be of use
100
qual research and relationships between variable
- one strategy is to look for an intervening variable
| - one that is influenced by the IV but in turn has an effect on the DV
101
Steps of writing up quantitative research
1. abstract
2. intro
3. theory
4. data
5. measurement
6. methods + models
7. results
8. conclusion
9. bibliography
102
lessons in writing up quantitative research
- try to capture reader's attention early
- spell out the rationale of the research
- state the research questions and hypotheses clearly
- data collection, measurement, sampling etc elaborated and clearly presented
- context
- implications and theoretical framework
103
steps of writing up qualitative research
1. abstract
2. intro
3. lit review
4. design and methods
5. results
6. discussion
7. conclusions
8. bibliography
104
lessons in writing up qualitative research
- capture readers attention early
- spell out rationale of research
- state research questions generally
- research design and methods discussed but not in lots of detail
- the conclusion should present the implications of the articles major theoretical and conceptual contributions
105
ethnography: post modernism position
- question the very notion of pre-existing reality; knowledge is relative
- a particular narrative can offer only one version of reality
- neutrality is impossible
- no study offers definitive portrayals of a subject
- readings/interpretations rather than observations/findings
- critique has led to the idea of polyvocality
- promotes reflexivity
106
ethnography: realist position
- ethnography is to give an authoritative account of reality, the one based on observation and uncontaminated by researchers biases/influences
- an authoritative truthful account
- "realist tales"
107
characteristics of realist tales: experiential authority
- authors activities are not part of the description of subject matter
- descriptions and analyses are presented as if they are authoritative, unbiased, accurate etc
- extensive quotes from convos and interviews provide a way to strengthen the credibility of the report
108
characteristics of realist tales: typical forms
- descriptions of the people studied are said to represent characteristics that are commonly found in their group or society
109
characteristics of realist tales: participants POV
- author claims to have done sufficient research to accurately portray the thoughts, feelings, interpretations etc of people studied
- seeing the world through the participants eyes is meant to enhance the authoritativeness of the account
110
characteristics of realist tales: interpretive omnipotence
- interpretation provided by the author is presented as virtually incontrovertible
- alternative interpretations are not given serious consideration
111
forms of ethnographic writing: realist tales
- definitive, confident, dispassionate 3rd person accounts of culture and behaviour
- most common form
112
forms of ethnographic writing: confessional tales
- personalized accounts about the experiences of ethnographer
- reflect growing emphasis on reflexivity
- methodological and ethical sins are admitted
- more concerned with presenting how the research was carried out than with the findings
113
forms of ethnographic writing: impressionist tales
- experiences of ethnographer and "what is" are combined in stories about dramatic events which helped the research to uncover and understand the culture/people
- exposes fieldwork experience that led to acceptance and knowledge acquisition, dramatic and revelation events
- both culture and researcher are in story
