lecture 2 - qualitative data collection and ethics

Question 1

what are the types of data collection

Answer 1

-interviews
-diaries
-focus groups
-existing material
you don’t need to stick to one method; a combination may help
with triangulation (e.g., analysis of social media data, followed by
focus group)

Question 2

what are the features of focus groups
-who is the moderator

Answer 2

Interaction among participants is the source of data

• Participants can be people with pre-existing ties (family, friends) or people who
  don’t know each other but share certain characteristics (e.g., having moved to the UK from Poland)

Researcher is moderator:
Introduce group members
Explain focus of conversation
Gently ‘steer’ the discussion

Question 3

why would you use a focus group

Answer 3

It enables people to respond to, challenge, disagree with, add to each other, giving you rich data

Helps you understand how attitudes/meanings are formed in a social context

If you want to create a setting less formal than a one-to-one interview
If you as researcher aren’t a member of the community

Question 3

what are the challenges of a focus group

Answer 3

Getting people to talk to each other
instead of to you

Also:
How to deal with people who dominate
the conversation
Ethics, in the case of sensitive subjects
Transcribing (who said what?)

Question 4

what are the features of diaries

Answer 4

It’s a record of people’s experiences
- Can be spoken or written
- Unstructured, no questions or rating scales
(but some guidance is given, e.g., how often,
time period covered, focus)

Question 5

what are the challenges of diaries

Answer 5

Poor recruitment, high drop-out
- Ethical issues regarding ‘diary as friend’,
making people more aware of issues
(e.g., chronic pain)

Question 6

media and internet sources
-features
-challenges

Answer 6

‘Existing data’, e.g., blogs, forums, social media, tv/radio talkshows, newspapers
Naturalistic, no interference from researcher

Ethics – what counts as ‘public domain’?
Do people ‘expect to be observed’?
Is it ok to register on a forum just to be able to see what other people
write? (does it depend on the forum? E.g., ‘Have your say’ on BBC website,
vs pro-ana forum)

Question 7

what are the assumptions made about interviewing

Answer 7

Interview as ‘archaeological excavation’?
(positivist, realist)

Interview as ‘co-construction’?
(constructivist, relativist

Question 8

interviews as a co construction

Answer 8

Interviews are an interaction
* People have a choice (conscious, non-conscious) in how they talk about things.
* Who are they talking to, what do they want to achieve

People don’t lie – they choose a version that is true to how they experienced it, but describe it in such a way that is sensitive to the current context (e.g., mum or husband

Question 9

understanding interviews as a co construction
-what does this mean

Answer 9

You need to think about how aspects of you (your manner, your social identity as perceived
by the participant, your interest) could have played a role in creating the interview data.

• You need to tell the reader that you have thought about this.
• In the Materials section of your report, you need to describe the context of the interview
  (location, time of day).
• In the Procedure, you need to describe what you said to interviewees before the interview.
• When you’re transcribing, you need to include things the interviewer said (including the
  ‘mm..mm…’)
• When you’re providing quotes in the Analysis section, you need to include what the interviewer said.

Question 10

types of interview
-structured
-semi structured
-open

Answer 10

Structured
Using the same question sequence for all participants – this isn’t
really in the spirit of ‘interviews as co-constructed’

• Semi-structured
  You have a set of questions and prompts, but the order and the
  exact wording will vary per interview, depending on how the
  interaction goes.
• Open
  You only have a general topic area and some broad questions, but the
  interview is mostly led by what the interviewee brings up.

Question 11

preparing for the interview
types of questions

Answer 11

-descriptive
-structural
-contrast
-evaluative

Question 12

creating prompts

Answer 12

Some participants talk more than others
* Some participants don’t quite know what a certain question wants
them to say
* For this, we use ‘prompts’:
These are gentle steers that
give the interviewee easier steps
to answer your question.
* Try not to give them example answers though

Question 13

put questions in a ______-______ order

Answer 13

general-personal
Start broad and general so the interviewee and you can get used to
one another
* This also enables you to get a sense of which topics may be
particularly important to the interviewee (it’s ok to take notes of this,
so you can come back to it later)
* Keep the more personal, ‘prodding’ questions for later.
* But: some interviewees are quite keen to get personal early on, so
you need to be flexible with your interview schedule.

Question 14

dos and dont in interviews

Answer 14

Do’s
Remain as ignorant as possible. Pretend you know nothing. Let the
interviewee explain everything to you.
* Ask the interviewee to describe examples.
* Don’t be afraid to make jokes if you feel it’s appropriate:

Don’t
Interrupt interviewee constantly (it’s ok if they go off track and/or appear
unstoppable)
* Say you disagree with the interviewee
* Say you agree with the interviewee
(in both cases, a better approach is to paraphrase in a neutral tone)

Question 15

ethics

Answer 15

Duty of care (the overarching ethical principle)
* Researcher safety (e.g., not going to a participant’s house)
* Confidentiality (how to deal with disclosure? Is a pseudonym enough?)
* Right to withdraw (more difficult in an interview, learn to spot the signs;
but don’t end it yourself)
* Informed consent
* No deception