Midterm 2 Flashcards
1
Q
What do Interviews typically involve?
A
- one on one conversations or conversations with two or more researchers and one participant
- they may be structured or semi-structured
- carried out in person or virtually
2
Q
What’s the benefit of interviews over surveys?
A
- they are more fluid and dynamic than surveys
- potential for tangents and follow up questions
3
Q
What are Focus Groups?
A
- groups interviews conducted with a small number of participant
- usually one facilitator
- groups members typically have common traits/experiences
- allows for interaction among participants
4
Q
Why Conduct Interviews?
A
- motivations depend on research objectives and design
- these include
- Gathering original, primary data
- Supplementing existing data
- Improving other research tools
5
Q
What are the advantages of interview research?
A
- allows for detailed, holistic fine grained descriptions of a particular experience with a high degree of conceptual validity
- captures varying perspectives, competing interpretations, informal interactions and behaviours
- exploring causal mechanisms
- assessing complex causal relationships
- opportunities to gather meta-data
6
Q
What is an ecological fallacies ?
A
- when you have a broad theory about how the world works, but make the mistake of assuming it applies to a particular situation
7
Q
Challenges in Interview Research
A
- resource intensive; logistical and funding constraints
- challenges with sampling and recruitment of participants
- Research ethics board (REB) approval required
- Consistency and ‘replicability’ across settings
- Concerns about reliability and validity of data
8
Q
Example of Challenge of Interviews
A
- Fujii did interview after the Rwanda genocide
- Found that people would tell her things that were not accurate
- Rwanda government provides support for survivors
9
Q
Positivist Interviewing
A
- more concerned with replicability across settings, reliability of data
- view interviews as a tool for gathering objective information
- Focus on minimizing interviewers effects
10
Q
Interpretive Interviewing
A
- more accepting of variation, subject interpretations
- sees as a tool of developing fine-grained, contextual understanding of different perspective
- focus on positionally; knowledge is c-created
11
Q
What is Participant Observation?
A
- Involves Immersion (immerses themselves for a sustained amount of time in the day to day activities of participants)
12
Q
What is the Interpretation of Cultures?
A
- Clifford Geertz
- Immerses himself in a culture in Indonesia
- That is what allows him to write the book
13
Q
What is Ethnography?
A
- Schtaz (2009) ethnography can be understood in two distinct ways
1. Participant observation aimed at generating knowledge about a particular community or locale
2. Adopting an ethnographic sensibility that goes beyond face to face contact
14
Q
What is Ethnographic Data Gathering?
A
- historically immersion took place via fieldwork, but not all fieldwork is ethnographic
- characterized by empirical richness, with detailed, contextual evidence; nuanced descriptions via field notes
- captures varying perspective competing interpretations, informal interactions and behaviour across a wide range of settings
15
Q
How to do Ethnographic Data analysis?
A
- focus on understanding the perspectives and preoccupations of communities under study
- understanding meanings assigned to concepts and events by the research subjects
- tension between “insider” vs “outsider status”
16
Q
Experience near
A
- fully immersed and deep understanding
17
Q
Experience distance
A
- Western research who can step and think about what all this means
18
Q
Advantages of Ethnography
A
- detailed evidence that can strengthen (or challenge) existing theories and meanings accepted by researchers
- theoretical vibrancy;
- potential for espitemological innovation
- normative grounding
19
Q
Disadvantages of Ethnography
A
- very labour and resource intensive
- potentially exclusionary
- ethical dilemmas for participants
- ethical dilemmas for researchers
20
Q
What is accidental “ethnography”
A
- Fujii 2014
- Involve paying systematic attention to unplanned moments, that take place outside an interview, survey, or other structured methods
- important in what they suggest about the larger political social world which they are embedded
21
Q
Critiques of Ethnography
A
- Concerns about researchers ‘lack of rigor and objectivity over normative commitments.
- Concerns about lack of generalizability
- limited capacity to make predictions
- Tensions between positivist vs. interpretive approaches
22
Q
What are Unobtrusive Methods ?
A
- methods which do not disturb the social environment
- they are methods which do not involve talking with people
- they are a collection of all the other ways one may learn about human beings and their social world without interrupting them to ask questions
23
Q
Types of Unobtrusive Methods
A
- physical traces
- non-participant observation
- archival research
- media analysis
24
Q
Physical traces
A
- physical traces left by human activity often have political significance
- Observation of human behaviour, material culture, social environment
- Data can take countless forms (graffiti, tombstones, clothing choices)
25
Advantages of Unobtrusive Methods
- assessing actual behaviour vs. self-reported behaviour
- easily repeatable over time
- Non-reactive
- widely accessible
- Ideal for longitudinal studies
- inexpensive
- relatively safe
26
Disadvantages of unobtrusive methods
- distortion of the original record
- decontextualization
- intervening variables
- selective recording by researchers based on different biases and interests
- Single method over-reliance
- limited range of applications
27
Media Analysis
- systematic examination of media sources
- may focus on amount of coverage an issue receives and/or substance of that coverage
- identification of patterns in the form, content, or volume of media coverage
- may focus on impact on production of media overage and impact of media coverage
- may overlap with archival research
28
types of media
- traditional print media
- audiovisual
- digital and online media
- advertisements within media
29
Advantages of media analysis
- relatively few barriers to access
- wide variety of media sources
- versatiles
30
limitations of media analysis
- questions about accuracy and validity
- risk of decontextualization
- language barriers
- limited range applications
31
What is Archival Research
- research based on archival material; "residue" left by past human activity
- archives are institutional repositories of documents
- hosted by governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, private associations, libraries or museums
32
Types of Archival sources
- Government records, reports, treaties, speeches, transcripts
- Personal papers, letter, diaries
- Film, art and other media
- Digital archives and open-access databases
33
Advantages of Archival research
- access to primary sources
- unpublished information not available elsewhere
- insights into day to day activities
- offers "eyewitness accounts" of significant historical events
- captures multiple perspectives from different archives
- compatible with different research traditions
- digital access increasingly an option
34
Limitations of Archival Research
- challenges related to access
- bias from incomplete records and selective preservation of documents
- evaluating credibility and authenticity
- challenges related to interpretation
- ethical considerations
35
What process does data analysis follow ?
- data preparation
- coding
-interpretation
- communication/ reporting of results
36
What is Truth Worthiness?
- goal of qualitative data
- "the extent to which a study produces legitimate knowledge"
- includes authenticity, portability, precision, impartiality
37
Authenticity
whether you are actually capturing what you observe
38
Portability
it can travel to other cases, it can be used to study other phenomena
39
Precision
others would get similar results looking at the same data
40
Impartiality
based on evidence
41
What is Data Preparation?
- sorting different types of data based on relevant characteristics
- transferring data into an appropriate formate for analysis
- may involve specialized software
42
What is Coding?
- "systematic measurement of phenomenon at hand - that is reducing the available information to a small number of dimensions, consistently defined across units of interests
- includes open coding, axial coding and selective coding
43
Deduction
start from general principle and have particular idea of what you will look for
44
Induction
start from small case and look for general theory
45
Abduction
moving back and forth between induction and deduction
46
What is Inter-coder reliability?
- measures the degree of agreement between different coders and about how the data should be coded
- low levels of agreement raise questions about the trustworthiness of research findings
- poses a challenge for both qualitative and quantitative researchers
47
Interpreting Qualitative Data
- importance of theoretical frameworks and concepts
- considering alternative explanations
- acknowledge conflicting evidence discrepancies in data
- triangulation to compensate for limitations of a single approach or data source
- determine scope conditions
48
Reporting on qualitative data
- use established techniques and report on methods
- communicate detailed findings
- transparency and data sharing
- reflexivity and reporting biases
-member checks on trustworthiness of findings
49
Positivist vs. Interpretive Data Analysis
- positivist and interpretive scholar differ in their assumptions about what constitutes data and what analysts should do with data
- positivist analyses seek data that is an 'accurate' depiction of reality
- interpretive analysis assumes that data and context are interwoven; we should expect some variation in how data is interpreted
50
Types of Qualitative Data Analysis
- comparative historical analysis
- counterfactual analysis
-process tracing
- content analysis
- discourse analysis
51
Comparative Historical Analysis
it is research that combines sustained comparative analysis of well-defined set of historical cases and focus on unfolding causal processes over time and use of systematic comparison to generate and evaluate explanations of outcomes
52
Counterfactual Analysis
- reasoning about phenomena that did not occur
- thought experiment aimed at understanding causality by comparing actual outcomes with hypothetical outcomes
- involves considering how outcomes would have changed if a prior event had not occurred or had occurred in a different way
53
Process Tracing
- method that attempts to identify the intervening causal process between an independent variable and the outcome of the dependent variable
54
Discourse Analysis
- discourse is language in context; language allows people to say things, do things and be things
- discourse analysis is a way fo studying how language works by taking that context into account
- can be used to analyze many types of data
55
Positionally & Reflexivity
- "to respond to positionally, researchers are instructed to be reflexive: to interrogate the effects of their social location across research interactions" (Soedirgo and Glas)
56
Triangulation
- involves the use of "diverse data sources trained on the same problem. Triangulation involves data collected at different places, sources, times, level of analysis or perspectives, data that might be quantitative or might involve intensive interviews or thick historical description" (King, Keohance and Verba)
57
Why Research Ethics?
- aimed at preventing harm caused by academic research
- historically, power imbalances between researchers and research subjects have caused significant harm
- important to ask critical questions about how research was carried out and what effects it has on those involved
- should be considered at all stages
58
Types of Harm
- may affect research subjects or other members of the research team
- physical
- social
- political
- economic
- psychological
- emotional
59
What is the main guidance document in Canada?
- Tri-Council Policy Statement: ethical Conduct for Research involving Humans
- provides a framework aimed at promoting the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects
60
TCPS Core Principles
- respect for persons; treating people as ends not means
- concern for welfare; maximize benefits and minimize ham
Justice; how participants are selected
61
Respect for Persons
- respecting autonomy by obtaining voluntary and informed consent is critical
- consent is meant to ensure that individuals have not been pressured, coerced or tricked
- consent must informed
62
Concern for Welfare
- protect and promote the welfare of participants
- weigh harms and benefits of participants
- often includes concerns about privacy and confidentiality
63
Justice
- treat people fairly and equitably, with equal care and concern
- selection of participants is fair
distribute benefits and burdens of research so that no population is unfairly burdened by harms or denied the benefits of research
64
The Role of Research Ethics Boards
- provide oversight based on TCPS core principles
- identify risk associated with research and strategies for mitigating those risks
Review applications submitted by researchers
65
Limitations of Formal Ethics Protocols
- rules can never cover every ethically significant situation researchers must exercise good judgement
- compliance may not ensure ethical conduct
- researchers ethics may conflict with participants ethics
