qualitative methods Flashcards
give examples of primary data?
interviews, focus groups, open-ended survey questions
give examples of secondary data?
newspaper articles, blogs, online forums, social media
in what ways has psychology been influenced by behaviourism and cognitive experimentalism?
- we seek to determine universal, objective psychological reality
- experimental method
- cause & effect
- positivism & post-positivism
what assumption does qualitative research question?
an objective and true conception of reality
how many versions of reality are there according to qualitative research?
multiple versions of reality, even for the same person
describe a structured interview?
questions and response categories predetermined by a researcher
what are the 3 types of interviews?
structured
- unstructured
- semi-structured
describe an unstructured interview?
list of topics to discuss with participant, interview strongly participant-led, usually lacking in knowledge and depth
describe a semi-structured interview?
researcher has a list of questions, but scope for participants to discuss issues important to them & not anticipated by researcher
what is the most widely used interview method?
semi-structured interviews
what type of questions are used in semi-structured interviews?
open-ended questions
in a focus group, how many researchers are there
sometimes 2, one is the moderator, another takes notes
what is a key feature of focus groups
interaction between participants
what are the disadvantages of focus groups?
- logistically difficult
- easy to get off topic
- difficult to manage
- ethical issues - whole group knows who said what
- transcription time consuming
what are the advantages of focus groups?
- flexibility for exploring unanticipated issues
- access to everyday ways of talking
- personal discussions
- enables people to respond to, challenge, disagree with, add to each other = rich data
