qualitative methods 2 Flashcards

1
Q

what is a conversational interview?

A

represents an alternative set of techniques to standardized survey interviewing whereby interviewers are allowed to provide unscripted information to respondents in an effort to clarify question meaning.

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2
Q

what are some problems with interviews? (3)

A

Are you being told what the interviewee wants you to think and not what is really going on?
How do you know if the interviewee is not getting his/her facts/interpretations right?
Double hermeneutic?

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3
Q

why are interviews useful? (3)

A
  • You get information from the horse’s mouth
  • You can interact with interviewee and react to their answers (ie not one-off snapshot responses)
  • You can cross-check much of what you hear with other sources
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4
Q

what are 4 issues with focus groups?

A
  • You have less control over the direction a group discussion takes over a one-to-one interview
  • Data can be tough to analyse as the talking is in reaction to the comments of other group members
  • Observers/moderators need to be highly trained
  • Clearly not large enough to be a representative sample of a population (they are not opinion polls)
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5
Q

what are some general issues with qualitative data? (3)

A

reliability, generalizability, validity

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6
Q

how did Blair use focus groups?

A

to test out policy ideas on carefully selected groups of voters to see how they react

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7
Q

how did Jon Cruddas (a former advisor to Blair) criticise his use of focus groups?

A

“Too much policy was based on the preferences and prejudices of barely representative focus groups”

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8
Q

what are the 3 key components of an experiment?

A

intervention, random allocation between groups and measuring outcomes

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9
Q

what is intervention?

A

Researcher doesn’t just observe, but intervenes to observe the effect of that intervention

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10
Q

how are the groups divided in an experiment? what does this control?

A

dividing the group into one group and a control group, the extraneous factors

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11
Q

what did Druckman et al find about experiments?

A

they were cited (on average) 47% more than non-experimental research

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12
Q

what are laboratory experiments?

A

recruit subjects to a common location, where the experiment occurs

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13
Q

why are laboratory experiments used?

A

gives the researcher better control

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14
Q

what is an example of a laboratory experiment?

A

Dawes et al – found people were only motivated by money back guarantee’s in chance of failure, not guaranteed money in case of success – he puts this down to motivations of greed, rather than fear of loss

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15
Q

what is an advantage of a field experiment?

A

more people able to be involved

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16
Q

what is the ‘virtual laboratory’?

A

lab and field experiments blurred together

17
Q

what is good about the ‘virtual laboratory’? (3)

A

In between as more people can access this, but still can be very controlled, makes possible new types of experiments eg as social media sites are often changed, allows researchers to analyse before and after

18
Q

what is a natural experiment?

A

Intervention occurs by chance

19
Q

what is an example of a natural experiment?

A

Erikson and Stoker (2011) – studied the effect of being drafted into the Vietnam war, baring in mind it was based on (random) date of birth, considered whether those who were drafter exhibited different political behaviour than those who weren’t (yes)

20
Q

what is an ethical issue with the experimental method?

A
  • If we think that an intervention might work, how can we justify not giving it to the control group?
  • For example, giving an area free healthcare, may also cause individuals to try and move to that area, hence harming the randomisation element
21
Q

what is an example of a ethically dubious experiment?

A

Guth and Weckhannermann – German Bundestag election in 1994, voters asked how much money would they sell their vote for, most said they wouldn’t, 1/4 said they would for a substantial amount for which they then had to destroy their voting card

22
Q

what new issue do internet experiments pose in relation to Facebook?

A

Facebook ran an experiment where they changed individuals feeds to more positive/negative, no proper consent there although signing up to Facebook has agreeing to experiments in the small print

23
Q

what is an issue with laboratory experiments for policy makers?

A

recruiting non-students is very difficult and policy makers are often uncomfortable with research drawn from student subjects, as a culturally homogenous group may fail to pick up on key insights

24
Q

what is an issue with internet experiments?

A

difficult to maintain data from the platform itself – Facebook doesn’t give out data, you have to work directly with them

25
Q

what is an issue with field experiments?

A

Feedback mechanisms (networking between people, media coverage) makes it difficult to maintain the purity of the trial