QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Flashcards
Qualitative research methods are favoured by interpretivists because they provide deep, subjective and meaningful insights into social behaviour. Qualitative research methods include unstructured interviews, participant observations and documents.
UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
The interpretivist-favoured method of unstructured interviews mainly ask OPEN-ENDED questions that produce qualitative data rich in meaning. There is a STRONG RELTIONSHIP built between the INTERVIEWER and the INTERVIEWEE (RAPPORT), which means the data is more likely to be valid.
ADVANTAGES:
RAPPORT: the informality allows the interviewer to develop a relationship with the interviewee. (VERSTEHEN: empathy)
FLEXIBLE and VALID - the interviewer is not restricted to a fixed set of questions, therefore people can be more truthful.
Interviewer and interviewee are able to check each other’s understanding and meaning of things
DISADVANTAGES:
PRACTICAL - it is COSTLY to TRAIN interviewers in SENSITIVITY, INTERVIEWERS need GOOD INTERPERSONAL SKILLS to build RAPPORT
TIME-CONSUMING: due to the lack of STRUCTURE the interviews can take up many hours, this LIMITS the AMOUNT of interviews that take place and the SIZE of the SAMPLE: SMALL, thus UNREPRESENTATIVE
QUANTIFICATION: because UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS use OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS, answers CANNOT be QUANTIFIED, making it LESS USEFUL in establishing CAUSE and EFFECT relationships, TESTING HYPOTHESES and CORRELATING variables.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATIONS
The researcher joins in the activities of the group they are researching
eg VENKATESH ‘gang leader for a day’
ADVANTAGES:
HIGH ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY - groups are observed in a NATURAL and authentic setting, therefore the data is more likely to be a TRUE ACCOUNT of the group’s behaviour.
VALID - DATA generated is RICHLY detailed and offers insight into social behaviour.
DISADVANTAGES:
Unreliable - being open-ended and subjective research, there is no fixed procedure or standardised system of measurement and cannot be replicated.
Unrepresentative - most participant observations investigate small-scale groups that are not representative of the wider population.
Not valid - the HAWTHORNE EFFECT, due to how the observer is likely to affect the group’s behaviour.
NOT VALID - the researcher is at RISK of ‘going native’, meaning the researcher OVER - IDENTIFIES with the group.
ETHICAL ISSUES - it is DIFFICULT to ensure to the ANONYMITY of participants.
PRACTICAL ISSUES - there are issues with GETTING into the group, STAYING in the group and/or LEAVING the group.
PERSONAL DOCUMENTS
(SECONDARY RESEARCH METHOD)
can take the form of DIARIES, PHOTOS, SOCIAL MEDIA and LETTERS.
ADVANTAGES:
may be the only available source of information
FREE source of LARGE AMOUNTS of DATA as someone else has COLLECTED the INFO
existing documents SAVES TIME
DISADVANTAGES:
individuals create documents for their OWN PURPOSES, therefore may NOT ANSWER questions the sociologists want: PERSONAL BIAS.
DIFFICULTY of sociologist’s MISINTERPRETING what the DOCUMENTS meant to INDIVIDUALS, may be added difficulty if its in a different language or the meaning of words have changed.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
(SECONDARY RESEARCH METHOD)
personal or public documents from the PAST
ADVANTAGES:
They allow COMPARISONS over time (for example birth, death and marriage rates).
They are USEFUL when assessing the OUTCOMES of various SOCIAL POLICIES (Eg. raising the school leaving age).
DISADVANTAGES:
UN-REPRESENTATIVE - some documents may have been LOST or DESTROYED.
The VALIDITY of the documents are open to question as they may have been WRITTEN SELECTIVELY
The AUTHENTICITY of a document is DEBATABLE as it might NOT have been written by the person it is attributed to, therefore UNDERMINING its RELIABILITY.
