Qualitative Research Methologies Flashcards
In depth interviews
- Receive in detailed information
- More than one hour
- Comfortable environment
- Felxible
General structure of in depth interviews
- Plan of action
- Develop tools
- Collect and analyze data
- Present findings
To plan the interview
* Identification of what information is needed
- Define who you want to interview
- Choose the right place
- Develop a protocol
- Trust and comfort are essential
- Start of with general questions and go deeper into the topic
Technique to get people to talk more
Repeto probe
You repeat the statement of the other person and raise voice at the end to turn it into e question again automatically asking for more detail
nodding, raising an eyebrow or silence are just as important
Last 10min of en interview
Reminds participant of the last 10min so it can come to a natural end
Give participant the choice to elaborate on certain points before summarizing what was said
After interview
Take some time to reflect maybe also to ameliorate your questions
personal reflection
Reflect interviewee
structure data
time management
Common mistakes in interviews
Before interview
- Research: dive into the subject
- Equipment: make sure, the equipment works
- Not just asking: it should be a vivid discussion
During interview
- Empathy: Relate to the interviewer
- Don’t interrupt: go back to previous topics
- Stay flexible: let the discussion explore side topics
After interview
- Not adjusting protocol: change guideline if necessary
- No time management: schedule enough time between interviews
- Insufficient analysis: put effort into analysis and interpretation
Projective methods
For example
- Consumer desires
- Health perception
- Product design
- Political Brand
- Mental Disorders
Association
Participants are required to connect spontaneously the stimulus with images, word, feeling -> Word Association
Healthy: a word that comes to mind
Picture: a word that comes to mind
Completion
Participants are asked to complete sentences, stories or drawings
Expressive
Participants are asked to take part in form of expressive exercise such as role-playing, or storytelling
construction
Participants are asked to use their creativity to construct drawings, paintings, collages and cartoons
Choice ordering
Participants are asked to rank and arrange different objects, like products, brands, pictures, sentences
Why projective methods
It helps overcome the limitations of rationality associated with popular methods such as survey
- Collect data
- unrestricted and less verbally
- Reduce limitations linked to bias
Porblems with projective techniques
- It can result in ambiguous outputs being difficult to interpret
- Inconsistency in the interpretation may undermine the validity and reliability
- It requires a rigid scoring for the interpretation due to the highly subjective nature of response
What are Focus groups?
A group of deliberately selected people who participate in a facilitated discussion to obtain consumer perceptions about a particular topic or area of interest.
Methods in qualitative research
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus groups
Purpose of focus groups?
- Customer insight
- Involve public
- Robust data
Where are focus groups used?
- Marketing
- Politics
- Academia
Advantages and disadvantages of focus groups
Advantages
- Implementation: time budget, organize, B2C setting
- Knowledge output: Nonverbal interaction, richer amount of data because of moderator
- General: Anonymity, Strait forward
Disadvantages
- Moderator: Skills of moderator
- Selection of participants: Various people, interests
- General: dominant voice might steer discussion
Aspects to keep in mind
Group effects
- Group thinking
- Conformity
- Social desirability
Voice vs. Power
- Often more critic than positive
- Sometimes reveals how little people think
Usability & Validity
- Observer dependent
- One time snapshot
- Open-ended research
How to run a focus group?
Before you start
- Why
- Goals
- Participants
- Moderator
- Recorder
- Prepare questions
In the meeting
- Open the meeting
- Set rules and tone
- Ask opening question
- Facilitate discussion
- end meeting
After meeting
- Analyze Data
- Share the results
- Use the results
What is qualitative research?
No graphs and numbers
Types of qualitative research?
- Archived data: written and visual material
- Interview data: Transcripts from interviews
- Observational data: Documented observations through field notes or videos
Why qualitative research?
To gain in depth understanding of a phenomenon
To elaborate existing theories/ create new ones
To gain insights
Make sense of qualitative data
How do we sample qualitative data?
Theoretical Sampling: First select someone who you think is knowledgeable about the subject
next you pick a person from the insights given by this person
Snowball sampling: First you select someone at random but somehow linked to subject, this person than suggest further interview partners
Sampling with predefined Criteria: Do a survey where you pick specific segments that are relevant to your issue
This prevents that a random majority clouds what the relevant minority has to offer in insights
Descriptive research what is it?
- Understand the reality of a population
- Large study groups
- Often no causality
What is descriptive research often used for?
To describe the attitude or behavior of people
Typical target groups for descriptive research?
- Students
- Employees
- Consumers
- organizations
- Market areas
Descriptive research what is it?
- Understand the reality of a population
- Large study groups
- Often no causality
Descriptive research data sources
Primary data sources: first-hand data collection, non-dependent on previous studies
- Interviews
- Online surveys
- Focus groups
- Field observations
Secondary: No time must be spent looking for data, much more cost-effective
- Public libraries
- websites
- already filled surveys
