Test #3 (chapter 11) Flashcards
What is a qualitative interview?
*different from a survey interview:
- researcher can pursue issues in depth and gives the respondent more freedom to direct the flow of the conversation
- researcher has a general plan of inquiry, but no standardized set of questions to rigidly follow (less structure)
What are the two principal types of qualitative interviews?
- Unstructured interviews:
- open-ended, qualitative interview
- interview begins with a limited number of topics and fluidly probes these through questions and follow-ups - Semi-structured interviews:
- qualitative interview organized around a specified set of questions or themes (won’t be as much as in a survey tho)
- room for probes and asking more and clarification
Explain the analogy of the qualitative interviewer as a miner or as a traveller
miner: the assumption that the subject possesses specific information and that the interviewer’s job is to “dig it out”
traveller: the interviewer wanders through the landscape: conversing with the people encountered, exploring the many domains of the country - with maps or without, asking the inhabitants to tell their own stories of their lived world
How are qualitative interviews different from face-to-face survey interviews?
- don’t have such a big set of standardized questions
- allows the pursuit of issues that may not have been anticipated (ex. multiple choice answers may not get the full info)
- facilitates depth of exploration
- very flexible
- may get more validity from qualitative interviews
What are the ways to establish rapport in a qualitative interview?
Rapport = having an open and trusting relationship between researcher and respondent
- explain purpose of your research in nonthreatening way
- have a genuine interest in understanding the people you are interviewing - communicate that interest to them
- be an attentive listener
- be relaxed and act appropriately for the setting
What are the 7 stages of a complete interview process?
- Thematizing - clarifying the purpose and concepts
- Designing - laying out the process
- Interviewing - the actual process
- Transcribing - creating a written text
- Analyzing - determine meaning relative to purpose
- Verifying - checking reliability and validity of materials (ex. member check - when you send back a transcript of the interview to the respondent to look over)
- Reporting - the creation of a paper
What is an interview guide? What are some potential question types?
Interview guid - manual for consultation that helps organize the interview process as needed
Potential question types:
- introducing questions
- follow-up, probing, or specifying questions (encourage elaboration)
- direct questions (typically used at the end of an interview to address things not covered)
- indirect questions (used to get the respondents view on how others think/act)
- structuring questions (used to signal a change in topic)
- interpreting questions (confirm the interpretation of a response)
What is transcription? What is selective transcription?
- the translation of a recorded interview into written text (should be done as soon as possible after the interview)
- turning only research-relevant parts of a recorded interview into text
What is an in-depth interview?
in-depth interview (includes qualitative interview, unstructured interview, etc.) - research design where qualitative interviewing is the primary means to gather data
- often can’t use probability samples which might produce a drawback of idiosyncratic findings - less generalizble
- often mixed with other data collection methods or used to help in the design of survey questions
What are focus groups?
focus group = the subjects (plural) are brought together to discuss a specific topic or issue (normally 6-10 ppl)
- guided by a moderator –> facilitate discussion; ensure no one dominates conversation
- record conversation
- helpful to explore results from quantitative analysis like a survey
- don’t represent a meaningful population statistically (often have more than one focus group)
- helpful to test questions to be used in surveys
- goal is often to examine the dynamic process of ppl collectively constructing meaning
- ex. common for testing marketing research or political ads or new tv shows
What are some practical considerations for conducting a focus group
- size
- setting
- participant characteristics or experiences
- need for a trained moderator
- number of focus groups (avg. = 10-15 for a moderately sized study)
–> want saturation of responses - keep doing them until you’re not getting much variation - documenting the session
What are the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups?
advantages:
- real-life situations
- flexible - adaptable methodology
- strong face validity
- rapid results
- cost effective
disadvantages:
- moderator effect
- generalization is challenging
- “groupthink” - desire for consensus
What is oral history?
A method using in-depth interviews as a means of gathering data about the past
- personal biography embedded in historical events, which in turn are embedded in different types of contexts (religion, cultural, etc.)
- often used by feminist scholars and anthropologists
What are the uses of oral history?
- deeper understanding of historical period/process
- incorporate the voices of individuals (esp. underprivileged)
- complement findings from official documents and statistics
- counter official documents, often written by individuals in positions of power
How do you address the methodological issues in oral history? (reliability and validity)
- narrow the interview’s focus
- probes or specific questions
- other information sources (official reports, news stories, etc.)
