week 4

Question 1

Diversity in qualitative data collection

Answer 1

Wide range of qualitative data collection techniques that generate quite different kinds of data
There are no “right” or “wrong” methods.
Methods of data collection and analysis can be more or less appropriate to our research questions.
The research question, data collection technique, and method of data analysis are dependent on one another.

Question 2

Researcher-provoked data

Answer 2

Interviews are the most widely used method of data collection in qualitative research in psychology:
Easy access and speed.
The data can be analysed in a variety of ways.
Help to understand people’s behaviour.
Contrived data – “affected by the formulations and assumptions of the researcher”

Question 3

The argument for naturally occurring data

Answer 3

Naturalistic data - derives from situations that exist independently of the researcher’s intervention (Silverman, 2017).
Data exists independently of researchers (naturally occurring talk), rather than data that is ‘got up’ (Potter 2004).
Preference for research within natural settings, free from any intervention by a researcher.
Discursive psychologists – work with tapes and transcripts of naturally occurring interactions.

Question 4

The debate between natural and contrived data

Answer 4

The most obvious: laboratory versus “in the field”.
Less obvious, more pernicious, within the qualitative sphere:
Interview or focus group vs. naturally occurring interaction.
Even less obvious but immensely crucial: your data is not people; your data is the interaction.
Our interactions belong to everyone, to the situation, rather than to people.
Measure your data in length (e.g., hours), not people.

Question 5

What is naturally occurring data

Answer 5

Everyday interactions

Question 6

Passing the “deadscientist test” (Potter, 1996)

Answer 6

The test is whether the interaction would have taken place in the form that it did had the researcher not been born or if the researcher had got run over on the way to the university that morning.”(Potter, 1996, p. 135).
Would the interaction have taken place if the researcher had been killed that morning? If it wouldn’t, then it is considered researcher-generated (Wiggins, 2017).
The unwell social scientist test (Potter & Shaw, 2018).

Question 7

What counts as naturally occurring data

Answer 7

Social interactions in public places
Institutional interactions
Diaries (provided they are not researcher-generated)
Conversations in natural environments, such as workplaces or coffee shops
Playground interactions
TV interviews
Press and social media
Online discussion forums
Blogs

Question 8

Online data as a natural setting

Answer 8

Internet communities are rich sources of qualitative data (Eysenbach & Till, 2001).
How people use the internet
The role of the internet in social life
Seldom-heard communities (Kaufmann & Tzanetakis, 2020).
Extremist groups and ideas (Caiani & Wagemann, 2009)
Groups or behaviour that only exist online (Horne & Wiggins, 2009)

Question 9

Types of online data

Answer 9

Pictures
Hits on a site
Instagram posts.
Tweets
Likes
Online forums
Snapchat stories
YouTube videos
Hashtags
Online news
Online forums/newsgroups
Dating websites
Social networking sites
Chat/instant messaging
Online games/worlds
Blogs

Question 10

How to collect online data

Answer 10

Researchers from many disciplines, with varying methodological preferences, deploy a wide range of online research methods to various research problems (Lee, Fielding, & Blank, 2008).
Virtual ethnography
Copying data
Recruiting participants to collect private data
Screen capture software
Video-recordings
Data mining programs
Keystroke logging and eye-tracking software.

Question 11

An example Trajectories and types of social support during the pandemic (Ntontis et al., 2022)

Answer 11

Support was offered or requested through online mutual aid groups.
The study focused on the trajectories and types of social support that were mobilized in Covid-19 mutual aid groups in the UK.
Instead of asking people, the researchers looked at how people offered or requested practical, emotional, and informational support on Facebook groups.

Question 12

Challenges/practical issues to consider in naturalistic data

Answer 12

How much data is enough?

Gaining access: ethics, consent, trust
Safeguarding of participants; e.g., consent
Safeguarding of self; e.g., when to leave the field

Other specific challenges
Problems with online data
Recording naturalistic data

Question 13

Starting data collection

Answer 13

Decide on a type of data
How is it relevant to your research question?
Justifying the use of naturalistic data – don’t use it for the sake of it.
How are you going to find relevant data?
Employ relevant keywords (Bryman, 2012).
How are you going to collect that data?
Do you need specialist software?

Question 14

Gaining access: ethics, consent, and trust

Answer 14

You need ethical approval to collect naturalistic data (including online data).
Using video/audio recordings: You need to capture the actual words. A detailed audio of their talk (e.g., video recordings in the family home).
Time-consuming and challenging process.
Permission from participants to recruit and analyse their talk.
Ideally, participants should have the right to withdraw at any time. But how can we separate individual contributions in an interaction

Question 15

Ethics guidelines for internet-mediated research

Answer 15

Respect for the autonomy, privacy and dignity of individuals and communities
Public/private distinction
The extent to which potential data derived from online sources should be considered in the public or private domain. What is private and what isn’t?
Scientific integrity: How reduced levels of control may impact the scientific value of a study?
Maximising benefits and minimising harm: Are you protecting those you study? Are you protecting yourself?
Social responsibility: Practices might disrupt/harm social groups?

Question 16

Types of ethical consent

Answer 16

Types of ethical consent
Opt-in (actively sign-up for data to be collected and used).
Opt-out (data collected unless person actively dissents).
Administrator consent.
Parental consent.
“Individuals in chatrooms react with hostility when they are aware of being studied” (Hudson & Bruckman, 2004, p.138).
Opt-in: only 4/766 chose to opt in (but were kicked out of the chat room 62% of the time).
Opt-out: only 2/443 opted out (but kicked out 72% of the time).
Obtaining consent is impracticable!
Things to consider when making ethical decisions
Public vs. private (Eysenbach & Till, 2001).

Question 17

Is naturalistic data always better?

Answer 17

Natural/contrived distinction as a continuum
Data cannot be intrinsically unsatisfactory; it all depends on what you want to do with it.
No data can be “untouched by human hands”(e.g., recording equipment is positioned by a researcher; people know they are being recorded).
The difference between what is “natural” and “non-natural” should be investigated rather than used as a tacit research resource.

Question 18

From the researcher… to the role of research

Answer 18

Interview data is problematic when there is not sufficient reflexive orientation of how knowledge is produced in interviews.

Question 19

A participatory approach to research

Answer 19

A radical difference in how we think about research.
A focus on practical and socially relevant issues.
Research is about working together with their participants toward social justice.
Research “with” rather than “about.”
People’s right to research:

Question 20

What is Participatory Action Research

Answer 20

P-stand for rich and deep participation by a collective of researchers
A-links research with action through a range of form: scholarship, social policy, teaching, legal reform, organising, theatre, spoken words, digital shorts, music
R- represents a commitment to systematic inquiry-undertaken as democratic knowledge production, centred on the perspectives of those most silenced

Question 21

PAR in Psychology

Answer 21

A framework for engaging research with communities interested in documenting, challenging, and transforming conditions of social injustice.
PAR projects are designed to provoke change – whether in policy, attitudes, law, practice, performance, or consciousness.
It involves researchers and participants working together to understand a problematic situation and change it for the better.

Question 22

Data collection is part of an iterative process

Answer 22

Idea- produced within a particular context and a result of a shared vision
Plan- design collaboratively and participant
Act- carry out actions collaboratively
Evaluate- be collaborative participative and make creative use of methods
Reflect- jointly learn, plan and evaluate

Question 23

Situating PAR in the qualitative research tradition

Answer 23

Action research lends itself particularly well to qualitative research. MostPAR is not oriented towards producing results couched in statistical procedures.
In practice, PAR methodologies are often mixed-method, visual and creative, and typically closely aligned with a variety of qualitative traditions:
Grounded theory
Decolonial epistemologies
Intersectional theory
Liberation theory
PAR is particularly used in applied and community psychology but extends beyond psychology.
Social research is most valid using multiple/triangulated methods to help capture interconnected individual, social, institutional, and cultural layers.
Decision-making processes are shared (including decisions around data collection, what tools should we use, etc.).

Question 24

Communities as co-researchers

Answer 24

Their participation:
Places the locus of power and control within their groups.
Mobilises their resources.
Leads them to acquire new resources.

In order to:
Transform their living conditions.
Transform their immediate environment.
Transform power relations.

Question 25

Photovoice as a method to document, reflect reality and act

Answer 25

The photovoice was developed in the 1990s by Caroline Wang and Mary Ann Burris (1994).
Photovoice often leads to (Budig et al., 2018):
Participants acquire new knowledge and develop a critical awareness of their community.
The social recognition participants receive transforms their self-perception!
Expansion of social networks - new links with different actors (research partners, local decision-makers, media, and the wider public