Week 8

Question 1

what are the 4 types of human subject research?

Answer 1

INTERVIEWS, FOCUS GROUPS (group interviews), SURVEYS, EXPERIMENTS

Question 2

what are the 2 approaches to interviewing?

Answer 2

EXPERIENCE-centric (get info. about peoples EXPERIENCES, ATTITUDES, PERCEPTIONS, etc.) ex. talking to women candidates (marginalized group)
EVENT-centric (get info. about EVENTS from KNOWLEDGEABLE INFORMATIONS) ex. talking to people in positions of power within parties who know what goes into candidate decisions

Question 3

what are the advantages of interviews?

Answer 3

PRIMARY source evidence of historical events, IN-DEPTH information (vs surveys), ability to CLARIFY/ FOLLOW UP/ react to answers (vs surveys), ability to DISCOVER something UNEXPECTED
in survey you only learn peoples answers to pre-set questions, usually all answered in the same way

Question 4

what are the disadvantages of interviews?

Answer 4

LIMITED:
- ability to OBSERVE group dynamics (vs focus groups)
- NUMBER of PARTICIPANTS (vs surveys)
- ability to make STATISTICAL GENERALIZATIONS (vs surveys-can’t say 75% of people said…)
- ability to ESTIMATE CAUSAL EFFECTS
and
LYING and NON-COOPERATION

Question 5

what are the 4 steps to recruiting interview participants?

Answer 5

1. IDENTIFY interviewees (people who fit in the group you are interested in)
2. decide on a TARGET NUMBER
3. identify how you will CONTACT potential people
4. CONVINCE potential people to PARTICIPATE

Question 6

what are 4 recruitment methods for interviews?

Answer 6

1. post ADS
2. FIND LISTS (ex. politicians-public, collect all emails and email them all)
3. READ what is PUBLIC (ex. websites, news-about people you want to study, to build lists)
4. ASK INTERVIEWEES for suggestions (‘snowball sampling’

Question 6

what are the 3 factors (ways) interviews can differ (in the way you conduct them)?

Answer 6

1. degree of STRUCTURE: pre-planned questions in the same order+way for everyone vs an adaptable conversation with a loose outline
2. MODE: in person, over the phone, video (ex. zoom)-will affect how much info you get (ex. facial expressions, body language)
3. RECORDING: can be recorded, or AI-generated (can create boundaries and take much longer)

Question 7

what are some guiding questions when getting information out of interviews?

Answer 7

what are your subjects GOALS/ MOTIVES?
why did they AGREE TO PARTICIPATE?
what is the CONTEXT of the interview?
how does THEIR ACCOUNT COMPARE to other sources?

Question 8

what is positionality?

Answer 8

idea that WHO YOU ARE SHAPES HOW YOU CONDUCT RESEARCH as well as how OTHER PEOPLE RELATE to you