Qualitative

Question 1

according to black scholarship what is socially relevant research (4 marks)

Answer 1

-Black adolescent development
- Role of traditional healers
- Applicability of theoretical models to African context/populations (cultural appropriateness)
- intersectional nature of oppression/identities and it’s impact on issues like housing, health, education

Question 2

according to davison 2007 what is reflexivity in the research process

Answer 2

-Researchers’ biographic details often influence the methodological process
-Research is never separate from the researcher’s identity. Need to be aware that researcher subjectivity influences the collection of important insights
- “Researchers leak and seep their subjectivity continually and unavoidably; therefore, strengthens the research to work with the subjectivity and understand it rather than control it

Question 3

according to malonswki what is the role of an ethnographer

Answer 3

immerse themselves in the ‘native’s’ world to grasp the ‘native’s point of view’, relation to life, realise their vision of world

Question 4

according to parker 2005 what is power in the research enterprise

Answer 4

-Who dominates research institutions, and who is producing the knowledge?
-Higher educational institutions have historically been dominated by white men
- Universities are (traditionally) middle-class, white spaces There’s still an underrepresentation of working-class people in academia
- There are issues of class, race and gender

Question 5

According to Seidman 1991 what are good interview skills

Answer 5

• listen more talk less
• follow up on what the participant says
• ask questions when you don’t understand
• ask to hear more about the subject
• explore, don’t probe
• ask open ended questions
• follow up, don not interrrupt
• keep participants focused
• do not reinforced participant’s response
• tolerate silence

Question 6

explain 1st wave feminism

Answer 6

-feminist empiricism
-incuded liberal feminism and marxist feminism
-Women’s suffrage; property rights
-Position of similarities:
+ Similarities between and within gender
+Reject idea of gender differences
+ Add women to research, not a critique of science itself

Question 7

explain 2nd wave feminism

Answer 7

-feminists standpoint
-1960s-1970s
included radical feminsim
-Overthrowing the patriarchy; gender as a public and political issue\
- Focused on how women’s experiences are different from men.
-Essentialist and separatist
-Giving voice to women

Question 8

explain 3rd wave feminism

Answer 8

-1990s+
- Included black/poststructualist feminism
- Critical of research itself: scientific research isn’t neutral, it reflects hegemonic values
- Identities, realities are fluid and always changing
- Examine taken-for-granted realities

Question 9

Explain a semantic level in an a thematic analysis and say what paradigm is falls into

Answer 9

Semantic = relating to meaning in a language or logic.
Therefore semantic analysis does not look beyond what the participant says.
Describe and summarize what the participants say and discuss implications
Focus on individuals
Falls under interpretive paradigm

Question 10

Explain a thematic Deductive analysis (5 bullet points)

Answer 10

• Deductive = top down
• applies existing theoretical frameworks
• more explicitly analysis-driven
• uses ready made categories and looks for instances that fit those categories
• rather than a rich description, it provides a detailed analysis of some aspect of the data

Question 11

Explain a thematic inductive analysis

Answer 11

• Themes are found within the data, the process is “data driven” (but, the researcher can never fully free themselves from pre-conceived ideas)
• looks at data and works out what the ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES the naturally underlie the material are
• Is data driven as there is little or no reliance on pre-exiting codes/theories (codes the data w/out trying to fit it into a preexisting framework
• more popular in qualitative research

Question 12

Explain what determines whether you run an INDUCTIVE or DEDUCTIVE/THEORETICAL analysis

Answer 12

Partly determined by how and why you are coding the data. If you are coding for a specific research question (works with deductive), but if the research question can evolve through the coding process, this suits the inductive approach

Question 13

explain Collins’ 1990s matrix of domination

Answer 13

all identities based on social group membership interact with each other to create life situations that are qualitatively different depending on one’s location in the matrix.
* “intersecting identities create instances of both opportunity and oppression, where a person can, depending on his or her particular identity in a particular social context, experience advantage, disadvantage, or both at the same time” (Baca Zinn & Thornton Dill, 1996).
* Each matrix = various oppressions which are all interlinking

Question 14

explain disciplinary identities within the matrix of domination

Answer 14

Exists to manage oppression: Bureaucratic organisations; institutions whose task is to control and organize human behavior through routinization, rationalization and surveillance
* Racism, sexism & other oppressions hidden behind “efficiency, rationality, equal treatment”
* Collins’ example: University system
-change thru insider resistance

Question 15

explain interpersonal identities within matrix of domination

Answer 15

ur personal relationships & daily interactions. Influences everyday life * “How am I upholding the oppression of another?” ; “How am I upholding my own oppression?”
* Example: xenophobia, heterosexual women who discriminate against LGBT persons

Question 16

explain structural identities within matrix of domination

Answer 16

Identities uphelad by law, religion, political system, economy etc
- For example: apartheid government system and the right to vote
- These are slow to change, need wars, revolutions etc

Question 17

Explain the interviewers’ monopoly of interpretation

Answer 17

• Interview generally holds a “monopoly of interpretation” over the interviewee’s statements
• Seen as “big interpreter” who holds exclusive rights it interpret and report what the interviewee really means
• Interviewers attempt to reduce dominance by giving the interpretations back to participants (but participants may not have the competence to address or adequately engage theoretical interpretations

Question 18

Explain the notion of asymmetrical power distribution within the interview space

Answer 18

• Interviews are presented a open and dominance-free dialogue, but this is a “masking of power”
• Interviews are specific hierarchical and instrumental forms of conversation where interviewer sets the stage and scripts in accordance with his or her interests
• creating trust through a personal relationships serves as a means to obtain access to the interviewee’s world
• the interview takes place for the purpose of the interviewer alone, it is not a dialogue
• one part seeks understanding and the other part serves only as a means for interviewers knowledge interest
• the interviewer generally holds a monopoly of interpretation over the interviewee’s statements, which may be in conflict with the true interpretation of the statements
• qual research interviews are instrumental and unequal conversations - we need to acknowledge this power dynamic

Question 19

explain the notion of the strange and the familiar (within ethnographic research)

Answer 19

• Purpose of ethnographic research is often to “make the strange familiar” and “render the familiar strange” (Goodley, 20002, p. 4)
• Making that which is unknown, known
• And showing that phenomena often overlooked and regarded as trivial can be more nuanced and complex that imagined
  “By turning the gaze back to familiar cultures, the opportunity is open to think again about practices within those cultures and to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about social groups and/or contexts” (Runswick-Cole, 2011, p. 77)
  -“render the familiar strange”
• Show that these cultures may be more complex than imagined or different to our preconceived ideas.

Question 20

explain the phase of defining a research question in developing a PAR study

Answer 20

The kinds of questions we ask about an issue will determine the kinds of answers we find (the way in which a problem is defined will shape or constrain the results of an enquiry) By concentrating on the technical aspects of the research design, and de-emphasising the manner in which the research questions arise in the first place, traditional researchers disguise the political nature of the enquiry. As a consequence, many questions in the social sciences are constructed in such a way that they blame the victim
 E.g. Domestic Violence – “Personality Traits”
 Rape – “Risk factors”
 Teenaged pregnancy – “Risky behaviour”
These questions BLAME the victim PAR attempts to overcome these problems by involving participants (including less powerful groups) in the process of framing the research questions

The questions are therefore often framed from the participants’ position

The idea is that the most directly affected are also must likely to be able to provide solutions to their own problems

Question 21

Explain the process of transcribing

Answer 21

• a 60 min interview may take 6+ hours to transcribe
• transcribe into word processor
• transcribe everything (silences, pauses, fillers etc) - make analytical notes about interpretation
• re-listen and follow in the transcribe text to edit
• often return the transcriptions to interviewees to confirm accuracy and or transcription and interpretation

Question 22

Explain transcription in a thematic analysis specifically

Answer 22

• the richness and quality or the data depends largely on the quality of the transcribing process
• transcribe VERBATIM
• transcribe more than words (laughs, pauses etc)

Question 23

explain what hegemonic identities are within matrix of domination

Answer 23

Hegemoni identities are those that legitimize oppression
* Links the structural, disciplinary and interpersonal domains
* Identities created/upheld by the language we use, images, values & ideas
* Produced through school curricula and textbooks, religious teachings, mass media images, community cultures, and family histories
* Change through critique & self-re-education

Question 24

how can research maintain and reproduce class/gender and racial stereotypes?

Answer 24

-Research on stigmatized issues (HIV/Aids, Intimate Partner violence, street-based sex work): Usually conducted using samples drawn from disadvantaged and marginalised populations.
-Financial compensation may be incentive
- Wealthier populations are more difficult to access (private service providers).
-The invisibility of privileged groups and the over-representation of the poor and marginalised in research means that social problems such as HIV and violence is being represented as a problem of the poor and disadvantaged.

Question 25

how do feminist researchers achieve reflexivity?

Answer 25

Feminist social scientists insist upon recognizing the shared human attributes of the researcher and subject
- Therefore self-conscious of the role their identification or disidentification with the subjects might play in the research process
- Aware that their demographic and personal characteristics play some part in eliciting research data
- Sometimes choose to write using the first person

Question 26

how do stages of life influence the narrative interview

Answer 26

Later life = “narrative phase par excellence” (Freeman, 1997)
One has gained certain distance from the life one has lived and are able to draw connections over time

Question 27

how do we see our participants in PAR?

Answer 27

The participants don’t remain merely objects of study, but partners in the research process

quantiative =>subject
qualitative => participant
PAR => co-researcher

Question 28

How do you avoid leading questions in interviews?

Answer 28

Don’t make assumptions about your participants and their experiences, allow the stories to come from them

EG: don’t say “how has been black negatively affected your experience at UCT”, rather “what does being a black student at UCT mean?”

Question 29

How do you end an interview?

Answer 29

• ask participants if they’d like to add anything, make possible arrangements for a follow up
• store recording in safe place
• write PROCESS notes - notes on what happened in the interview that may not be apparent in recording (your own feelings/thoughts etc)
• transcribe the interview

Question 30

how does the PAR contribute to the ideal of power?

Answer 30

The ultimate goal of a collaborative relationship is structural transformation and the improvement of the lives of those involved.
The outcome of a successful PAR project is not merely a better understanding of a problem or a successful action to eliminate the problem, but rather…

• a raised awareness in people of their own abilities and resources to mobilize for action. This is known as empowerment

Question 31

how is data collected in the FDA tradition (Foucauldian Discourse Analysis)

Answer 31

Anything is text – analysis can be carried out on any symbolic system, wherever there’s meaning Fashion, poems, photography etc

Question 32

how is data collected within the Discursive psychology tradition?

Answer 32

Unsolicited, naturally occurring conversation
* Requires familiar setting – ethical and practical difficulties regarding recording unsolicited conversations of strangers often result in DP conducting semi-structured interviews
* But participants invariably change their behaviour when being interviewed

OR
Group conversations, e.g. friends. More naturally occurring, relaxed, spontaneous (but could lead to reappraisals of one another)

Question 33

how is intersectionality a critique of feminism

Answer 33

Emerged out of second-wave black feminist critique in early 1970s in the US
Most feminist scholarship focused on concerns and interests of white, middle-class women
Not naming whiteness and middle-class-ness – naturalizing and generalizing the concerns of white feminists to black women and feminists
* “Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking.”
analytical framework - views people through the interaction of their social identities (including gender, race, sexual orientation, class, religion, ability etc.) resulting in a unique lived social experience of oppression and privilege

Question 34

how is the research context created?

Answer 34

The research context is created when everything that is going on in the mind of the interviewer interacts with everything that is going on inside of the mind of the participant, at that specific place in time.

Question 35

How is transcripition done within DP tradition

Answer 35

Detailed and time-consuming process [+- 6 hrs for 30 min interview and 10 hrs for 1hr interview]
* Because DA focuses on what discourse does, it’s important to pay attention to the way things are said, not only what is being said
* Should contain at least some non-linguistic features [emotions, fillers, delay, hesitation, emphasis

Question 36

How is transcription and coding done within FDA tradition?

Answer 36

Transcription is less detailed than DP
* Similar to DP, coding is an iterative process – the researcher moves between coding and analysis (there’s flexibility in the coding process)
* Identify key themes/discursive constructions, marking any section in which one of the themes is discussed

Question 37

how is writing up done within FDA tradition?

Answer 37

Interlinked with analysis
* Often in DA report results and discussion together
Remember to contextualise findings link to literature and research questions

Question 38

How are research questions presented in FDA tradition?

Answer 38

• Questions that aim to explore the understandings we use to explain our world
• How these understandings give rights/ place expectations upon people
• and the social and historical context that allow these understandings to make sense to the speaker
• How discourses construct subject positions and re-produce power relations
• What are the subject positions available in contemporary friendship discourse?
• Subject positions = relatively coherent understanding of an aspect of the self. Associated with particular rights and responsibilities in terms of what we can do and say. (e.g. ‘student’ allows once access to the library, but not to the librarian’s desk).
• positions within networks of meaning that speakers can take up (as well as place others within)

Question 39

how would one describe the depth of engagement in feminist research?

Answer 39

-Feminist researchers invest considerable effort in obtaining the trust of informants as they’re interested in hidden or what are conventionally considered personal or private aspects of people’s lives
- Greater intimacy is therefore usually established between the researcher and participant(s

Question 40

how would u describe intersectionality in research

Answer 40

Intersectionality draws on the idea of the interconnectedness of multiple identities and experiences
shows how these identities and experiences relate to power and social-structural oppressions
Intersectionality is used as a feminist tool for social critique and activism All oppression is connected

Question 41

If interviews are social encounters what constitutes data?

Answer 41

• how participants present themselves
• the emotions they convey
• the relationships they establish in the research encounter (eg male interviewee talking over female interviewer
• importance of reflexivity

Question 42

If participants are not passive but actively practicing agency, what may they decide to do

Answer 42

they may decide to:
- not answer or to deflect a Q
- talk about something unrelated to the Q
- tell the interviewer what they believe they want to hear
- start to question interviewer
- withdraw from the interview

Question 43

In a thematic analysis what constitutes a theme?

Answer 43

• A theme captures something NB about the data in relation to the research Q
• it represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set
• no hard and fast rule about how prevalent something has to be within your data set before it counts as a theme - rather whether it captures something important in relation to the overall RQ

Question 44

in ethnographies -what are the difficulties in defining space and time

Answer 44

• Traditional - physical location, study inhabitants of that space.
• With Virtual ethrnographies - object of study influenced by connectivity or interaction
  Difficulties defining space:
• User situated within a physical context that can and will influence their online behaviour
• A researcher may find it beneficial to study their subject’s offline lives as well as their online (although the focus should be on their online behaviour)
• Can be seen as a “cyberspace”, as a place where the mind rather than the body navigates.

Difficulties defining time:
* Temporality of message boards (not exactly here-and-now communication)
* Researchers can access many chat after they’ve occured
* Ethnographer and participants don’t need to share the same time frame
* Ethnographer will not experience the threads in the same order and at the same time as any of the other users
* Users can be in more than one “location” at any given time

Question 45

in virtual ethnographies, what is the relationship between identity play and authenticity?

Answer 45

Lack of face-to-face contact allows the informants to adopt a false identity
* Identity easier to play with on the internet – internet does not create phenomena – merely another venue for it to occur
* Are people being authentic? Does it matter? Tend to focus on digitally projected identities and how these identities are negotiated
* Just because the virtual world is not the “real world” does not mean social behaviour changes entirely between the two.

Question 46

in narrative, interviews what is the role of an interviewer?

Answer 46

Interviewer: More passive, good listener, follows up with questions
* Empathetic and supportive; get to know research participant
* Make the participant feel that you value their stories

Question 47

in research whose voices are heard and which voices are silenced?

Answer 47

-Psychological research is historically male-centric and hetero-centric
-Earlier feminist scholarly work was written by white, privileged women about the issues of white privileged women (still largely the case)
-The experiences and struggles of women of colour fell between the cracks of both feminist and antiracist discourse (Crenshaw 1989)

Question 48

in terms of feminism research what is participatory action orientation?

Answer 48

-Aims to convey and transfer research skills to participants during the research’s execution
- Participants are given feedback about the implications of the data
- Participants are encouraged to join in dialogue around the findings

Question 49

in terms of marxist research, what is oppression?

Answer 49

Combination of prejudice and institutional power which creates a system that discriminates against target groups and benefits other dominant groups
Two sides of the same coin: the flip side of oppression is privilege (often invisible advantages that come with being part of a dominant societal group)

Question 50

in terms of marxist research what is privilege?

Answer 50

Operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels Gives advantages, favours, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups

Question 51

In terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology what is the difference between positivism, intepretisvim and constructionism?

Answer 51

ONTOLOGY:
- positivist: external reality = stable and law like
- interpretive: internal reality = a subjective experience
- Constructivist: reality = socially constructed, discourse and power

EPISTEMOLOGY:
- positivist: objective observer = detached
- interpretive: observer = subjective
- Constructivist: suspicious political observer = constructing reality

METHODOLOGY:
- positivist: experiements, quantitative, hypothesis testing
- interpretive: interpretation, interactional, qualitative
- Constructivist: deconstruction, textual analysis, discourse analysis

Question 52

in what forums are Feminist researchers interested in disseminating their findings?

Answer 52

popular as well as academic forums

Question 53

intersectionality is opposed to what model of oppression?

Answer 53

Opposed to an additive model of oppression that views people as the sum of their social identities

Question 54

name 4 data collection methods

Answer 54

1. interviews
2. focus groups
3. participant observation
4. documentary sources

Question 55

name 3 situations where qualitative research is useful

Answer 55

-Useful in situations where the variables are unknown, or it’s unknown which are important or how to measure them
- Need an open-ended, inductive exploration made possible by qualitative research
- Can be used to identify potentially important variables and generate hypotheses
* Understanding in context (empathy) is an important principle

Question 56

name 6 types of data collection approaches

Answer 56

narrative enquiry, grounded theory, phenomenology, case studies, ethnography

Question 57

name the 3 feminist waves

Answer 57

1st wave: Feminist Empiricism (late 1800s and early 1900s)
2nd Wave: Feminists standpoint (1960s and1970s)
3rd Wave: Feminist Relativism – Postmodern (1990s-)

Question 58

name the give the focus of the 4 types of feminism

Answer 58

1. Liberal: Equal rights and opportunities
2. Marxist / Socialist: Gender and the capitalist system
3. Radical: The patriarchy
4. Poststructuralist: deconstructs ideas of gender; language
   Black / African feminism: Experiences of black women

Question 59

photovoice theory is a subsection of what paradigms?

Answer 59

Critical consciousness
Feminist theory
Documentary photography

Question 60

What are axes of identity

Answer 60

The axes, include race, religion, sexual orientation, age, culture, disability status, education level etc

Question 61

What are common interview errors (6 marks)

Answer 61

• asking too many questions
• asking closed questions
• asking leading questions that pressurize the interviewee to answer in a specific way
• asking excessively probing Qs
• asking poorly times questions
• asking “why?” questions

Question 62

What are critical approaches to interviews?

Answer 62

Publicized interviews and confessions have become common place as society consumes drama and gossip. Qual interviews seek to negate this and control consumption and sensationalization

Question 63

what are ethical considerations when it comes to virtual ethnography

Answer 63

As in traditional ethnography, the researcher must strive to protect participants / informants from physical, psychological and legal harm Virtual ethnography, particularly focus:
* Problems of anonymity
o Use of pseudonyms – usernames traced/linked back to users
o Prevent direct quotations
o Researcher needs to do whatever they can to protect anonymity
* Informed consent and age
o Children should be excluded from the research without legal approval

Question 64

what are examples of macro and micro research contexts

Answer 64

macro: post aparatheid
micro: uct undergrad residence

Question 65

What are focus groups?

Answer 65

• General term for a research interview conducted within a group.
• typically a group of people who share a similar type of experience
• allows one to access experiences shared by a community of people
• useful to provide participants with a stimulus to respond to as a way of initiating discussion
• exploration of a variety of views, complex and contradictory ideas

Question 66

What are good things to remember when setting up an interview? (3 marks)

Answer 66

• ensure an adequate degree of privacy
• find a quiet location (for recording)
• obtain consent to record and be weary of affects of recording (peformance by interviewee etc)

Question 67

What are guidelines that make a good qualitative interview?

Answer 67

• be friendly
• treat participants with respect and gratitude
• treat participants as experts on the topic
• participants as co-inquirers
• listen intently, encourage them to elaborate

Question 68

what are narrative interviews?

Answer 68

Primary means for collecting narratives = interviews (usually unstructured)
o Broad, open-ended questions, that invite stories
* Participant = active agent, determines the pace and direction of interview. Allowed to identify the major themes.
* Participants have greater control in shaping agenda
* Different to the standard interview where researcher brings questions or broad themes to explore

Question 69

what are other considerations when it comes to virtual ethnographies and identity?

Answer 69

‘Lurkers’ - View an online community covertly, without active participation
* Depends on ethnographic focus – if the lurker only reads and never posts then they do not contribute to the community and can be ignored
* Avatars, user names etc can tell one a lot about persons demographic and personal aspects, e.g. interests, identity, profession
o How does this affect the anonymity of participants?

Question 70

what are other ethnographic methods?(3)

Answer 70

Interviews

Focus groups (Interview group of people at the same time)

Multimedia approaches

Question 71

what are paradigms?

Answer 71

= all-encompassing systems of interrelated practice and thinking that define for researchers the nature of their enquiry. Positivism, interpretivism, constructivism (each has different philosophical assumptions)

Question 72

What are social structural oppressions?

Answer 72

When a single group unjustly takes advantage of and excises power over another group using dominance/subordination

Question 73

what are some issues facing ethnographers?

Answer 73

Ethnics, gaining access, and gatekeepers

• Tendency to produce colonising discourse – ‘Other’ interpreted through values of researcher
• Informed consent, deception, privacy, confidentiality
• Identity of the researcher impacts access to research context o Insiders must be aware of a possible abuse of power within pre-existing relationships
  o Outsiders: building familiarity and trust may take longer – role of gatekeepers
• Note that gatekeepers are a first point of access but it’s important to negotiate access with all people participating in research
  o E.g. Research with children
• Got consent from parents / guardians, but ‘assent’ from children = on-going process – continuously check if happy to continue participation
• Ethnographic researchers don’t attempt to write themselves out of the analysis. They instead offer a reflexive account of their role within it

Question 74

what are some key PAR words?

Answer 74

Collaboration
 Social Change
 Empowerment – the core
 Action
 Participation
 Transformation

Question 75

what are some pitfalls to avoid in thematic analysis?

Answer 75

• Failure to actually analyse the data at all: No or very little effort to identify themes across the entire data set, or make sense of themes
• Using the interview schedule as the “themes” indicates no analytic work has been done
• Weak or unconvincing analysis, where themes do not work, where there is too much overlap between themes, or where the themes are not internally coherent and consistent; fail to provide adequate examples from the data
• Mismatch between the data and the analytic claims that are made (unfounded analysis)
• Leaving out crucial information: Failing to spell out TA’s theoretical assumptions or clarify how it was undertaken and for what purpose

Question 76

what are some questions researchers may ask in narrative analysis?

Answer 76

How did the way I phrased questions facilitate the telling of certain stories and inhibit others?
* How did my own intersecting identities (age, race, class, gender, sexuality, level of education, religion) influence how I perceived the topic of study, the participant’s responses, and how I perceived the participant themselves?
* How did my intersecting identities affect how the participants perceived me?
* How did my intersecting identities affect the kinds of narratives participants chose to tell me?

Question 77

What are some things to consider during interviews?

Answer 77

1. How much is enough?:
   - no hard and fast rule, it depends on the level of detail
   - also depends on constraints, feasibility and nature/purpose of research
   - if homogenous 6-8 cases
   - if heterogenous perhaps 10-20 case
2. Theoretical saturation
3. How are participants sampled

Question 78

what are standpoint methodologies?

Answer 78

-methodologies that seeks to challenge entrenched interests and practises within the research domain- overtly poltical
-Not methodologies, but positions which researchers embrace in conducting research
-Argue that no research study (even quantitative) can be completely value-free
-Research always carries vested power interests and serves to perpetuate dominant frameworks of thinking [a critique of positivism]
-Lack political commitment, commitment to a set of emancipatory values, and fail to do justice to real aspects of people’s lives [a critique towards interpretivism and social constructionism
-Critical social science research seeks to give voice to marginalized groups in society and broaden the scope of research
-Aimed towards challenging vested power interests. Therefore a moral and political endeavor. Entail making a moral a political choice.
-Falls outside the realm of mainstream social science and therefore entails risk.

Question 79

what are the 3 assumptions of Discourse analysis? (3 marks)

Answer 79

1. Social life is made up of talk and text (discourses are fundamental to the way we live our lives; everything we do relies to some extent on discourse) e.g. talk of gender
2. Talk does things – actively constructs our world via interactions. The words we use the construct our thoughts and ideas are embedded in social values.
3. There are multiple realities – multiple ways of understanding something. We draw on different versions of reality to make sense of it Discourse analysists interested in why we use one version and not another, and what the consequences of these choices are

Question 80

what are the 3 broad approaches to narrative analysis forms?

Answer 80

1a: Linguistic narrative analysis:
Breaks the narrative into clauses then categorises them into six interconnected components:
1. Abstract: provides a summary of the narrative
2. Orientation: sets the general scene (who, what, when, where)
3. Complicating action: the central details of the narrative – central component
4. Evaluation: so what? Why is the story important?
5. Results: the ‘punch line’
6. Coda / afterword: conclusion, reflection, wrap-up The researcher reduces the interview script to the “core narratives” (excludes any material considered extraneous to the story line) There can be more than one core narrative.
1b: Literary narrative analysis: Four main forms: 1. Comedy
2. Romance
3. Tragedy
4. Satire
Common elements = - suffering that gives tension to stories - crisis / turning point / epiphany - transformation

2: Grounded narrative analysis ( analysing the content of a story): Inductive approach derived from grounded theory:
Finding the themes within the narratives.
o Pick out themes similar to thematic analysis (but not breaking the narratives apart)
o Provides a descriptive account Five steps to follow:
1. Make a summary of each participant’s life story/interview. - What is the narrative about?
2. Identify the most contrasting narratives - How is the same topic constructed differently by participants? - E.g. story of happiness vs. misery – “the sweet life” vs. “the bitter life” (Ruth & Oberg, 1996)
3. Identify other distinctive narratives
4. Identify any other remaining types of narratives
5. Organize each participants life story according to these narratives/categories and consider in detail the content of each

Can be useful in providing a descriptive account of different life histories / stories

3: Social context (analysing interpersonal and social context ): All narratives are socially constructed
There are two main social contexts: the broader socio-political context and the interpersonal context Analysing the broader socio-political context
o “in analysing people’s accounts we can connect them with broader social narratives”
o How are people’s stories reflective of broader cultural stories on the topic?
o Which social discourses do people draw on in their narratives? Remember – Narrative Research part of Social Constructionism; social context and the influence of broader social forces on language are relevant
-Analysing the Interpersonal (interview) context
o This type of analysis pays attention to the interpersonal research context (interviewparticipant relationship)
o E.g. Narrative of strength (p.108) that was constructed in particular interpersonal context and one that he felt he wanted recorded
o This approach requires: Detailed transcription AND great reflexivity on the part of the researcher.

Question 81

what are the 3 central premises to SM

Answer 81

1.Seeks to uncover or critique hidden or disguised relationships / ideas / power dynamics
 conduct research at a deep level rather than surface level
2. Commitment to working in interests of oppressed, disempowered and disadvantaged groups of people.
3. Generally aimed at producing change (research is usually tied to some form of activism) – transform some aspect of society to benefit disempowered

Question 82

what are the 3 elements of intersectionality theory?

Answer 82

1.Axes of Identity
2. Social Structural Oppressions
3. Matrix of Domination

Question 83

what are the 3 elements of philosophical underpinnings?

Answer 83

-Ontology: concerned with the nature of reality and what can be known about it
- Epistemology: concerned with knowledge and how it can be produced, as well as the relationship between the researcher (knower) and what can be known
- Methodology: how researchers go about practically studying whatever they believe can be known

Question 84

what are the 3 phases of developing a PAR study?

Answer 84

1.Defining problems / research questions
2. Data collection and analysis
3. Utilisation of results

Question 85

what are the 3 types of empowerment?

Answer 85

Empowerment: “raising awareness in people of their own abilities and resources to mobilize for action”

1. Psychological Empowerment :Help people to start seeing themselves as worthy of making a difference and voicing opinions Help people to become aware of their own capacities and resources
2. Structural Empowerment: Empowerment is more than just a psychological process There needs to be structural changes within their communities Shifts in balances of power
3. Changes to ecology of knowledge Changes in who can produce knowledge Changes in whose knowledge counts People may learn new skills Individuals and groups whose opinions were previously not valued may now regularly be consulted E.g., traditional healers

Question 86

what are the 3 types of intersectionality

Answer 86

1. structural
2. political
3. representational

Question 87

What are the 3 types of interviews?

Answer 87

1. Structured
2. Unstructured
3. semi-structured

Question 88

what are the 3 types of standpoint methdologies?

Answer 88

1. Feminist research
2. Black scholarship
3. Marxist research

Question 89

What are the 4 components of a focus group?

Answer 89

1. Procedure - rules of play that give structure and set time limits, established through group discussion
2. Interaction - dynamics at work w/in the group that researchers must be aware of. Must be able to introduce topic in an interesting way and draw group to a conclusion
3. Content - what is spoken about or done, usually follows and semi-structured interview format
4. Recording

Question 90

what are the 4 identities within matrix of domination?

Answer 90

structural
disciplinary
interpersonal
hegemonic

Question 91

what are the 6 phrases of TA

Answer 91

1. Familiarizing yourself with and immerse yourself in the data
2. Generate initial codes
3. Search for themes
4. Review the themes
5. Define and name themes
6. Produce the report

Question 92

what are the 6 stages of DA within FDA tradition

Answer 92

1. Discursive constructions Identify discursive object relevant to your research question, e.g. love, a relationship, illness Highlight all (implicit and explicit) references Identify the different ways that the discursive objects are constructed in the text
2. Discourses Focus on differences between constructions of the discursive object e.g. a relationship is constructed as a social arrangement between two people, an investment Locate within wider discourses - E.g. wife’s construction of discursive object (husband’s illness) can be framed within biomedical (disease), psychological (somatic manifestation of psychological traits) and romantic (fight between good and evil, loving couple and separation through death) discourse
3. Action orientation What do the various constructions of the discursive object achieve within the text? How do the arguments used sound plausible? What does the speaker gain from drawing on that particular discourse? What does the discourse “DO” for the speaker? What possible ways of being are opened up or shut down by this talk? 4. Positionings Identify subject positions: positions within networks of meaning that speakers can take up (as well as place others within) NOT roles – subject positions offer discursive locations from which to speak and act rather than prescribing a particular part to be acted out Allow certain rights, responsibilities, power
4. Practice By constructing particular versions of the world, and by positioning subjects within them in particular ways, discourses determine what can be said and done Discourses and subject positions open up or close down opportunities for action e.g. the partners need to act responsibly and with consideration for the other How do certain discourses legitimate certain practices or actions? The behavioural implications of the discourses
5. Subjectivity Concerned with what can be felt, thought and experienced from within various subject positions e.g. the partner may feel guilt or shame for leaving Discourses determine how people feel about what they are doing

Question 93

what are the 6 steps in the research process

Answer 93

1. Research question
2. Research design and data collection
3. Transcription
4. Coding
5. Analysis and interpretation
6. Presenting findings

Question 94

what are the advanatages of TA?

Answer 94

Flexibility: “not wed to any pre-existing theoretical framework”
* Relatively easy and quick method to learn, and do.
* Accessible to researchers with little or no experience of qualitative research.
* Results are generally accessible to educated general public.
* Useful method for working within participatory research paradigm, with participants as collaborators.
* Can usefully summarise key features of a large body of data, and/or offer a “thick description” of the data set.
Can highlight similarities and differences across the data set.
* Can generate unanticipated insights.
* Allows for social as well as psychological interpretations of data.
* Can be useful for producing qualitative analyses suited to informing policy development

Question 95

what are the advantages and disadvantages of nethnographies?

Answer 95

+ Offers participants a certain degree privacy and convenience (participant doesn’t have to leave their home to take part)

• Not everyone has access to computer
• If computers are shared – issues of privacy  Internet Research Ethics (IRE) is a growing area in social sciences

Question 96

What are the differences between DP and FDA in terms of epistemological questions

Answer 96

• What kind of knowledge does it aim to produce?:
  DP: an understanding of the processes which particular constructions are brought into being
  FDA: the ways in which particular versions of phenomena are constructed through language
• What kinds of assumptions does it make about the world?
  DP: a shifting and negotiable place that can only be understood or “read” through language (no one right or valid reading/understanding)
  FDA: Numerous versions of the world constructed through discourses and practices (no version of the world remains dominant forever - counter-discourses)
• How does it conceptualize the role of the researcher in the research process?
  DP: as Author, an active role in the construction of research findings. Researcher’s readings = one possible readings
  FDA: like DP, researcher = author. Reports are discursive constructions that cannot be evaluated outside of a discursive framework.

Question 97

Summarize the differences in perspective of DP and FDA

Answer 97

DP: which words are being used, what features of talk are present? How does each speaker respond to each other’s talk?

FDA: What “world”/version of reality is being constructed in this account? How doe people understand themselves in this world and from these understandings, what can they do or say?

Question 98

what are the differences between interpretisvism and constructionism?

Answer 98

Interpretive research focuses on subjective understandings and experiences, whereas social constructionists want to show how such understandings and experiences are derived from (and feed into) larger discourses.

Interpretive approaches treat people as though they’re the source of thoughts, feelings and experiences whereas social constructionists approaches treat people as if their thoughts, feelings and experiences are the product of systems of meanings that exist at a social rather than individual level

Question 99

what are the different qual frameworks and approaches? (6 of them)

Answer 99

Feminist Research – a theoretical & political analysis that focuses on gender & power
Participatory Action Research – research that produces knowledge with the express purpose of improving people’s conditions =Photovoice methods – participatory approach that involves photographic methods and critical consciousness raising.
-Narrative approaches – study of narratives or stories; narratives placed in their larger contexts
-Discourse analysis – study of ways language constructs particular versions of reality
-Ethnography – study of cultures or groups; critical approach considers role of power and group representation
-Postcolonial methodologies – relations of domination and subjection; politics of representation

Question 100

what are the distinguishing features of narrative research?

Answer 100

• Provides coherent causal account of event - most distinctive feature
• Brings order and meaning to details of events
• Provides a certain shape, structure and plot to sequence of events
• Plot is NB – gives the narrative account its structure and meaning; connects beginning to end
• Exists in the social world; structure is not fixed, but fluid

Question 101

what are the elements of photo-voice projects

Answer 101

• Initial discussions and planning => Focus groups
  -The challenges and assets in your community?
• Training => Photography & storytelling; fieldtrips
• Field work (production of photo-stories) => Critical discussion groups Public exhibitions and publications

Question 102

what are the features of an ethnography

Answer 102

Explore social phenomena, first-hand observation, natural setting
* Researchers respond to the field, rather than entering with preconceived hypotheses
* Researchers seek to find “unexpected stories”
* Detailed exploration of small number of cases, even just one (e.g. one pre-school or one class of learners with disabilities)
* Explores meaning making and aims for ‘thick’ descriptions

Question 103

what are the goals of photovoice?

Answer 103

Enable people to record and reflect on their communities’ strengths and weaknesses
Promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important community issues through small and large discussions of photographs
To reach policy makers

Question 104

what are the key principles of interpretive research?

Answer 104

The meaning of human words, actions, experiences and creations can only be properly understood in relation to the context in which they occur. Often requires empathy to understand texts (words, photos etc) in their context).
- The researcher is the primary ‘instrument’ for collecting and analysing data (as opposed to questionnaires etc in quantitative research). Requires that one becomes an interpretive researcher: to be learn to listen, look, question and interpret. Self-reflection and reflexivity is important: must describe and interpret their own presence in the research project.
- Focus on harnessing and extending the power of ordinary language and expression to help us understand the world we live in (Terre Blanch et al., p.274)

“Commitment to understanding human phenomena in context, as they are lived, using contextderived terms and categories” – at the heart of interpretive research (p.276)

Emphasises studying phenomena in a naturalistic way (p.308)

Question 105

What are the paradigm differences in interviewing?

Answer 105

Positivist:
- ask many participants specific questions in a way that produces quantifiable research
- interviewer is considered to be objective

Interpretive
- interview is a means to an end - try to find out how people feel about particular things
- aim it to create an environment of trust and openness

Constructivist
- meaning is co-constructed between the interviewer and interviewee and the larger social system

Question 106

what are the potential disadvantages of PAR? (2 points)

Answer 106

• Denial of individuality and sacrifice of personal uniqueness for communal good
• Solutions may not generalize beyond the immediate context

Question 107

what are the principles of black scholarship (4 points)

Answer 107

1: Disillusionment: contestation of colonization of black experience by white researchers
2: Reactive Engagement: criticizing white research assumptions and challenging Eurocentrism
3: Constructive Self Definition: advocating for an African world view in research, preserving cultural norms and traditions, and creating an African presence in research
4: Development of Emancipatory Discourse: Promotion and respect of African values and practices

Question 108

what are the problems with the additive approach in intersectionality

Answer 108

Essentialises social identities
* There are ‘correct’ ways of belonging to a group, e.g. Black means X
* Ignores complex and different ways of belonging People’s experiences are not separate in real life Issues with ‘ranking’ oppressions

Question 109

what are the similarities between interpretivism and constructionism

Answer 109

Concerned with meaning
- Interested in how people make sense of the world
-Interested in personal experience and want to know what it’s like to “x” –Look at how meaning is attributed to events or experience
- Aims to describe and possibly explain, but never predict (not interested in cause and effect - positivism)
-Often study people within naturally occurring settings
-Not interested in always making generalisation to the broader population, but do try to make generalisable claims (results contribute to a general theory of a phenomenon)

Question 110

what are the steps in social constructivism data analysis

Answer 110

Identify discourses that operate in the text
- Focus on how particular effects are achieved in the text
- Explain the broader context in which the text operates

Question 111

what are the steps of discourse analysis within DP tradition (4 steps)

Answer 111

1. READING - Read the transcripts without analysing to become aware of what a text is doing
2. CODING - Relevant sections are selected. Include ALL potentially relevant material related to the research question
3. ANALYSIS Why am I reading this passage in this way? What features [of the text] produce this reading?’
4. WRITING Introduction:

Question 112

What are the two levels in which themes can be identified

Answer 112

Semantic and latent levels

Question 113

What are the two primary ways themes in an thematic analysis can be identified?

Answer 113

Inductive analysis [bottom up]

Deductive analysis [top down]

Question 114

what are the two types of narrative analysis that we get?

Answer 114

• Discourse analysis
• Narrative analysis

Question 115

what are the two types of narrative interviews?

Answer 115

1: Life History ( unstructured interview) – the standard
* Aim detailed account of a particular broad area of experience
* Often used in biographical or life history research
* Emphasis is on how participant connects events together * Chronological sequence
* Can be extended to different developmental sequences such as “becoming a psychology”
* E.g. “ tell me the story of your life, beginning as far back as you wish and recounting as much detail in your life up until the present” * Interject: “What happened next?” “Can you recall anything else?”

2. Episodic ( semi-structured interview)
   * More focused on a specific issue
   * Introduce a structured series of topics * Aim: not to become a question and answer session
   * Invite participants to give extended accounts about their experience with each topic
   * E.g. “Tell me about your experience of having pain” While life history interview may ask “tell me about your experience of becoming a psychologist”, the episodic interview will ask “tell me about a positive experience you have had with a client”

Question 116

what do research questions look like within DP tradition?

Answer 116

-Concerned with how people manage psychological matters (identities, accountabilities, mental states) in everyday life
o E.g. How do participants construct their identities when discussing friendship, and how do these identities change at different points of the interview?
* Focus is usually on ‘how’ questions (not ‘why’ because DA isn’t interested in causality, but with the implications of talk)

Question 117

What do you do if your participants asks u questions?

Answer 117

• be open, self-disclosure initiates true dialogue, puts participants at ease

Question 118

what does participant observation look like in an ethnographic method?

Answer 118

Extended periods of time in a setting, not once-off encounters, observing and recording group members interactions
* Researchers assumes on an active role, e.g. teaching assistant
* Need to be critical of participant vs. non-participant binary because although non-participant not actively involved, the researcher’s mere presence has an impact, “simply by being present, the observer becomes part of the social world they are studying”
* A spectrum exists between non-participant observation and participant observation
* Researchers may find themselves on different places on continuum at different times and in different contexts
* Place on continuum influenced by factors:
- Extent to which researcher is known to those being studied.
- What is known about research, by whom
- Activities the researcher adopts in field
- Extent to which the researcher able to adopt an insider/outsider role

Question 119

what forms narrative analysis

Answer 119

Narrative analysis = breaking the narrative down into parts
* Narrative analysis seeks consider the account as a whole
Concerned with the narrative structure, not just with particular themes (interpretive)
* Three broad approaches; each with a different focus; each contributes to a particular insight
* Researcher needs to engage with the narrative account to decide which approach will provide the best insight (i.e. the form of narrative analysis is chosen after the data / narrative has been recorded)

Question 120

what has blackness/black peoples view historically been constucted as?

Answer 120

inferior’, ‘primitive’, ‘uncivilized’, ‘pre-literate’
* Bantu Education system
* Exclusion from universities, science, psychology – intelligence tests used to ‘prove’ inferiority.
* Racial discrimination rested upon ideological premises of difference and superiority

Question 121

what is the role of language between language and philosophical paradigms?

Answer 121

• a social constructionist approach is concerned with exploring how the self is constructed
• The self is constructed through language and talk
• Discourses aren’t restricted to text and language only. Also photos, graffiti, music etc
• Positivist and interpretive approaches treat language as neutral and transparent
  Constructionism:
  -language is neither neutral nor transparent. It constrains what we’re able to experience and perceive, thus helping to construct reality
• Language is value-laden
• Language must therefore be the object of study
  Social constructionism is concerned with broader patterns of social meaning encoded in language
  Social constructionism is interested in what language “does” for the self

Question 122

What is a latent level in a thematic analysis?

Answer 122

Latent = existing but not yet developed or manifest, hidden or concealed
- goes beyond the description of the data
- ID or examine underlying and broader social forces, assumption, ideologies that shape content
- focus on social forces
- soc constr paradigm
- overlaps with some forms of discourse analysis

Question 123

What is a thematic analysis?

Answer 123

• TA involves searching across the data sets to find repeated patterns of meaning
• TA is a method for IDing, analysing, and reporting patterns/themes within data. It often goes further than this and interprets various aspects of the research topic

Question 124

what is an example of one form of PAR

Answer 124

photovoice methodology

Question 125

what is black African feminism>

Answer 125

Emerged as a dissatisfaction with the civil rights movement (dominated by men) and feminist movements (represented by white women) in USA - Primarily calls attention to the experiences of black women in a racist capitalist patriarchy
- Experiences of black women could not be sufficiently understood or theorized by white feminism
- Anti-imperialist agenda. Concerned with theorizing experiences of women on African content and in global South
- Experiences of women in postcolonial context
-Pave the way for deconstructing the category ‘woman’ within feminist discourse and for recognition of multiple and intersecting sites of power contributing to women’s continuing marginalisation

Question 126

what is black scholarship?

Answer 126

Refers to a range of agendas including anti-racism, black consciousness, Africanism etc

Question 127

what is critical/constructionist research?

Answer 127

-Seeks to uncover and critique the power relationships embedded in language
- Generally aimed at producing change (i.e. research activism)
Commitment to working in the interests of oppressed groups of people

 Feminist Research  Black Scholarship  Marxist approaches  Postcolonial methods  Participatory Action Research  Constructionist Methods (Narrative & Discourse)

Question 128

what is deduction?

Answer 128

Deduction = Theory -> hypothesis -> observation -> confirmation of hypothesis. ‘Top-down reasoning’

Question 129

what is dicourse analysis

Answer 129

we get two types of discource analysis
1) DP-discursive psychology
2)FDA- foucauldian discourse analysis
Discourse analysis
 looks at language in a different way asks different questions about it * Sees language as constructive and functional
* For discourse analysists, words do more than reflect facts. Talk / text is understood as accomplishing some kind of social act.
* Rather than ‘what do participants’ responses tell us about their attitudes, beliefs or thoughts?’, ask ‘what is this discourse doing?’ * Discourse analysis involves a particular way of reading – reading for action orientation (what is this text doing?) rather than simply reading for meaning (what is this text saying?).
* Although discursive psychology (DP) and Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) share features (i.e. both are interested in understanding the ways in which accounts are constructed) and are often considered complementary, they’re increasingly differentiated * Both offer critique of cognitivism and are concerned with language in construction of social identity
* But, they: * Answer different research questions
* DP concerned with how people use discourses to achieve interpersonal objectives in social interactions (the immediate context). *
FDA focuses on what kind of objects and subjects are constructed through discourses and what kinds of ways-of-being they make available to people.

Question 130

what is discourse?

Answer 130

Discourse refers to any form of talk or text (and any forms of meaningful interaction between people, such as bodily movements or visual signs) (Remember the rainbow, or the colour pink, both LGBTI+ discourse)
* We use the word “discourse” instead of “language” or “communication” because:
o Language: Linguistic
o Communication: a medium for transferring thoughts
o Discourse: Interested in the FUNCTION of language. What does it achieve?
* Discourses are systems of meaning which construct “particular versions of the world by providing a framework by which we can understand objects and practices, as well as understand who we are and what we should do in relation to those systems” (Terre Blanche, Kelly & Durrheim, 2006, p.282)
- E.g. the eco-friendly “green” discourse. What the discourse does: ‘saves’ the environment, makes profit, sets a trend.

Question 131

what is Discursive psychology?

Answer 131

-Concerned with psychological phenomena like memory and identity * —Concerned with how people use discourses to achieve interpersonal objectives in social interactions (the immediate context).
* For DP, memory and identity something people do, rather than something they have / are
* Interested in the processes involved in social interaction

Question 132

what is ethnography?

Answer 132

Ethno = people; graphy = writing Writing about people; describing their way of life
* Origins in anthropology and sociology
* Studies the culture (values, beliefs, behaviour, language) of distinct groups within society
* Groups usually together over an extended period of time and have similar attitudes, beliefs, behaviours or language
* Researcher immersed in culture, observes everyday life for period of time (practical issues complete immersion – intermittent)
* Mostly rely on participant observation, which is sometimes seen as synonymous with ethnography, but other methods are used

Question 133

what is feminism?

Answer 133

Feminism is both theory and practice (Kiguwa, 2004):
o Study of gender relations + women’s discrimination and oppression
o Form of collective action with the aim of unseating oppressive (gendered) power relations
o Put women’s issues on the agenda

Question 134

what is feminist research?

Answer 134

Feminist research is defined by:
- Its focus on women’s (or gender) concerns
- Its action orientation
- Its recognition of the subjective role of the researcher
- Its critique of the artificial distinction between the personal and the political
Concerned with the content and the process of research

Question 135

what is Foucauldian Discourse analysis and how do u apply it?

Answer 135

Influenced by post-structuralist ideas and work of Michel Foucault
* FDA concerned with the role language in the structure of social and psychological life. Unlike DP, concerned language beyond the immediate context
o focuses on what kind of objects and subjects are constructed through discourses and what kinds of ways-of-being they make available to people.
* In the Foucauldian point of view, discourses: o facilitate and limit, enable and constrain what can be said
o by whom, where and when
* Make available certain ways-of-seeing the world and certain ways-of-being in the world.
o Discourses offer subject positions with implications for subjectivity and experience.
* Discourses are associated with rights and responsibilities in terms of what we can do or say (e.g. A patient must passively receive care)
* Discourses are strongly linked to power - dominant discourses, privilege those versions of social reality that legitimate existing power relations and social structures.
o Often become “common sense” understandings E.g. mother primary caregiver, father bread winner Girls like pink, boys like blue
* Counter-discourses do eventually emerge, i.e. alternative constructions are always possible
* FDA pays attention relationship between discourses and institutions o discourses are bound up with institutional practices o discourses legitimate and reinforce existing social/institutional structures, these structures support and validate the discourses
o E.g. being positioned as ‘the patient’ within a biomedical discourse - body becomes an object of legitimate interest to doctors and nurses, that it may be exposed, touched in the process of treatment that forms part of the practice of medicine and its institution
* FDA asks questions about the relationship between discourse and… o how people think or feel (subjectivity), o what they may do (practices) o material conditions within which such experiences may take place

Question 136

what is induction?

Question 137

what is interpretive research?

Answer 137

Wrong answer here?

Ontology: reality is a subjective experience. Context is important as it shapes meaning.
Epistemology: reality (i.e. their experiences) can be made sense of by listening carefully and interacting
Methodology: information is collected and analysed using qualitative research techniques

Question 138

what is intersectional research?

Answer 138

“the analysis and interpretation of research findings within the socio-historical context of structural inequality for groups positioned in social hierarchies of unequal power”. (Bowleg, 2008)
E.g. Black women may be more susceptible to depression and PSTD – police fail to intervene, loss of income etc.
Looks at the system and how it contributes towards their depression and PTSD.

Question 139

what is kessi 2011 defintion of photovoice methodology?

Answer 139

Visual research methodology
People are given cameras so that they could document their realities, engage in critical reflection, and advocate for change
Catalyst for social change within communities and critical dialogue with policy makers

Question 140

what is liberal feminism?

Answer 140

Women’s oppression = a lack of equal opportunities and legal constraints
- Areas of concern: equal pay and equal rights
- Accomplishments: offering women equal participation in society (e.g. gender equity laws; the right to equal pay)
-Critique: this approach has a limited capacity to enact radical social change by challenging the system (and intersecting forms of power) that support and maintain women’s oppression

Question 141

what is marxist research perspectives?

Answer 141

As with other critical research perspectives, Marxism is a reaction to oppressive practices, in this case class oppression.
Not usually associated with methodology, but rather with abstract and theoretical analysis (in the field of politics and economics).
Often quite broad levels of analysis.

Question 142

what is marxist/socialist feminism?

Answer 142

Women’s oppression is rooted in the capitalist system (i.e. economic dependence on men = the key source of women’s continued oppressions)
Concerned with challenging the public / private dichotomy
Showing how the rendered division of labour contributes to women’s lack of participation in the public sphere and thus continued economic dependence on men

Question 143

what is narrative?

Answer 143

Often used synonymously with stories:
o Connecting events over time through stories
o Ways of making sense of the world
o Beginning, middle and end (linearity)
“Narratives serve as mediations between individual actions and material and social-structural conditions” – Murray, pg. 99

Question 144

what is narrative psychology?

Answer 144

accepts that we live in a storied world and that we interpret the actions of others and ourselves through stories
* is concerned with the structure, content and function of the stories that we exchange in social interactions
* through narrative we shape the world and ourselves AND they shape us
* Provides a dynamic approach to understanding human identity and the process of making sense of our worlds
* Narratives are useful for understanding identity processes because they seek to establish coherence between human intention and action and the consequences thereof
Examples of narratives: - talk shows, diary of Ann Frank, Facebook, blogs

Question 145

what is NOT intersectional research?

Answer 145

-Simply including women and people of colour in research
-Studying demographic difference, comparing different social groups -Choosing an identity to focus on
E.g. Black women who experience abuse – more likely to experience depression & PTSD
- Leads to potentially stigmatizing groups.

Question 146

what is PAR-participant action research?

Answer 146

Aims to produce knowledge in an active partnership with those affected by that knowledge, to improve their social, educational, and mental conditions (participants are involved)
* Insists on communal participation in the process of knowledge creation and in this way knowledge never becomes the property of individuals or small interest groups
* Emphasises the action consequences of the research rather than reflective truths
-Emphasises the empowerment of the least powerful groups and individuals
* Attempts to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the larger goals of social science
* PAR researchers try to know with others instead of about them, reconceptualising knowledge as something that exists among people

Question 147

what is political intersectionality?

Answer 147

-Women of colour are situated within at least two subordinated groups with conflicting political agendas.
-Have to split energies between two groups: a dimension of intersectional dis-empowerment that men of color and white women seldom confront
-Anti-racism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms because “women of color experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by men of color and sexism in ways not always parallel to experiences of white women”

Question 148

what is post-stuctualist feminism?

Answer 148

Offers a way to deconstruct essentialist ideas about the fixedness of the category ‘woman’ – through illustrations of the diversity and multiplicity of gendered subjectivities
- Feminist post-structuralists call attention to how language, which is imbued with power, has an important role in constructing gender differences (othering)
- Challenges the idea of a fixed identity: identities are shifting, multiple, fluid, contextual
- The real nature of male and female cannot be determined
- We are subjected to dominant discourse but are also active subjects who can resist them.
We have agency: we can reinscribe and resist dominant constructions of the self
- The body is a site for inscription of masculinity and femininity, not a passive vehicle.
- Women and man are not unitary categories, there are multiple intersecting identities

Question 149

What is qualitative interviewing?

Answer 149

• assumes humans are active agents who make meaning from actions
• participants, not subjects
• interviews are not just instruments for extracting information, that are:
  1. social encounters (need to build trust)
  2. events where social relations are formed
  3. social encounters where we need to be careful about how we establish relations with people to encourage them to reflect and share experiences, open up and elaborate their views etc

Question 150

what is radical feminism?

Answer 150

Rooted in the gay rights movement
- Women’s oppression stems for the system of patriarchy
- Call attention to key institutions such as marriage and family as examples of how patriarchy and women’s subordination are maintained
- Advocate for women to mobilize to end patriarchy through their shared identity as ‘women’
- Strategy is argued to contribute to essentialising discourses about women as a unitary category

Question 151

what is reflexivity?

Answer 151

-Practicing reflexivity means acknowledging and reflecting on how the researcher’s own presence may affect their research at every stage of the research process.
- It is understanding that the researcher brings to the research process their own social identity, fears, anxieties, preconceived ideas and expectations… and these matter.
-Reflexivity is about acknowledging the dynamics at play within the research - often not spoken about or explicitly stated in the research reports.
- “all research involves secrets and silences of various kinds, and these secrets and silences matter”
- As researchers, “we are [undeniably] part of the social world we study”

Question 152

what is representational intersectionality?

Answer 152

The cultural construction of identities in popular culture can become yet another source of intersectional disempowerment
E.g. Images, films, magazines, live shows, music lyrics perpetuates these stereotypes
Race or gender is socially constructed does not mean it is not ‘real’ or has no significance in our world

Question 153

what is social constructionist research?

Answer 153

Interpretive research focuses on subjective understandings and experiences, whereas social constructionists want to show how such understandings and experiences are derived from (and feed into) larger discourses.

Ontology: reality is fluid and contains various social constructions. Knowledge is not fixed. It is influenced by power and systems.

Epistemology: understandings and experiences are derived from larger discourses

Methodology: information is collected, analysed and deconstructed using qualitative research techniques Interested in what language and social categories “do” – what their implications and consequences are. Language helps to construct reality

Question 154

what is structural intersectionality?

Answer 154

• The ways in which one’s location at the intersection of different identities and oppressions makes one’s experiences qualitatively different
• Identity effects access to resources
  -Availability doesn’t equal accessibility
• Language barriers limits opportunities
  -e.g. Waiver for immigrant women being available to all women but the terms of the waiver make it accessible to only some women.

Question 155

what is the aim of black scholarship according to seedat 1997?

Answer 155

To create a liberatory / free social science

Question 156

What is the difference between cognitivism and discourse analysis?

Answer 156

Cognitivism:
- sees language as route to cognition (words are true representations of mental states), ignores the social context
- cognitions are based on perceptions, an objective perception of reality is possible
- cognitive structures are relatively enduring (i.e we process info in predictable ways)

Discourse Analysis:
- speech is a social action that aims to accomplish something within a particular context
- meanings are negotiated and created, our perception of reality is subjective (socially constructed)
- social objects are constructed through language

Question 157

What is the difference between DP and FDA?

Answer 157

DP: particularly focused on the immediate interpersonal work that talk does and with how psychological notions (e.g. identities, emotions) are produced and managed in interactions
* FDA: talk is understood as bringing into being the nature of what we are talking about; talk creates a reality from which to understand ourselves and the world. Interested in identifying the social understandings that our talk draws upon ( common sense).

Question 158

what is the difference between traditional research and PAR?

Answer 158

Traditional Research:
* Researcher develops data collection tools
* Collects and analyses data
* Decides what and how to interpret what they say

PAR:
* Joint collaboration / open relationships engaging participants directly in data collection and analysis
* Give participants the skills for conducting research

Question 159

what is the empancipatory potential of ethnography?

Answer 159

Focus on groups previously excluded from research / underrepresented in mainstream debates
* Open up potential for different perspectives to be heard
* Emancipatory approach encourages research with groups rather than on groups
* Examples: People with label of learning difficulties

Question 160

what is the importance of fieldnotes and reflexivity?

Answer 160

Researchers should keep detailed field notes and reflexive journals

Question 161

what is the importance of reflexivity in narrative interviewing?

Answer 161

• Researcher expectations that inhibit / encourage narratives
• Presence can shape the interview
• Consult an experienced supervisor – practice; debrief

Question 162

what is the interview-participant relationship?

Answer 162

…two people in an interview process will always have “multiple and specific identities that shape how the process takes place and, ultimately how the text gets developed” (Tierney 1994 in Davison, 2007, p. 382

“a continuous dialogue between the interpreter and the interpreted”

How experiences are recounted can often depend on the comfort of both the interviewer and the interviewee (Anderson and Jack 1991)

Both interviewee and interviewer make presumptions based on their perceptions about each other. These presumptions, perceptions, and misperceptions in turn become a part of the presented “results” of the research

Question 164

What is the main difference between interpretivism and social constuctionalism in terms of their ontology?

Answer 164

Interpretivism: (the individual)
- focus’s on people’s subjective experiences as individuals
-accepts what people say at face value
- does not focus on social forces or hidden messages
- relatively uncritical
- people’s words = their truth: direct reflection of their thoughts/experiences

Social constructionist: (social forces)
- peoples thoughts, feelings and experiences are products of systems of meaning that exist at a social level
- multiply, subjective and ever changing realities
- knowledge is socially constructed
-relatively critical and progressive
- focus on systemic and structural processes and their impact on the individual
- language is not neutral, it is value-laden, “does something”, is always political.

Question 164

what is the narrative research process?

Answer 164

1. Research question
2. Research design and data collection (involves narrative interviews)
3. Transcription
4. Analysis and interpretation (involves forms of narrative analysis)
5. Presenting finding

Question 165

What is the relationship between feminist research and interviewing?

Answer 165

• research should empower participants
• democratise research relationship (power between researcher and participants)
• research about women by women
• challenges the notions of the researcher being neutral and detached

Question 166

what is the relationship between narratives and identities?

Answer 166

Through narratives, we shape and maintain our personal identities
* We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves and others about our lives: we represent our lives in narrative form
* Your story provides unity and purpose to your life and identity
* Narrative analyst’s key interest lies in:
o which stories participants choose to convey o how they portray these stories, and
o the identities which they consequentially construct through these stories
* When an individual tells a story about their life, they perform a preferred version of their identity which they wish to display to the specific audience * May disclose certain parts of themselves on recordings and others when recording is off
o E.g. Chronic pain study – senior speaks to a young female interviewer – throughout the interview emphasised vitality, fortitude, courage in managing his pain.
o Tape recorder was switched off – tone differed rapidly – cried and spoke about how the pain had destroyed his life

Question 167

what is the relationship between PAR and other research approaches?

Answer 167

Exists in a tensional relationship with regards to positivism, which values objectivity, distance, and precision of measurement over active engagement
* Both interpretivism and PAR emphasize intersubjective (researcher-participant) engagement and the fostering of democratic research relationships
o but PAR goes further in locating this in a community rather than an individual context
o and in emphasizing the action consequences rather than the reflective ‘truths’ of the research?

Question 168

what is the relationship between photovoice and PAR?

Answer 168

Focus on inducing social change
Emphasis on agency of participants to frame their own narratives Participants can identify, represent and enhance their community Researcher is a facilitator in the process of change

Question 169

what is the relationship between subjects and informants (participants)?

Answer 169

-Subjects are informed of the goals of the research and ensure that participation is truly willing and voluntary
-Subjects often viewed as co-participants
-Most feminist research is done collaboratively with women’s organizations or potential beneficiaries of the research

Question 170

what is the research context made up of (two-elements)

Answer 170

macro and micro

Question 171

What is the role of language in interviews?

Answer 171

• use language that is appropriate
• your research Q is not the same as the Qs you ask your participants (access core research question through breaking it down and approaching it from different angles)
• tips: follow up questions, ask for egs, show interest, self-disclosure (sharing own exp may help part. feel more relaxed)

Question 172

what is the role of sex-related terminology in feminist research?

Answer 172

-Researchers are careful about the use of sexist language and avoid writing in this way
- May be cautious of using pronouns

Question 173

what is the role of signs and symbols in social constructionism?

Answer 173

-One word or object may have multiple systems of meaning
-Seeks to analyse how signs and images have power to create particular representations of people and objects that underlie our experience of these people and objects
-Eg. The rainbow: a natural wonder; a subject of science; a symbol of gay pride?

Question 174

what is the social nature of narratives?

Answer 174

Stories / narratives we tell about our lives are social constructions
* Not merely factual accounts of events as they happened
* Versions of the truth, fluid and ever changing
* We draw on existing cultural plot lines and discourses to create our own stories
* We share stories about our lives with each other
* Narratives are not neutral, they “do things”. They represent various power interests

Question 175

what is the steps in interpretivist data analysis

Answer 175

• Familiarisation and
  immersion
• Inducing themes
• Coding
• Elaboration
• Interpretation and checking

Question 176

what is the utilisation of results in developing a PAR study important

Answer 176

This is phase is NB, it is the ACTION phase
Participants have access to and control over the results
They participate in (and make decisions about) distribution of results. They have a choice in how to link results to implementation

Question 177

what is virtual ethnography?

Answer 177

Development of methodologies to study online interactions
* Studying experience and interactions of online communities, e.g. Virtual Message Boards and Forums
* Because of the nature of message boards, the line between ethnography and content analysis/archival research is blurred

Question 178

List three challenges to virtual ethnographies

Answer 178

1. Difficulties reconciling space and time
2. Problems with Identity creation, projection and authenticity
3. Ethical dilemmas

Question 179

What makes a good semi structured interview?

Answer 179

• set out broad topics and some questions
• space to explore issues further
• pace and direction will depend on individual interview
• don’t refer to your interview guide too much
• steer the conversation if it goes off topic

Question 180

what makes qual research rigourous?

Answer 180

triangulation, generalisability and transferability, reflexivity, communicative validity, theoretical saturation, pragmatic proof

Question 181

what was the critque of malinoswki and ethnography in general

Answer 181

When the researchers takes up ‘complete membership’ they lose their ‘distance’ from the research
* Ethnography was developed in the ‘Global North’ and used on marginalised / minority groups ‘Global South’
* Moral degeneration discourse: Troubling critique that going native may carry the risk of moral degeneration
* Objectify the ‘native’ and regard them as sources for info. retrieval.
* Exoticize or oppress ‘minority’ or ‘marginalised’ groups

Question 182

What’s are important things to remember during the interview process?

Answer 182

• start interview with non-threatening, open-ended qs
• know schedule well so interview can flow
• interviewee as co-enquirer not subject
• have a conversation not a q-a session
• be aware of questioning errors

Question 183

who are the two key theorists in intersectional theory?

Answer 183

Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberlé Crenshaw

Question 184

why are intragroup differences within intersectionality important?

Answer 184

ignoring difference within groups contributes to tension among groups

Question 185

why is reflexivity and research never neutral?

Answer 185

-The research topic is chosen; it is approved (or disapproved) by ethics committees for certain reasons (e.g. research on children and sexuality in schools often rejected because they’re not seen as sexual beings – discourses of childhood innocence)
- Research is political because it advances a particular agenda. It silences particular topics; it promotes certain interests. Research may be funded by drug companies, psychologists, governments, universities etc
-Certain groups / individuals may benefit from the research (e.g. a researcher, university, company, government, disadvantaged group) —-Some findings are published and publicised, others are not.
- Research promotes certain values (those of dominant or marginalised groups)
-Research is evaluated by certain people / groups

Question 186

2 key concepts of intretivism

Answer 186

1. understanding in context
2. researcher as the primary instrument

Question 187

2 dangers of positivism

Answer 187

1. Idealism
2. Relativism

Question 188

What is a bad question within African postcolonial methods

Answer 188

1. a question based on uncritical assumptions
2. one likely to be exploitative of respondents

Question 189

African research….

Answer 189

• disrupts othering through centering African knowledge and identity
• uses reflexivity to disrupt power in research
• thinks critically about the knowledge it is producing