Quant: Lecture 10

Question 1

Is there a distinct set of qualitative methods?

Answer 1

No

Question 2

List some methods that can be used for qualitative research

Answer 2

Observation, interviews, focus groups, articles, diaries, autoethnography.

Question 3

What is autoethnography?

Answer 3

It’s reflexive research that focuses on someone’s personal experience for analysis and interpretation.

Question 4

List a few ways of gathering qualitative data

Answer 4

Annotated observations, field notes, video recordings that can be transcribed with/without pictures and web texts.

Question 5

What are the two main types of texts?

Describe them

Answer 5

Language and multimodal.
Language texts only present the written text. Multimodal texts present gestures, verbal remarks and environmental interactions. Texts can either be naturally occurring or purposely produced for the research.

Question 6

List a similarity and differences between quantitative and qualitative data

Answer 6

Similarity: It can be naturally occurring or purposely produced.
Differences: Qualitative research doesn’t define behaviours in advance but leaves the data as open and unpredictable. Also, hypotheses get more specific throughout the research and participants are treated as case studies. It also allows us to uncover hidden complex social cultures that can’t be explored with quant research.

Question 7

How do you decide the optimum amount of participants in qualitative research?

Answer 7

It depends on the degree of variability and the extent to which the phenomenon needs to be explored.