Statistics and Qualitative Design Flashcards
Big Q
Open-ended, participant led, bottom up research methodologies concerned with theory and the exploration of meanings.
Bottom up/inductive
Little Q
Incorporation of non-numerical data collection techniques into hypothetico-deductive research designs.
Top down/deductive.
Hypothetico-deductive
The basis of mainstream experimental psychology, deriving hypotheses and testing them. making predictions, testing them and then analysing whether the hypothesis holds true.
Epistemology
Branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. How and what can we know?
Types of knowledge- Realist
Realism- researcher as detective, aims to discover/uncover reality, the world if intelligible (able to be understood) and rule bound. Reflects as truthfully as possible something that is happening in the real world and the researcher/participant views or knowledge about it. Certain processes or structures underlie the behaviour or thinking of research. The world CAN be understood, provided the researcher is skilled enough to uncover patterns/structures/laws that characterise it. Discovery orientation- goal is to uncover truths about social phenomena.
Type of knowledge- phenomenology
Researcher as counseller. Aims to uncover/discover experience. The socio-psychological world is experientially diverse. Focuses on subjective experience of participants. Knowledge and truth exist within individual lived experience. Intentionality- human consciousness is always about something. Always directed. World can only be understood through consciousness.
Type of knowledge- social constructionism
Researcher as the architect. Aims to deconstruct world. World is socially constructed. Skeptical position in relation to knowledge. Interested in how people talk about the world and therefore how they construct versions of reality through language. All knowledge os constructed through social interactions. Meanings are collectively and collaboratively agreed with others. Ideas or concepts would not exist without people who validate them and the language they use to do so.
Interviews
Conversation with a purpose.
Advantages:
- Allows reconstruction of events
- More detailed data
- Rapport can be built
- Allows longitudinal research
- Specific focus
- Easier to transcribe
Disadvantages
- Less naturalistic
- Interaction ignored
- Time-consuming
- Agenda of interviewer
- Hawthorne effect
- Social desireability bias
- Overused
Focus Groups
Recorded group interview.
Several participants and a moderator.
Individuals in a social context.
Discussion of a specific issue.
Online or face to face.
Advantages:
- Naturalistic
- Collective sense-making
- Empowering
- Efficient
Disadvantages:
- Research has less control
- Tendency for more agreement than disagreement
- Participant discomfort
- Difficult to transcribe
Archival Data
Media text sources.
Advantages:
- Data collection and transcribe less
- Less researcher bias
- Participant discomfort
- Difficult to transcribe
Disadvantages
- Specific research questions
- Longer process of understanding
Web-Based Data
Advantages
- Anonymous
- Large volume of data
Disadvantages
- Unrepresentative sample
- Trustworthiness
- Consent
