QUALITATIVE RESEARCH What is the distinction between Inductive and Deductive research? Qualitative research methods – produces observations that are not easily reduced to numbers. One of the advantages of qualitative research is the amount of detail you get from observing.

Appropriate for understanding issues within their natural setting. Appropriate for study of processes over time.

Distinction between qualitative and experimental or surveys Collects primarily qualitative data. Exploratory research questions with commitment to inductive reasoning. A focus on previously unstudied processes and unanticipated phenomena. An orientation to social context.

A focus on human subjectivity. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION This is a method in which natural social processes are studied as they happen in the field.

Participant Observer represents a continuum of roles ranging from being a complete observer, to being a covert participant. Most people develop a role between these extremes.

Choosing a Site and Gaining Entry Where? something intrinsically interesting theoretically important careful with places you are familiar with involves non-probability: quota, typical case

Gaining Entry- in Participant Observation it is best to be vague and imprecise but truthful need to negotiate entry with gatekeepers need to negotiate confidentiality and ethics best to remain relatively passive in first few days need to get to know setting and people should also take notes on the entry

Observation You want to watch as carefully as possible what is going on. Focus on your research question, but be very broad in observing. You need to be objective and impartial to what you are observing

Fieldnotes 1) Running Description: Start by describing setting and date. Note events, movements, people, body language, things heard and overheard, what time things happened, event history log Describe what you see in basic language.

Try to separate interpretation from description At this point describe rather than analyze what is going on.

2) Analytic Ideas and Interpretation Separately, take notes on ideas, and analysis as they come up. Think about how things fit into larger patterns and context. Even if ideas are crazy sounding, write them down, don’t rule anything out at this point.

3) Impressions and Personal Feelings Take record of your emotions and stressors Helps to separate emotions from what actually happened, helps when you analyze notes later on.

4) Things to think about and do Make yourself a note to go back and fill in blanks If you saw something interesting one day, and are going back into the field the next day, write it down to remind yourself to look for it next day

How many notes should you take? As many as possible. Remember this is your data, you want as much detail as possible. write down anything you can remember. Experienced fieldworkers say they take pages of notes for every hour of observation.

FOCUS GROUPS Focus groups are groups of unrelated individuals that are formed by a researcher and then led in group discussion of a topic.

UNOBTRUSIVE RESEARCH Group work Research Question You suspect that companies that manufacture men’s products are more likely to sponsor violent TV shows than are other kinds of sponsors. Discuss how you will go about conducting this kind of research. Start by defining men’s products and what you consider as violent and move on from there...

These are methods used in studying social behavior without affecting it. There are three types of this kind of research: a) Content Analysis b) Analysis of existing statistics c) Historical/comparative analysis

Document Analysis- used to establish facts about events which the researcher was unable to observe directly. Superior to informants in that official reports and statistics cover sectors of the organization beyond the sphere of an informant.

CONTENT ANALYSIS This is the study of recorded human communications.

Questions for content analysis. Who says what? To whom, why, how, and with what effect? How is sampling done in content analysis? Might use simple, systematic sampling, stratified random sampling.

Unit of Analysis? You need to figure out your units of analysis because this is what determines what kind of data you will look for.

CODING This is the process of transforming raw data into a standardized form. In content analysis you have to code any communication, oral or written. Others are coded according to some conceptual framework – conservative, liberal.

Decide whether you want to code the manifest content -- the visible, surface content. Latent coding -- this when you code on the basis of the underlying meaning.

Summary of stages content analysis proceeds Identify a population of documents or other textual sources for study. Determine the units of analysis. Select a sample of units from the population. Design coding procedures for the variables to be measured. Test and refine the coding procedures. Base statistical analysis on counting occurrences of particular words, themes, or phrases, and test relations between different variables.