Assignment 4: Methodology Section
JoseRivera123
script6.docxCRJ 302 Research Methods: Module 6- Qualitative Methods
Slide 1: Major Types of Qualitative Methodology
Qualitative research methods are best utilized when researchers are asking questions about why things happen or why persons behave a certain way. Observations in qualitative research tend to occur in a natural setting rather than in a secondary location such as a laboratory. Often times, observations are complemented by a researchers own experiences.
Interviewing includes asking participants questions in a formal or informal manner about their experiences and perspectives of a given topic. In-depth interviews are those that yield deep responses after a researcher asks open-ended questions.
Focus groups are an extension of interviews. However, instead of an interviewer focusing on the responses of a single respondent, are group of participants are asked questions at the same time to get their combined perspective on a given topic. Focus groups are often used when researchers need to interview hard-to-reach populations.
Lastly, secondary data analysis, especially of archival documents, is a fourth form of qualitative data analysis. In secondary data analysis, a researcher will examine charts, procures, electronic communications, record, newspapers, and other similar documents to see how information has been presented to a given population.
Slide 2: Common Features
Most qualitative research consists of researchers using inductive reasoning to investigate a social phenomenon. As a reminder, when research is inductive in nature it is explanatory and allows a researcher to start with an observation of a phenomena and end with a theory. This indicative process allows qualitative researchers to focus on processes and phenomena that have been previously unstudied and unexplained.
Qualitative research primarily utilizes nonprobability sampling, meaning that samples are not random. Samples for qualitative research may be selected because they are conveniently located, because they represent an extreme or underrepresented group, or because they are relevant to a theoretical phenomenon. So, while nonprobability samples may not be generalizable, they do allow qualitative researchers to gather a population that is representative of the groups that they can study in depth.
Qualitative researchers must always apply reflexivity to their studies. Reflexivity is the practice of researchers to reflect on how their own characteristics and presence may shape the research process and potentially bias any results. Reflexivity occurs throughout the research process, and qualitative generally attempt to address any concerns they have that may influence their projects in a biased way. Reflexivity also prompts a researcher to consider how their interpretation of any data gathered through their methodology will be interpreted based on their stance as an insider or outsider to the studied population. Sometimes, researchers will move from being an outsider to being an insider, which may affect the way they interpret their data. Qualitative researchers must self-reflect constantly in order for their projects to be objective.
Slide 3: Observation
Field research always consists of direct observations of a physical or social setting and the behaviors or events that occur in these settings. Often times field research studies groups, either those that form formally (such as organizations, like police officers in a police department) or they may be informal, such as gangs or friend groups. Based on a researchers background, the sociopolitical context surrounding the research question, and any ethical concerns, a researcher must determine how intensive they want their observation to be.
In general, there are too types of participation that can occur in too different ways. First, will discuss the differences between participant and non-participant observation. Participant observation is when a researcher is involved, in some degree, with the activity of a group that is being studied. A researcher may live or work in the setting that they wish to study in order to gain a greater perspective about the characteristics of the environment. Sometimes researchers will deliberately take part in participant observation research in order to prove to a population that they are trustworthy in order to gain more in-depth data. When participating in participant observation, a researcher must constantly practice reflexivity, as their perspectives may become biased with their continued personal involvement in a given environment.
Nonparticipant observation is when a researcher observes activities and settings without participating themselves. This method of observation allows a researcher to maintain greater levels of objectivity, but they do run the risk of having more superficial data.
The two methods that a researcher can use to conduct observations are by implementing overt or covert observation. Overt observation means that a researcher has identified themselves and informed those that they are observing of their positon as a researcher. In most cases, participant observation tends to be overt in nature, as to get consent from participants to perform research a researcher must identify themselves to participants. However, a limitation of overt participation is participant reactivity. This means that participants who know a researcher is present may change their behaviors when they know that researcher is present which would bias the data collected.
Covert observation is when a researcher conceals their identity so that those they are observing are unaware that they are being observed. This addresses the issue of reactivity because participants won’t change their behavior if they don’t know they are being watched. But it may be ethically challenging, as participants cannot give informed consent. In some instances, when the researcher is observing behavior in a very public space, the issue of consent is less serious. However, performing participant observation in a private area may require researchers to identify themselves in order for their research to be ethical in nature.
Slide 4: Steps to conducting field research
After choosing the general topic or question of your research project, the first step to conducting field research is to identify the group or setting that you wish to study. As a researcher, you need to consider various sites or groups to study especially whether or not they are appropriate for the question you want to answer, if they are accessible, if there is any risk to yourself or the participants, and whether or not it is ethical to study said population. In general, it is considered a good practice in qualitative researcher to explain why you selected a setting or group. After selecting the group or setting you will be studying, you must learn about that setting. This includes learning about the mannerisms of the group or setting, the physical attributes and what you may have to change as a researcher to fit in, you should understand the typical activities of a setting or group as well. Being prepared with an understanding of what a setting or group does and why will increase your professionalism as a researcher.
After selecting a group or setting and learning what you can about that environment, you have to gain access to said group or setting. If your looking at a physical location that is public in nature, this may be easy. But if your studying a private location such as a domestic violence shelter, or a hard-to-reach population such as gang members, then it may be much more difficult to gain participants. Researchers should develop a strategy to gain access that will work best for a given environment. This may mean getting an “in” or a person who would recommend you to other persons in a given setting or achieving the acceptance to a locations “gatekeeper”, or a person in authority whose permission you may need to access a particular setting. Getting access can take a lot of time, so researchers should be aware of this limitation before they start their project and plan accordingly.
During either the same period that a researcher is attempting to gain access to a setting or population, or directly after, they must decide on their role and relationship in the project. This is the stage where a researcher must determine if they will act as a participant observer or a non-participant. A researcher must also determine what role they will fulfill in a given environment. Will they be attached to a specific person in an environment? Will they spend their time in a specific location? The type of data a researcher gather may depend on the relationships and roles that they fill in an environment. After establishing their role and relationship in their project, a researcher must determine what they are going to observe or who they are going to interview. In a qualitative project, a sample will be determined by a variety of factors. The sampling method, convenience, accessibility, and sometimes luck will influence the final sample that a researcher obtains for their project. The more structured a project is, the more set-in-stone a sample will be, but the more flexible a researcher is, the less structured the sample.
The next step in a qualitative research project is to gather the data. In field research, this consists of taking field notes or audio recordings. Field notes are detailed, written accounts of what a researcher observed while in the field. Transcriptions are essentially the written notes, verbatim, that a researcher gathered using audio recordings. However, a researcher must be sure of their environment and whether or not participants have consented to audio recording before they use this method of data gathering. Analysis of field notes and audio transcriptions consists of analytic memo’s. These are the in depth analysis of all notes and materials that a researcher has gathered over the course of their research project. When preparing analytic memos, researchers are looking for patterns and concepts that emerge throughout their data.
At some point, a researcher must leave the field that they have been conducting a project in. The time period of a project may depend on the funding a project has, the time limitations of either the participants or the researcher, or a natural conclusion of an event may occur that allows researchers to transition out of their observed environment. Reflexivity must be practiced at this stage of research as well, as researchers must consider how the people or setting they observed or interview will react to their leaving. In some cases, debriefing may have to occur at the end of an observation period.
The last step to conducing field research is finalizing the report. Qualitative reports tend to include both methodologically sound analysis of patterns and potentially a quantitative analysis of observed data that has been numerically coded for analysis. However, qualitative projects also allow the opportunity for researchers to integrate quotes and statements from their participants to be integrated into their writing. It is often considered best practice for researchers to share the final report or a summarized version of their final analysis to the population they studied, so that they have a sense of closure form their experience participating in the project.
Slide 5: Steps to conducting interviews
The first step of conducting interviews is the same as conducing general field research. A researcher must identify what their questions are and which group of people might be able to provide the best answer to those questions. After selecting a group, a researcher must recruit their participants.
Recruitment of participants for interviews is just as difficult as recruitment general field observations. You must often gain access to hard-to-reach populations, and you must also make sure that they are knowledgeable about your topic of interest and willing to openly answer your questions and discuss your topic. To get a group of participants for interviews, you may have to gain an “in” or address gatekeepers who will provide you with access to the group you need.
Either while or before gathering participants, a researcher must develop an interview guide. An interview guide is list of topics and specific questions that a researcher will ask or address during an interview. Interview guides are incredibly important as they will help structure the flow of an interview and make sure that a researcher addresses all of the topics necessary to complete data analysis. Just as when making surveys, researchers must carefully consider the wording of their questions and make sure that the language will be understandable to their population of interest. Asking yes/no questions, followed by asking a participant to expand may help participants to structure their thoughts and develop concrete answers. However, having too many open ended questions or yes/no questions at a given time may make the interview cumbersome, so make sure to have some variation to keep conversation flowing. Having a list of “probes” or words and phrases used to encourage elaboration may also help participants develop more in-depth answers.
After gaining access to participants and developing an interview form, the next step is to gather data and conduct the interviews. When a researcher shows up to an interview, they should have multiple copies of signed consent forms, multiple sets of the interview questions, an audio recorder that can be used if the participant gives permission, paper for notes to be written on, and a prepared brief explanation of your project and what it will offer to your participants. After confirming voluntary participation and asking for permission to use an audio recorder, the interview can begin. The type of interview you are conducting will determine how the interview process goes. In unstructured interviews, the interview is much like a conversation. Semi-structured interviews, which are the most commonly used form of interview, allow a researcher to ask each of the questions that they prepared, but the depth in which each question will be answered will depend on the participant’s experience and rapport with the interviewer. Structured interviews function similarly to a verbal survey, with each question being asked in the exact format as the interview schedule, and sometimes allowing only for particular answers. Even if an interview is being recorded, it is suggested that the interviewer takes notes of responses and observations that may occur throughout the interview. This adds context to the interview during analysis and reassures the participant that you are paying attention to their responses.
The analysis process for qualitative interview data consists of transcribing the interviews and than coding them. Coding consists of sorting data into categories based on patterns and themes that emerge from the data. In general these themes will emerge organically through an indicative process, but coding can also be used to confirm or deny preconceived expectations about themes in a deductive manner, that were developed based on theoretical backgrounds of a given topic. The final research report tends to consist of a rich narrative and description that is integrated with theoretical analysis. Additionally, it is generally considered best practices to send a copy or summary of the final report to the interview participants so that they can see the product of their participation in the project.
Slide 6: Focus Groups
Focus groups are similar to interviews, in the sense that a researcher asks a series of questions to participants in hopes of achieving descriptive and in-depth feedback. However, focus groups allow a researcher to interview multiple individuals at once in order to achieve some different goals than can be achieved in individual one-on-one interviews.
Focus groups consist of groups of 7-10 individuals that tend to be relatively homogenous in nature being led in a discussion based on questions asked by a researcher. The researcher will guide discussions and encourage participation. The goals of focus groups are varied. They can be used to discover findings within a group setting, where a researcher can observe how group dynamics influence responses. Focus groups can also be used to develop and improve survey instruments, by testing out responses and opinions. And lastly, they are useful in identifying a range of opinions on any given issue that the researcher is addressing. Additionally, performing several focus groups on the same topic will allow for a consistency check that will increase the internal validity of the project.
Slide 7: Secondary Data Analysis
Secondary data analysis is when a researcher uses pre-existing data to answer questions not intended by those who collected the data. Secondary data analysis can be qualitative or quantitative in nature depending on the source and type of secondary data used. For example, most social science data archives will consist of the data and results of surveys or official statistics which can be downloaded into statistical packages to run unique analyses to answer questions not asked by the original researchers. Alternative, archival data such as official records, media, and historical documents can be analyzed qualitatively to create an analysis that is historically informed or that analyzes social phenomena without addressing live participants.
Data archives have become popular methods of sharing data and statistics, often gathered from large populations, with other researchers. This allows for questions to be asked and types of statistical analyses to be run that were not or could not be conducted by the original researchers that gathered the data. One commonly used data archive is the ICPSR or Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Researcher, which provides hundreds of data sets available for researchers either to use immediately or after approval. Many governmental or non-profit agencies also release their data for public use and analysis. When analyzing secondary data in a quantitative manner, a researcher will very likely face unique challenges. For example, a researcher must become incredibly familiar with the data set and understand how variables were coded in the past and what measurements were used for specific variables. If the measurement is invalid, this may cause a problem during analysis. Secondary data also requires substantial time to clean, meaning that the original coding is often awkward to work with and may require a researcher to spend time re-coding and re-labeling variables so that they are easier to work with or make more methodological sense.
Content analysis is the secondary data analysis used for qualitative methods. Alternative to the statistics used for secondary data analysis in quantitative research, content analysis is the systematic analysis of the symbolic content present in materials, which result in a set of coded variables or categories similar to those developed in interviewing. Content analysis can be conducted on a wide range of materials including historical documents, official records, media such as books, newspapers, videos, speeches, and may more documents. The information provided by these materials is systematically analyzed by one or more researcher to create coding schemes and themes that will then be analyzed. The coding scheme includes the operationalization and conceptualization of the variables a researcher finds in their analysis and allows for multiple researchers or coders to analyze data in the same manner. For example, if three people are coding newspapers for various officer involved use of force, and the goal is to describe how different types of force are presented in media, a coding scheme would help define how different police uses of force are to be categorized for analysis (i.e., verbal force, physical force, use of Taser or pepper sprays, use of gun or other lethal weapons, ect…). Having these definitions of use of force will allow all three researchers to code the newspaper articles the same way.
Slide 8: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data Analysis
This slide consists of a table that may be useful in differentiated the purposes and uses of qualitative and quantitative data analysis. If you are looking for ways to explain why you are using a certain method of data analysis and collection in your final project, this table may be useful.
In general, qualitative research focuses on the meanings and symbols represented in a given data set. These data sets often include individual people, but may also include documents. There are rarely predetermined categories available when conducting qualitative analysis; rather the point of the analysis is to develop categories for future analysis and use.
Alternatively, quantitative research focuses on explaining or quantifying social phenomena. Instruments are designed in order to measure variables in the most objective manner possible, and analyses are used to draw the most generalizable conclusions from the data as possible. In order to make these generalizations possible, large amounts of cases are gathered, though the amount of information gathered from each case may be limited.
Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have their benefits and their drawbacks. A researchers use of a particular method may be determined by their personal preference or, more often, by the type of question they are asking. Questions attempting to understand the meanings behind phenomena or answer the inquiry of why things occur are best answered using qualitative methods. However, descriptive analyses and attempts at understanding the mechanisms of a relationship with the inquiry of how things occur, may be best answered using quantitative analysis. Thus, depending on the question a researcher is asking and the samples and or data sets available to them will more than likely determine whether or not a qualitative or quantitative methodology will be applied in a research project.
Slide 9: Module Wrap-Up
You should be able to distinguish the various techniques used to perform various types of qualitative data analysis. Additionally, you should be able to evaluate the various ethical issues that may be involved with qualitative data analysis, especially involving voluntary consent and deception. Lastly, you should be able to debate how combining research methods and measurements may affect causal validity in research projects, and address the various weaknesses inherent in different methodologies.
Your fourth assignment will be due at the end of this module, and will consist of creating a methods section for your final project this semester. In this assignment, you will be developing your preliminary research design and methodology for your final project for the semester. It will need to include a discussion of the target population and sample for your project, the method of data collection, and other descriptions related to your variables or methodologies. Make sure to check blackboard or the syllabus for further guidelines regarding this assignment and do not hesitate to post questions in to the interactive discussion board for feedback from your classmates or professor.
