Research Methods: Points of Emphasis and Techniques in Data Collection
Explore key points of emphasis in research methods including different types of experimentation, observational studies, case studies, interviews, and data analysis techniques.
Research Methods: Points of Emphasis and Techniques in Data Collection
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Presentation Transcript
Research Methods Points of Emphasis
Experimentation • Types • Laboratory • Field • Natural or quasi
Laboratory • Points to emphasize: • Isolates cause and effect • High reliability • Easy replication • Ecological validity is weak
Field • Points to emphasize: • Experiment in natural environment • Improves ecological validity • Extraneous variables can be an influence
Natural or quasi • Points to emphasize: • Natural: not responsible for the manipulation of the independent variable • Less control but less artificial • Quasi: independent variable is natural (i.e. gender or age) • No random assignment
Correlational Studies • Points to emphasize: • Correlation coefficient (-1 to +1) • Can study variables that can‘t be done in an experiment • No cause-effect relationships • A third variable could be involved • Sometimes relationships can be seen in graphs but not the coefficient
Observations • Covert & Overt • Participant and non-participant • Naturalistic and controlled
Covert and Overt • Points to emphasize • Covert: participants don’t know they are being watched (natural but is it ethical?) • Overt: participants know they are being watched (ethical but is it natural?)
Participant and Nonparticipant • Points to emphasize: • Participant: become part of the group (richer data but you have to “fit”) • Non-participant: watch from outside the group (strong validity but too subjective)
Naturalistic and Controlled • Points to emphasize: • Naturalistic: watch behavior as it naturally occurs (it’s real but no control and can’t explain) • Controlled: create the situation (more control but decreases ecological validity)
Strengths of Observations • Real behavior • Study behavior that’s difficult to describe or discuss
Weaknesses of Observations • Demand characteristics • Hawthorne & audience effects • Researcher bias • Ethics
Ethics in Observations • Informed consent • Can you watch and then debrief without getting consent? • If you get consent, will their behavior be real?
Observations • Recording behavior • A grid to “tally” behaviors • Recording observation on one side of paper and interpretation on the other • Analyzing data • Find themes in one’s notes • Key point from text: quantitative approach to observations make assumptions before research; qualitative allows for interpretation during research
Case Studies • Types • Intrinsic: no need to generalize or build theory (HM and Genie) • Instrumental: describe, explain, and build theory (implementing new technology at a workplace)
Generalizations • Theoretical generalization • Generalizing findings to theory • Statistical generalization • Generalizing findings to other cases
Evaluation of case studies • Points of emphasis: • Rich data; detailed • With enough cases, conclusions can be made • Costs and time are a problem • Personal relationships • Generalization
Case Studies & ethics • Confidentiality • Time and intensity of data collection • Anger over implications of data
Interviews • Types • One on one • Focus Groups • Structured • Semi-structured • Unstructured • Narrative
One on One • Face to face • Telephone • E-mail
Focus Groups • A group interview • Triggers useful discussions • Questions between participants come up that interviewer didn’t think of • Some dominate conversation • Conformity • discomfort
Structured • Specific questions • No deviation
Semi-structured • Basic structure with allowance of deviation is allowed
Unstructured • Freer discussion
Narrative • Minimize influence of interviewer • Fewer questions; interviewer is an active listener • Advantage: accurate story of reality • Disadvantage: Some people will share less
Conducting an interview • Sample • Probably won’t be large • Purposive or snowball sampling leads to better results • Sensitive topics • Limited extent of confidentiality • Characteristics of the interviewer can affect interviewee (continued on next slide)
Research related to interviewer/interviewee relationship • Rosenthal • Gender of interviewer & participant does affect the interview • Walker • South African men shared more with an “outsider”
Type of Questions • Descriptive questions • Structural questions • Contrast questions
Data recording • Participants need to be told about being recorded • Hussey and Hussey (1997) • Postmodern transcription techniques
Debriefing • How recorded info will be used • Who has access to the info • Feedback: how and when… • Member checking
Analysis of Interview data • Inductive content analysis • Identify raw themes • Similar themes then can be grouped together • Subordinate and superordinate themes • Create dimensions which group themes together from several participants • Reflexivity is important