Le Voi, M, Sapsford, R, Potter, S, Redman, P, and Yates, S (2001) Introduction to research: basic skills and survey methods (Study Guide) Open University
11 research science - scientific method
12 Subject-object problem
12 open and closed systems. Many natural science experiments seek to create closed system so that interference from external sources is minimised. Social systems are open.
13 positivism - can only be defined broadly: includes primacy of natural science as model for inquiry, sometimes known as "methodological monism"; includes "empiricism - testing of logical arguments; idea that science and rigorous inquiry generally can only produce factual knowledge - cannot produce evaluative or prescriptive conclusions. (From Hammersley,M (1995) The Politics of Social Research London: Sage - p7.)
15 Qualitative research methods - observation, focus groups, etc.
16 qualitative data could be defined as "not quantitative data". But distinction is too sharp, and quantitative and qualitative are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Qualitative researcher would emphasise importance of subjective experience, meaning and social and cultural context.
Living in this country today - sources of information in the house - food cupboard, wardrobe, TV and radio, videos, music system, computers, furniture and fabric, building itself. (McLeod's advice on carpets)
Dey, I (1993) Qualitative Data Analysis London: Routledge
18 claims quantitative data deal with anything that can be measured.
18 claims qualitative data deal with meanings, mediated mainly through language and action. Concepts constructed in terms of an intersubjective language; meaning as a matter of making distinctions.
Meaning resides in social practices, not just in the heads of individuals.
Qualitative data derive from observation (participant and non-participant), unstructured interviewing, group interviews, collection of documentary materials - field notes, interview transcripts, documents, photographs, sketches, video, audio tape.
What these forms of research have in common is rejection of positivist "sins" associated with survey methods of investigation, most particularly when data is elicited through closed questions using researcher-defined categories. In other words where the researcher imposes a framework.
claims qualitative research tends to be identified as unstructured, which is not always the case.
does not think qualitative and quantitative research can be neatly split from each other.Okely, J (1994) "Thinking through Fieldwork" in Bryman, A and Burgess, R (eds) Analysing Qualitative Data London: Routledge
25 sees main difference between sociology and social anthropology as anthropology being in uncharted geography therefore being unable to take anything for granted. Sociologist can assume more knowledge of wider social context.
Sees survey methods as positivistic.
Early anthropologists able to ignore positivist prescriptions because of being in that situation of having no hypotheses to test.
Aspects of modern UK life which have been studied by anthropologists - gypsies, transport systems, police, views of death.
Ethnography tends to be followed by individuals rather than research teams because need for immersion and because fieldworker cannot separate the act of gathering material from that of its continuing interpretation.
Funnel approach - term used by to describe open ended approach to full range of information and variety of people - everything gets poured into the funnel.
Role of hypotheses - sees them as there to be discarded.
Okely, J (1994) "Thinking through Fieldwork" in Bryman, A and Burgess, R (eds) Analysing Qualitative Data London: Routledge
28 methods of doing ethnography with gypsies changed after told her to write down everything you hear, smell and see, even the colour of the carpets. Ideally you should fill an exercise book for each day.
could not ask direct questions because of gypsies' resistance to direct questions, especially from outsiders.
So used daily informal communication, descriptions of domestic objects, trailer interiors, stray remarks volunteered in conversation.
Yates, S (1998)Issues in Social Research Milton Keynes: Open University (I think)
30 on relationship between new technology and production of news.
Previous thinking - hoping to show technology did not determine organisation's structure and practices.
Types of comparison - before and after introduction of new technology in satellite newsroom, comparisons between different organisations.
Key stages - noted use of some private "back stage" areas - e.g. closed editing units, email - which were noted as being unavailable, both practically and ethically.
Focus was on newsroom personnel - presenter, editor, programme editor, field and news room reporters.
Back stage areas were editing suites, email, and others not specified.
Okely, J (1994) "Thinking through Fieldwork" in Bryman, A and Burgess, R (eds) Analysing Qualitative Data London: Routledge
31 classifications - Gypsy-Gorgio relations; work; Gypsy identity; kinship and the family; education and socialisation; finance; Gorgio law; Gypsy law and community; travelling; sites; religious beliefs.
Numerical results - yes, e.g. numbers of and in families.
Sorting the corpus - literal cut and paste job on 12 photocopies of everything.
Strauss, A (1987) Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Assumptions - material is complex and theory must be grounded in data - no hard and fast rules, but some general guidelines.
Reality is complex - must be captured and then sense made of it.
Experiential data - analysts' technical knowledge and experience derived from research, and personal experiences.
Induction, deduction, and verification:
All go on through the whole life of the project.
Work processes - raising generative questions (may come from insight); then linkages between created concepts - conceptually dense; then verified i.e. checked against new data and new coding. Coding *must* be shown to be relevant to real world by collection and examination of new data. Memoing - theoretical memos. Plus re-examination of all data.
37 grounded theory is systematic and intense analysis of data, often phrase by phrase.
Basic operation. Concept-indicator model - conceptual coding of set of empirical indicators, based on constant comparison of concept to indicator.
Data collection - data can be anything, and collection never ceases.
Coding - paradigm conditions, interaction among the actors, strategies and tactics, consequences.
Initially "open coding" led by minute analysis of data - use of other material, including knowledge of technical literature, prevents too literal an immersion in the materials. He seems to me to be trying to have it both ways - to immerse but not to immerse. Maybe it's irony - the dramatic kind.
Ask constantly what is happening in the coding; analyse the data minutely; frequently interrupt coding to write theoretical memos. 41 Eventually the code gets saturated and is placed in relationship to other codes, including its relationship to the core category or categories...
Axial coding - intense analysis around one category at a time.
Selective coding - concentrating only on codes that relate to core codes sufficiently significantly to be used in a parsimonious theory.
Core category - accounts for most of variation in behaviour; subject to much qualification and modification. 41 it has the prime function of integrating the theory and rendering it dense and saturated as the relationships are discovered
Criteria
Variety of ways of team allocating coding responsibility
Theoretical sampling - analyst decides on analytic grounds what data to collect next, and where to find them i.e. collection is controlled by emerging theory.
Similarities and differences - both use texts as main data. gets theoretical much more quickly, and in a way intrudes the researcher; goes too minute too quickly. Three types of coding - open, axial, selective.
Okely, J (1994) "Thinking through Fieldwork" in Bryman, A and Burgess, R (eds) Analysing Qualitative Data London: Routledge
discusses formation of theories from her fieldwork and from reading and other encounters - particularly how reading Thompson on gypsies' animal classification led to a categorisation of pollution beliefs. Also discovered that conclusions are not limited to the space and time of the original e.g. has followed up findings with comparison with Italian gypsies. Further ideas emerged from intangible link with feminist perspectives through seminar of female anthropologists in Oxford. 48 ideas and theories, having fermented in the subconscious, emerged by free association from unspecified experience. Interpretation of anthropological experience is a continuing and creative experience.
48 - research combines action and contemplation.
Rogan, F, Schmied, V, Barclay, L, Everitt, L and Wyllie, A (1997) "Becoming a mother": Developing a new theory of early motherhood, Journal of Advanced Nursing, no. 25, pp 877-85
Very basic and *real* categories, they categorise real experience. 52 main category "becoming a mother", six subcategories realising, unready, loss, aloneness, drained, working it out. Followed grounded theory methods - open, axial and selective coding, reaching saturation point, returning to theory, returning to data. Used paradigm model, although controversial, helped theory to emerge - specific causal conditions, context, actions and interactions, intervening phenomena and consequences. Helped to uncover complexity and density in relationships of categories. E.g. "realising" a causal condition for "working it out".
53 Basic Social Process - has at least two phases, is evolution that occurs as people respond to given phenomena and move from one phase to another.
55 progress affected primarily by previous experience, social support and behaviour of baby.
55 impact baby has on mother's life prominent in sociological and feminist writing, but not well documented in nursing and midwifery literature.
57 Limits - analysis only tested in one context, and data collected only during one period. Theoretical framework doesn't account for *why* becoming a mother is so difficult - needs analysis of sociopolitical and cultural factors.
50 differences to Okely - much less personal, less emphasis on serendipitous way research and concluding proceeded.
The "concern for respondents" box, with several questions that set the tone.
p5 Academic research is about creating a community of scholars which is sustained by both trust and scepticism.
Note confidentiality, privacy (Data Protection Act), health and safety
p12 Waivers signed by participants never absolve the professional researcher from consideration of their welfare.
p45 being ethical limits the choices we can make in the pursuit of truth. Ethics say that while truth is good, respect for human dignity is better, even if... respect for human dignity leaves one ignorant of human nature.
46 quotes Weaver "To See Ourselves" Issue of objectification of celebrities, seeing them as other. Fundamental ethical principle is that this research is to enable us to see ourselves.
47-8 we receive guidance from ethical codes of various associations So I'm thinking what is my relationship to these codes? How do I use them? Could I, under some circumstances, reinterpret or ignore them? Answer - yes, as they are guidelines. Or no, I can't ignore, but I can arrive at any conclusion about any proposed action, after bearing them in mind.
48 Convention suggests openness while nature of contemporary society suggests conflict model. One celebrity might use the circumstances against another - how to deal with that? (The "bitch" role). Also this opens up areas normally considered private - even for celebs - though this is one of the areas of debate.
52 relations with sponsors. Are any of the sponsors commercial? What pressures might result from this?
When we have finished the study, we will have a document - a visual and audio record. What will happen to it? Will the participants have any right to use any part of it in future? Might it be put to currently unforeseen uses?
57-8 sensitivity Sensitivity to personal issues for each of the participants - how is that put into practice - a keyword for withdrawal, or making something off limits? Wouldn't happen on TV but the rules will be different here.
Secret participant behaviour No case whatsoever for agents provocateur - even though this could be arranged - a fake celeb, or a real celeb who is primed to misbehave.
330 Ideally a survey will be technically correct, practically efficient and ethically sound. In reality these matters frequently conflict and require careful balancing.
331 - rule or guideline - if guideline, not necessary to take it as a rule, i.e. should be taken into account in making final decision - note appeal to "potential long term benefits", not always justified.
331 de Vaus advocates situational ethics. But notes you have to cater for that fact that you are an interested party, and that the assessment of costs to the participants and benefits to society are subjective decisions based on researcher's own moral position and judgement of what is good and bad, important and unimportant.
Responsibilities are to:
332-333 meaning of the word voluntary need to be made absolutely clear. May be relevant to desperate celebrities!
334 for informed consent information should include:
Celebrities are themselves commercial entities.
Remember always that the aim is to explain something.
334 providing more information doesn't necessarily make people better informed. Also, if information might distort answers, one strategy is to offer to give full explanation after the event.
336 no harm to participants - simply selecting a person may be harmful e.g. wives who'd complained of domestic violence were distressed to be contacted having assumed that their complaints were kept secret. A celeb might be distressed to realise that they'd slipped so low as to be regarded as a candidate for this kind of thing.
339-340 colleagues and profession - note commercialisation of research, and emphasis on winning contracts may result in people claiming more skill for themselves than they really have.
341-2 publication of data set important to allow for critique and or replication.
We should report inconvenient results and must always remain open to ourselves learning from our results, not just using them.
Question of who should be included as an author. Which gives rise to question of in what way participants should be acknowledged.
347 Funders very often don't clarify research question enough. Researcher has responsibility to them to seek or offer clarification.