Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods

1. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods Erin Whiteside John Curley Center for Sports Journalism

2. What is Qualitative Research? • Qualitative Methodology is… • Exploratory • Descriptive • Seeks to document and understand meaning • Useful for describing social processes and relationships, understanding culture or a lived experience

3. Qualitative Study of everyday life Acknowledges inter-subjectivity of research Interpretivist Methods: Observation Interviews Visual analysis Focus Groups Quantitative Study of large scale patterns Assumes research objectivity Positivist Methods: Surveys Scales Databases Two Research Traditions

4. Value of Qualitative Research • Quantitative approaches are strong for capturing statistical relationships. • Example: relationship between gender and income • Can’t always get at the “lived experience” or “meaning” such as the experience a person has in a specific situation • Many aspects of social life can only be illuminated through qualitative methods. • Example: “Five stages of grief” • A way to generate new ideas--especially useful in market research • A way to move beyond doing what we’ve always done

5. When are qualitative methods most useful? • When the research objective is: • To interpret, illuminate, illustrate • To understand how or why • To describe previously unstudied processes or situations • To get in-depth, detailed information • To understand context • To learn about subjects who are few or hard to reach • To capture experience http://www.eotu.uiuc.edu/live/index.html University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

7. Research Questions • Qualitative methods answer specific types of questions that relate to describing and/or explaining a lived experience or phenomenon • Qual: What is the experience of watching a Penn State football game from the student section? • Quant: What is the relationship between seat location and level of enjoyment at a Penn State football game?

8. Research Questions • Qual: What does the institution of marriage mean to college students? • Quant: What is the relationship between age and attitudes toward marriage? • Qual: What attracts college students to the ipod? • Quant: What is the distribution of ipod users by race, gender, age and major?

9. Research Questions • Research questions that seek to describe lived experience, explain meaning or offer rich, thick description should be answered using qualitative methods.

10. Sampling • Generally always purposive • Definition: A goal of reaching a pre-defined group • Different types of purposive sampling: • Snowball, extreme case, stratified and opportunistic • No need for random sampling: the goal of qualitative research is not to generalize but to explain • Example: We need people who have attended a Penn State football game in order to study the experiences at a Penn State football game

11. Sampling Questions to Ask • What is your purpose? • What is at stake? • What will be sufficient? • What will be credible to your audience? • What resources and time do you have?

12. Choosing a Method • Different questions require different methods (tools): • In-depth interviews • Focus Groups • Field Research

13. Focus Groups • Definition and key characteristics • “Group” interviews led by a researcher’s “focus”on a topic • 2-? Participants; no magic number; 1-2 hours • Depends on participant involvement with the subject. • Reliance on interaction within the group • The “hallmark” of qualitative work

14. Focus Groups • When to use? • Best used when assessing attitudes, beliefs or perceived experiences rather than behavior • Example • What are the attitudes of Pittsburgh citizens toward the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?

15. Focus Groups • 4 key criteria for quality groups • 1) The group should cover the maximum range of relevant topics (Range) • 2) Provide data that are specific as possible (Specificity) • 3) Foster interaction that explores the participants’ feeling in some depth (Depth) • 4) Take into account the personal context that participants use in generating their responses to the topic (Context)

16. Structured: Researcher has a specific set of open-ended questions Example: “We are interested in hearing about how you use your ipod. Why don’t we start by walking me through a typical day.” Unstructured: Researcher provides several main topics or subjects and asks the group to discuss. Example: “Today I’d like to talk about the way you access, use and enjoy music.” Focus Groups: Questions

17. Focus Groups • Strengths • The creation of shared meaning • Until they interact with others, people may be unaware of their own implicit perspectives • Effective way to collect many descriptive opinions in one sitting • Control • Collects a unique form of data • Weaknesses • The creation of shared meaning (again)

18. In-depth Interviews • Definition and key characteristics: • A conversation in which a researcher gently guides a conversational partner in an extended conversation. • One-on-one: researcher and participant • In person vs. the phone • 1-2 hours at a time, but again, no magic number • Best-used when the research focus may be sensitive; provides a sense of comfort for the participant • Each interview is unique, unlike a survey

19. In-depth Interviews: Questions • Start broad, then go focused; start easy, then go difficult • Non-loaded • Open-ended • Example: 1) What changes have you noticed at Penn State since you’ve been here? • 2) How do you feel about those changes?

20. In-depth questions and probes • Interview questions structure the interview by focusing on your research questions • Tour Questions (Generally broad) • Hypothetical Questions (Generally broad) • Chronology Questions (Generally more focused) • Stage Questions (Generally more focused) • Confirmatory Questions (Generally more focused) • Probes manage the conversation, fill in gaps and keep the conversation on-topic • Continuation, elaboration, clarification, steering, sequence, evidence, slant probes

21. Tour Questions Very general “Could you walk me through this process? “How do you prepare for class?” “What is a typical day like for you?” Hypothetical Qs Very general “If you were given the option, when would you prefer to have classes? Why is that?” Questions

22. Chronology More focused Try and use appropriate vocabulary “What happened after the tailagate?” Stage Questions More focused Used after you discover the stages of a process Focus in on a time and ask the interviewee about that stage “I noticed you said your parents dropped you off at school a day before classes started. How did you go about meeting people?” Questions

23. Questions • Confirmatory Questions • Very specific • Used to confirm with interviewees that you are interpreting their answers in a way that resonates with them • “What I am hearing you say is…”

24. Continuation Probes “Then what?” “Mhmmm” “Can you say more about that? Elaboration Probes Virginia: “I grew up on Dodge and Rollers…in that neighborhood. There was always a gang around, but the difference that I noticed, in the same neighborhood today is the gangs--when we were growing up--had a tendency to take care of their turf, or their neighborhood and now the gangs don’t. They have a tendency to just milk it for what it’s worth. Interviewer: What do you mean that the gangs took care of their neighborhood? Probes

25. Attention Probes Good for cueing the interviewee that you are following what they are saying “Okay, I understand” “Very interesting…” Clarification Probes “You said the ‘whole scene is crowded.’ Did you mean the tailgate or inside during the game?” “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘winking’ on match.com. Can you explain that?” Probes

26. Steering Probes Useful for re-directing the conversation. Use carefully “I’m sorry, I distracted you with that question. Let’s get back to…” Sequence Probes Based on time “Could you tell me what happened step-by-step?” “When did that happen?” Probes

27. Evidence Probes Used if you are receiving conflicting information “You said you do the majority of the cooking. Can you give me some examples?” Slant Probes Used to get people to explain or justify their slant or bias. Use very gently “Really?” Probes

28. Field Work • A type of research method in which the researchers interacts with, observes and sometimes even participates in a social phenomenon. • Sometimes only observational, but many times used in conjunction with interviews or focus groups • Advantages: • Observations happen in natural setting • Best way to get rich, thick data • Disadvantages • Time-consuming and often costly

29. The “Fridge Pack” • Research Question: • Why are soda sales down? • How can we improve sales? • Method • Interviews, field work • Findings • Storage issues creating difficulties • Result of Fridge Pack: • 10% sales increase in three months

30. American Heart Association • Research Question: • How can we better educate cardiovascular disease patients on health issues? • Method • Interviews, field work • Findings • A problem of motivation • Result of New Program: • Implementation of new, more active “coaching” programs that will keep people on track with a healthy lifestyle

31. Pizza Hut • Research Question: • How do mothers or others make decisions about various family meals? • How can Pizza Hut be a part of those decisions? • What are pizza-eaters’ experiences like with Pizza Hut employees? • Method • Interviews, participant observation (ordering and eating pizza) • Findings • Ongoing Study

32. Masterbrand Cabinets • Research Questions • How do Americans organize their cabinets? • Method • Field Observations • Findings • Cabinets have a social function as well as a utilitarian function • Result of study • New cabinet products with organization features designed for the way people really live

33. In-class Exercise • Phase I: In small groups come up with three research questions per group related to the topic of life as a college student • Phase 2: Individually write 5 broad interview questions related to the RQ; discuss as a class • Phase 3: Interviews and then class discussion on the process.