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UGS 303 Qualitative Research

This lecture explores qualitative research methodologies that help us understand human experience. It discusses the underpinnings of interpretivism and symbolic interactionism, and how knowledge schemas and meaning arise in social situations. Topics covered include interviews, ethnographic research, and the components of a learning environment. The lecture concludes with a discussion on the importance of considering alternative explanations and establishing the authority of the researcher.

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UGS 303 Qualitative Research

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  1. UGS 303Qualitative Research Professor Lecia Barker School of Information 4/6/11

  2. Today’s Tune…A Medley Rounders I See You Baby (Shaking that Ass) Genre: Big beat, Acid house, Electro-house by Groove Armada Genre: Psychedelic trance aka “Psytrance” by Growling Mad Scientists (GMS)

  3. I Predicted You Would Laugh Hypothesis: Lower-division students at UT will laugh more if I play a video showing a grandma dancing to techno (etc.) than if I play a video showing a grandma dancing to a waltz. Independent variable: video content Dependent variable: amount of laughter (quantified as noise level, duration of noise)

  4. Interpretation: Why is“VovóDançaPsy”amusing?

  5. Violates our expectations of who dances to trance/techno music

  6. Violates our expectations of what older ladies do

  7. How does one find out about expectations (values, beliefs)? How do we acquire such expectations?

  8. Qualitative methods

  9. Qualitative methods

  10. Qualitative Methodologies… Help us to understand human experience Used to flesh out beliefs, values of groups Often conducted in natural settings Supports hypothesis development in scientific method Help us to create a link between two variables: why does X predict Y?

  11. Underpinnings: Interpretivism, Symbolic Interactionism • Understanding of the social world is culturally derived and historically situated. • Individuals are persons only in terms of their relation to groups; we are social objects. Bbb bb

  12. We are born into a social framework of rules, beliefs, and values and these become internalized. We reproduce and adapt them. Social interaction is accomplished through symbol use.

  13. Knowledge Schemas • Deeply held, unconscious beliefs and expectations about categories of people, events, objects, settings • Seemingly natural: the way things are • We fill in unstated information based on experience in the world

  14. Even what we see is mediated by what we already know and what else is nearby.

  15. Implications for Human Research Meaning arises in situations: focus on localized behavior. Uncover meaning through observation, interviews, discourse analysis, etc. Data are words, nonverbal / paraverbal communication, images, or other “text”

  16. Interviews Exploring experience from the view of the interviewee. Structured: like a survey Semi-structured: guided by an adaptable set of questions. Unstructured: related to themes. Thinkaloud.

  17. Problems with Interviews? Self report rather than observation An interview is an interaction with another conversant in a social situation. It: • Is produced/consumed/monitored by social actors (producers/receivers of social practices). • Is shaped by social structures. • Has social implications. • Occurs in situational contexts where rules and “face needs” are in play.

  18. Ethnographic research Aimed at developing an insider perspective of a group. Detailed observation and in-depth interviews. Hang out, become an insider or remain an outsider. Problem: seeing through one’s own lenses.

  19. Describe this “learning environment”

  20. Learning Environment Components Physical surroundings • Territoriality, distance, seating arrangements, sight lines, equipment

  21. Learning Environment Components Pedagogies Requirements • industry, the discipline, the university Socio-cultural climate • Socially- and culturally- grounded beliefs about appropriate activities, relationships, authority, obligations, and roles for and among different kinds of persons • Personalities and behaviors of individuals

  22. But isn’t this all filtered through the researcher’s eyes?

  23. How do you know what to believe? • Consideration of alternative explanations • Triangulation • Prolonged and varied field experience • Time sampling • Member checking • Peer examination • Establishing authority of researcher • Interview technique and inclusion of interviewer words

  24. The End.

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