SOCI 2030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Semi-Structured Interview, Focus Group, Participant Observation
Document Summary
Qualitative interview: flexible form of eliciting (producing information from a respondent or respondents to understand an issue, experience or behaviour- goal is to obtain rich, detailed answers and insights. Defining features data collection method: defining features, presence of a facilitator, purpose. Purpose is not for research but to share ideas. Appropriate research questions: experiences, evaluations, motivations and interpretations, attitudes and opinions, social processes. Topics we don"t know a lot about- questions to asks on surveys. Design issues: degree of structure, the facilitators, group composition, number of groups, group size. Ensure our validity and reliability to make some of our findings has a relatively accuracy with the truth. Degree of involvement- be part of the research or just observe. Degree of homogeneity- segmentation of the participants, same characteristics based on gender, race, sex, class, etc. Decisions will be determined by the research questions, groups dynamics and population of interest. Saturation- conducting focus groups until new information appears.
