Research Basics
What is the difference between a population and a sample?
Population: the entire group
Sample: part of that group
Which study lead to the creation of the Belmont Report of 1979?
The Tuskegee Study.
What is a complete observer?
Researchers observe site members from a distance without intervening on the site.
What is a focus group interview?
Interview with a group of people to observe their interactions
What does triangulation mean in qualitative data analysis?
Validating your interpretation relying on other sources/researchers.
What are quantitative and qualitative studies?
Quantitative study: measure the variables and use statistical methods to find relationships.
Qualitative: interpretation of a phenomena, aiming to understand meanings and contexts
What are the three principles in the Belmont Report of 1979 about research ethics?
Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.
You can observe how the scene is set up by focusing on _________.
How its participants select and display various artifacts to signify what they find important and how they wish to be viewed by others.
What is the most important principle you should follow when transcribing your interview?
Keep it verbatim and as natural as possible.
What is pragmatic conceptual devices?
A set of contrasting elements of a cultural domain.
What is a positive and negative hypothesis?
Positive: the more, the more/the less, the less
Negative, the more, the less/the less, the more
What do we mean when we say a document has a "career?"
Documents are handled, notated, and acted upon by different people.
Why do researchers avoid being a full participant in their fieldwork?
It will restrict their freedom and the ability to negotiate a customized relationship with others.
What is the difference between an informant and a respondent interview?
Informant: people whose knowledge is quite valuable for achieving research objectives.
Respondent: respondents speak only for themselves.
What are metonymic conceptual devices?
A relationship in which “part is taken as an emblematic representation of the whole domain.”
What is a confounding variable?
The variable that creates a possible incorrect explanation of the results.
Why do researchers study material culture?
Tangible objects are the material manifestation of social reality.
What are makers and tie signs?
Makers: interactional behavior indicating a specific relationship
Tie signs: symbols or artifacts indicating a specific relationship
Why should you always keep your transcript in a verbatim way, even when you are quoting from it?
It ensures accuracy, transparency, and integrity in qualitative research
How is open coding different from in vivo coding?
Open coding: unrestricted coding
In vivo coding: coding for specific terms
What do we mean when we say a study is internally and externally invalid?
Internally invalid means we did not include confounding variables
Externally invalid means the study is not generalizable.
When does the " invisible" material culture become more "visible?"
When it is missing or malfunctions.
What is the main difference between these two researcher roles: "participant-as-observer" vs "observer-as-participant"?
Participant-as-observer: researchers have direct interactions, but they do not share the same obligation as site members.
Observer-as-participant: researchers are casual, occasional, and only interact indirectly with site members.
When do you want to use interview as a research method (three points)?
expertise (a specific group of people); account (justification of social behaviors); explanations (particular views, interpretations, and cultural logics)
In the grounded theory approach, what do integration and dimensionalization mean?
Integration: group categories by creating a new set of codes.
Dimensionalization: explore the attribute of that new category to identify new concepts.