UGS 303
Qualitative Research
Professor Lecia Barker
School of Information
4/6/11
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 1
Today’s Tune…A Medley
Rounders
Genre: Psychedelic trance
aka “Psytrance”
by
Growling Mad Scientists
(GMS)
I See You Baby (Shaking
that Ass)
Genre: Big beat, Acid
house, Electro-house
by
Groove Armada
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 2
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)
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |3
Interpretation:
Why is
“Vovó Dança Psy”
amusing?
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 4
Violates our expectations of who
dances to trance/techno music
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |5
Violates our
expectations of
what older
ladies do
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 6
How does one find out about
expectations (values, beliefs)?
How do we acquire such
expectations?
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 7
Qualitative methods
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |8
Qualitative methods
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |9
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?
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |
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
b
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu11
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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.
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu12
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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
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu14
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Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu15
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Even what we see is
mediated by what we already
know and what else is nearby.
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 16
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”
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 17
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.
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 18
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.
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 19
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.
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 20
Describe this “learning
environment”
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Learning Environment
Components
Physical surroundings
– Territoriality, distance, seating arrangements,
sight lines, equipment
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |
Learning Environment
Components
Pedagogies
Requirements
– industry, the discipline,
the university
Socio-cultural climate
– Socially- and culturallygrounded beliefs about
appropriate activities,
relationships, authority,
obligations, and roles for
and among different
kinds of persons
– Personalities and
behaviors of individuals
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu |
But isn’t this all
filtered through
the researcher’s
eyes?
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 24
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
Lecia Barker | lecia@ischool.utexas.edu | 25
The End.
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