Analysis Pointers

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Analysis Pointers

• INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods
• 22 April 2008

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Admin

• Office Hours today 1230 to 130 (this week
  only)

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Outline

• Weak and Strong Analysis
• Fallacies of Interpretation

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Weak analysis

• Analytical findings should not simply reflect the
  initial constructs/concepts from your interview
  guide
• Your analysis is not an exercise in verification

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Example Voices of the Poor

• A massive, multi-national World Bank, qualitative
  interview project
• Interview guide emphasizes well-being and
  findings suggest that again and again people
  distinguished between well-being and wealth.

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Strong analysis Close attention to language

• What distinctive terms does the interviewee
  introduce?
• How do they divide up the social (and material)
  world into elements?
• What relationship is posited between these
  elements?

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Strong analysis Typologies and Taxonomies

• Gospel
• Worship
• Praise (faster beat)
• Hi-life
• Hip-life
• Francophone
• Gbeho
• Hip-hop (American)
• Rap (American)
• RB (American)

• Kuul, Kulz, Cool
• Celine Dion
• Westlife(?)
• Old School, Old Skuul, Old Skull
• Phil Collins
• Also contains Hi-life (but not hip-life)
• acapella

• Instrumental
• Country Music
• Reggae
• Regular
• Bob Marley
• Lovers Rock (i.e. Celine Dion, I will always
  love you, reggae style)

from interviews about music in Accra, Ghana
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Strong analysis mapping out the diversity of
instances

• What are all the different forms of Internet scam
  stories success stories protection stories
  victimization stories
• What are all the different instances of
  technology in a museum and their different
  properties?

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Strong analysis how questions

• Not what is the relationship between two
  variables? causation or correlation questions
• Instead How does this system work? process
  questions

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Strong analysis checking saying against doing

• What people say is often not what they do
• Even if you dont carry out observation you can
  relate an interviewees concrete examples in
  interviews to their statements about general
  attitudes, opinions

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Fallacies of Interpretation

• The fallacy of the missing middle
• Internet Scammers Robin Hood or Common
  Criminal?
• Suggesting a dichotomy between two terms that are
  not mutually exclusive or collectively exhaustive

Boyce, Chap. 18, Bauer and Gaskell
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Fallacies of Interpretation

• The adversarial fallacy
• That among two sides in a conflict, one is
  innocent and the other guilty (or truthful and
  fallacious)
• Triangulation of multiple perspectives is not for
  the purpose of establishing an external truth or
  for taking sides

Boyce, Chap. 18, Bauer and Gaskell
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Fallacies of Interpretation

• Imputing motive and (in general) mind reading
• You cant definitively read motive from observed
  behavior
• You only know what peoples intentions are when
  they tell you (and even this is imperfect)

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Fallacies of Interpretation

• The fallacy of disproportionate evidence
• Available evidence is uneven
• The State generates more documentation than
  ordinary people.
• What perspectives are missing from your data?

Boyce, Chap. 18, Bauer and Gaskell
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Final Word

• Stay close to your data!
• Read and re-read your transcripts, fieldnotes,
  and any other data!
• Dont forget to code!