Psychology of the Image SP544

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Design and method in psychology
1. Qualitative methods and psychology
2. Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis
3. Conversation analysis how to proceed
4. Your practical what next!
5. Summary
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Qualitative methods and psychology
1. The qualitative vs. quantitative
methodological divide
2. Qualitative methodology and social science
3. Which methods are most frequently used in
psychology?
4. Who uses them?
5. What are qualitative methods good for?
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1. The qualitative vs. quantitative
methodological divide
Quantitative methods.Qualitative methods

• Tend to be associated with
• Hard science
• Objectivity
• Hypothetico-deductive thinking
• High status within psychology

• Tend to be associated with
• Relativistic epistemology
• Soft(er) science
• Ideologically informed (can be)
• More questionable status
• Increasingly seen as part of the turn to
  language in social science

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2. Qualitative methodology and social science
Can we identify a kind of middle ground in the
methodological preferences of psychologists?

• Developmental psychology and child clinical
  research have always used qualitative methods
• One can distinguish between what Kidder and Fine
  (1987) call big Q and little Q. Big Q
  refers to open-ended inductive research
  methodologies focuses on theory generation and
  the examination of peoples meaning-making
  practices. In contrast little Q describes the
  approach where non-numerical data collection
  techniques are adopted, and adapted so as to
  inform and supplement hypothetico-deducitive
  research approaches.

Essentially The nature of the question you are
asking helps determine, and inform, any given
method you might employ.
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3. Which methods are most frequently used in
psychology?

• Inductive qualitative methods
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
• Grounded theory
• Content analysis

• Discursive qualitative methods
• Discourse analysis
• Narrative analysis
• Conversation analysis

• Structural qualitative methods
• Repertory grid techniques
• Q Methodology

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4. What are qualitative methods good for?

• Qualitative methods tend to be good whenever you
  wish to ask a more open-ended question
• This might be foundational, e.g., what is the
  nature of x or y?
• This might be descriptive, e.g., can we obtain
  a realisable picture of x or y?
• This might be interpretative, e.g., on the basis
  of the data we collect, can we provide a
  defensible account of event x, why x occurs, and
  what sense x might have for those involved in
  producing and recognising x as significant in
  some way.
• And, most importantly, qualitative methods are
  exceptionally useful in helping in the formation
  of hypotheses and associated theory generation.

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Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis

• Ethnomethodology focuses on providing a rational
  analysis of the structures, procedures and
  strategies that people themselves use when they
  are making sense out of their own everyday world
  and their actions and interactions within in.

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Conversation analysis

• Conversation analysis, or as it is sometimes
  known, the study of talk-in-interaction takes
  to heart the ethnomethodological focus on what
  people actually say and do. The analysis centres
  on a process of first identifying elements and
  structures in naturally occurring conversation
  and then through a detailed procedure of
  micro-analysis, identifying participant-oriented
  evidence for the models, concepts and ideas that
  people use.

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• Method and conversation analysis
• Two basic methods in conversation analysis-style
  investigations (Levinson, 1983)
• We should attempt to locate some particular
  conversational organisation and isolate its
  systematic features by demonstrating
  participants orientations to it.
• We should ask
• (1) What problems does this organisation solve,
  and
• (2) What problems does this organisation raise
  and therefore what implications does it have for
  the existence of further solutions to further
  problems

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Conversation analysis an example transcript
Context eight-year-old child phoning her
grandmother who lives some distance away and who
she has not seen for some time. The conversation
opens very soon after the grandmother answers the
phone i.e. it is the child who is making the
call.
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Extract 1
1. Ro Hi 2. Gm in your neck
of the woods 3. (4.3) 4. Gm its lovely down
here 5. (0.4) 6. Ro yea 7. Gm
sure its going to rain again in a minute xxx
difficult 8. Ro
its
very bright
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Extract 2
8 Ro
its very bright
9 (0.6) 10 Gm ?eh 11 Ro its very bright
down ?here 12 (0.6) 13 Gm I cant hear
you 14 Ro IT (.) IS (.)
VERY(.) BRIGHT 15 (0.2) 16 Gm it is very
bright its called a watery sun 17 (0.5) 18 Ro
a watery (laugh)
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Extract 3

• 21 Gm thats very very very very bright
• 22 (0.4)
• 23 Ro ?is it?
• 24 (0.6)
• 25 Gm right?
• 26 Ro its bright yellow
• 27 (0.5)
• Gm what can I do gtfor yoult
• (note see next slide for continuation)

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Extract 3
30 Ro nothing I just wanted to talk to
you 31 Gm oh 32 (0.3) 33 Gm go on then (.)
talk to ?me 34 (0.2) 35 Ro em 36 (0.9)
37 Ro em 38 Gm listen you you
forgot your ?orchid 39 (0.5) 40 Ro oh
41 (0.5) 42 Ro OH silly me 43 (1.0)
44 Ro ?silly ?me
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Extract 4
44 Ro ?silly ?me 45 Gm xxx without
it 46 (1.0) 47 Ro silly me 48 (0.4) 49 Gm si
lly you yes thats true 50 (0.8) 51 Gm you
take after your Dad 52 Ro ha-ha (laughing
noise) 53 (0.4) 54 Ro em 55 (1.0)
56 Ro ?Ill tell you about my
homework 57 (0.2) 58 Gm good 59 (0.8)
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Extract 5
56 Ro ?Ill tell you about my homework 57 (0.2
) 58 Gm good 59 (0.8) 60 Ro ehm Ill read you
(unintelligable) ??Weekends homework 61
thats to be gthanded in on
Mondaylt 62 (0.5) 63 Ro write a poem or short
description about ?baby joe 64 (0.5)
65 Ro em 66 Gm about who? 67 (0.2)
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Extract 6
Lines 65 101 of extract 2 (from the how to
do CA guide)
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Guide for the practical

• http//www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/department/people
  /forresterma/c8MFx.pdf

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Turn-taking rules

• RULE 1 This rule applies to the first transition
  relevant place of any turn
• (a) If the current speaker selects the next
  speaker during the current turn then the current
  speaker must stop speaking and the next speaker
  must speak next. And he/she must speak next at
  the first transition relevant place after this
  'next speaker' selection
• (b) If the speaker does not select a next
  speaker during a current turn, then anybody else
  present (other parties) can self-select and the
  first person to do this will gain 'speaker
  rights' at the next turn.
• (c) If the current speaker has not selected the
  next speaker and nobody else self-selects then
  the speaker can continue (although this is not a
  requirement). In doing so he/she gains a right to
  have a further turn-constructional unit.
• RULE 2 When rule 1 (c) has been applied by the
  current speaker, then at the next transition
  relevant pause, rules 1 (a) to 1 (c) apply again,
  and keep reapplying until speaker change is
  accomplished.
• The set of rules and the elements used by people
  to indicate transition relevant places are
  conceived of as a system - a system which is
  designed to faciliate the 'turn-taking'
  organisation central to conversation.
• How to do conversation analysis a brief guide

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• A turn-taking check-list (for observing and/or
  analysing recorded conversation). (Adapted from
  Sacks, Schlegoff and Jefferson, 1974).
• 1. Speaker-change recurs, or at least occurs
• 2. Overwhelmingly, one party speaks at a time
• 3. Occurrences of more than one speaker at a
  time are common, but brief
• 4. Transitions (from one turn to the next) with
  no gap and no overlap are common. Together with
  transitions characterised by slight gap or slight
  overlap, they make up the vast majority of
  transitions.
• 5. Turn order is not fixed, but varies
• 6. Turn size is not fixed, but varies
• 7. Length of conversation is not specified in
  advance
• 8. What parties say is not specified in advance
• 9. Relative distribution of turns is not
  specified in advance
• 10. Number of parties can vary
• 11. Talk can be continuous or discontinuous
• 12. Turn allocation techniques are obviously
  mixed (see rules above).
• 13. Various turn-constructional links are
  employed, e.g., turn can be projected one word
  long or they can be sentential in length
• 14. Repair mechanisms exist for dealing with
  turn-taking errors and violations, e.g., if two
  parties find themselves talking at the same time,
  one of them will stop prematurely, thus repairing
  the trouble.

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Adjacency pairs

• 1.Telephone rings SUMMONS 1st PP
• 2. DaveHello? Answer 2nd PP to 1.
• 3. Chris Hello, there Greeting 1st PP
• 4. is that Dave? Question 1st PP
• 5. Dave Yea, Answer 2nd PP to 4.
• 6. hi Answer 2nd PP to 3.
• 7. Chris How are you? Question 1st PP
• 8. Dave Not bad, Answer 2nd PP to 7.
• 9. how's yourself? Question 1st PP
• 10. Chris Good Answer 2nd PP to 9.
• 11.The reason I'm calling is Topic initiation.
• PP pair part

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• Qualitative methods conversation analysis
  comparing non-institutional (informal) talk with
  institutional talk
• Informal talk 3 friends chatting
• Institutional talk
• (a) doctor-patient interaction
• (b) courtroom talk
• (c) classroom talk
• (d) police-suspect talk
• (e) radio phone-in talk
• (f) job interview

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What next?

• Week 1 Introduction now!
• Week 2 Selecting your files to transcribe and
  getting used to using PRAAT
• Week 3 Transcription
• Week 4 Analysis
• Week 5 Write up

Praat Praat is a program for speech analysis
and synthesis see http//www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
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Summary

• Read the guide!
• Think about talk!
• Listen to people around you and consider how they
  produce talk-in-interaction