Glossary

Glossary

 

  • Active Listener – Someone who is visibly engaged through eye contact and body language, pays attention to the subtleties in tone and word-selection the informant and take notes that will lead to follow-up questions based on the responses of the interviewee.
  • Anonymity—a research subject has anonymity when there is no way to connect them to the specific data they supplied.
  • Autoethnography—A reflective process that engages the personal stories of the researcher to understand the larger context
  • BiasBias is defined as any tendency which prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question. In research, bias occurs when “systematic error [is] introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others.”
  • Building rapport – You build rapport when you develop mutual trust, friendship and affinity with someone.
  • Code – The marking of patterns, commonalities and differences between events described by an individual, or in comparison to other narratives collected.
  • Code of ethics—A code of ethics directs people or organizations in making decisions that are in line with their values
  • Confidentiality—a research subject has confidentiality if their identities are known by the researchers but protected from exposure
  • Cultural Norms– the shared expectations and rules of behavior and practice within a particular culture or society
  • Cultural Relativism– the concept that people’s beliefs and practices should be understood based on their own cultural norms and not judged based on those of another culture
  • Debriefing—following the end of a research project, debriefing is recommended or required to ensure no harm has come to research subjects
  • Deception—not revealing the true nature, purpose or process of a research study
  • Empathy– the ability to deeply understand and share the feelings of another through their perspective or point of view
  • Epiphanies—some event or occurrence that changes the perspective, direction or understanding of the person to whom it occurs
  • Ethnocentrism– using the cultural norms of your own culture to evaluate and judge the beliefs and practices of another culture
  • Ethnographer – A researcher who studies a phenomenon with first-hand experience through methods of survey, interviews, observation, mapping, among others. This is done over a longer period of time.
  • Ethnographic methods – Techniques used for data collection in research projects that can be qualitative or quantitative. Ethnographic methods include interviews, participant-observation, focus groups, mapping, or surveys.
  • Ethnography – A research method that employs a strategy that includes both active participation and passive observation. Ethnography is writing about people over time.
  • Field notes the notes created by the researcher to remember and record the behaviors, activities, events, and other features of an observation
  • Field sites –the location or environment an ethnographer is studying
  • Formal Interviews –Interviews where an interviewee is asked a list of prepared, generally open-ended questions to gather details and anecdotes that provide depth to respective projects.
  • Hawthorne effect—When people often change their behavior when they know they are being watched as part of a study
  • Ideal Culture – The way a group hopes others perceive their community or society.
  • Immersion– the research method in which ethnographers completely surrounds themselves in a culture they are studying to gain in depth knowledge about it
  • Informal Interviews – Casual exchanges with informants to gather background information for your project and often in preparation for a formal interview.
  • Informed Consent Forms – Forms designed to give the interviewee an opportunity to declare in what context they are comfortable with their oral history being used.
  • Informed consent—research participants must have an understanding of the research project before giving their consent
  • Institutional Review Board—the group of people who review research to ensure that it the benefits outweigh the risks to human subjects
  • Interview Guide/Schedule/Frame – A list of questions prepared beforehand to organize an interview.
  • Jottings notes that are taken in the field that then get developed into fieldnotes
  • Key Participants – The object or persons under investigation.
  • Mapping – In qualitative market research, mapping involves asking interviewees or group participants to sort or ‘map’ objects (or representations of objects) according to how they are seen or thought of.
  • Objective stance – Researchers must make sure to keep an open and objective mind and not bring any preconceived outcomes or notions to the study.
  • Objectivity – the quality or character of being objective: lack of favoritism toward one side or another.
  • Observer bias—When researchers unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations
  • Open-Ended Questions – Questions that avoid yes/no responses by seeking stories or the “why and “how”.
  • Participant Observation: When researchers join people and participate in a group’s routine activities for the purpose of observing them within that context
  • Participant-observer – A participant-observer is a researcher who utilizes ethnography as a way to document data. They become both an active participant and a passive observer.
  • Participant-observer – A participant-observer is a researcher who utilizes ethnography as a way to document data. They become both an active participant and a passive observer.
  • Qualitative Interviews – Organized by open-ended questions that seek in-depth explanations of traditions, experiences and perceptions. They provide space for follow-up questions and illuminate the “why” and “how” of a participant’s experience.
  • Real Culture – The way a group, community or society actually functions.
  • Research strategy – A step-by-step plan of action that gives direction to a researcher’s thoughts and efforts and enables them to conduct research systematically and on schedule to produce quality results and detailed reporting.
  • Research subjects – A research subject is a person who decides to participate in a research study.
  • Semi-Structured Interviews – An interview that flexibly follows a list of open-ended questions, while providing space for follow-up questions that illuminate the “why” and “how” of a particular participant’s unique experience.
  • Social or cultural awareness – Researching a culture prior to beginning the study, if possible.
  • Time commitment – Ethnography requires the research study to happen over a longer period of time. Hence, making ethnography a less desirable method when conducting single incident research topics.
  • Transcribing – A typed-up version of the interview that either you, or someone else creates by listening to the recording.
  • Triangulation using a variety of methods to gather data in one field site to study to same thing.
  • Unstructured Interviews – Interviews that allow the discussion to freely venture from subject to subject, often without a written list of questions to guide the conversation
  • Validity—The data the researcher is collecting is a true representation of the information he or she is measuring
  • Value neutrality—not allowing your biases to have an effect on the outcomes of your research
  • Value-centered—allowing personal values to dictate which direction is taken
  • Western/Non-Western– refers to cultures with belief systems and societal structures that originate from or are influenced by Europe (including, broadly, the United States)/refers to cultures with belief systems and societal structures that did not originate through European influence (NOTE: these are general terms and no society is completely Western or non-Western in a globalized world)