Research Methods Are Fun!: Recent Episodes
Laura Huey
In this series I try to demystify and - dare I say it? - make research methods a little bit more interesting and accessible.
I know a lot of people dread the thought of converting their qualitative data into 'units of analysis', but I will break this down for you in a way that should make it much less unbearable (special focus on grounded and thematic approaches).
Two methods for the price of one! Yes, in this episode I cover both systematic social observation (which can be used in both quantitative and qualitative studies) and systematic reviews (focusing on qualitative).
Historical sociology - from archival research to the use of historical documents and family records - opens up all sorts of new possibilities for understanding not only our past, but also our present and future. Learn more here!
Participatory action research can an ideal way of doing truly community-engaged research. Interested in using your research to make a difference in communities? Learn how!
Living in the digital age has presented us with lots of opportunities to access new and different types of communications ... and provided researchers with lots of potential for data collection! Read Reddit? Use Twitter? Read newspapers online? All data!
This is a topic that is not often addressed in research methods courses and I cannot understand why! Visual methods of data collection to the use of visual tools for communicating social science research - it's all cool! Learn more here.
Learn the tips and tricks to successful interviewing for researchers. From weird stuff like eye contact to 'awful disclosures', there's a lot of information here to help you out.
We pick up where we left off with me giving you a lot more details about the practical side of doing field-based research. If you're interested in field work but are a little bit uncertain about the basics, I got you covered.
In this episode I give you a primer on what is ethnography (a fancy term for field-based research) and some ins and outs on different forms of ethnography.
Yes, I know ... you've heard all about Milgram and you don't need to be told not to torture people. In this episode, you'll also learn a bit about research ethics boards, what they do and how to minimize the pain & anguish that can come from multiple revisions to your research ethics protocol.
I know, I know ... you think this stuff is boring. I got it. But, actually, it's not only interesting, it can also be a bit fun. How so? Qualitative research allows for creativity in thinking about the social world and how you approach it.