Transcript Explain the Effects of participant expectations and

Explain the Effects of participant
expectations and researcher bias in
qualitative research
Participant expectations
• Like with quantitative
research there does exist
demand characteristics
(Hawthorne effect).
• Social Desirability Effect
– Participant feels they have to
respond to questions or
behave in a way that meets
societal norms.
– They could be less honest
about drug use or sexual
practices etc…
Explain the Effects of participant expectations
and researcher bias in qualitative research
Participant expectations
• Participants may also
want to “help out” the
researcher by giving
info they think the
researcher is “looking
for”.
Explain the Effects of participant expectations
and researcher bias in qualitative research
Researcher expectations
• Researcher bias is when
the researcher fails to
maintain objectivity and
so their beliefs affect
the outcome of the
study.
Explain the Effects of participant expectations
and researcher bias in qualitative research
Inductive Content Analysis
• this is especially true in
inductive content analysis
(pulling hypothesis from the
data instead of having a
hypothesis then testing it).
• When the researcher is
looking for “emerging
themes” in the transcript of
the interviews, they may
look for themes that
confirm their pre-existing
beliefs.
• Or when they are facilitating
a focus group.
Explain the Effects of participant expectations
and researcher bias in qualitative research