Analyzing Group Interactions

A Guidebook for Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods

Matthias Huber, Dominik E. Froehlich, Matthias Huber, Dominik E. Froehlich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000059489
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Research & Methodology in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Analyzing Group Interactions gives a comprehensive overview of the use of different methods for the analysis of group interactions. International experts from a range of different disciplines within the social sciences illustrate their step-by-step procedures of how they analyze interactions within groups and explain what kind of data and skills are needed to get started.

Each method is discussed in the same, structured manner, focusing on each method's strengths and weaknesses, its applicability and requirements, and the precise workflow to "follow along" when analyzing group interactions with the respective method. The analyzing strategies covered in this book include ethnographical approaches, phenomenology, content analysis, documentary method, discourse analysis, grounded theory, social network analysis, quantitative ratings, and several triangulative and mixed-method research designs.

This volume is recommended for researchers at all levels that need guidance with the complex task of analyzing group interactions. The unified structure throughout the book facilitates comparison across the different methods and helps with deciding on the approach to be taken.

1

ANALYZING GROUP INTERACTIONS

Matthias Huber and Dominik E. Froehlich

Within the social sciences, there is an extensive number of books about methods and methodologies that cover aspects of implementation, quality, and legitimation. In addition to books on cross-disciplinary approaches focusing on qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, or triangulation perspectives, there are those that provide methodological contextualizations and epistemologically or historically situate their topic within specific academic disciplines, traditions of thought, or methodological paradigms. Both views share the intentions of providing an adequate introduction to either a discipline or a paradigm, presenting connected methods, and discussing their application and function critically against the backdrop of their theoretical foundations. However, the present guidebook has a different purpose. This edited volume aims to give a practical overview of different methods of analyzing group interactions. It features a variety of current methodological approaches, all of which aim to examine the dynamic and reciprocal nature of communication and behavior within social groups. In the following chapters, experts demonstrate how to apply a specific method to their field of research while working with different groups of people. They also explain the requirements of each method, so that an informed decision can be made about how to tackle the analysis. The major thrust of this edited volume is therefore an educational one. Purely conceptual or paradigmatic discussions are excluded.

This guidebook is rooted in the daily practice of research. It seems that researchers of different disciplines and fields come up with very similar questions regarding their research activities on social groups. This is especially the case in scientific analyses of group interaction in various social contexts, such as at school, university, therapy, practicing politics, or conducting everyday work. The same problems and questions seem to occur again and again. This is especially true for methodical and methodological issues, including questions about combining and/or integrating methods, scientific quality criteria, research ethics, study designs, sampling, etc. Most of the time, the answers to these questions are of a theoretical or methodological nature and thus are reasoned or performatively legitimized with the aid of literature. While this is a fundamental and indispensable step to carrying out research, this “meta-theoretical reasoning” leads to abstract discussion, rather than practical methodological debate. Put differently, methodologies elucidate the epistemic conditions of possibility of science; they act as a link between epistemology and the philosophy of science. However, they often fail to provide much practical information in the way of specifics on applications of particular techniques. And this is where a crucial issue of science and the production of scientific knowledge becomes visible. The reasoning behind a methodological theory and its legitimation as a producer of scientific knowledge earns more attention than its application, the actual process of scientific knowledge production as methodical practice. Moreover, it seems as though there is a self-imposed interdiction in the exchange of research practices. This stifles the debate about research practices; researchers rarely discuss how they achieved their results openly, nor do they honestly disclose the benefits, limitations, difficulties, and challenges of their approach. Seldom do researchers confess to any discrepancy between their method and research objects and even more seldom are courageous declarations that their methodical approach did not lead to “significant” results. Phrases such as “this interpretation cannot be traced back to its initial conditions” or “the circular process of knowledge production simply cannot be reduced to an unpretentious workflow” seem familiar and might sometimes be called for. But is science and the production of knowledge indeed an error-free, automatic, non-transparent process reserved for a circle of privileged insiders? Or does the scientific self-conception have room for repeated cycles of trial, error, failure, and adaption, which might identify a more or less effective procedure that generates valid (but still limited) results? This idea of openly discussing one’s own learning experiences, including failures and disappointments, prompted a series of workshops at the University of Vienna. The aim of this workshop series was thus to test and discuss the application of practices of different methodical approaches. The underlying idea was to open space for reflection, communication, and discussion concerning different methods along with their benefits and limitations through examples of research and case material. A main concern was to establish a respectful and open-minded setting, allowing each participant to engage with critical questions and to address any concerns related to their own practical empirical work. The shared ideas were then discussed in a multi-disciplinary plenum of researchers and experts. That project received incredible positive feedback, increasing public interest in the exchange of practical research knowledge was garnered, and the number of participants coming from different disciplines, institutions, and countries continued to grow. That confirmed for us the value of publishing a book that allows this kind of exchange and its underlying principles to reach an international audience.

This book addresses students and researchers at all levels. It focuses on young scholars and junior researchers at the PhD or postdoctoral level from different academic disciplines interested in research within group settings. Moreover, the book can be used in academic teaching and learning since it summarizes different well-established methodological approaches in a current and emerging field of research in the social sciences and humanities. Although the book’s main fields of interest are education, sociology, and psychology, it is not limited to a specific epistemology or academic discipline. In this sense, it is also not limited to an academic audience; practitioners like teachers, therapists, supervisors, coaches, and analysts could use the book for their own work in group settings.

Each chapter of the book follows the same structure. They include a general introduction of the method or research design, a discussion of their applicability and their requirements, insight into the scope of the method, a step-by-step explanation of how to analyze group interaction, as well as a reflection of the advantages and limitations of the method. This standardized structure is considered to be a particular strength, as it allows for better comparison across methodological approaches – an aspect that is missing in existing works. Consequently, this book can be considered a guidebook for scholars seeking to study group interactions. It gives answers to research-related questions ranging from how best to formulate research questions to how to accurately present results.

Regarding the content, this edited volume is comprised of three main sections. The first part deals with traditional, qualitative-orientated methodical approaches for group analysis. The second part presents different mixed and quantitative ways to approach the analysis of groups in interactions. In the third part, special applications and topics of studying group interactions are discussed by experts that position themselves in between methodical discourses. Our guiding belief is that openly communicating concerning these less talked about issues will improve the quality of research done on groups and their dynamics.

Part I, as previously mentioned, provides an overview of different traditions of methods that are often used in the analysis of social groups: Ethnography, Phenomenology, Content Analysis, documentary method, Discourse Analysis, and Grounded Theory.

Matthias Herrle (2020) introduces microethnography by asking how naturally occurring interactions work in settings such as classrooms. Microethnographers generate video recordings to investigate, in great detail, how interactants produce the social organization of everyday life. This first chapter introduces methodical strategies that researchers apply, discusses their limitations, and provides practical advice for using video recordings in microethnography.

Sales Severin Rödel (2020) presents pedagogical-phenomenological video analysis as a methodological approach specifically designed for the analysis of video data from different kinds of pedagogical contexts. The research method combines the phenomenological attitude, which is sensitive towards individual experiences and the specific logic of the life-world, with pedagogical theory and the benefits of video research methodology. The combination has the ability to depict social situations in both their sequentiality and simultaneity.

Matthias Huber (2020) discusses Video-Based Content Analysis as a qualitative method that examines manifest and latent meaning of communication documented via audiovisual data. Through this method one might access the subjective reality of life and obtain a broad understanding of the causes of human thinking, acting, and feeling. The chapter demonstrates that Video-Based Content Analysis is a precise and systematic tool for analyzing individuals and/or groups in interaction following a consecutive step-by-step procedure.

Julia Reischl and Thomas Plotz (2020) introduce the documentary method by investigating and exploring Bohnsack, Pfaff, and Weller’s “frameworks of orientation,” which is used in research on students and their descriptions of interactions, especially those with one teacher. The reader is guided through the path of formative and reflective interpretation to find these frameworks. The aim is to give an example of how the method works and how it may be adapted to fit research questions.

Michael Brandmayr (2020) presents the most important methodological principles of discourse analyses and their practical applications. Discourse analyses can be helpful for questions that focus on the development and change of educational institutions such as schools and their internal processes. Group interactions, for example, could be examined to determine how model practices, sets of rules, and patterns of interpretation for (pedagogical) action have changed over the years and how they guide interactions such as structuring mechanisms today.

Andrea Schaffar (2020) discusses Grounded Theory, an interpretative and challenging, but powerful, methodology for the analysis of groups in interaction. She establishes that Grounded Theory does not follow a one-size-fits-all approach and that a unique path of research for a project needs to be found while it is being conducted. The reader is guided through the most important processes of doing Grounded Theory research, including memo writing, making constant comparisons, coding, and generating grounded theories.

Part II focuses on mixed and quantitative approaches to analyzing group interactions. The first four chapters of this part focus on quantitative and mixed approaches to social network analysis in the study of group interactions. This set of relational methods have become popular in the last few decades, especially in learning and education research, where a lot can be learned through an examination of the constitution and interplay of social relationships.

Mathias Mejeh (2020) presents a variant of network analysis, with which it is possible to record, analyze, and compare different social structures. He introduces the method and its language and shows that social network analysis not only allows for the combining of qualitative and quantitative research approaches, it presupposes it.

Suna Ryu (2020) complements social network analysis with critical discourse analysis. She presents a mixed-method design that combines critical discourse analysis and social network analysis as an effective method of analyzing group interactions from a sociocultural learning perspective. When critical discourse analysis is applied in group interactions, the discourses are analyzed in terms of their structure and functional uses and are interpreted reflectively from the implications of the cultural resources that are distributed and their expected impacts. On the other hand, SNA enables researchers to understand the structure and dynamics of group interactions by collecting and analyzing the real-time flows of interactions and information.

Jasperina Brouwer and Dominik Froehlich (2020) introduce one form of longitudinal social network analysis. Longitudinal social network analysis enables researchers to investigate interactions among group members over time. It allows researchers to model individuals’ positions within groups and personal characteristics or attributes simultaneously, as well as how they change. This method is capable of differentiating between so-called selection effects and influence effects. The authors guide the reader through the process of conducting longitudinal social network analysis, including the basics of stochastic actor-based modeling.

Dominik Froehlich and Femke Van der Wilt (2020) advocate for an approach in which a pre-study is integrated into research on group interactions. They call this approach Mixed Structural Group Interaction Analysis. According to this approach, the aim of the pre-study is to collect data on latent social relationships that inform the data collection, analysis, and interpretation of the main research. The authors show how a relational pre-study could be integrated with group interaction data collection and analysis in a mixed-methods research design.

Tina Hascher, Anja Winkler, and Noemi Casola (2020) introduce a new mixed-methods instrument called “rating conference.” It combines a short preceding questionnaire (“rating”) with a subsequent structured focus group interview (“conference”). A core characteristic of a rating conference is the integration of qualitative and quantitative data assessment. In the chapter, the authors describe how merging the two methods into one instrument reveals an individual’s as well as a collective perspective on the research topic. This helps to understand distinct as well as shared knowledge.

Claude Muller (2020) shows how a mixed and participative method can be used to evaluate social interactions in a way that respects the ontological and epistemological assumption of dialectical pluralism. After a brief discussion of the underlying methodology, this chapter highlights the applicability and requirements of this evaluation method and provides step-by-step guidance for the entire evaluation process. It closes with a critical reflection, highlighting the benefits and limitations of an evaluation method.

In Part III, we present special applications and topics for analyzing group interactions.

Hannelore Reicher (2020) presents photovoice as a qualitative research method rooted in community-based participatory research. Using photography and stories about their photographs, participants can identify important issues related to a specific research focus. The author argues and shows that combining visuals and narratives offers accurate insight into the participant’s subjective point of view.

May Jehle (2020) focuses on the possibilities and limitations of reconstructing learning processes based on videography of classroom interactions. She focuses on the question of how participants organize their classroom communication, with the premise that they use communication to (re)present teaching and learning processes. She does so with an approach called ethnomethodological reconstruction.

Martina Cabra (2020) outlines a hybrid methodology for the study of group interactions that is suited to the problematization of social categories in the research process. The ethnographic approach is reframed within a sociocultural perspective and thus called dialogical ethnography. The author describes this exploratory methodology for qualitative analysis, which involves constructing a data corpus from theoretically informed participant observations. This method can be used in dialogical case studies and in multi-method or mixed-method designs to understand social categories as they appear and are negotiated in interaction.

Alexander Schmölz (2020) demonstrates how two different methods for collecting and analyzing data from group interactions in classrooms, the documentary method and the Narrative-Structural Method, may be combined. Taken together, these methods constitute a research design that allows the researcher to combine two qualitative methods and combine data from group interactions to show both shared habits and structural processes of life stories.

Kathrin Trunkenpolz (2020) presents an observation method that has an underpinning in psychoanalysis: the Tavistock method. This research method is useful when research interests focus on the detailed analysis of conscious and unconscious intrapsychic and interpersonal processes of individuals interacting w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1 Analyzing group interactions
• Part I Qualitative analysis of group interactions
• Part II Mixed and quantitative analysis of group interactions
• Part III Special applications and topics in analyzing group interactions
• List of Contributors
• Index