Thomas J. Leeper > Teaching > Public Opinion, Political Psychology, and Citizenship > Problem Set 1

Problem Set 1: Qualitative Interviewing

Purpose

The purpose of this problem set is to assess your understanding of one key method of qualitative public opinion research: small-group and individual interviewing.

Overview

You are asked to focus on one of the assigned readings for Week 1, examine the methods used in the text, and evaluate various aspects of those methods.

Your Task

  1. Read the Conover, Searing, and Crewe text, “The Elusive Ideal of Equal Citizenship” Journal of Politics 66(4): 1036-1068.

  2. What is the research question in this article?

  3. What is the research design used in this study? What kinds of comparisons are intended by the authors and how do those comparisons help them to answer their research question?

  4. How are focus groups used by the authors? How do they draw inferences relevant to their research question from the answers that participants supply during the focus groups? Is this evidence compelling, why or why not?

  5. How are the quantitative survey data used by the authors? How do they draw inferences relevant to their research question from the answers that participants supply to closed-ended survey measures? Is this evidence compelling, why or why not?

  6. The text uses both “open-ended” questions (those allowing research participants to articulate answers in their own words) and “closed-ended” questions (those which require research participants to map their responses to questions a fixed set of predetermined response options). Discuss the relative merits of these questionnaire designs, with specific reference to ways that each were helpful or unhelpful for Conover et al.’s research.

Submission Instructions

Please submit your answers as a PDF document via Moodle. It should be no more than 4 pages, single-spaced, in Times New Roman font size 12, on A4 paper with standard 2.54cm margins. This problem set is self-assessed. A solution set will be provided on the course website and the activity will be discussed in class.

Feedback

Group feedback will be provided during class. If you would like more specific individual feedback on your work, please ask the instructor during office hours.