Collecting Qualitative Data

Virginia Braun is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. A feminist and critical psychologist, she has researched and published extensively on gender, bodies, sex/sexuality and health. She is co-author of the award-winning textbook Successful Qualitative Research (2013) as well as numerous other methodological works. Notably, with Victoria Clarke, she developed an approach to thematic analysis that has become a very widely used qualitative method in the social and health sciences. Victoria Clarke is an Associate Professor in Sexuality Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has published three prize-winning books, including most recently Successful Qualitative Research (2013). She has conducted ESRC and British Academy funded research on family and relationships, and has published over 70 papers on topics including appearance psychology, human sexuality, LGBTQ psychology and qualitative methods. With Virginia Braun, she developed an approach to thematic analysis that has become a very widely used qualitative method in the social and health sciences. Debra Gray is a Reader in Social Psychology at the University of Winchester. She is a critical social psychologist whose work explores the intersecting areas of social, political and environmental psychology. She has published widely on many topics relating to participation in political, community and health settings and collective socio-spatial identities and intergroup relations. She has an ongoing interest in the intersection of research and practice, and works with many third-sector and public-sector organisations. She has expertise in a wide range of qualitative methods, and she is interested in creative (and multi-modal) ways to collect, analyse and use qualitative data.

1. Collecting textual, media and virtual data in qualitative research Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke and Debra Gray; Part I. Textual Data Collection: 2. Short but often sweet: the surprising potential of qualitative survey methods Gareth Terry and Virginia Braun; 3. Once upon a time…: story completion methods Victoria Clarke, Nikki Hayfield, Naomi Moller, Irmgard Tischner and the Story Completion Research Group; 4. Hypothetically speaking: using vignettes as a stand-alone qualitative method Debra Gray, Bronwen Royall and Helen Malson; 5. 'Coughing everything out': the solicited diary method Paula Meth; Part II. Media Data Collection: 6. Making media data: an introduction to qualitative media research Laura García-Favaro, Rosalind Gill and Laura Harvey; 7. 'God's great leveller': talkback radio as qualitative data Scott Hanson-Easey and Martha Augoustinos; 8. Archives of everyday life: using blogs in research Nicholas Hookway; 9. Online discussion forums: a rich and vibrant source of data David Giles; Part III. Virtual Data Collection: 10. 'Type me your answer': generating interview data via email Lucy Gibson; 11. A productive chat: instant messaging interviewing Pamela J. Lannutti; 12. I'm not with you, yet I am… virtual face-to-face interviews Paul Hanna and Shadreck Mwale; 13. Meeting in virtual spaces: conducting online focus groups Fiona Fox.