Nikki Danganan

Effects of researcher qualitative research

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Qualitative research gives out qualitative data, which is a descriptive written form. Qualitative data contains a large amount of in-depth and rich information. In qualitative research, probing questions are used in a small amount of samples. The most preventative examples for qualitative are interviews, observations or content analysis. However, in qualitative research, there is a great chance that researcher bias occurs. Researcher bias is known as experimenter bias. It is a process where the researcher performing the research influences the results, in order to describe a certain outcome. Researcher bias normally occurs to have the aim to reduce the objectivity in the experiment. Researcher bias most likely to occur during data collection processes, such as: interview, observation or case study (interpreting information) as during those processes, there are direct interactions between researchers and participants. Researcher bias often happens through leading questions or sensitive topics of the researchers to the participants. The behavior or facial expressions of the researcher might also play a vital role in the bias to the participants. During qualitative research, there is usually impact of the researchers that can affect the answers of the participants. As a result, the results collected might not be trustworthy if the influence of the researcher was high. However, if the influence of the researchers was low then that means the results are still usable to some extent. The research of Thigpen and Cleckleys (1954) showed that there were effects of researcher bias in the research. The research was about multiple personality. The bias comes from the questions of whether the behavior of the subject was being influenced by being studied. It is possible that the subjects behavior was completely to do with being observed. Some aspects of the subjects behavour and experience were enhanced or hidden away. Besides, the effects might be just as troublesome for psychological research as outright pretence and considerably to detect. Another research that supported the presence of effects of researcher bias in qualitative research was the research of Rosenthal and Fode (1963). Their finding that even the behavior of rats can be influenced by the expectations of experimenters has far-research implication for psychological research. Incidentally, this is something that can affect all types of psychological research, not just experiments, so the label experimenter effect is somewhat misleading. Generally, it is difficult to prevent researcher bias in a study but it is possible to minimize its effects on the results by making changes on the researcher, the processes or the method of interaction between the researcher and the participants. The research of Thigpen and Cleckley and Rosenthal and Fode actually showed the existence of

Nikki Danganan

researcher bias during qualitative research. As researcher bias somehow reduces the validity of the results. Therefore, during a research, the low the researcher bias is, the higher the validity rate is. In order to avoid researcher bias to occur in qualitative research to keep the validity of the research high, there should be more than 1 researcher while carrying out the data collection method. Plus, the leading questions should be appropriate and not sensitive. And the researchers should have suitable attitude and behavior.