Dear Colleagues,
After having some quite useful discussion with some colleagues (but not expert in this field) about two major methodological aspects of my PHD-Thesis I am still quite uncertain and still looking for useful references in order to justify my research design.
Currently, I examine the way language is used in “heated debates” / “crosstalk” charged with emotions due to a specific constellation, for examples during amateur football / soccer games.
Therefore, I choose a triangular (qualitative) approach (semi-conductive interviews, participant observation and content analysis) in order to generate hypothesis which will be tested through a standardized online-survey (classic sequential mixed-methods approach).
The semi-conductive interviews (one singular semi-standardized questionnaire) were being conducted by students from 2 different universities in 2 different cities, at 3 survey periods (autumn 2016, spring 2017 and autumn 2017), the participant observation was being conducted over one season likewise the content analysis of one chat protocol. Consequently, previous (even if superficial) results influences posterior findings (especially observation). However, I do not project to compare period 1 with period 2 or findings generated through observation with findings obtained through a content analyses of a chat protocol. It is rather about having a large amount of data in order to generate useful hypothesis which will be tested afterwards.
My questions are therefore:
1. Is it rather a longitudinal or a cross section study? Maybe something in between, like a (special) trend analysis? Do you know relevant and recent published literature?
2. Given that I chose to observe as a (secret) participant a group of football players (the idea to do so came by playing with them and hearing what they said) without having an “informed consensus”, I would like to know, if you have convincing arguments which “justifies” the procedure or if you know relevant literature dealing with this topic.
Many thanks.
Kinds Regards
