No 58 (2024)

The most used scale in Russia for measuring social identification includes the general question formulation "Please indicate for each group how often you feel a sense of closeness..." followed by a list of social groups for which the respondent must assess their closeness, using the gradations "often," "sometimes," "almost never," and "difficult to say". There is a possibility of increasing the number of gradations of this scale. Its two forms — the traditional categorical and the rating — can be empirically compared, firstly, in terms of how reducible the rating scale is to the categorical one, and secondly, in terms of the strength of statistical relationships formed with control variables when using both forms of the scale.Both forms of the scale were applied in a study of the social identity of Russian consumers conducted by the "Expert Sociology" company. The items from the materialism scale developed by M. Richins and S. Dawson in its modified adaptation in Russian by V. A. Khashchenko were taken as control variables. The analysis showed that in the traditional categorical form of the social identification scale, the gradation "difficult to say" does not maintain a consistent relationship with other response options. Transforming the scale into a kind of a Likert scale by converting categories into scores allows for the discovery of statistical relationships where the traditional form shows their absence. Therefore, in terms of information content, the rating scale may surpass the traditional one. However, the traditional form of the scale is more suitable for supporting managerial decisions.

Focus groups are one of the fundamental methods that provide information in the social sciences. However, it remains the subject of heated discussions at the most general level - about the substantive aspects of the implementation of this method and even about its definition. In particular, the question is discussed whether some of the methodological decisions proposed under the name of "focus groups" are directly erroneous and counterproductive. Such a situation can damage the development of both the scientific disciplines associated with the use of focus groups and the market of applied sociological research. To mitigate such risks, the author proposes to adopt an industry standard for focus group research, which will contain a description of the basic version of the method and rules for working with its various versions.The set of norms proposed as a draft industry standard affects the actions of social researchers in organizing and conducting focus groups from the moment of receiving a request to interacting with the customer after the presentation of the report, and includes 7 stages. At each stage, measures are proposed that can clarify communication, explicate the implied mutual obligations of the participants, and give focus group research customers clear guidelines to assess the quality of the services they acquire. On the other hand, it protects researchers conducting focus groups from unreasonable demands and claims from the customer.The presentation of the author's proposals in the form of a draft standard implies their openness to criticism, discussion, addition, and even complete change. The author also grants permission in advance for the use of the draft standard by any interested person at their discretion.Keywords: focus groups, focused interviews, group interviews, quality of sociological data, standardization, regulation, industry standard

The paper presents an overview of the experience of using the semantic differential method in familistic research, primarily based on the example of studying the need for children and reproductive attitudes. The effectiveness of the method for assessing the value orientations of respondents and their perceptions of family-child lifestyles is demonstrated. Based on the data from the SeDOZh-2019 survey, examples are provided that illustrate how this method helps overcome the effect of socially desirable responses by measuring the connotative meanings of concepts that characterize the respondent's deep emotional attitudes rather than their rational views on existing values. Using data from a paired survey of spouses within the same study, the results of the application of the semantic differential are presented to identify the degree of closeness of views among family members and to characterize the family semantic space. The heterogeneity of intra-family perceptions of family-child lifestyles is highlighted, within which there are two axes of spousal agreement: attitudes towards childfree lifestyles and their reproductive attitudes expressed in relation to families with one, two, and three children. These results demonstrate the potential for further development and use of the semantic differential in sociological research.

The article addresses the issue of selecting an application for conducting online interviews. An attempt is made to describe the specifics of qualitative online interviews from the perspective of methodological principles that impose constraints, open opportunities, and set requirements for online interview tools. As a result of analyzing these principles, a list of parameters for the applications suitable for comparison is formulated: no restrictions in the free version; unlimited conference duration; capability for video recording; screen sharing capability; ability to use without video; a separate conference chat; automatic chat saving; ability to use without an account; capability for interviewing informants in non-Russian-speaking environments; integration with electronic calendars. Using Zoom, Telegram, Yandex.Telemost, and Google Meet as examples, a comparison is made to select the best tool for conducting online interviews. The author emphasizes that the developed recommendations represent only the initial stage of methodological reflection on the choice of applications aimed at the preliminary structuring of the material.

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