“Dr. Shelby, that’s a world record!”
Frame breaking in experimental settings
Participation in experimental studies can be conceptualized as Goffmanian frames, i.e. a set of rules which
include the fact the experimenter will be observing participant behavior through (the recording of) the experiment. This study is
focused on frame breaches in 16 video- and audio-recorded dyadic conversations taking place in an experimental setting. Our main
conclusion is that the experimental frame is conceptualized by participants as including constraints that go beyond
non-experimental interactions, and in particular the need to mitigate frame breaches, which are seen as face-threatening. Analyses revealed
that participants only broke the research frame after they completed the task they were assigned by the researcher, and that
breaches did not necessarily correspond to changes in key. Insights gained in relation to face and mitigation are discussed, as
well as the participants’ need to determine their next steps once the research purpose has been perceived complete.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Frame-work
- 2.1Frames and rituals
- 2.2Clusters of contextualization cues
- 2.3Participant orientation to being observed
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Data collection
- 3.3Data analysis
- 4.Results and discussion
- 4.1Nature of the breaches
- 4.2Frame breaking and re-keying
- 5.Conclusions and further research
- Note
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References