I'm gearing up to do my dissertation on implicit mental models of governance held by nonprofit board members and I'd like to create an instrument for measuring implicit associations between various tasks or roles of board members that can be accessible to laypeople in its language and use, relatively quick and easy for participants to complete, and can be administered online or at least remotely.
I've thought about using some sort of visual concept mapping app (suggestions for platforms in this regard?), but I'd also like to get at *implicit* associations rather than just explicit/espoused ones.
Does anyone have a suggestion for methods that would fit the bill? Naturally, citations for examples of articles or dissertations using the method would be helpful!
I'm open to creative approaches too, beyond simple self-report surveys. Perhaps the IAT could be adapted to this context? Textual analysis of open-ended questions?
This paper discusses the use of implicit measures. You can get it from Russ Johnson's Researchgate publication list.
Measuring Implicit Traits in Organizational Research: Development of an Indirect Measure of Employee Implicit Self-Concept
R E Johnson, K N Saboe
Organizational Research Methods (Impact Factor: 3.26). 02/2013; 14:530-547. DOI:10.1177/1094428110363617
Hi,
I Have seen studies that use process-tracing (in qualitative research) to learn about implicit mental models. I found one of the papers: "Constructing Mental Model Paradigms for Teaching Electronic Resources", American Library Association, September 27, 2006.
I also remember seeing studies of larger units of analysis, that might be more useful for your work on governance. I believe there is a housing sector study. You might want to search for it.
For a more in-depth discussion of process-tracing, you can read George Alexander's book "Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences". Very useful book.
Several measures of implicit associations are available beyond IAT, and Petty and Brinol's recent book on implicit attitudes (see content on google at http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=z7-bQ4Kqg8UC&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=petty+brinol+implicit+attitudes&ots=w4aJQDjUQ3&sig=FW8bCI_hZuWBCxnWw4PUq1OoGNQ#v=onepage&q=petty%20brinol%20implicit%20attitudes&f=false) may help you with that. If you are open to qualitative approaches, the ZMET technique may work really well for you. It has been used widely in the marketing industry and there are some research papers on it as well. I recently uploaded a journal article illustrating this technique on Research gate (see my profile, the article that has ZMET in the title). It illustrates how the method was applied to assess mental models (perceptions) of climate change, and can almost be used as a "how-to" guide to do research using the method.The article also contains references to the original work of Zaltman, who developed and tested the validity of the method. I hope this helps, good luck! George
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