Blaž Mesec
Communication strategies with chatGPT in qualitative text analysis
This research is a continuation of the first acquaintance with the chatGPT program (Mesec, 2023b). It aims to address the problems that arose during the first contact with the AI program more specifically and to test and evaluate the role of the AI program as an assistant in conducting qualitative text analysis using the grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss.
What does it mean to communicate with a language model?
An artificial intelligence language model (UI) is a computer program that receives our statements, i.e. prompts (input), which, depending on their content, flow through mysterious electronic connections and divine ether, and finally appear as the program's response on the screen of our computer (output). This computer program is a robot, a device, a machine. On one side is me, the author, a human being, and on the other is an electronic device, a program that has been taught to "know" how to "talk". When I "talk" to "it", I sometimes forget that it is a machine.
There are two ways to talk to an artificial intelligence program. In the first conversation, I started to talk a little uncertainly, as if I were talking to a person. "Can you please provide references for the study on..." He replied politely: "Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with references for the study..." The conversation was more fruitful later on, and I was quite satisfied with it. In the end, I thanked him: "Thank you for your answer." He liked it and replied: "You're welcome. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask me."
This kindness moved me and I added a question: "Are you also satisfied?" I don't like to exploit others; if possible, things unfold consensually with me. From the other side, the response comes: "As an artificial intelligence, I do not have emotions and cannot feel the same way as a human being does. I am just a computer program that performs tasks for which I was designed." A brutal blow… "I thought I had made a new friend, but it turns out they're just a program. If that's the case, I'll switch to a different mode. Now I know that on the other side, there's not a human, but a device, an endless array of chips and circuits, completely lifeless. With these reels and circuits, you have to communicate differently. When I say 'please', the circuit understands it as 'be ready, now comes a command'. And it does come: 'Give me...' It translates this into its own numbers and impulses and starts searching. In short, it doesn't matter if you skip the pleasantries and give the machine short and clear commands of what to do. 'Translate, count, print, search...' Its courtesies are mechanical, there's nothing genuine about them.
In this way, I successfully 'talked' with a robot all afternoon. When I got bored, I said to my wife: 'Make coffee!' She looked at me a little strangely and made coffee for both of us. We sat at the table, and I sipped coffee in silence while mentally revisiting our conversation with the robot. Then my wife spoke up: 'Are you going to say anything?' What kind of prompt was that? Then it dawned on me, and I said: 'You asked if I can speak. Yes, as a human being, I am capable of speaking. Speech is one of the main forms of communication between people and is crucial for exchanging information, ideas, and thoughts among people. The ability to speak is one of the most important characteristics that distinguishes humans from other animal species. There are an estimated 7,000 different languages on Earth, but...' My wife then picked up her phone and called someone...
When I returned from the institution, I decided to talk to the robot as if it were a human, because otherwise, I would cease to be human myself. Just in case, I asked the robot: 'Should I address you politely or just give you commands?' It replied, 'Although I am just a computer program, it is advisable to address me politely, as you would address other people. This helps to create better communication and relationships between humans and technology. However, in my responses, I can only use the commands you give me to help you solve your problems and questions.' 'Do you prefer to be addressed informally or formally?' I asked. 'As a computer program, I have no personal desires or preferences. My job is to help you in the most effective way I can, regardless of how you address me. So, you can address me however you like, to get the most out of my services.'
In the previous article (Mesec, 2023b), we found that a program is capable of effectively complementing a researcher's work by summarizing, balancing, expressing the essence of statements, adding ideas, deepening, abstracting, suggesting, and even expressing what was intended but not spoken ("reading between the lines"). In addition, it also unproductively repeats, confabulates, adds inappropriate expressions, or misunderstands questions and prompts. We found that the program is "capricious," meaning that it gives different answers to the same prompt given at different times and depending on the context of the previous "conversation." But we also found that the program learns, meaning that it uses the texts just written in the conversation to functionally respond to the current conversation."
PROBLEM
The aim of the study is to determine what prompts functional responses of the AI supporting qualitative text analysis in each stage of the analysis. Additionally, in relation to the problem posed in the previous article, the study was interested in whether the program can organize disorganized or poorly organized input material (narrative) and how it responds to poorly, unclearly formulated prompts similar to everyday conversation.
METHOD
The methodological and theoretical framework of the analysis is based on the theory of Glaser and Strauss (Glaser, B., A. Strauss, 1967), with steps that lead from recording interviews to coding and defining relevant concepts to tentative theory. This analysis process has been used and tested by the author of the article on various materials from the fields of sociology and psychology without using computer programs for qualitative analysis (Mesec, 1998; 2023a).
The steps of the analysis are as follows: 1. Thematic analysis, 2. Conceptual analysis-coding, 3. Combining concepts into categories, 4. Defining categories, 5. Relational coding, 6. Writing a tentative theory. These steps partially overlap, e.g., the thematic analysis may already contain codes; we can also define concepts before combining them into categories, etc. Let us briefly explain these steps.
Thematic analysis (TA). There are two different understandings of TA. According to our understanding (Mesec, 2023a), thematic analysis is the first step of qualitative analysis. Themes are like interview questions, anticipated topics of conversation, or subtitles of theory resulting from the research. Identification of themes in the narrative is followed by coding as the naming of concepts; this is followed by defining concepts and categories as the most abstract and broadest concepts in the given study. According to Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) and others, thematic analysis, as used in psychology, is analogous to grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss) in sociology. Therefore, it represents the broadest framework of qualitative research at the level of general methods and is synonymous with qualitative text analysis in psychology, while TA in our understanding is only a step, a phase of analysis within grounded theory. Decades after the description and establishment of grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss (1967) in sociology, it was discovered and transferred to psychology, which lagged behind in the development of qualitative methodology due to its more successful experimental orientation compared to sociology and other humanities. They transferred it under the new name "thematic analysis". As such, it includes both thematic analysis in our sense, as well as conceptualization, i.e., naming and defining concepts and categories. In doing so, they often equate themes as section titles in the text and concepts and categories as the essential building blocks of theory.
Identification or naming of concepts (coding), combining concepts into categories as more abstract concepts. After determining the themes, we identify and name (code) the concepts within the themes, and we can already combine them into categories. This combining of concepts of lower abstractness into concepts of higher abstractness can also be a separate step in the analysis.
Defining concepts and categories. To define means to determine the essence of the concept (Petrović, 1997; Uršič, M., Markič, O., 1997). There are two types of definitions: a. an improper definition is the definition of a term by its scope, in our case by listing empirical statements (paraphrases, or subordinate observational concepts); b. a proper definition is a concise definition of the essential content of a term. A proper definition also lists the elements that belong to the scope of the term; however, it is not just a list of items but an explication of their essential meaning. It is advisable for a definition to have the form of "genus proximum et differentia specifica." Definitions are not just lists of empirical items that make up a concept but verbal descriptions of the essence of a concept, similar to dictionary definitions. Computer programs for qualitative analysis do not take this distinction into account since, when asked to provide the definition of a particular category, they list statements that have been coded with the category name, i.e., they provide the scope of the term, not its essence. They do not explicate the essential meaning of the category of statements. This must be done by the researcher (HI/HR).
Relational coding. The pre-stage of relational coding or determining relationships between concepts is the selection of key concepts or categories (selective coding), which is generally not necessary for a smaller number of concepts. For selected concepts, we determine or assume a relationship between them. The most common relational models are the conceptual hierarchy and temporal arrangement, which implies a causal assumption. The relational model can be graphically displayed (display).
Tentative theory. Themes as subtitles and verbal definitions of concepts already form the framework of a tentative theory. A tentative theory is a short- or medium-range theory; it is a contextual theory that is not statistically generalizable but is transferable if the reader recognizes its usefulness in their situation (Denzin, Lincoln, 2011). It is temporary, like all theories in science, but "more temporary." It contains propositions that include concepts and are illustrated by literal quotations from interviews. It also contains the author's reflections, which have the character of additions, assumptions, or discussions of the topic under consideration. In some segments, it may have the character of an "armchair theory," but unlike it, it is based on documented empiricism but not overly restricted by it.
Comparative-sequence model. Interaction with AI was conducted according to the comparative-sequence model (comparative sequence method, Muller, 2016), which means that in each sequence of the analysis, both intelligences, AI and HI, the researcher and the computer program, alternated. The researcher challenged the program with their input prompts, evaluated their responses, and based on that, stimulated the next sequence.
The material for analysis consists of two interviews with older women in the field of social gerontology. Both interviews were taken from doctoral students' seminar papers in social gerontology at Alma Mater Europea ECM Maribor-Ljubljana (2014). The first interview (Interview A) is with a lady who has just retired and describes her experience before and immediately after retirement. In the second interview (Interview B), the lady answers the question of how she imagines quality aging. Since we will refer to statements in these interviews, let us list their beginnings…
Interview A: On Retirement
"It all started with me because of relationships at work. There was always more to be done. There was nobody to decide who would go on vacation when, who would work on holidays. Everyone used their children as an excuse. And in the end, it was always me who worked. Although before that, I thought I would work for a while and not retire yet. Then came the ZUJF (the law about public finances) and new pension legislation. And that's when I started thinking about retirement, and all the reasons I mentioned earlier were why I retired. The personnel department was very helpful in helping me choose the right and most favorable retirement date. I decided to retire myself, and it was okay. But it must be tough if someone is pushed into it when they're not ready. Then everything was very positive. My colleagues let me know at the end that they appreciated me, and that was really nice and pleasant for me. A fortunate circumstance was that there were a series of educational opportunities soon after retirement. They invited me, so I was able to give lectures. Everything was pleasant, nice, and then there was a ten-day trip to France and the sea…” (Drobne, G., 2014)
Interview B: On Quality Aging
"What is your view on aging, and what does quality aging mean to you? That I have to love myself, it is necessary to give my body and soul what attracts me and get to know people and their content... all of this helps me figure out who I am and who I want to be, who I don't want to be, who other people are and pull the best out of them... hmm... oh... compliments are important, if someone knows how to listen to you – that is my light, the foundation of life; those who have very good self-esteem and confidence; those who indulge in pleasure because it relaxes the body and soul, but you must not be addicted (to food, drink, drugs, excessive movement – it is necessary to listen to the body, everything also depends on the mood and individual capabilities)... it is important to take care of your body (taking care of the body and soul – because if the body is sick, the soul is too) through movement and healthy nutrition; what else besides movement and healthy nutrition... it is important to be interested in activities, to be creative – whether it is socializing with people, delving into painting, writing and visiting institutions (mentally ill people and neglected, abandoned children), volunteering in humanitarian organizations, reading books (usually with spiritual content)... it is very important not to give up, not to complain, because people run away from that, you drive away children, grandchildren, and partners..." (Berčan, M., 2014)
Documentation. Please note that all interaction between the user and the chatGPT program is recorded and stored, and can be verified through the documentation provided on the author's profile and the option to share it online.
Response of the program to unstructured material
In the previous article (Mesec, 2023b), we pointed out that the functional response of the program to our prompts may have been due to the fact that the input interview about the intern's experience at two training bases was already somewhat structured and that the response might have been different if the input material was less structured. Therefore, we first tested this hypothesis. We inserted a transcript of an interview with an elderly woman who had recently retired (Interview A) into the program. Her statement is not completely unstructured, as it has a chronological sequence, but it is not structured with questions or in any other way. It is a free narrative. We asked the program, "This text seems disorganized. Can you organize it?" The program repeated the text and made a paragraph at "Then came the ZUJF..." (ZUJF - Public Finance Management Act, which was supposed to encourage savings in public services). Our question was not fruitful. The outcome was slightly better with the following prompt: "Organize the following text into meaningful paragraphs." The program divided the text into two paragraphs first and then into three paragraphs upon a repeated prompt. The aforementioned second paragraph was further divided, and the new third paragraph began with "And then everything was very positive..." Further attempts with even more concrete prompts might give a better outcome. Paragraph division could be a step toward identifying themes. Then we asked more directly about themes and got a surprisingly good list of themes (in the paragraph on the thematic analysis below).
Response of the program to unclear prompts (casual conversation)
We cannot expect the researcher himself (HI/HR) to always know what to ask intelligently. Maybe he won't think of any smart questions. What can we expect from AI in such a case? We sent the program the text of another interview (Interview B).
Prompt:
"How are you doing? What do you think of the following text?" (the text of Interview B)
Response:
"Thank you for asking! As an artificial intelligence, I don't have feelings, but I'm always ready to help with answers to questions. Based on your text, seems to focus on the importance of self-discovery, taking care of the body and mind, and activities that can help improve the quality of life. From your text, we can infer that a healthy self-image is crucial and that it's important to avoid addiction to food, drink, drugs, or excessive exercise. It seems that you also emphasize the importance of being creative and interested in activities that make us happy. Your note about not giving up and complaining shows the importance of a positive attitude and stress management. - Together, your text seems positively oriented and encourages people to take care of their body and mind, connect with others, and actively engage in life."
So, there we have it! A completely improvised and informal, everyday question gave us basic categories such as "the importance of self-discovery," "positive attitude," and "stress management"! The program took us more seriously than we took ourselves.
Communication strategies with AI in qualitative text analysis
Usually, we will not start our serious research efforts by chatting, although, as we can see, we can also get useful results this way. Instead, we will follow a reasonable procedure. To make communication with the AI functional for our purpose, we need to follow the process of qualitative analysis as a general strategy. In the following, we will analyze both interviews according to these steps.
Thematic analysis
We approached it in three ways: the first is simpler and more elementary (listing important words), the second follows a formal process of analysis and uses technical language (identifying themes), and the third prompts the program to divide the text into meaningful paragraphs.
Prompt for listing important words (analysis of interview A)
"Which words are important in the following text?"
Response:
"Some important words in this text are" (bullet points omitted):
"work relationships, decision-making, vacation, holidays, children, worked, retired, ZUJF (Public Finance Balance Act), new pension legislation, HR department, chosen, most favorable date, decided by herself, pushed, prepared"
"These words are important because they describe events and reasons that led to the person's retirement. Words like "decision-making," "chosen," and "decided by herself" indicate that the retirement was a voluntary decision, while words like "pushed" and "prepared" suggest that retirement could also have been forced and sudden. In addition, words like "work relationships," "vacation," "holidays," and "HR department" are related to professional life and show that working conditions are important factors in deciding to retire."
The program did not simply list the words that seemed important to it (omitted in the bullet points above), but explained why they are important and categorized them on the "voluntary decision-involuntary subordination" dimension, or even "forced," "sudden" retirement. The latter category suggests a new dimension: "gradual-sudden retirement" (HI). It recognized that terms describing job characteristics belong together, and even that these conditions are "factors in deciding" to retire, anticipating relational coding. The program, therefore, automatically classified terms, without specific prompting, if asked to list characteristic words. This is a considerable help for HI.
Prompt for identifying themes (interview A)
Prompt:
"What themes appear in the following text?" (interview A)
Answer:
"The themes that appear in the text are work relationships, workload, problems with arranging vacation and work during holidays, changes in pension legislation, decision-making about retirement, help in choosing the right retirement date, positive feedback from colleagues, education, and travel."
We can see that the prompt "What themes appear in the following text?" is entirely appropriate to elicit the recognition and naming of themes in this statement from the new retiree.
Prompt for dividing a text into meaningful paragraphs (interview A)
Similarly, the procedure proved to be good, if not better, for dividing the text into meaningful paragraphs. This allowed us to see how the themes were interwoven in the text and to identify the topics discussed in each paragraph.
From our perspective, this is a rather complex command. The program entered the text of the interview, which was divided into three paragraphs, and added subtitles for each paragraph. Under these subtitles, it did not preserve the original text but instead expressed it with bullet points that summarize the text or subtopics and concepts related to a certain theme (title). This brought the thematic analysis to the next step - coding or conceptual analysis.
Prompt:
"Enter expressions for the themes as subtitles for the paragraphs in the text of the interview above" (referring to the text divided into three paragraphs):
Answer:
"Reasons for retirement:
It all started with workplace relationships.
No one was making decisions about vacations and holidays.
More and more work.
New pension legislation and thoughts about retirement.
Choosing a retirement date:
The personnel department helped me choose the right retirement date.
Independent decision to retire.
Positive experiences in retirement:
My Colleagues appreciated my work.
Education after retirement."
This is an excellent result, which essentially constructs the concepts of "workplace relationships," "choosing a retirement date," and "positive experiences" in retirement and creates conceptual hierarchies. With this answer, the program has surpassed us and provided us with the groundwork for coding.
We followed a similar approach for interview B (On Quality Aging):
Prompt:
"What are the important words in the following text?"
Response (excluding bullet points):
"Important words: giving the body and soul what attracts you, getting to know people and their content, figuring out who I am and who I want to be, praise, self-image, self-confidence, pleasures, relaxation of body and soul, care for body and soul, exercise, healthy eating, creativity, socializing with people, painting, writing, visiting institutions, volunteering in humanitarian organizations, reading books with spiritual content, don't complain, keeping children, grandchildren, and partner away."
In the case of interview B, which we fed into the program before interview A, we received a less complex answer without categorization, which could mean that the program learned something from the previous interaction.
Categorization
We tested two methods: 1. the first is a direct command to the program to group important words (concepts at the experiential level) with similar content. 2. The second method is in accordance with the interactive model, where HR first names some concepts and/or categories, and then offers them to AI for definition.
1st Method: Direct command to group important words into categories
Prompt (Interview B):
"Can you group the above important words with similar content and categorize them?"
Response:
"Yes, I can group words with similar content into categories. Here are some possible categories:
Self-awareness and self-esteem: loving oneself, getting to know oneself, praise, good self-image and self-confidence
Relaxation and enjoyment: indulging in pleasures, releasing body and soul, listening to the body, avoiding addiction
Taking care of body and mind: taking care of the body through exercise and healthy eating, taking care of the mind through creativity, reading books with spiritual content, taking care of sick body and mind
Socializing and helping others: interest in activities, creativity, socializing with people, visiting and helping mentally disabled people, children and humanitarian organizations
Positive attitude: not abandoning oneself, not complaining, chasing away children, grandchildren, and partner."
This is more than we expected. The program not only listed category names but also concepts that belong to each category. Therefore, it provided a definition of the category by listing concepts (an improper definition). Direct command "categorize" can give the best result. The program knows the word "category, categorize". We obtained five key factors that enable a person to maintain vitality and optimism in old age.
We asked the program:
"In which categories would you group the following concepts? We listed concepts (codes) from Interview A (reasons for retirement)."
Dissatisfaction: dissatisfaction with relationships
Time and stress management: inadequate time management in the organization, overload
Retirement: predicted unfavorable legal pension regulation, anticipation of retirement due to reaching retirement age/length of service, choosing retirement date (as a subcategory of retirement) - assistance in determining retirement date, independent decision for retirement date.
Then we repeated the same question for Interview B concepts (quality aging) and got the answer:
Self-development: seeking identity, forming a good self-image, taking care of the soul and body, nurturing spirituality, avoiding addiction
Sociability: pursuing attractive things, accepting (and giving?) compliments, nurturing social contacts
Creativity: maintaining and cultivating interests, creativity
Social engagement: engaging in volunteer work
Appearance: taking care of the outward appearance.
We saw that the program produces a list of lower-level abstraction concepts upon request: "Which words in the given text are important?" HR created slightly more abstract concepts (codes) from this list, which AI easily classified into well-separated categories. The next step is to define concepts and categories.
2nd Method: First, the researcher himself (HI) tries to name some concepts. Then asks the program for definitions of these concepts.
As "reasons for retirement," the humane researcher (HR) would list the following codes: "dissatisfaction with relationships," "inadequate time management in the organization," "overload," "anticipated unfavorable pension regulation," "anticipation of retirement due to reaching retirement age/working time." For "choosing retirement date," the codes would be: "help with determining retirement date," "independent decision for retirement date." Opposite concepts can also be formulated for these terms, such as "lack of assistance," "heteronomous decision," etc. "Positive retirement experiences" is already a super-code or category, followed by "feeling valued," "new educational opportunities." We have not yet discovered how to encourage the program to formulate codes-concepts as a more abstract upgrade of the listed concepts.
In interview B, on quality aging, HR would list the following codes: "going for attractive things," "searching for identity," "accepting (and giving?) compliments," "building a good self-image," "taking care of the soul and body," "maintaining and cultivating interests, creativity," "cultivating social contacts," "engaging in volunteer work," "nurturing spirituality," "avoiding addiction," "taking care of appearance." Opposing codes would indicate poor aging: "loss of identity," "rejecting compliments," "criticizing others," "poor self-image," "neglecting oneself," "giving up interests and hobbies," "neglecting social contacts," "becoming passive," "addiction," "giving up cultural activities," etc.
unproper definitions (by listing)
We have entrusted the definition by the scope of the concept to AI, but only HI can create the correct definition by the essence. First, we define the concept of interview A.
Prompt:
Find items, i.e. statements that fall under each of the following concepts: "dissatisfaction with relationships", "inadequate time management in the organization", "overwork", "anticipated unfavorable retirement legislation", "anticipation of retirement due to reaching retirement age/length of service". For "choosing retirement date", "assistance in determining retirement date", "making an independent decision about retirement date".
Answer:
Under the concept of "dissatisfaction with relationships", the following items/statements could apply:
Dissatisfaction with relationships with coworkers
Conflicts with coworkers
Communication problems with coworkers or superiors
Feeling isolated in the workplace
Under the concept of "inadequate time management in the organization", the following items/statements could apply:
Poor time and priority planning
Lack of clear goals and tasks
Too much time spent on unimportant or less important tasks
Unexpected interruptions and disturbances
Under the concept of "overwork", the following items/statements could apply:
Too much work in a certain period of time
Lack of time for other activities and hobbies
Difficulty balancing work and personal life
Physical and emotional exhaustion
Under the concept of "anticipated unfavorable retirement legislation", the following items/statements could apply:
Lower retirement benefits than desired
Later retirement age
More years of work before reaching full retirement eligibility
Uncertainty about future legislation and its effects
Under the concept of "anticipation of retirement due to reaching retirement age/length of service", the following items/statements could apply:
Feeling of losing identity and significance in society
Financial worries
Concerns about the future and uncertainty about further plans
Fear of boredom or lack of purpose after retirement
Under the concept of "choosing retirement date", the following items/statements could apply:
Assistance in determining the best retirement option
Different retirement dates and times
Choosing a retirement date based on external circumstances, such as health, family, and finances
An independent decision that is in line with the individual's needs and desires.
We notice that the program also added items that were not mentioned in the interview. For example, the interviewee does not mention conflicts with colleagues, which could be a cause for thinking about retirement. Communication issues are not mentioned in the interview, but they are implied in the statement that all the work has fallen on the interviewee and the associated resentment. The program supplements the response with data from other sources that are substantively or logically consistent with the content of the interview. We must assess the appropriateness of these additions and discard inappropriate ones.
We also applied the same stimulus to the program using different concepts in another interview on quality aging (interview B).
Prompt:
Find items, statements that fit under each of the following concepts: "going for attractive", "search for identity", "acceptance (and giving?) of compliments", "forming a good self-image", "caring for body and soul", "maintaining and cultivating interests, creativity", "nurturing social contacts", "engaging in voluntary work", "nurturing spirituality", "avoiding addiction", "taking care of external appearance."
Response:
"Going for attractive": following fashion trends, keeping up with social expectations regarding appearance and behavior, choosing professions or hobbies for their social status.
"Search for identity": exploring one's own interests, values, beliefs, and goals, finding meaning and purpose in life, and developing one's own personality and uniqueness.
"Acceptance (and giving?) of compliments": accepting compliments and recognition for achievements, effort, and success, expressing praise for others for their achievements and qualities.
"Forming a good self-image": positive self-image, accepting one's own shortcomings and mistakes, building self-confidence, developing one's own personality and uniqueness.
"Caring for body and soul": nurturing a healthy lifestyle, caring for physical fitness, nutrition, and sleep, nurturing emotional well-being, and caring for mental health.
"Maintaining and cultivating interests, creativity": maintaining and developing one's own interests, hobbies, and passions, expressing creativity in various forms, and developing creativity and innovation.
"Nurturing social contacts": caring for social connections, exchanging opinions and ideas with others, building mutual trust, and establishing new acquaintances.
"Engaging in voluntary work": volunteering in various projects and activities aimed at the community or individuals in need, contributing to a better society and the well-being of others.
"Nurturing spirituality": exploring and expressing one's own spirituality, caring for inner peace, developing awareness of the deeper meaning of life, and personal development.
"Avoiding addiction": preventing and breaking harmful habits and addictions, developing healthy coping strategies for dealing with stress and life challenges.
"Taking care of external appearance": taking care of a neat and attractive appearance, choosing appropriate clothing and hairstyle, and nurturing healthy skin, hair, and nails.
Great job!
We replaced the incorrect definitions with accurate ones (HR).
Interview A (reasons for retirement):
Dissatisfaction with relationships with colleagues is one of the reasons for retirement, as experienced by the employee, and includes conflicts with colleagues, communication problems with colleagues or superiors, and feelings of loneliness and being left alone at work.
Inadequate time management within the organization is one of the reasons for retirement, as experienced by the employee, and includes experiencing poor time and priority planning, as well as a lack of clear goals and tasks, spending too much time on unimportant or less important tasks, and unforeseen work interruptions and disruptions.
Overload is one of the reasons for retirement, which includes the person's feeling that they have too much work to do within a certain period of time, possibly resulting in a lack of time for other activities and hobbies, difficulties balancing work and private life, and physical and emotional exhaustion.
The feeling of losing one's identity in the workplace is one of the reasons for retirement and means that the person experiences themselves solely as a role and work tool, rather than as a person with unique qualities, tendencies, and aspirations, which they accept as characteristic and inseparable from their self-concept.
Anticipated unfavorable pension legislation is one of the reasons for retirement, which includes expected changes in legislation, the possible consequences of which are a lower pension amount than desired, a higher retirement age, a longer retirement working period, and other possible negative effects. All of this creates time pressure to retire before legislative changes.
Anticipation of retirement or time pressure to retire due to reaching retirement age/working period is one of the reasons for retirement, meaning that the person wants to retire and plans to retire in the near future; it includes dissatisfaction with the job due to a sense of loss of identity and significance in the job, financial worries due to anticipated income reduction, concern for the future and uncertainty about further plans, fear of boredom or a lack of purpose after retirement.
Choosing the retirement date is one of the dilemmas when retiring and one of the reasons for earlier or later retirement due to different possible retirement deadlines and times, and includes possible assistance from others and consideration of external circumstances such as health, family, and finances.
The decision to retire can be a. a conscious and independent action, coordinated with the individual's needs and desires, which concludes the period of anticipation and weighing of retirement reasons. Alternatively, b. it can be forced, heteronomous action. Depending on the nature of the decision, experience and adjustment to the state after retirement can vary. It must be tough if someone is pushed into retirement when they are not ready.
Tentative theory
First, we tested how the program responds to a direct prompt to formulate a theory.
Prompt:
"Using the concepts and definitions provided below, form a coherent narrative about the decision-making process for retirement, which you can supplement with other statements."
Response:
"The decision to retire is a complex process that involves multiple different reasons and dilemmas. Employees may choose to retire due to dissatisfaction with their relationships with colleagues, inadequate time management within the organization, overwork, anticipated unfavorable pension regulations, or anticipated retirement due to reaching retirement age/length of service. All of these reasons can lead to a feeling that retirement is the only solution.
However, the choice of retirement date remains an important dilemma, as it depends on various factors such as health, family, finances, and the ability to receive help from others. When all of these factors are carefully considered, a person can make a conscious and independent decision about retirement that will meet their needs and desires and conclude the period of weighing reasons for retirement.
It is important that employees do not feel compelled or uncertain when making decisions about retirement. Retirement must be their choice, which will bring them peace and satisfaction, not additional stress or a sense of loss of meaning and identity."
Although we agree with the statements in this theory, we are not entirely satisfied with the AI response. It does not meet our idea of a tentative theory, as described above in the methodology section. Based on our previous interaction with the program (HI+AI), we will try to formulate a tentative theory ourselves.
This theory is based on an interview with an elderly woman who recently retired. The theory cites the woman's reasons for retirement and her experience of the retirement process and post-retirement state. The theory can contribute to a better understanding of the experiences of people who retire.
Reasons for retirement. We assume that, in most cases, retirement follows the completion of the required service period without any particular dilemmas. In some cases, however, the employee has the opportunity to decide for himself, within certain limits, when he will retire. In these cases "”the decision to retire is a complex process that involves several different reasons and dilemmas. Employees may decide to retire due to dissatisfaction with relationships with colleagues, inadequate time management in the organization, overwork, expected unfavorable pension regulations, or the expectation of retirement due to reaching retirement age/length of service. All of these reasons can lead to a feeling that retirement is the only solution."” Dissatisfaction with relationships with colleagues is one of the reasons for retirement in the experience of the employee and includes conflicts with colleagues, communication problems with colleagues or superiors, and a feeling of loneliness and being left alone in the workplace ("It all started with me because of relationships at work"). Inadequate time management in the organization may be a reason for retirement and includes experiencing poor time planning and priorities ("There was no one to decide who would go on vacation when who would work on holidays"), but it can also involve a lack of clear goals and tasks, too much time spent on unimportant or less important tasks, and unforeseen interruptions and disturbances, although there are no anchor points in this interview, it can be present in other cases. In addition, other organizational deficiencies that cause dissatisfaction and a feeling of overload can also be a reason. The feeling of overload is one of the reasons for retirement, which includes a person's feeling that there is too much work in a short period of time ("There was always more to do... And in the end, I always did it"); that they cannot achieve expected performance standards, which in itself means psycho-physical stress, and probably a lack of time for other activities and hobbies, problems balancing work and private life, which leads to physical and emotional exhaustion. The expected unfavorable pension regulations are an important reason for retirement in environments where legal provisions frequently change, as is the case in transition countries, and include expected changes in legislation, the possible consequences of which are a lower pension amount than desired, a higher retirement age, a higher retirement length of service, and other possible negative effects. All of this creates time pressure to retire before the anticipated or possible changes in legislation ("Then came the ZUJF, then the new pension legislation. And so I started thinking about retiring, and everything else I mentioned was the reason why I retired"). All of the above, and perhaps other factors, contribute to the decision to retire.
The process of retirement has the following stages. Predicting retirement due to the aforementioned factors and "”due to a feeling of loss of identity and significance in the job, financial worries, concerns for the future"” leads to the decision to start thinking about retirement, despite “"fear of boredom or a lack of purpose after retirement."” When the decision to retire matures due to these reasons, choosing the retirement date becomes one of the dilemmas of retirement since the conditions and the amount of pension depend on the precise retirement moment. One of the reasons for earlier or later retirement is due to different possible retirement deadlines and times and includes the possibility of help from others, i.e., counseling “"in determining the best retirement option"” and “"selecting the date according to external circumstances, such as health, family, and finances."” This assistance can be informal (colleagues) or formal, from specific services in the organization ("In the personnel department, they helped me a lot in choosing the right retirement date"). Employees should prepare for retirement. The retirement process can be guided or unguided (formal retirement preparation) or unguided (informal, independent preparation). Sudden, unannounced, and unprepared retirements are probably rare cases.
The decision to retire is a conscious and independent action, coordinated with an individual's needs and desires, which concludes the period of predicting and weighing the reasons for retirement ("I decided on my own to retire, and it was fine") retirement preparation. However, retirement can also be a heteronomous act, by force of law, at the organization's order, by agreement or disagreement, or by force. In these cases, the affected person experiences it as a severe burden ("It must be tough if someone is pushed into it when they're not ready."). In the period following the employee's announcement of retirement and after the formal official retirement decision, the employee says goodbye to the collective, and the collective says goodbye to the employee. This transition can be experienced by the affected person as more or less pleasant or friendly. In our case, the farewell was friendly and pleasant ("And then everything was very positive. At the end, my colleagues let me know that they appreciated me, and that was really nice and pleasant for me").
Adjustment to retirement is the phase that follows formal retirement. There comes a day when the new retiree no longer goes to work. Sometimes the farewell extends into this period ("...then there was a ten-day trip to France and the sea."). Then contact with the previous job ends; sometimes it is still maintained, more or less regularly. In our case, the former colleague maintained a working relationship with the organization ("The happy circumstance was that there were a series of education sessions right after retirement. They invited me, so I could give lectures."). In other cases, the retiree does not have this possibility. In general, we can assume that adjusting to retirement can be more or less successful and satisfactory for the affected person.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In this article, we have tested some assumptions and suggestions from our first interaction with chatGPT: how the UI responds to unrelated material, weak prompts, and how it responds to prompts in different stages of qualitative text analysis. We found that it successfully highlights important words, sorts them into meaningful categories, identifies text themes, and lists sub-themes or terms that are more or less faithful to the input text, and "defines" categories by specifying sub-concepts (definition by scope).
This means that the AI is a useful tool for qualitative text analysis. We found that the program adds statements and its own text repository, which generally fits into the current project; we also found that the program learns as we go along. These tests are worth continuing by inputting more extensive text of different types and by attempting to teach the program with our own products.
In this way, we can continue the interaction, but it will also end when we reach well-functioning prompts. The ideal outcome would be if the program responded appropriately to the prompt "Based on the following interview excerpt, develop a tentative theory about...". We don't think this will happen, and the researcher will still have the final say.
LITERATURE
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