Lecture 29 - Qualitative vs Quantitative research

Question 1

What are quantitative research methods?

Answer 1

(The traditional method most psychology research uses)
- Refers to something that has a magitude or an extent
- Refers to a cosntruct that is externally verifable
Examples: Sth is present - sth is absent => Quantitative distinction

Question 2

What are qualitative research methods?

Answer 2

Research methods that focus on the elemntso of subjective experiences
(More detailed: The collection and analysis of non-numerical data in order to provide a rich description and possibly explanations of people’s meaning making, how they experience and understand thw world around them

Question 3

Why does qual. research focus on subjective experiences?

Answer 3

Because each one of us is different and perceives things differently: trying to interpret humans and the world around us in a mechanistic way isn’t very representative.

Question 4

What techniques does qual. research use?

Answer 4

Direct engagement, in-depth interviewing, observations.
- Such data collection techniques result in very rich and detailed data

Question 5

What important principle is qual. research associated with?

Answer 5

Principle of interpretivism: Research observations must be decoded, instead of juts simply recorded
- Both researchers and participants mist think about, interpret and then report upon the participant’s perceptions
(Leads to the problem of “what some people say about what they think they think”, see Flashcard 11)

Question 6

How did qual research come about?

Answer 6

It owes much of its emergence to related fields, sich as sociology, anthropology (these fields use qualitative methods)

Question 7

What are some benefits of qual research?

Answer 7

In an area that hasn’t been researched before or that has been minimally researched, qual research might be conducted to indetify the key elements in that rea which could then form the basis of measurement instrunments such as questionnaires

Question 8

What are some general problems qual. research?

Answer 8

• Many think it degrades psychology as a science, since it threatens objectivity (which is considered science’s virtue)
• The above creates anxiety within the field
• Qual research embarces anecdotism (something might not be necessarily true, because it’s based on personal reports and not facts or research. Ancedotism refers to subjectivity), damages parsimony (very complex), defies falsifiability (everyone’s experience is true and correct): All these might make it look like a pseudoscience

Question 9

How does qual. research defend itself against this problem?

Answer 9

• Qual research says objectivity is a stupid aspiration: Research that aspires to be objective is doomed to fail
• It bacls this up by also saying that objectivity threatens psychology: Since we study the human experience and that’s compeltely subjective, we can’t study psychology objectively
• Given the complex nature of humans, qual research also tries to avoid reductionism

Question 10

1) What is reductionism
2) How does qual research try to avoid it?

Answer 10

1) Idea that complex phenomena can be understood by breaking them down into simpler or more fundamental components
2) Says it can’t generalize from one person to everybody (regarding people’s experiences). Also assumes hypercomplexity of humans

Question 11

Based on how qual research defends itself against those troubled by it, what questions does this raise about qual research?

Answer 11

• If we can’t generalize from one person to others, how come researchers agree so much about observed phenomena (this is to show that maybe you can generalize, so maybe you can be objective about some things, and not only subjective)
• Since everything is subjective, qual research implies that you can never be wrong. If it’s impossible to be wrong, does that mean you’re always right? How can you be right if you can’t be wrong (in the sense that not everything can always be right, or proer)
• Since everything is subjective, even within a person (one person’s experience of something might change over time), qual research can’t replicaet findings, and this is not seen as a problem. This inability though IS ACTUALLY a problem

Question 12

What are some problems with data in qual research?

Answer 12

• The interpretation of data (since everything is subjective we have no backbone with which we can interpet our current data -> There’s no theory or prior knowledge on which we can build upon)
• The data themselves: Are they actually valid interpretations of what we want to study? (e.g. we want to measure personality, personal testimonies are problematic, because they only relate to “what people say about what they think they think”)

Question 13

What are some important notes on qual research?

Answer 13

• When we say everybody is different, this doesn’t mean that everybody is different in every possible way -> Not all differences can be studied, many aspects can though
• Just because humans are different in multiple ways, doesn’t mean that compex Research Methods should also be used
• The only way to see fi the knowledge we have is useful is to apply it outside of the study

Question 14

What is epistemiology?

Answer 14

A branch of philosophy that’s concerned with the theory of knowledge and tries to answer questions about how we can know and what we can know
QUAL RESEARCH IS OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH EPISTEMIOLOGY

Question 15

What is ontology?

Answer 15

Assumptions we make about the nature of being, existence, reality etc.
often combined with epistemiology, and thus Qual. research
!!! Different research approaches (Qualitative vs Quantitative) are assocaited with different epistemiologies !!!
- Qual research covers many epistemiologies

Question 16

What type of epistemiology does the qualitative experimental approach adopt?

Answer 16

• Positivism: Direct correspondence between things in the world and how we perceive them (given that our perceptions aren’t biased by factors that might damage this correspondence)
• Empiricism: Knowledge of the world arises from the collection and categorization of our sense/perceptions

Question 17

How much do people adopt these two types of epistem.?

Answer 17

Not much: Observations and perception don’t provide pure facts about the world

Question 18

What epsitemiological method responds to the above shortcoming of positivism and empiricism?

Answer 18

Hypothetico-deductivism
- This type of epistemiology states thaat the aim of science isn’t to obtain evidence that supports our theory but rather to identify false hypothesis and thus be able to falsify theories
- Hypothetico-deductivism involves deductive reasoning (“top-down” approach)
1) First theory
2) Then you get hypotheses
3) Then you test hypothese through observations
4) Then you confirm or reject your hypothesis

Question 19

With which of the above three types of epistemiology does psychology as a discipline identify with?

Answer 19

All three of them. All three togther consist of the “scientific method” of psychology.
This scientific method assumed that reality exists outside of the observerand we can access this reality through research

Question 20

What are the 3 characteristics of the scientific method?

Answer 20

• Objectivity
• Neutrality
• Precise measurement in hypothesis testing

Question 21

Objectivity

Answer 21

Obtained by detaching a research and the researcher’s personal interests from participants as to not bias them or the research itself

Question 22

Neutrality

Answer 22

Don’t use personal pronouns: Use passive voice

Question 23

Precise measurement in hypothesis testing

Answer 23

Development of refined tests and measures, so that any psychological dimension that exists could be measured with precision

Question 24

Quick notes to synposize and make sense of the previous stuff

Answer 24

• Positivism, Empiricism and hypothetico-deductivism are different forms of epsitemiologies
• Positivism and Empiricism are often found in the qual. experimental approach
• Hypothetico-dedcutvisim is not, it is in general another form (not mentioned in what approach it is found)

Question 25

What is the nomothetic - idiographic debate?

Answer 25

Human sciences should strive for understanding rather than causal explanation. In other words, we should adopt an idiographic type of research, not a nomothetic one:
- Nomothetic research: Seek generalizable findings that discover laws to explain objective phenomena
- Idiographic research: Examien individual cases in detail to understand an outcome
This debate also criticizes quantitative resarch as representing human beings as mechanistic and not able to capture all the essence of human complexity

Question 26

What is the phenomenological emphasis on research methods?

Answer 26

We should obtain detauled descriptions of experiences as understood by those thta have the experience in order to understand the experience’s essence (obtain an individual’s personal perception of an experience, instead of producing an obkective statement of experience)

Question 27

What type of reasoning is the phenomenologcial emphasis based on?

Answer 27

Inductive reasoning:
1) Begins with data
2) Data are categorized or labelled
3) Link some data to existing theory or use them to construct a new one
Any type of qual research that adopts inductive reasoning is said to embody an “experiential approach”. These approaches though don’t adopt an approach to realism called critical approach (See next flashcards, specifically Flashcard 31)

Question 28

Different types of qual research based on their construction of reality (based on their type of ontology)

Question 29

What are the three types of ontologies?

Answer 29

• Realism
• Critical realism
• Relativism

Question 30

Realism

Answer 30

A reality exists independent of the observer and we can access this through research
The Scientific method (Flashcard 19) is characterized by realism. It believes that reality is certain and you can observe it through research and experiments

Question 31

Critical Realism

Answer 31

A reality exists independent of the observer but we can not know that reality with certainty.
You can not make statements about the reality 100% independently from participants’ observations. Be careful in making statements beyond the reality of participants and towards a reality independent from the participants’ reality
(Experiential approach, phenomenological emphasis adopt a critical realism type of ontology)

Question 32

Relativism

Answer 32

Reality is dependent on the ways we come to know it.
An example showcasing relativism is social constructionism

Question 33

Social constructionism

Answer 33

The ways in which we understand the world and ourelves are built up through social processes, especially verbal interactions. NOTHING ABOUT THEM IS FIXED OR NECESSARY
(Since we all have very different interactions from each other, each of our realities is very different from one another’s. Therefore reality is relative to who you’re talking to)

Question 34

What’s the common component of realism and critical realism?

Answer 34

Realism and critical realism perspectives assume some relationship between the analysis and the truth

Question 35

Mini-synopsis

Answer 35

• Epistemiology: Positivism, Empiricism, Hypothetico-deductivism
• Hypothetico-deductivism: deductive reasoning
• Ontology: Realism (Scientifici method), Critical realism (Phenomenological emphasis, Experiential approach, inductive reasoning), Relativism (Social constructionism)

Question 36

Reflexivity in qualitative research

Question 37

Reflexivity in qualitative research

What is reflexivity in qual research?

Answer 37

Acknowledgement by the researcher of the role played by their interprative framework in creating their analysis
- Researcher’s interprative framework, especially the personal aspects of it are considered bad in quantitative research (since we want to find something as objective as possible, and the personal interprative framework makes it subjective).
- In Qual research, this personal aspect of the interprative framework is much needed

Question 38

Reflexivity in qualitative research

Why is the personal aspect of the interprative framework much needed in Qual research?

Answer 38

HELPS READER EVALUATE THE RESEARCH
Increases the transparency of the research process, readers can understand and evaluate the work.

Question 39

Evaluative criteria for qual research

Question 40

Evaluative criteria for qual research

What are the evaluative criteria for a good qual research (criteria onw hich you evaluate if a qual research is good or bad)

Answer 40

• Sensitivity to context
• Commitent and rigour
• Transparency and coherence
• Impact and importance

Question 41

Evaluative criteria for qual research

Sensitivity and context

Answer 41

• Make clear the context of the theory
• Make clear the content of previous findings/understandings by other researchers
  !!! All this while using similar methods and/or analyzing similar topics
  (e.g. socio-cultural setting of the study, ocial context of relationships between researchers and participants)
  (No need to really remember the above parenthesis)

Question 42

Evaluative criteria for qual research

Commitment and rigour

Answer 42

• Commitment: Prolonged engagement with a certain topic
• Rigour: Completeness of data collection and analysis

Question 43

Evaluative criteria for qual research

Transparency and coherence

Answer 43

• (Transparency: make methods and process visible and understandable)
• Coherence: There has to be a fit between your RQ and the philosophical perspective adopted
• Coherence: There also has to be a fit ebtween your RQ and the method of investigation/analysis used

Question 44

Evaluative criteria for qual research

Impact and importance

Answer 44

the theoretical, practical and socio-cultural impact of the study

Question 45

Evaluative criteria for qual research

cIs there a consensus though for which are the best evaluative criteria for qual research?

Answer 45

NO. The above are just a few, but they haven’t been found to be necessarily the bst
- Nearly impossible to determine which are the best because of the heterogenity of wual methods

Question 46

What is methodolatry?

Answer 46

Refers to blind adherence to a certain type of research methods

Question 47

What might lead to methodolatry in qual research?

Answer 47

Since qual research is so diverse and complicated, researchers might be anxious as to if the type of ontology or epistemiology they adopt is correct. In an attempt to reduce this anxiety they might blindly stick to one type of epistemiology or ontology and that leads them to methodolatry towards this type
(This flashcard isn’t that important, don’t learn it by heart)

Question 48

Mixed-Methods

Question 49

Mixed-Methods

What is the mixed-methods approach?

Answer 49

Combine both qualitative and quantitative methods

Question 50

Mixed-Methods

What are th benefits of mixed-methods?

Answer 50

• guards against methodolatry
• Enrich research outcomes

Question 51

Mixed-Methods

What are some challenges to obtain the Mixed-Methods approach?

Answer 51

• Quan research aims to acheive reliability and validity, qual research believes these aspirations are pointless and stupid
• Quan and qual research are usually based on different epistemiological types: difficult then to integrate different epistemiological types as well

Question 52

Mixed-Methods

What is a possible solution to the above problems

Answer 52

Integration od qual and quan research requires different methods oriented to the same RQ or goal, and that these methods are given equal weight