Qualitative: intro

Question 1

two differing views on onology

Answer 1

Positivism
 Philosophy that there is an objective reality/truth.
 This objective reality is verifiable by science and logic
 Promotes the importance of quantitative research

Interpretivism
 What is reality to different people?
 According to Interpretivists individuals are intricate and complex and different people experience and understand the same ‘objective reality’ in very different ways and have their own reasons for acting in the world
 Scientific methods are not appropriate
 Promotes the importance of qualitative research

Question 2

What is meant by epistemology?

Answer 2

o	The study of the nature of knowledge
o	What is knowledge?
o	How is knowledge acquired?
o	What do people know?
o	How do we know what people know?

Question 3

Philosophy of interpretivist research?

Answer 3

• Realities are not fixed and are constructed through social processes
• Can be accessed through descriptions of experience
• Considers interaction with researcher- researcher is not just a passive observer
• Gains insight to experience as lived

Question 4

Schools of thought under interpretivism

Answer 4

Post modernism
 Reality is not mirrored but constructed depending on personal realities, experiences and interpretations
 Therefore not generalisable across groups and focuses on individual perspectives

Constructionism
 Asks how people make sense of events in their lives
 Human mind constructs reality by giving meaning to the external reality to which it is responding

Post constructionism
 The way in which we understand the world is built up through social processes such as linguistic interactions

Phenomenology
 The study of the way the social world appears to and is understood by individuals: experienced as lived

o Ethnomethodology
 Extends phenomenology to consider how social realities and social facts are co-constructed
 Explores how people accomplish, establish, produce and reproduce a sense of social structure

Question 5

What is grounded theory?

Answer 5

• Describes key analytic strategies that should be used in qualitative research:
o Coding is a process for both categorizing qualitative data and for describing the implications and details of these categories. Initially one does open coding, considering the data in minute detail while developing some initial categories. Later, one moves to more selective coding where one systematically codes with respect to a core concept.
o Memoing is a process for recording the thoughts and ideas of the researcher as they evolve throughout the study. You might think of memoing as extensive marginal notes and comments. Again, early in the process these memos tend to be very open while later on they tend to increasingly focus in on the core concept.
o Integrative diagrams and sessions are used to pull all of the detail together, to help make sense of the data with respect to the emerging theory. The diagrams can be any form of graphic that is useful at that point in theory development.

Question 6

Describe positive ethics

Answer 6

Much contemporary practical ethics is negative, in the sense that it focuses on what one is and is not prohibited from doing. What is often neglected is the positive side of ethics: issues concerning how one, as a researcher, can best act so as to make the research beneficial to the participants and to society.
o Challenges psychologists to consider ways to enhance their performance rather than simply avoiding client harm
o Raises researcher awareness of own interest and motivation for the research
o Considers cultural and other contexts in shaping the research
o Goes beyond a tick box approach to consider the value of the research
o Considers benefits of the research taking place
o Considers benefits to those participating
o (These last few points about the benefits of the research are related to research quality)

Question 7

Quality of quantitative research

Answer 7

Ensuring research quality is therefore an important aspect of positive ethics
• Quality research is trustworthy:
o Transparency: provide as much information as you can to the reader
o Coherence: have you clearly explained the research process
o Contribution: why is the research useful?
o Reflexivity
 Involves reflecting on the way in which research is carried out and understanding how the process of doing research shapes its outcomes
 When reporting your findings, what steps will you take to make your own role, and that of the method explicit?

Question 8

Three kinds of reflexivity

Answer 8

Reflexive about method
reflexive about epistemology
reflexive about discipline

Question 9

What does it mean to be reflexive about discipline?

Answer 9

a. Why were we interested in these particular research questions?
b. What disciplinary-based interpretive frameworks inform our accounts?
c. What aspects of our disciplinary background lead us to dwell on certain aspects of the research context and not others?
d. Whose voices were allowed to be heard?

Question 10

What does is mean to be reflexive about epistemology

Answer 10

a. What knowledge can we actually gain about the world and human action using our chosen method of research
b. What our aims are in conducting the research
c. What assumptions are brought to the research by the theories we use in it and the experiences we bring to it.

Question 11

What does is mean to be reflexive about method

Answer 11

a. How the research should be designed or conducted in order to provide a convincing account
b. Choices that were made (in designing the research?) and reasons for them
c. Alternative interpretations (of findings?) and their refutation
d. Role researchers play in producing results