Qualitative Methods Flashcards
PSYCHOLOGY DEFINITION
- strongly shaped by behavioural/cognitive traditions
- within such approaches psychology should seek to understand/determine observable/objective (universal) psychological reality
- qualitative approaches re-emerged around 1980s
THE QUALITATIVE PARADIGM SHIFT
- reflected researchers rejecting idea of observable/independent (singular & universal) reality aka. responding to external/internal influences
- person was theorised as operating within subjective/interpreted world w/an organisation offering a certain version of reality
- relationship between person/context was seen as more fluid/reciprocal w/influence in both directions
DEBATES IN RESEARCH
BRAUN & CLARKE (2013)
- development of oppositional approaches within social sciences challenging positivist approach including:
1) feminism
2) post-structuralism
3) post-modernism
4) social constructionism
5) hermeneutics
6) phenomenology
- approaches argued qualitative methods were crucial for identifying dif constructed versions of reality allowing access to people’s subjective worlds/marginalised groups
- qualitative paradigm can be an explicit rejection of quantitative approached (not just alternative)
NON-POSITIVIST QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PARADIGM
- no 1 correct version of reality/knowledge
- argues there are multiple versions of reality (even for same person)
- bound by context in which they happen/are created
- most qualitative researchers would argue you shouldn’t/mustn’t consider knowledge outside context in which it was generated
BODY IMAGE RESEARCH
- you cannot look at how women/men feel about their bodies w/o looking at wider society context
- research suggests that men are generally more resilient to internalising negative body image emotions having viewed #fitspiration images on insta -> wider social context/discourse
QUALITATIVE PARADIGM ELEMENTS (SILVERMAN (2000))
- use of qualitative data/analysis of words which aren’t reducible to numbers
- use of more “naturally” occurring data collection methods more closely resembling real life (compared to other possibilities ie. experiments); develops from idea that we cannot make sense of data isolated from context
- interest in meanings > reports/measures of beh/internal cognitions
- use of inductive/theory-generating research
- rejection of natural sciences as research model incl. rejection of the objective/unbiased scientist
- recognition that researchers bring subjectivity (views/perspectives/frameworks for making sense of world/politics/passions) into research process
- strength NOT weakness
QUANTITATIVE DATA (TOLICH & DAVIDSON (2003))
- numbers used as data
- seeks to identify relationships between variables to explain/predict w/aim of generalising findings to wider population
- generates shallow BUT broad data; not much complex detail obtained from each pp BUT lots of pps take part to generate necessary stat power
- seeks consensus/norms/general patterns; oft aims to reduce diversity of responses to average response
- theory-testing & deductive
- values detachment/impartiality
- has fixed method (harder to change focus once data collection begins)
- sometimes completed quickly
QUALITATIVE DATA (TOLICH & DAVIDSON (2003))
- words (written/spoken language)/images as data
- seeks to understand/interpret more local meanings; recognises data as gathered in context; sometimes produces knowledge contributing to more general understandings
- generates narrow BUT rich data w/thick descriptions aka. detailed/complex accounts from each pp BUT not many take part
- seeks patterns BUT accommodates/explores difs/divergence within data
- theory generating & inductive aka. working up from data
- values personal involvement/partiality aka. subjectivity/reflexivity
- less fixed method; can accommodate shift in focus in same study
- tends to take longer to complete as it’s interpretative w/no formula
DIFFERENT WAYS OF COLLECTING DATA
NATURALLY OCCURRING
INTERVIEWS
FOCUS GROUPS
ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY SOURCES
OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
INTERVIEWS
- structured
- semi-structured/unstructured
- individual VS joint (ie. couple)
- ethnographic
- walking/drawing/sensory
ANALYSIS OF SECONDARY SOURCES
- diaries (audio/video/written)
- texts
- books (ie. auto-biographies)
- news/documents
- social media/online chat groups/webpages
OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
- pp VS non-pp
- check for non-verbal cues
- observe interactions/beh
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SUPPORT
NARAYANASAMY (2002)
- primary way to best capture pps lived experience
DAALEMAN ET AL. (2001)
- selected qualitative method to gain richer/more complete description
LYONS ET AL. (2002)
- illuminate factors absent in (quantitative/correlational) existing lit
STUCKEY (2018)
- “if we don’t understand context in which person is living/under what social/beh constraints then we cannot know hot to treat them”
BIG Q (CLARKE (2018))
- application of qualitative techniques within qualitative paradigm markedly dif to quantitative approach aka:
1) reflective
2) interpretative
3) immersion in data
4) fluidity contrast
SMALL Q (CLARKE (2018))
- using qualitative data collection/techniques
- not necessarily in qualitative paradigm
- positivist sensibility
- qualitative techniques BUT not philosophy