Research skills Qual Flashcards
What is deductive and inductive reasoning
Deductive - top down - driven by specific research question - uses pre determined codes
Inductive - bottom up - free from determined hypothesis - codes are starting point to conclusion - data to conclusion
History of psychology, what did they do
William Wundt
Lawrence Kohlberg
Abraham Maslow
John Flanagan
WW - first psych lab at uni of Leipzig 1897
Founding father
Saw qual as equally important as lab
LK - new field focusing on moral development and utilised qualitative methods
AM - hierarchy of needs, self actualisation
JF - critical incident technique
Define theoretical perspectives ontology and epistemology
Ontology - study of existence, what is real
Epistemology - study of knowledge, what we know
List differences between quantitative and qualitative
Quant:
numbers, statistical sampling, physical sciences, objective, cause and effect
Qual:
words, understanding, purposive sampling, social sciences,
List characteristics of qualitative methods
Contextual - can use ethnology, fully immerse self into context whilst data collecting
Hypothesis generating - generates new hypothesis rather then tests
Thick description - full of feelings, meaning, descriptions
Flexible - can probe and follow up and/or divert
Define generalisability and transferability
Generalisability - extent to which can generalise the findings of a study to the entire populations
Transferability - extent to which we can transfer the findings in a specific context to another similar context
Qual research prefer transferability then generalisability
6 steps in qual research journey
Define research problem - ideally topic that interests, identifying research, chosen pop and what want to research
Study design
Data collection
Data management
Data analysis
Write up
Functions of literature review
Up to date understand of a subject
Helps identify significant issues and themes for issues
Particularly where there is a gap for knowledge
Inform the research question
Make comparison to research finding
Need to assess accuracy and reliability
3 things research question should identify
Phenomenon studying
Chosen population
What want to find out
What are 3 main sampling techniques
Convenience sampling - sample being drawn from part of population close
Purposive sampling - identification and selection of those well informed. Often focus on data saturation, recruit till nothing new being identified
Snowballing sampling - existing participants recruit further participants from among acquaintances
What are the two main views on ethics
Universalistic - ethical principles should never be broken
Breaking is morally wrong and damaging to social research
Means do not overlap with ends
Contingent/relativistic - duties to particular countries, groups, clients
Acts should be judged purely on possible outcomes
Ends justify means
What is the Four Component Model by rest 1982
Describe
That ethical thinking is not a unitary construct but can be viewed as progressing through number of stages
Ethical sensitivity - interpreting situation, identifying presence of an ethical issue
Ethical reasoning - formulating the morally ideal course of action by identifying the relevant ethical issues and using principles to consider appropriate actions
Ethical motivation - deciding what one wishes and intends to do
Ethical implication - executing and implementing what one intends to do
Name 4 main primary ethical principles in CEAC
Name key areas in CHRE
CEAC: respect, competence, responsibility, integrity
CHRE: autonomy, valid consent, privacy, scientific integrity
Name + describe 5 qual research methods
Interviews - structured, semi or open ended
Focus groups - group discussions not interviews
Group interviews - more then one pp or researcher
Participant observations - covert or overt
Field notes
Diary entries - often when observations not possible
3 types of interviews
Barbour 2003 - interviews are ‘gold standard’ of qualitative research
Structured - rigid. preferred by positivist. pre prepared questionnaires and standardised questions asked in specific way to not influence
Semi structured - most widely used. researcher drives but no script, list of prompts and questions to help guide, any order, additional questions can be asked. Need rapport.
Unstructured - most open ended. Relies on spontaneous generation of questions as interviews progress
What are focus groups
Alternative to semi structured 1:1
Group of people asked opinion on particular topic
Uses communication and interaction of pp to generate data - interactive interview
Normally used in: market research, social sciences, intervention design
Around 4-8 pp
Either homogenous (share or similar traits) OR heterogenous (do not share) pre existing or new groups
Researcher is moderator, keeps discussion going
Types of participant observation
Covert - unaware being observed
Overt - know being observed
Participant as observer - group membership, fully immersed - overt
Observer as participant - shadowing, standing at back, observing - open
Complete observer - fly on wall, maybe via camera, distant approach - covert or overt
Complete participant - group membership, fully immersed - covert
Characteristics of diary entires
Often used when observations are not possible - ie no clearance
Written or audio recorded
Lengthy or small snippets
Data collected over time - can ask for reflection or experience
Capture what’s important to participants
Main difference between observations + dairy entries and interviews + focus groups
Observations and diary entires = can provide in situ data compared to retrospective data collected in interviews and focus groups
2 main benefits of planning and storing data
Maintains security and integrity of data to ensure privacy and confidentiality for respondents
Ensuring efficient access to relevant data during the analysis process
Define examples of poor and good data management
Poor:
No systematic record of interviews taken
Interview recordings stored on different computers/locations
File name recordings unclear/confusing
Good:
Systematic record of pp and interviews
Secure storage of video and audio data
Appropriate transcription
Name a transcription service and how benefits
Computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
Helps organise, manage and analyse data
Most beneficial with big qual data sets
4 steps to thematic analysis
Data management - system for organising, ordering and storing data
Transcription - transcribe interviews and type up field notes
Familiarisation - listen to and read or view the material collected repeatedly
Reduction - code and categorise data so can build themes
2 ways of identifying codes
Deductive - top down - A priori - driven by research question
Inductive - bottom up - emergent - codes linked to data found
