Revision (content from lecture #10) Flashcards
Qualitative Research
Introductory psychology textbooks present psychology as a quantitative discipline
- Quantitative = numbers and lots of them
Qualitative growth spurt 1980’s
- Qualitative = words an in-depth understanding
Quantitative Imperative
Science is about quantification Physics as the model to follow Psychology’s “physics envy’ - Statistical methods --> Funding - Objectivity - The ‘received view’ of what science is.
The received view of science
Objects in the natural world are objective and real, and they enjoy an existence independent of human beings.
- It follows from this that scientific knowledge is determined bu the actual character of the physical world.
Science comprises ka unitary set of methods and procedures
Science is an activity that is individualistic and mentalistic (cognitive)
Logical Positivism
Dominant view in the philosophy of science
Scientific knowledge
- Comes from on’s direct observations
- Is based on sensory experience
- Is based on application of tight logical reasoning
Science is a cumulative process
Sciences are reducible ultimately to a single science of the real world (reductionist view)
Science is the independent of the investigator
Postmodernism
Defined by an attitude of scepticism, or distrust in theories
Critices universalist notions of objective reality, morality, truth human nature, reason, language and social progress
Social constructionism
Knowledge sustained by social processes
Historical and with cultural specificity of language
Reject mainstream psychology view that we can observe the world objectively
Knowledge and social action are integrated
Realism- relativism
Agency determinism
Knowledge sustained by social processes
Social constructionists argue that knowledge is constructed by people through their interactions.
Historical and with cultural specificity of language
The way we think about any aspect of the world will vary in different cultures and in the same culture at different time periods
Reject mainstream psychology view that we can observe the world objectively
The ways in which people perceive the world do not correspond to reality
Knowledge and social action are integrated
The different constructions that we have about the world each have their implications for different sorts of social action
Realism- relativism
Quantitative assumption there is a physical reality which can be assessed through research
Social constructionist view- there are a multitude of different perspectives or views on reality, none of which corresponds to reality
Agency determinism
Quantitative Assumption- human behaviour is determined by external forces
Qualitative Approach:
Rejects the logical positivist view
Relies on linguistic data
- Language may be the window onto reality but does not represent reality
Critical realism- regardless of whether there is a truly real world, our knowledge of it can only be approximate and there can be many versions of reality
Interested in people real life experiences
Verisimilitude ‘similarity to the truth’
Caring ethic
Personal construct theory
Method: Repertory grid
“What makes a good lecturer?”
– Identify three lecturers
– Differentiate between the three lecturers by saying which two are similar (and how) and which one is different (and how)
Statements are bipolar
“Lecturer A explains things clearly, whereas B and C are hard to follow”
Grounded theory
Discovery of emerging patterns in data
Generate theories from data
– Inductive reasoning
– A theory which is grounded in data
Provides guidelines for collecting and analysing data
Some researchers avoid literature reviews
Concurrent data collection and data analysis
- Question formulating
- Theoretical sampling
- Interview transcribing
- Data chunking and data naming
- Developing conceptual categories
- Constant comparison
- Analytical memoing
- Growing theories
Can we de- contextualize the person?
Mainstream psychology methods are prone to a decontextualized understanding of the person with little attention paid to culture and context
Mainstream psychology
Assumes that everyone shares fundamental cognitive and affective processes
–Findings from one population can be generalised to another
–Strong indications that this is not true
–Strong variability between human populations
“WEIRD” people
Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic
- University undergraduates are the most studied population in the world
- They come from WEIRD countries
- They are not representative of all cultures
- But generalisations are made based on results from students from WEIRD populations
- But, most people are not “WEIRD” but are from the “majority world”
Cultural psychology
- An approach to the study of culture that emphasises the interrelatedness of persons and their specific contexts
- Requires culturally appropriate research methods and makes no assumption that results will be cumulative or will lead to the identification of causal relationships
Indigenous psychology
An approach whose goal is to achieve an understanding of a particular national or cultural group, using concepts that are developed locally rather than drawing on those provided by mainstream psychology
