[W4] - Readings

Question 1

What does qualitative research aim to construct?

Answer 1

It aims to construct categories of meaning (themes) that reflect the meanings contained in the words and actions of participants

It does NOT seek to establish cause-effect relationships and classic traditional analysis methods, but to generate a better understanding of social/psychological processes.

Question 2

Which do qualitative researchers focus on more: transferability or generalizability?

Answer 2

Transferability of findings is an important consideration for such researchers, which is the extent to which the results from a particular study have applicability beyond the specific context within which the data were generated.

They focus more on this rather than statistical generalizability.

Question 3

Willing’s Three approaches to Knowledge Generation in Qualitative Research

Answer 3

Realist Approach
→ a realist approach is concerned with obtaining a better understanding of the social and psychological processes that shape the phenomena we encounter
it explains why and how phenomena occurs
identifies events and processes that have an objective existence

→ most compatible qualitative methods are thematic analysis and grounded theory methodology, semi-structured interviews, etc.

→ we can differentiate between two types:
* naïve/direct realism takes data at face-value, assuming that the data provide straightforward information about the phenomenon under investigation
* critical realism views that the collected data can provide information about the underlying structures that generate a certain phenomenon, but that the data does not simply and directly reflects what happens at a deeper level

Phenomenological Approach
→ a phenomenological approach is concerned with gaining access to research participants’ subjective experiences and seeing the world through their eyes
- seeks to step into the shoes of research participants
- focuses on experience and meaning

→ we can differentiate between two types:
* Descriptive phenomenologists seek to present research participants’ subjective experience as accurately as possible
* Interpretative (hermeneutic) phenomenologists contextualize, reflect upon, and develop explanatory interpretations that account for these experiences

Social Constructionist Approach
→ a social-constructionist approach is concerned with the social construction of meaning and the mechanism involved in this process
- interested in ways in which people talk about the world and how these ways of talking construct different versions of social reality
- varieties of discourse analysis are often used to analyze language

Question 4

What components does qualitative research incorporate?

Answer 4

• It incorporates critical reflection on the ways in which people establish claims to be ‘facts’, ‘knowledge’, or ‘common sense’

→ it often criticizes positivism and its idea that the absolute truth is only based on the external world, independent of the way people view it

→ qualitative researchers must possess reflexivity, meaning that they monitor their own contribution to meaning-making during the research process

Question 5

What makes qualitative methods “research”?

Answer 5

• qualitative research employs an identifiable methodology, it works with some form of data, and it focuses on increasing our understanding of ourselves and the world
  (most definitions of research involve these three characteristics)

→ qualitative research methods aim to avoid bias in data analysis and help researchers discover unexpected insights that challenge their assumptions

→ qualitative research aims to answer research questions, especially ones that start with the word ‘how’

Question 6

How does qualitative research contribute to scientific knowledge?

Answer 6

T.M - C.(t)D

Thick description(s), critique, theory-building, and metasyntheses.

Thick Description
→ they require the researcher to describe the investigated phenomenon in terms of its meaning(s) rather than simply recording observable ‘facts’ about it
→ they seek to provide the reader with access to the inner world of participants’ emotions, thoughts, perceptions, and intentions

Critique
→ qualitative research can challenge assumptions and offer new perspectives on the psychological categories we use to understand people’s actions and experiences

Theory-building
→ idiographic, bottom-up research designs enable the development of new theories based on detailed, context-specific human experiences
→ qualitative research can provide chances to test existing theories against new data
→ qualitative research can contribute to theory development by using thick description to map social and/or psychological processes

Metasynthesis
→ metasynthesis is a qualitative method for integrating the results from different qualitative studies
→ with small samples, qualitative researchers use metasynthesis to broaden their findings and strengthen the evidence for psychological practice