Week 1

Question 1

What is qualitative research?

Answer 1

Qualitative research designs are research that analyzes trends or themes described in words.

Question 2

How does quantitative research take a deductive approach?

Answer 2

By starting with a specific theory or hypothesis, collecting numerical data to test and analyze the hypothesis statistically, and then drawing (or deducing) conclusions based on the results. Deduve specific outcomes from a general idea.

Question 3

How does qualitative research take an inductive approach?

Answer 3

Collects data first then finds a pattern to create new theories or general ideas, inducing general conclusions from specific observations and data.

Question 4

What is an inductive approach?

Answer 4

Starts with specific data or observations, then researchers induce general ideas or theories from these observations, finding patterns to develop broader conclusions.

Moves from specific details to a general idea.

Question 5

What is a deductive approach?

Answer 5

Starts with a general idea or theory, researchers deduce specific predictions and then collect data to see if those predictions are correct.

Moves from a broad idea to a specific conclusion.

Question 6

Quantitative researchers tend to emphasize data into ________________ while qualitative researchers emphasize data into _________________.

Answer 6

Numbers

Words

Question 7

What tends to be a difference between qualitative and quantitative research in sample sizes?

Answer 7

Quantitative tends to have larger sample sizes than qualitative due to emphasis on quantity for validity while qualitative is more focused on quality of extracting research and information from the smaller group.

Question 8

Why is a large sample size for qualitative research often impractical?

Answer 8

Qualitative researchers must delve into the thoughts and feelings of subjects.
Therefore, a large sample size is generally impractical.

Question 9

What are the 3 qualitative research design methods?

Answer 9

1. Document or content analysis
2. Case studies
3. Ethnographic studies

Question 10

What is Realism?

Answer 10

There is an external reality that exists beyond the individual who is attempting to understand it.

Question 11

What is Idealism?

Answer 11

There is no reality outside our own subjective understanding and sense-making.

Question 12

What is Materialism?

Answer 12

There are physical and economic structures existing independently of the individual that constitute and organise the social world, and which place limits on individual agency.

Question 13

What is Ontology?

Answer 13

Study of the nature of existence and reality, what it means for something to “Be”

Question 14

What is ontology in the social sciences?

Answer 14

‘What is the nature of the (social) world?’ In the social sciences, ontology requires researchers to consider whether the social phenomena they are studying are inde- pendent of human thinking and interpretation, or whether such phe- nomena exist only as a result of a process of construction by researchers.

Question 15

What is another name for an idealist?

Answer 15

Anti-realist

Question 16

What is postmodernism?

Answer 16

Argues that there are multiple social worlds, socially and contextually created by multiple individuals’ constructions of culture and identity.

Question 17

Are ontological perspectives like idealism and realism on a binary scale or a wide spectrum?

Answer 17

wide spectrum

Question 18

What is epistemology?

Answer 18

The study of knowledge- how do we know what we know? What is knowledge? How do we acquire it? How do we determine what is true or valid?

Question 19

What are the two main forms of scientific reasoning?

Answer 19

Inductive and Deductive

Question 20

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 20

Interpretations and understanding of phenomena are derived solely from direct observations, looking for patterns that can be used to generate theory or explanation

Question 21

What is deductive reasoning?

Answer 21

begins with a theory or hypothesis and proceeds to design a study specifically to confirm or disprove that theory or hypothesis, thereby strengthening (or discarding) the prior theory. Doctors and other health care practitioners may recognize this form of reasoning as it resembles the process of differential diagnosis – a procedure used to consider and progressively eliminate possible diagnoses using a variety of information sources and tests.

Question 22

What is Abductive logic?

Answer 22

a middle position that uses both deductive and inductive reason- ing. For example, qualitative data analysis may start with a highly induc- tive approach, but then proceed by testing theories and explanations from the researchers and/or the research participants themselves or from the wider literature. At other times, qualitative data analysis may start strongly focused on a set of given research questions and topics, particu- larly if the study has been commissioned to answer a policy or practice question, but leave space for more inductive identification of themes and issues not predicted at the outset

Question 23

What are “paradigms”?

Answer 23

Coined by Kuhn [6] to describe a framework consisting of concepts, theories, research methods, and standards for what constitutes a legitimate contribution to a distinct scientific field.

Question 24

What is a positivist paradigm?

Answer 24

A positivist research approach sees the goal of science and research as being to describe reality and holds that all ‘mature’ sciences share the same scientific methods, which seek to establish cause and effect and generate general laws capable of prediction. Drawing on our discussion thus far, we can define positivism as having a realist ontology (positivism assumes that there is a stable reality independent of what we think about it) and an empiricist epistemology (we can know and understand phenomena by observing them). In addition, positivism claims that research should be objective and that the ‘scientific method’ requires adopting a rational, unbi- ased, or value-free approach.

Question 25

What is an “interpretivist paradigm”?

Answer 25

This argues that we need to understand people’s interpretations of the world, and that research should attempt to understand the meaning and significance of the world from the perspective of those who live in it. Interpretivism informs a number of different academic disciplines including different branches of sociology and anthropology. Again using our delineation of ontology and epistemology, we can argue that interpretivism has a relativist ontology (i.e. interpretivism assumes that reality and social meanings are constructed subjectively) and a subjectiv- ist epistemology (i.e. the assumption is that the researcher is inherently part of the object of investigation and that it is important to understand phenomena from the viewpoint of those being studied). Unlike positivists, interpretivists recognise that research cannot be value free. Instead, the researcher is encouraged to reflect on, and be as transparent as possible about, their subjective understandings and possible biases. In this way, interpretivism draws on hermeneutics, a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory and practice of interpretation. . . Interpretivist approaches tend to use naturalistic, non-experimental methods, designed to access the understandings that people have about their own and others’ actions, and the meanings they attribute to these.

Question 26

What 3 levels can a theory be divided into?

Answer 26

Macro-level; Middle range; Micro-level

Question 27

What is a Macro-level theory?

Answer 27

Focuses on large-scale processes and frames high-level research questions about the way the world is, and how people and things behave. Examples of macro-level theories include the ‘Big Bang Theory’ in physics and astronomy or Marxism in social and political science.

Question 28

What is a Middle Range theory?

Answer 28

links empirical research with theoretical concepts to generate hypotheses/questions. The TPB does this, for example, explaining that a person’s intention to stop smoking (a behavior) is a function of their attitudes (positive or negative) towards that behavior or subjective norms (what they think others think about it), and their perception of control (how easy they think it is to quit).

Question 29

What is a Micro-Level theory?

Answer 29

It focuses on small groups and individuals, rather than large structures and systems, and explains how people make sense of everyday interactions. A good example of a micro-level theory is Goffman’s theory of social stigma [9], which argues that some attributes or behaviors are socially discrediting and cause the stigmatized individual to be labeled and treated as abnormal or undesirable.

Question 30

What is Phenomenology?

Answer 30

associated with the philosopher, Husserl, and explores how individuals make sense of the world in terms of the meanings they create and use about that world. Typically, phenomenologists use interviews to elicit people’s subjective ‘lived’ experiences. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a variant of this approach, often used in qualitative psychology, to examine experi- ences and to explore how an individual or a small group comprehend these

Question 31

What is Interactionism?

Answer 31

As the name suggests, seeks to understand inter- actions, encounters, and exchanges between people and groups, and often places particular emphasis on examining the symbols, especially the language people use in encounters. Symbolic interactionism explains how people create and change meanings through their social interactions and relationships with each other, and, therefore, uses qualitative observation as well as interviews to collect data.

Question 32

What is Constructionism?

Answer 32

This theoretical perspective takes the relativist position that ‘reality’ is socially constructed and focuses attention on research questions about how this ‘construction’ happens, and who makes and sustains particular versions of reality. This theoretical approach often uses open-ended interviews, sometimes doing multiple interviews with the same people to uncover these versions of reality and their making. Documentary analysis may also be used to show how ‘accounts’ of phenomena are ‘produced’ and sustained. Social constructivism is a variant of this perspective [14], particularly associated with education research, that is especially concerned with how knowledge is constructed by learners and is thus often used in health promotion research and studies of health professional education.

Question 33

What is Ethnomethodology?

Answer 33

This theoretical perspective examines the methods and practices people use to construct the common-sense understandings that allow them to navigate the social world. Early work informed by this theoretical perspective focused on conversations and led to the development of conversational analysis (CA), a method for analyzing verbal and non-verbal interactions (see Chapter 10). Ethnomethodologically-informed research, and CA in particular, emphasizes naturally occurring talk and practices and thus may use an unobtrusive recording of conversations and/or observation to collect data.

Question 34

What is Ethnography?

Answer 34

the study of people and culture. Like anthro- pology, which it is derived from, it relies heavily on direct observation of groups and settings to understand how people see their social world, but may also involve a range of other data collection methods. A key feature of this theoretical perspective is the aim to explore the whole culture found in a particular location or associated with a particular group

Question 35

What are the 6 theoretical approaches outlined in chapter 2?

Answer 35

Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Constructionism, Interactionism, Critical theory, and Phenomenology

Question 36

What is Critical Theory?

Answer 36

A term that encompasses a range of standpoints, some oppositional to each other, but often associated with ideas drawn from Marxism, feminism, and the Frankfurt School [15]. This collec- tion of theoretical perspectives places emphasis on explaining how power operates in society, and often seeks to inform or effect transfor- mation and social change. As such, researchers informed by critical theory may be interested in how knowledge is constructed to include and exclude different groups, and how hierarchies and oppressive rela- tionships are created and maintained. Researchers adopting a critical theoretic stance also often argue that research should be used to liber- ate or emancipate people and thus they may favour participatory or action research designs that cede control to, or encourage greater input from, research participants

Question 37

What is research methodology?

Answer 37

The rationale, or rules and proce- dures, for doing and evaluating research. Strictly, it should be distin- guished from ‘methods’, which are the particular techniques, or means of collecting and analysing data. Methodology is the justification for approaching research in a particular way.

Question 38

What is Grounded Theory?

Answer 38

A methodology directed to the development of theoretical explanations. It uses inductive and deductive reasoning during data gathering and analysis, although the inductive form is dominant; as the name implies, theories are generated from ‘the ground’ (i.e. the data).