Week 3 + 4 Flashcards
What is positivism?
Precise empirical observations of individual behaviour in order to discover causal laws that can be used to predict general patterns of human activity
What does positivism produce?
Objective knowledge
What is interpretivism?
The study of social life involves skills that are more like the skills of literary or dramatic criticism than the skills of physical scientists
What does interpretivism produce?
Meaning and understanding
Summarise quantitate data characteristics
Epistemological position - objectivist Research/subject - outsider Research focus - facts Scope of findings - nomothetic Nature of data - numbers
Summarise qualitative data characteristics
Epistemological position - constructivist Research/subject - insider Research focus - meanings Scope of findings - ideographic Nature of data - text
What is personal reflexivity?
Acknowledging who you are and how your personal interests and values influence the research process
How does the scope of the findings differ between quantitative and qualitative research?
Quantitative research regarded as nomothetic
- general laws - large groups
- law like findings that hold irrespective of time
Qualitative research regarded as ideographic
- personal, each individual is unique
- findings located in specific time period
What is mixed methods?
Methodological integration - utilises strengths of both qual/quan
A pragmatic approach
Aim to gain holistic understanding of phenomenon
What is induction and deduction?
Induction - identifying patterns in experience
Deduction - testing theories
What are the different approached to mixed method design?
Sequential explanatory Sequential exploratory Sequential transformative Concurrent triangulation Concurrent nested Complementary
What is a sequential explanatory approach?
Quan collected and analysed first and then qual
More weight to quan
Qual serves to add depth to quan
Integration occurs at interpretation stage
What is an example of sequential explanatory collection?
Affective responses to various exercise intensities
Quan - emotions, arousal, RPE
- at higher intensity affective responses lower
Qual - to ascertain WHY
- perceptions of ability, feelings of control
What is a sequential exploratory approach?
Gives priority to qual data
Quan data tests the emerging theories
Qual data can be used to develop quan measures and instruments
What is an example of sequential exploratory?
Compare the elite sport systems and policies of different nations
After qual exploration, a conceptual model was developed
The quan stage tests this emerging model using surveys
What is the sequential transformative approach?
Priority can be given to either quan or qual
Research guided by a particular theoretical perspective
Aim of the research is to create change (e.g. attitudes/policy)
Appealing to researchers who work under theoretical perspectives
What is the concurrent triangulation approach?
Triangulation pioneered the use of mixed methods
Different methods used concurrently
Increased validity
The weakness of one approach addressed through the strengths of another
What is the concurrent nested approach?
Researchers embed one method within another
E.g. a quan questionnaire with open qual questions
Purpose to seek information from different levels
The dominant method forms the framework for the study
Can be difficult to integrate the two models to make coherent
Can add ‘real’ life context
What is the complementary approach?
Qual and quan methods measure overlapping but different measures of a phenomenon
What is the scientific structure?
Title Abstract Lit review Method Findings Discussion Conclusion
What does the title do?
Tells the reader what the report is about
What does the abstract do?
What they can expect to find out about
Typically 250 words
What does the lit review do?
Sets the scene, sets objectives, tells how it’s relevant
What does the method do?
Explains how the research was carried out
