Psy2005: Applied Research Methods & Ethics in Psychology Week 14: An Introduction to Qualitative Research 1
Learning Outcomes Outline the General Principles of Qualitative Research Compare and contrast the quantitative and qualitative approaches Complete the workbook
Overview of Term 2: Qualitative Methods in ARM Tutor Led Qualitative methods: An Introduction (Week 14) Developing an interview schedule (Week 16) Participating in a life story interview (Week 17) Interviews (Week 18) Reviewing and applying qualitative approaches: Grounded theory, narrative analysis, and interpretive phenomenological analysis (Week 19-21) Coding and interpreting interview data Writing up qualitative reports (Week 22) Dissertation planning (Week 23-24)
Summative Assessment 2: A Life-Story Interview In the following weeks: We will be conducting interviews You will receive an interview schedule from your tutor and information on how to prepare your materials Group of 4 or 5 (maximum): 1 Interviewer (rehearse the interview), 1 Interviewee (relax! your turn comes later), 2 or 3 research assistants (assist the interviewer, you will need to transcribe the interview in the coming weeks) Complete the form given to your group Materials: recording materials (smart phone) 4 Tutor Led
Assumptions in Science Tutor Led Order - Things have patterns, they do not happen haphazardly, they can be predicted Determinism - Cause and effect Empiricism - Theories should be based upon observable events Parsimony - Occam s Razor: One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything can we have a science called psychology? Some people do not think that psychology fits very easily in to the above! 5
Tutor Led Ontology (What!): The nature of reality... what exists, what it looks like, what units make it up and how they interact with each other and what counts as evidence. Epistemology (How & What!): Given our ontological stance how will we approach the gathering of knowledge in a subject area. What is our expected outcome? What are the limitations? Within we may adopt a biological, psychological or even social stance to information gathering. Paradigm: A worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular subject
Tutor Led Ontology: The world is completely intelligible. It consists of objects that are independent (or can be made independent) of human beings Epistemology: Objectivity is possible though it is modified by several factors. For example falsification (testing the null hypothesis), the need to be neutral in our investigations
Beliefs & Practices: Qualitative Approach Ontology: the social world is not knowable as practice (individual/agency) and structure (society) are co-created. Therefore we cannot understand either on their own. objectivity is not possible we must accept subjectivity. Epistemology: As the co-authors of research we cannot adopt a neutral stance. Research involves studying phenomena from a point of view to ascertain its meaning (its expression, intention, purpose, signification, importance, actually is). Struture & Agency: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y11rbs15cby 8 Tutor Led
Fashion is a simple example of the co-creation of self and society. Is fashion a product of nature or nurture? Or is there more to this? Is it a product of the mediation between individuals and society? 9 Would you wear these? Do they please your eye? Tutor Led
Or these? These may be fashionable at the moment. When we look at them they appear objectively pleasing but one day will they appear objectively displeasing? Like the previous items? 10 Tutor Led
What about the future? People try to predict fashion but they are rarely successful? Is this because it is socially constructed? 11
The Qualitative Distinction! Tutor Led 12 Howitt, 2010, p. 10
Conclusions Tutor Led Qualitative and quantitative researchers differ in their ontological and epistemological positions. Quantitative researchers argue that the world is knowable, that agency is incidental and that we are able to develop theories and test them using null hypotheses Qualitative researchers claim that the world is socially constructed by human beings, that agency is fundamental. That our interactions create a new world every day (that we see this as objective) and that we can only investigate the meaning of these mediations. What are the consequences of these differing views? The main differences are in the methods, approaches, and ambitions. Read the following slides and consider them. 13
Formative Assessment Student Led For the rest of the lab. read through the 12 distinctions listed and try to understand the core differences between the two paradigms Complete Workbook 2 (week 14) in small groups (no more than 4 per group) and submit the completed document via Unihub The document can be found in Dubai folder PSY2005> Lab materials 14
The Qualitative Distinction Richness: descriptive attributes that lend themselves to depth of meaning in-depth interviewing methods, focus groups and the taking of detailed field notes. As opposed to simple rating scales or multiple choice questionnaire methods. Drugs & Crime Example We may use interviews to try to understand the relationship between taking drugs, crime and therapy As opposed to simply asking the addicts to state how many drugs they have used in a month 15 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction! The individual s perspective: in-depth interviews and focus groups encourage an emphasis on the individual s perspective. As opposed to comparisons of people on some sort of abstract dimension that requires your first thought Drugs and crime example The in-depth interview is likely to draw upon the everyday life of the individual. The world they live in, the attitudes they have As opposed to e.g. a measure of the amount of a drug in the blood stream we have found Student 16 Led
Qualitative Research Rejection of positivist view Few qual. researchers believe that the purpose of research is the creation of generalisable knowledge Quantitative researchers are required to make generalisations on the basis of the outcome of data. Drugs and crime example Interviews are regarded as snapshots in a constantly changing socially constructed world. As mediations and reinterpretations of a specific type of conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee As opposed to measures of drug use changes being used to make social policy decisions 17 Student Led
Qualitative Research Adherence to the postmodern sensibility More likely to use methods which get them close to the real-life experiences of people; Ethical psychology leans towards political affiliation and representation (e.g. minority rights, feminist discourse) As opposed to quantitative researchers who are often content with a degree of artificiality such as the use of laboratory studies, and approach from required neutrality. Drugs and crime example Interviewer is likely to look at the drug taker as a person. To stand in their shoes. To understand their position as a minority group and the disadvantages they have in society The quantitative approach is required to ignore these factors in order to create a neutrality. However, the overall research plan may have similar sensibilities. 18 Student Led
Qualitative Research Examination of the constraints of everyday life Qualitative researchers examine aspects of the social world that are relevant to their research participants. As opposed to quantitative researchers who are studying areas that are less concerned with the participants social world Drugs and crime example Qualitative researchers are more likely to be interested in how the person came to be in that position. The social antecedents to becoming an addict. What it is like to have therapy? Etc As opposed to the empirical study that simply wanted to test a hypothesis that therapy would result in the reduction of drug use, ergo a reduction in crime 19 Student Led
Qualitative Distinction Reality is constructed by the individual Participants are at the centre of the research process and are given voice in the first person As opposed to the quantitative approach where participants are seen as a generalisable unit Drugs and crime example The participant provides the answers through the interview. Their feelings, narratives and discourse are at the heart of the research process. They are at the centre of the research. They are measured as part of a group of people receiving that specific type of therapy 20 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction Qualitative data is regarded as rich and deep as opposed to hard and reliable Qualitative research focuses upon getting detailed information from a small n who are directly relevant to the research As opposed to quantitative research which aims to extract a smaller amount of non-detailed information from a large number of people Drugs and crime example Interviews would aim to collect detailed information around many facets of the interviewee s life to discern the meaning (e.g. its expression, intention, purpose, signification, importance) of the addict in therapy) and to create themes. As opposed to an empirical study that is interested in answering a specific question pertaining to therapy and drug use 21 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction Qualitative research is relatively unstructured Given the inductive nature of most qualitative research it is an advantage to adopt an unstructured approach where the interviewer directs and probes the conversation but does not impose an exact structure As opposed to quantitative research which is necessarily highly structured Drugs and crime example Semi- or unstructured interviews may take place about the experiences of undertaking talking therapies whilst addicted to drugs As opposed to taking a specific measurement of how many drugs were taken over a given period 22 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction! The social relationship between the researcher and participant is close In qualitative research the interviewer places themselves in close proximity to the participant. There is a sense of a relationship between the two and a sense of co-authorship As opposed to the quantitative approach in which the researcher and participant are distant the researcher is a witness to a pre-planned event Drugs and crime example The interviewer may try to understand the participants psychological and social situation. They may act on any problems that have been realized through the interview The experimenters in the quantitative study remained distant from the study not wanting to influence the outcome in any way other than the effect of the independent variables 23 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction! Inside the research Qualitative researchers claim that it is not possible to stand outside of the research process so the best position to adopt is to embrace and reflect on your insideness As opposed to quantitative researchers who regard themselves as being outside the research watching from a distance Drug and crime example The interviewer would acknowledge that they bring their beliefs and biases in to the research process and these would be considered in the reflexivity section. As opposed to the drugs and crime study which aimed to place itself as far away from the study as possible through, for example, random assignment of participants to therapy conditions Student Led 24
The Qualitative Distinction! Emerging theory and concepts as opposed to hypothesis-driven research that is used to test theory Many forms of qualitative research argue that an understanding should be grounded in the data and not based upon pre-conceived beliefs As opposed to a quantitative approach which assumes that the researcher is capable of developing an unbiased theoretical idea that can be translated in to an experimental hypothesis Drugs and crime example The interviewer would try to understand the role of therapy in the lives of the addicts. They may, for example, analyse the types of discourse, used by addicts undertaking therapy As opposed to the quantitative study which had a theory about interventions, and set up a null hypothesis on the basis of independent and dependent variables 25 Student Led
The Qualitative Distinction! Research is idiographic in qualitative research as opposed to nomothetic research which deals with classes and relations Idiographic research assumes that social reality is evolving and changing and the individual is the lens through which this is portrayed As opposed to a quantitative approach which assumes that the social world is static and external to the individual and that things can be grouped in to classes and sets. Drugs and crime example The interviewer does not expect to receive an objective representation of drug addicts in therapy but one person s guided perspective upon this In the quantitative study the experimenters regard the participants as a group of drug addicts in therapy. They acknowledge there will be differences but aim to show a further difference through their interventions 26 Student Led
Submit the workbook... and don t forget to sign up for your interview group We need (within each group): 1 Interviewer 1 Interviewee 2 (or a maximum of 3) research assistants 27