Qualitative research

Qualitative research

1. introduction

   • Psychology deals with a variety of areas from the action of hormones to the role of human relationships on earth, because of this diversity there are many different methods that are used to collect and analyze data.
     • To fulfill this methods there are a range of factors which are the purpose, characteristics of the participants and the researchers beliefs about knowledge.
   • Ontology and Epistemology
     • Ontology is about describing things and their relationships to answer the question "What is it?" while epistemology's is to investigate the ways that leads you to think that.

2. Strengths and limitations of research methods are related to philosophical debates on the nature of knowledge and science.

   • The debate relates to different views of the world and how it can be studied.
     • this views are
       • 1."What is the relationship between the researcher aand the researched?" - Considered to be independent and not affected by the researcher. - The researcher is seen as objective and the research is seen as value-free. - The researcher believe that being studied will affect the way people behave, which is way the relationship between them is not objective and these will influence the data collection and analysis.
       • 2. "What can be held as truth?" - Based on what is considered the "truth" for the natural and social sciences "correspondence theory of truth"or"coherence theory of truth" which is a theory that claims that the "truth" is is not absolute but agreeable.
       • 3. "How is knowledge gathered?" - It relies on deductive processes which is hypothesis testing where the evidence is used to support the conclusions. - Focuses on cause and effect, generalization and prediction. - Natural and social sciences use inductive and deductive processes.

3. Ritchie and Lewis (2003)

   • - The social world does not exist independently of individual understandings and that the researchers can only understand through participation, this is called the "interpretative approach" based on the understandings from the people involved. - Qualitative research goal is to get an idea of the reality of society with is diverse.

4. Difference between qualitative and quantitative data

   • - In quantitative research the data is based in numbers which are easy to summarize while in qualitative data consist on text and it is gathered through interaction with participants, the term is used for qualitative data is "rich data" as they have a lot of information about the description of people, places and others, thank to this they are not easy to analyze nor summarize.

5. Strengths and limitations of qualitative research

   • - Qualitative researchers are interested in how people make sense of the world and how they experience events. - Qualitative researchers want to know "what is like" to experience particular conditions and how people deal with it.
     • strengths
       • provide rich data
       • useful for investigating complex and sensitive issues.
       • It goes beyond the information of the event to understand what lies behind them
       • identify and evaluate factors that contribute to solving a problem
       • new theories to explain and overcome problems
       • people are studied in their own environment
     • Limitations
       • time consuming and a huge amount of data
       • data analysis can be difficult because of the great amount
       • interpretation of data may be subjective

6. Generalization from qualitative studies

   • Generalizing findings from a study means that the results are relevant outside the context of the study itself
     • Representational generalizing
       • - Finding from qualitative research studies can be applied to populations outside the population of the study. - Involves small samples that are not selected to be representative.
     • Inferential generalization
       • - The findings can be applied to settings outside the setting of the study, also called "transferability"
     • Theoretical generalization
       • concepts derived from the study can be used to develop further theory

7. Ethical considerations

   • informed consent
     • - Informed consent should always be obtained. - The participants should know the participation is voluntary. - Researcher must provide the necessary information about the study to the participant
   • protecting participants
     • - Researchers should have preventing methods to avoid harming participants specially in topics such as sexual abuse or domestic violence. - The researcher should try to return to less sensitive topics after dealing with emotional issues.
   • confidentiality
     • - Participant should be informed about the issues surrounding anonymity. - Confidentiality means that the research data will not be known to anyone outside the study

8. Sampling techniques

   • Quantitative methods use tests based on samples that are selected from a population.
     • purposive sampling
       • - Targets a particular group. - Based on the aim of the study and existing knowledge in the field. - This may be the only option if the population is difficult to locate. - The only problem may be that the sample may be biased.
     • snowball sampling
       • - Used to study the participants without investing a lot of time. - By having existing participants refer to new participants it can be used to locate hidden populations. - It is very difficult to avoid bias in the sample.
     • convenience sample
       • Selects a particular group of people who are available and they are simply asked if they would like to participate

9. Importance of credibility

   • credibility corresponds to the concept of internal validity linked to trustworthiness
     • Effect of triangulation on the credibility/trustworthiness
       • Triangulation can be defined as a kind of cross checking of information and conclusion in research.
         • method triangulation
           • involves comparing data that comes from the use of different methods.
         • data triangulation
           • comparing data that come from data gathered from other participants or sources.
         • researcher triangulation
           • use of several observers, interviewers or researchers to compare data collection and interpretation.
         • theory triangulation
           • looking at the data using different theoretical perspectives.

10. reflexibility

    • personal reflexibility
      • involves reflecting on the ways in which factors such as the researcher values, belief and others influenced the research
    • epistemological reflexibility
      • involves with thinking about the ways in which knowledge has been generated in the study