Introducing qualitative research in psychology pdf

It explains when each qualitative research method should be used, the procedures and techniques involved, and any limitations associated with such research. Throughout the new edition, material has been re-organized and updated to reflect developments. An informative real-world guide to studying the "why" of human behavior Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods is a practical, comprehensive guide to the collection and presentation of qualitative data.

Unique in the market, this book describes the entire research process — from design through writing — illustrated by examples of real, complete. In many arenas the debate is raging over the nature of sexual orientation. Queer Words, Queer Images addresses this debate, but with a difference, arguing that homosexuality has become an issue precisely because of the way in which we discuss, debate, and communicate about the concept and experience of homosexuality. It focuses on the process of understanding in qualitative data analysis by taking the perspective of interpretation: What links our understanding with social and psychological phenomena in qualitative research?

With its broad coverage of. This unique text provides a broad introduction to qualitative analysis together with concrete demonstrations and comparisons of five major approaches. Leading scholars apply their respective analytic lenses to a narrative account and interview featuring "Teresa," a young opera singer who experienced a career-changing illness.

The resulting analyses vividly exemplify what. Accord- ing to a social constructionist viewpoint, the measurement of psychological variables is itself one more way of making them real, of constructing them.

Qualitative research This book is about qualitative research in psychology. Having introduced the concept of epistemology and having considered, briefly, some major epistemo- logical positions, it is now time to explore how qualitative methodology fits into this picture.

From recipes to adventures 9 First, it is important to acknowledge that qualitative research methods can be, and are, used by researchers with quite different epistemological positions. For example, there are empiricist as well as social constructionist qualitative researchers. That is, they are interested in how people make sense of the world and how they experience events.

Qualitative researchers tend, therefore, to be concerned with the quality and texture of experience, rather than with the identification of cause—effect relationships. This is because qualitative researchers tend to be interested in the meanings attributed to events by the research participants themselves. The objective of qualitative research is to describe and possibly explain events and experiences, but never to predict.

Qualitative researchers study people in their own territory, within naturally occurring settings such as the home, schools, hospitals, the street. This statement draws attention to the role of theory in the interpretation of data. For example, if our data consist of several pages of interview transcript, we need to decide what this transcript represents before we can analyse it see Kvale a: It could represent a factual account of what happened to the interviewee.

And this framework, in turn, is informed by our epi- stemological stance. For example, if our epistemological position is a social constructionist one, we may approach the text using a discourse analytic theoretical framework. This means that the text is seen as a manifestation of available discursive resources which the interviewee is drawing upon to con- struct a particular version of events. If, however, our epistemological position is an empiricist one, we might use a version of the grounded theory method or a form of content analysis to identify the categories of meaning used by the interviewee to make sense of events.

In both cases, the analysis of the interview transcript would be qualitative. These two features are related. There are two types of reflexivity: personal reflexivity and epistemological reflexivity. Personal reflexivity involves reflecting upon the ways in which our own values, experiences, interests, beliefs, political commitments, wider aims in life and social identities have shaped the research. It also involves thinking about how the research may have affected and possibly changed us, as people and as researchers.

How could the research question have been investigated differently? To what extent would this have given rise to a different under- standing of the phenomenon under investigation? Thus, epistemological re- flexivity encourages us to reflect upon the assumptions about the world, about knowledge that we have made in the course of the research, and it helps us to think about the implications of such assumptions for the research and its findings.

Qualitative researchers differ in the emphasis they place upon reflexivity in their research. For some, both personal and epistemological re- flexivity are central to the research process and form an integral part of the research report.

Others acknowledge the importance of reflexivity but do not include an in-depth discussion of it in their research reports. Critical language awareness Fairclough forms part of reflexivity. The words we use to describe our experiences play a part in the construction of the meanings we attribute to such experiences. Language has a constructive dimen- sion; it does not simply mirror reality. For example, certain answers are made impossible by certain kinds of questions.

Qualitative researchers take different views of the extent to which language constructs versions of reality. In between, there are many degrees of critical language awareness.

The six approaches to qualitative research introduced here are all concerned with the exploration of lived experi- ence and participant-defined meanings. Chapter 2 discusses key aspects of qualitative research design. These include the formulation of a research question, the selection of suitable data collection techniques, as well as ethical considerations and reflexivity.

Each chapter introduces the approach and its procedures and techniques for gathering and analysing data. It identifies its advantages and disadvantages, and it discusses ways of writing up the research. To facilitate comparison between the six methods, I shall raise three epistemological questions in relation to each approach. These questions will be identified in the next section. The concluding chapter Chapter 9 addresses the question of evaluation of qualitative research.

The book also reproduces three research reports written by third-year psychology undergraduates see Appendices 1—3. These reports illustrate how qualitative research methods can be applied in practice, within the real-world constraints of an undergraduate course. All three reports are of a high quality. These are italicized and preceded by the initials C. Three epistemological questions To be able to evaluate research in a meaningful way, we need to know what its objectives were and what kind of knowledge it aimed to produce.

For example, there is no sense in criticizing a study for not identifying the cognitive precursors of a particular behaviour, when the aim of the study was to find out what it felt like to engage in the behaviour. To be able to compare methodological approaches with one another and to be able to evaluate the extent to which studies using these approaches have met their own objectives, we need to have a clear understanding of their epistemological basis and their methodological requirements.

Qualitative research can produce descriptions or explanations. It can aim to interpret what people have said in order to explain why they may have said it. It can aim to make links between micro-processes, such as doctor— patient communication, and macro-structures, such as economic and social relations.

What kind of knowledge a methodology aims to produce depends on its epistemological position i. From recipes to adventures 13 2 What kinds of assumptions does the methodology make about the world? This question takes us into the realm of ontology. Ontology is concerned with the nature of the world. For example, our starting point may be the assumption that events are generated by under- lying structures such as socioeconomic relations.

This would constitute a materialist ontology. Alternatively, we may assume that psychological phe- nomena are independent from such structures. This would be an idealist position. A realist ontology maintains that the world is made up of structures and objects that have cause—effect relationships with one another. Materialism, for instance, subscribes to a realist ontology. A relativist ontology, by contrast, rejects such a view of the world and maintains instead that the world is not the orderly, law-bound place that realists believe it to be.

Idealism is an example of a relativist ontology. All qualitative methodologies do recognize that the researcher is, in one way or another, implicated in the research process. However, there are differ- ences in the extent to which qualitative methodologies see the researcher as being the author, as opposed to the witness, of their research findings. Positivism Empiricism Hypothetico-deductivism Critique of the 'scientific method' Feminist critique of established epistemologies Social constructionism Epistemology and methodology Qualitative research Overview of the book Three epistemological questions Further reading chapter two: Qualitative research design General principles of qualitative research design The research question Choosing the 'right' method Semi… Expand.

Save to Library Save. Create Alert Alert. Share This Paper. Background Citations. Methods Citations. Results Citations. Citation Type. Has PDF. Publication Type. More Filters. Pluralism in qualitative research: the impact of different researchers and qualitative approaches on the analysis of qualitative data. Qualitative approaches to research in psychology and the social sciences are increasingly used. The variety of approaches incorporates different epistemologies, theoretical traditions and practices … Expand.

View 2 excerpts, cites background. I n the introduction to this Handbook, James A. Holstein and Jaber F. Gubrium suggest that a social constructionist approach deals best with what people construct and how this social construction … Expand.

View 1 excerpt, cites background. The establishment of qualitative approaches in the mainstream of psychology research facilitates innovation in their use, both singly and in combination.