M&A L10: Qualitative Approaches in Psychology Research

Class Information

PSY 400
O Item
Lecture
Status
Done
Σ Days Until:
-23
Location
Lecture Theatre 2, Building K
Date
@May 9, 2025 15:00 -> 16:00
Amount of Time
1 hr 0 mins

Qualitative Data Analysis Overview

Week 10 - Qualitative approaches

Reading Materials

• Hammarberg, Kirkman, & de Lacey (2016). Qualitative research methods;
  When to use them and how to judge them. Human Reproduction, 31, 498-501.
• Schutt, R.K. (2019). Understanding the social world: Research methods for the
  21st century; Chapter 10 Qualitative Data Analysis

Introduction to Qualitative Data Analysis

In-depth coverage of qualitative methodology and analytic processes is beyond
the scope of PSY400, with the dominant design and methodology being
quantitative (hence, the majority of this course Is based on quantitative
methodology). Hence, only a brief introductory overview to qualitative design and
methodology will be covered here, and the associated workshop we will explore
only one approach to thematic analysis using the NVivo software platform.
M&A L10 (Qualitative Approaches)
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:
:
→For the student who is embarking on a research thesis using predominantly
qualitative methodologies, this course will not fully prepare you and you will need
to undertake further exploration of the methodologies and training under the
guidance of your research supervisor.

Qualitative Methodologies Covered

In this module we will briefly touch on different methodologies:

• Phenomenology
• Interpretative phenomenological analysis
• Grounded theory
• Narrative analysis

Additional Complex Methodologies

There are additional, more complex forms of methodology that will not be covered
here including:

• Conversation analysis
• Discourse analysis

Before we will examine issues affecting validity of qualitative approaches and
ensuring sampling, rigour and ethical requirements are met.

Qualitative vs Quantitative Methodology

Quantitative research methodology focuses on reducing the phenomena being
studied to numerical values so that statistical analyses can be performed. The
purpose of the quantitative approach is to measure the properties of phenomena
so that causal associations between different elements can be identified.
Qualitative research methodology generally focuses on exploring, describing and
interpreting the personal and social experiences of participants. The goal of
qualitative research methodology is to uncover the meaning of phenomena rather
than causation.
Hence, there are different frameworks for conceptualising a research question
depending on whether a quantitative or qualitative approach is taken. Errors are
made when qualitative methods are applied to a quantitative research question or
vice versa (e.g. using qualitative methods to uncover causation; or using
quantitative methods to explore participants meaning).
M&A L10 (Qualitative Approaches)
2This is especially challenging for studies purporting to use mixed methods, but
have not developed independent qualitative and quantitative research designs.

Phenomenology

In general, phenomenological psychological research aims to clarify situations
lived through by persons in everyday life. Rather than attempting to reduce a
phenomenon to a convenient number of identifiable variables and control the
context in which the phenomenon will be studied, phenomenology aims to remain
as faithful as possible to the phenomenon and to the context in which it appears in
the world. This means that, to study a particular phenomenon, a situation is
sought in which individuals have first-hand experiences that they can describe as
they actually took place in their life. The aim is to capture as closely as possible
the way in which the phenomenon is experienced within the context in which the
experience takes place.
From this rich contextual example of the phenomenon as lived by the participant,
phenomenological analysis attempts to discern the psychological essence of the
phenomenon. In other words, phenomenology seeks the psychological meanings
that constitute the phenomenon through investigating and analysing lived
examples of the phenomenon within the context of the participants' lives. Usually,
the capacity to live through events or respond to different situations greatly
exceeds the capacity to know exactly what we do or why we do what we do.
Consequently, an analysis of the meanings being lived by persons from a
psychological perspective can be highly revealing. However, because
phenomenology deals with experiences and meanings, its scientific status is often
suspect.

Determination of Data and Method in Phenomenology

The interaction between method and data should be obvious.

• If recording behaviour - then use instruments to do so
• If using behaviour observation then must be position to observe behaviour
• What is key is collecting data on persons actually lived through and
  interpreted situations, the database often becomes .
  M&A L10 (Qualitative Approaches)
  3how
  retrospective descriptions

Key Notions of Phenomenology

A key notion of phenomenology is the idea of intentionality, which is the essence
of consciousness, rather than awareness, and it means that consciousness is
always directed toward some world or other (the real world, an imaginary world,
the dream world, etc.).
A second key notion is scientific phenomenological reduction - an attitude where
one considers everything that is given to consciousness from the perspective of
consciousness - the fact that the objects or states of affairs being considered are
taken to be presences, not realities. For example, we encounter hallucinations,
images, dreams, false memories and so on that we recognize as experiential
presences, but not as phenomena of the external world. This step helps us to
resist the common error whereby we state that reality is just the way it presented
itself to us. In other words, the epistemological claim reaches only as far as
presence, not to actual existence.

Phenomenological Data Analysis: Four Basic Steps

1. Read the entire description written by the participant. The phenomenological
   perspective is a holistic one, and so one does need to know the global sense
   of the description before proceeding farther. Nothing more needs to be done
   here because the subsequent steps continue the work of the clarification of
   sense.
2. Identify the - 'meaning units' are formed by a careful rereading of the
   description, and every time the researchers experience a transition in meaning
   based upon the attitude we initially described, a slash is placed in the
   transcript.
   constitution of the parts of the description
3. The data are collected from an everyday perspective, but data transformations
   have to take place after the raw data are collected. As experiences belong to a
   given individual, they tend to be interdependent and intrinsically related. Since
   experiences are relational, the researcher begins to see how different
   dimensions of the experience relate to each other actually rather than
   hypothetically.
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4. The special relevance of these connections to psychology has to be made
   explicit, since it is obvious that the same set of raw data can be the basis for
   several analyses. The type of transformations being sought have 3 aims:
   a. to transform what is implicit to the explicit, especially with respect to
   psychological meaning. This aspect of the transformation is what allows
   the analysis to reveal meanings that are lived but not necessarily clearly
   articulated or in full awareness.
   b. to generalize so that the analyses are not so situation-specific. Seeking
   the psychological meaning of a situation in part means to go from the
   concrete lived situation as an example of something and clarify what it is
   an example of
   c. where possible, to describe what took place in ways that are
   psychologically sensitive. Genuinely articulating and rendering visible the
   psychological meanings that play a role in the experience.

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)

The aim of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is to explore in detail
how participants are making sense of their personal and social world, and the
main data collected for an IPA study being the meanings particular experiences,
events, states hold for participants. The approach is phenomenological in that it
involves detailed examination of the participant's lived experience; it attempts to
explore personal experience and is concerned with an individual's personal
perception or account of an object or event, as opposed to an attempt to produce
an objective statement of the object or event itself. IPA emphasizes that the
research exercise is a dynamic process with an active role for the researcher in
that process. One is trying to get close to the participant's personal world, to take
an 'insider's perspective', but one cannot do this, directly or completely. Access
depends on, and is complicated by, the researcher's own conceptions; indeed,
these are required in order to make sense of that other personal world through a
process of interpretative activity. Thus, a two-stage interpretation process is
involved:
M&A L10 (Qualitative Approaches)
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Two-Stage Interpretation Process in IPA

1. The participants are trying to make sense of their world;
2. the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense
   of their world.

Theoretical Commitment and Challenges in IPA

IPA has a theoretical commitment to the person as a cognitive, linguistic, affective
and physical being and assumes a chain of connection between people's talk and
their thinking and emotional state. At the same time, IPA researchers realize this
chain of connection is complicated - people struggle to express what they are
thinking and feeling, there may be reasons why they do not wish to self-disclose,
and the researcher has to interpret people's mental and emotional state from what
they say.

Constructing a Research Question and Deciding a Sample in IPA

IPA is a suitable approach when one is trying to find out how individuals are
perceiving the particular situations they are facing, how they are making sense of
their personal and social world. IPA is especially useful when one is concerned
with complexity, process or novelty. Research questions in IPA projects are usually
framed broadly and openly. There is no attempt to test a predetermined
hypothesis of the researcher; rather, the aim is to explore, flexibly and in detail, an
area of concern.
IPA studies are conducted on small sample sizes. The detailed case-by-case
analysis of individual transcripts takes a long time, and the aim of the study is to
say something in detail about the perceptions and understandings of this
particular group rather than prematurely make more general claims. IPA
researchers usually try to find a fairly homogeneous sample. The basic logic is
that if one is interviewing, for example, six participants it is not very helpful to
think in terms of random or representative sampling. IPA therefore goes in the
opposite direction and, through purposive sampling, finds a more closely defined
group for whom the research question will be significant.

Factors Influencing Sample Size in IPA

The sample size depends on several factors:

• the degree of commitment to the case study level of analysis and reporting,
• the richness of the individual cases, and
  M&A L10 (Qualitative Approaches)
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