Qualitative test 1

Behaviour research

Object like

Physical/ verbal behaviour

Experience research

Subject like

Inner thoughts, emotions and sensations

Positivism

Social phenomena investigated in an object like manner

Observable + measurable

Idealism

Human phenomena should focus on the subjective realm of human experience and meaning

Dimensions/paradigms of research

Labels to identify sets of underlying beliefs which research is based

Ontology

Theory of the nature of reality

(Is there one reality or multiple?)

What is real?

Epistemology

Study of the nature of knowing

(How do I know what is real?)

Theory of how we come to have knowledge

Methodology

Science of finding things out

(How do I find out more about this reality?)

Constructivism

Reality is socially constructed, shaped by experienced

(Qualitative approach)

Major strands of qualitative research

Interpretive, critical, post-positivism

Interpretive strand

Reality is co-constructed between human beings or between humans and the world

Symbolic interactionism

Social interaction (or interaction between person and the world/objects) is where and how meanings are generated

Ex: religious jewelry

Dramaturgy

Emphasizes the importance of social context in understanding people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Phenomenology

Emphasizes multiple dimensions of what is referred to as the “lived experience“

Considers how time, space, relationships and bodily experience shape our psychological and social reality

Critical strand

Our lived reality has been constructed and reconstructed by people in positions of power

Post-modernism

Focuses on identifying and understanding how dominant beliefs, values, ideologies influence people’s experience

Post structuralism

Challenging and deconstructing dominant ideas

Looks at how these power systems are created

Post positivism

Use of qualitative methods to supplement quantitative project

Underlying assumption that there is a reality that exits outside of our awareness

Husserl’s phenomenology

There is an ‘objective reality’ but that it is most appropriately assessed through qualitative methods (phenomenology reduction)

How needs to get approved for research

REB application

Reflexivity

Critical self evaluation of researchers positionality

Triangulation

Improved credibility and trustworthiness by gathering different perspectives on the same issue