LECTURE 2

HLSC 3P37
September 12, 2019

Understanding Philosophical Assumptions and Identifying Goals of Qualitative Study

Agenda

 Quiz
 Q and A Navigate
 Philosophical Assumptions/theoretical perspectives
 What is your paradigm?
 How would I influence your research process?

Focus Group

 Group comes together to talk about certain topics

 Sometimes people meet for the first time and feel awkward(icebreaker)

Navigate

 Purpose: Peer-peer research study to explore: (explore: qualitative word)

o How university students use technology and social media in everyday life(lived experience)
o How they see its influence on their lives especially their social connectedness and mental
health(perception and meaning attached to activities)
 Lived experience: live through everyday life, repeatedly or continuously and part of behaviour
 Ground Rules:
o Need to follow the procedures approved by Brock Research Ethics Board(re-designed study to get ethics
approval)
o Responsible conduct as a research team member
 Practice for conducting research under ethics approval
o If there is any unexpected happening, please contact TA and instructor
 Recruitment
o By next seminar at the latest
o Send recruitment flyer to circle of friends to recruit at least 2 students
o Email/submit their names and email addresses to TA
 Inclusion criteria:
o Brock students (any year and program)
o Who uses social media
 Exclusion criteria:
o No public health/community health students
o No med sci students who plan to take this course

QUIZ 1

 Did TCPS2 Core online help understand basic research ethics?

o Opinion question
 Qualitative research encompasses a single approach thru which researchers attempt to understand the
everyday lives and social settings of those they study
o False
 Variety of approaches (5 different approaches)
 Qualitative research NOT suitable when your research is
o To test a hypothesis and theory
  Can develop new(grounded theory)
 The difference between methodology and methods is
o Methodology describes the research process and methods are data collection tools
 Which characteristic is not for qualitative research(WRONG)
o Aims to generalize the results
 Not using stats…
 Which research question is more suitable for QUAL research?
o How does becoming a widow affect the identity development of a person?
 Levels of social activities is a measurement
 Which theoretical assumption is not in affinity with QUAL research?
o Positivism(QUANT)
 Post-positivism still can be used for QUANT research
 If researcher symbolic interactionism as worldview see reality from
o Relativist perspective(interactionism means people interact with world)(WRONG)
 Realist more close to quantitative study
 Which worldview paradigm are you close to?
o Interpretive(social constructivism, symbolic interaction)
 Being aware of researchers philosophical assumptions is important because it shapes how they
o All of the above

Discuss

 Memorable topics
o Watch language
 Difficult Topics
o Conflict of interest: dealing with different levels of institution and individuals creates the condition for
different perception
o Vulnerability of circumstance(knowing when an individual is vulnerable)/ Language (using thr correct
language)
o Consent
 Intersubjectivity(qualitative research)

Assignment 1: Annotated Bibliography

 Information in assignment tab on Sakai

 One qualitative and one quantitative/mixed-methods
o Both important each study has strengths
 Within last 5 years
 One person’s work(individual)
 Paradigm is difficult(based on knowledge)
o Quantitative: which paradigm based on experiment(positivist)
o Qualitative: constructivist
 Describe alternative methodology to conduct similar study and WHY
 Provide opinion on article relevance to NAVIGATE project
 Due September 19th 2019 by 5pm

Qualitative Research Process

 General topic(problem/issues/needs)
 Literature Review
 Design
  Data Collection
 Analysis and verification
 Writing up and dissemination
 Additional literature review(if needed)
o Have to come to clear rationale why topic is important

Example 1: Ethnography of Raging Grannies Movement

 What makes older women get involved in this unique activism? What does it mean in later life?
 What is the process of shy older women becoming Raging Grannies?
o Empowerment
o Demonstration against something
 Inspirational how people change collectively by encouraging each other
 Imagined design: change is sometimes better

Qualitative vs Qualitative

Ask how is your research questions

 If we ask how we usually discover why in the context

 Researchers don’t simply look at perspectives(“what”) but also at the process of acquiring perspectives(“how”)
o Try to understand why and how the situation is occurring, the conditions, situations and settings make
people perform a certain behaviour
 exploratory but take context seriously, same thing may not happen in different location
 General social processes(R.Prus 2005)
o Acquiring perspectives(perception)
o Achieving identity(become a university student, assume an identity)
o Doing activity
o Developing relationships
o Experiencing emotions
o Achieving linguistic fluency
 Most humans share these processes

Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Qualitative Research

 Research paradigm(worldview)continuum
o Paradigm: a set of basic beliefs about social world that guide action
 Positivism(QUANT)Constrictivism(QUAL)

Research Paradigms of Qualitative Research

 Post-positivism:
o Aim at explain and prediction
o Belief in stable and objective reality
o Standardized measure
o Theory testing/verification
 Transformative/Participatory
o Critical theory
o Collaborative approach
o Action for social change for marginalized populations(for advocacy)
 Social Constructivism(interpretive)
o Aim at discovery and understanding
o Belief in subjective and multiple realities
 o Focus contexts based meaning
o Theory generation
o Symbolic interactionism
 Pragmatism
o Goal: positive outcomes of research
o Problem solving/practice centered
o Focus on what works
o Often use mixed methods

Researchers Philosophical Assumptions on Three Basic Things

 Ontology: nature of reality

 Epistemology: nature of knowledge
 Methodology: process of research
o Qualitativee and quantitative based on different assumptions

Ontological Assumption in QUAL Research

 What is nature of reality?

o Reality is multiple as seen thru many different views

Epistemology Assumptions in QUAL Research

 Question: What counts as knowledge? How are knowledge claims justified?

o Researchers attempt to reduce distance between themselves and participants to create knowledge
together
 Characteristics: Need to ask proper questions in proper way to get rich data
 Implications: Researchers collaborate and spend time in field with participants and rely on stories from
participants as evidence
o How long do you spend with a group to understand them? Longer the better due to inter-subjectivity

Methodological Assumptions in QUAL Research

 Question: What is the process of research?

 Characteristics: Researcher uses inductive reasoning studies in the topic within its context and uses an emerging
design
 Implications for practice: Researcher works with particulars(not generals), in the context and continually revise
research design from experiences in the field

Axiological Assumptions in QUAL Research

 Question: What is role of values?

 Characteristics: Researchers acknowledge that research is value laden, and biases are present
 Implications: researchers openly discusses values that shape the research and includes own interpretation in
conjunction with the interpretation of participants