Criticism to positivism
- constructivism: knowledge is relative and facts are social constructs
- relativism: objective facts and knowledge are an illsuripn
Kohlberg, Moral Development
Asking young participants to respond to moral dilemmas
-> fem critique by GILLIGAN, more males reached justice orientation, female and male moral system is different
Quantitative and qualitative approach
Not mutually exclusive approaches
Which approach to use is based on research question
Limitations of quantitative approaches
Use of highly controlled procedures and exact quantification of operationalised variables
Gains very narrow or useless knowledge
- narrow and artificial psych constructs
- oversimplistic
- treat participants as is playable from social context
- participants as identical units
Features of qualitative approaches
- should have holistic approach and concentrate on meanings of actions in social context
- needs to be conducted in a naturalistic setting to see the freedom of action of participant
- induction is preferred
- qualitative analysis is not linear
- no generalization
Interview transcripts
Qualitative
- speech and paralinguistics:
Speech: straightforward written recording of it
Paralinguistics: body movements etc
Qualitative methods
Qual. Methods are not unified and homogenous
BUT follow similar principles across methods
Descriptive studies
- purely descriptive
- advantages: investigation phenomenon to add to evidence about phenomena
- limits: interpretation of participants and analyst
Thematic analysis (TA)
Qualitativ-
Inductive (data driven/ bottom-top) TA: theory emerges from analysis of data
Deductive (theory-led/ top-bottom) TA: previous theories
Thematic analysis (TA)
- most common and accessible approach for someone who’s new to qualitative analysis
Limits: does not inevitably lead to theory generation: risk of ending with obvious statements
Good TA: getting familiar with data and coding
Coding in TA
- method for analyzing the themes of the text
- semantic coding: generalization of quotation into code and theme, it helps connecting quotes to theories
- latent coding; searches for deeper meaning
Grounded theory
Similar to TA (reading -> coding-> development of categories-> constant checking)
Cynical process: data gathering-> theory-> data gathering
Interpretative phenomenological analysis
Double hermeneutic approach:
Describe an individuals experience from their own perspective
Not just a description of participants experience (interpret what the participant is interpreting)
- first person account is required
- deep careful reading (descriptive, linguistic, conceptual notes)
- short summaries
- connections across statements
Discourse analysis
Focus on people’s interactive language
Focus on social action not cognition
Reflexitu
Recognition that their personal perspective or position influences resear g
