QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Stems from positivism, determinism, materialism and empiricism
Reality is ‘out there’ waiting tobe captured
POSITIVISM
The universe consists of real, independentphenomena that we can come to know throughdirect observation
Absolute time, true and mathematicaltime, of itself and by its own nature,flows uniformly, without regard to anything external.
Sir Isaac Newton
DETERMINISM
All that happens has a definite cause and gives riseto a definite effect. The future of any part of thesystem can, in principle, be predicted with absolutecertainty.
Capra (1983)
MATERIALISM –THE QUANTIFIABILITY OF MATTER
What exists, exists in some amount.What exists, and even relationshipsbetween existing phenomena, areamenable to observation andmeasurement
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Reality is ‘in here’ and others onlyhave access to it to the extent thatthey share my world view. My research findings are a personal construction of how I view events and my job as a researcher is to persuade others that my account is trustworthy
Stems from constructionism and phenomenologism
CONSTRUCTIONISM
… contrary to commonsense, there is no unique‘real world’ that pre-exists and is independent of human mental activity …
Bruner (1986)
… what we take to be objective knowledge andtruth is [actually] the result of perspective
Schwandt (1994)
PHENOMENOLOGISM
Perceptions define reality
Different people define reality in different ways
In order to understand a person’s reality we have to look at the world through their eyes
DEDUCTION vs INDUCTION
DEDUCTION: Theory-based inference
Hypothesis-testing
INDUCTION: Observation-based inference
Theory building
NOMOTHETIC vs IDIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Focus is on groups and similarities
Nomothetic
Concerns general or universal statements or laws
NOMOTHETIC vs IDIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Idiographic
Concerns things that are individual or unique
Focus is on individuals and differences
STRUCTURED vs UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Lincoln & Guba (1985)
Structured interviews are used when theresearcher knows what he or she does not know
Unstructured interviews are used when theresearcher does not know what he or
she does not know
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Include fixed predetermined questions that
all participants are asked, but also ask
follow-up questions as new issues arise
during the interview
ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEW DATA Inductive hierarchical content analysis
Verbatim transcriptions of interviews
Familiarisation
Establish unit of analysis (discrete quotes)
“Training was just taking over my whole
life,
I was constantly injured, and
my coach would never give me a break”
“Training was just taking over my whole
life,
I was constantly injured, and
my coach would never give me a break”
I just knew I couldn’t beat the Africans in the race
I just couldn’t sleep the night before
I had a niggling hamstring problem
I just messed up my strategy right from the start
I went down with some sort of virus the day before
I worried too much about what everyone would say if I didn’t win a medal
I didn’t really work hard enough in the training camp
I made the wrong decision in taking the lead so early
I don’t think my stress fracture had fully healed
I just wasn’t as fit as I should have been
It must have been something I ate in the Village
I lost it on the last lap when I realised I just couldn’t catch the front runners
It was so noisy in the Village, I never got enough sleep
I just kept thinking ‘This is my last chance to win a medal and I’m going to blow it’
I didn’t really work out a proper race plan in training
I had this sore throat when I got up and just didn’t feel right
It was so hot all the time; I never seemed to have any energy
When I saw the others make such fast times in the heats I just lost confidence
I pulled a muscle in the heats
The thought of not doing well just seemed to paralyse me
I didn’t follow my race plan
1.Identify first order (emergent) themes: Cluster quotes to unite quotes with similar meanings and separate quotes with different meanings
1st order themes
Bad tactics
Poor preparation
Injury
Illness
Fatigue
Fear of the opposition
Fear of failure
I just messed up my strategy right from the startI made the wrong decision in taking the lead so earlyI didn’t follow my race plan
I didn’t really work hard enough in the training campI just wasn’t as fit as I should have beenI didn’t really work out a proper race plan in training
I had a niggling hamstring problemI don’t think my stress fracture had fully healedI pulled a muscle in the heats
I went down with some sort of virus the day beforeIt must have been something I ate in the VillageI had this sore throat … and just didn’t feel right
I just couldn’t sleep the night beforeIt was so noisy in the Village, I never got enough sleepIt was so hot … I never seemed to have any energy
I worried too much about what everyone would say if ….I just kept thinking ‘This is my last chance to win…’The thought of not doing well just seemed to paralyse me
I just knew I couldn’t beat the Africans in the raceI lost it on the last lap ... couldn’t catch the front runnersWhen I saw the others make such fast … I just lost confidence
Bad tactics
Poor preparation
Injury
Illness
Fatigue
Fear of the opposition
Fear of failure
I just messed up my strategy right from the startI made the wrong decision in taking the lead so earlyI didn’t follow my race plan
I didn’t really work hard enough in the training campI just wasn’t as fit as I should have beenI didn’t really work out a proper race plan in training
I had a niggling hamstring problemI don’t think my stress fracture had fully healedI pulled a muscle in the heats
I went down with some sort of virus the day beforeIt must have been something I ate in the VillageI had this sore throat … and just didn’t feel right
I just couldn’t sleep the night beforeIt was so noisy in the Village, I never got enough sleepIt was so hot … I never seemed to have any energy
I worried too much about what everyone would say if ….I just kept thinking ‘This is my last chance to win…’The thought of not doing well just seemed to paralyse me
I just knew I couldn’t beat the Africans in the raceI lost it on the last lap ... couldn’t catch the front runnersWhen I saw the others make such fast … I just lost confidence
2.Identify second order themes: Cluster first order themes to unite themes with similar meanings and separate themes with different meanings
Poor Judgement
Physical problems
Psychological issues
2nd order themes
Poor Judgement
Physical problems
Psychological issues
Bad tactics
Poor preparation
Injury
Illness
Fatigue
Fear of the opposition
Fear of failure
I just messed up my strategy right from the startI made the wrong decision in taking the lead so earlyI didn’t follow my race plan
I didn’t really work hard enough in the training campI just wasn’t as fit as I should have beenI didn’t really work out a proper race plan in training
I had a niggling hamstring problemI don’t think my stress fracture had fully healedI pulled a muscle in the heats
I went down with some sort of virus the day beforeIt must have been something I ate in the VillageI had this sore throat … and just didn’t feel right
I just couldn’t sleep the night beforeIt was so noisy in the Village, I never got enough sleepIt was so hot … I never seemed to have any energy
I worried too much about what everyone would say if ….I just kept thinking ‘This is my last chance to win…’The thought of not doing well just seemed to paralyse me
I just knew I couldn’t beat the Africans in the raceI lost it on the last lap ... couldn’t catch the front runnersWhen I saw the others make such fast … I just lost confidence
3.Identify higher order themes: Continue until possibilities for further clustering are exhausted
Personal factors
3rd order theme
Themes become moregeneral and moreinterpretative as theanalysis moves upward
Each individual theme(regardless of its level)is inclusive
Each theme within a givenlevel is mutually exclusive
Higher level themes captureall or most lower level themes
TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE ANALYSIS
Consensus validation:
Researchers independently analyse the data
and then discuss their results until they reach
an agreement on its structure and interpretation
Reality is ‘in here’ … My research findingsare a personal construction of how I view events …
Whatsoever nature may be, or howsoever the quest for truth will turn out in the end, the events we face today are subject to as great a variety of constructions as our wits will enable us to contrive.
George Kelly (1970)