Introduction to Beginning Research 589 (A)

Session #4

Research Approaches

Historical - What Was?

Descriptive - What Is?

Qualitative - What Is?

Experimental - What Will Be?

Qualitative Research

Appreciation given for the fact that some research problems are best answered using qualitative methods, rather than quantitative.

Helps the researcher understand the context of a phenomenon, or a desire to learn the subject’s perspective.

Can help the researcher generate detailed descriptive data using naturalistic inquiry, denoting the natural environment or gathering data on natural behavior.

cont…

Qualitative research in HHP has significantly increased since 1980.

Traditional research methodology in HHP was quantitative, objective, deductive, inferential, and outcome-oriented (Cook and Reichardt 1979).

The field of HHP was dominated by the predictive power of the model of scientific inquiry.

Cont…

Today, more emphasis is on the historical, philosophical, interpretive, and other social science methodologies.

Field experiments using quantified observations were considered ideal until the 1980’s.

A growing dissatisfaction with traditional methods became evident, particularly with curriculum and program evaluation.

Conventional experimental designs were difficult to operationalize into program designs in the field and were often unable to detect unexpected positive and negative program outcomes.

cont…

Qualitative methodology has been referred to as holistic, inductive, dynamic, subjective, humanistic, exploratory, and process oriented.

Emphasis on process; on how things happen. Focused on attitudes, perceptions, beliefs,

and thoughts… how people make sense of their experiences.

Primary instrument: The Researcher.

cont.

Primary instrument for analysis: Researcher’s insights.

Enables the researcher to record and understand people in their own terms.

Research questions not framed by delineating variables or testing hypotheses, but from real-world observations, dilemmas, and questions.

Data consists of detailed descriptions of people, events, situations, and conversations.

Also called ‘Field Research’

Five Theoretical Frameworks

Symbolic Interaction

Phenomenology

Grounded Theory

Critical Theory

Feminist Theory

Symbolic Interaction

Asserts that all human experience is mediated by interpretation and suggests that people do not act according to predetermined responses, but rather they interpret meaning and define things through interaction with others.

Three Premises: 1. People act according to the meaning something

holds for them.2. Meaning is derived from social interaction.3. Meaning adjusted according to one’s

interpretation of actions.

Phenomenology

Describes and clarifies experiences without previous assumptions to their meanings.

Researcher gains entry into the conceptual world of their respondents, without preconceived ideas about that world to the study.

Has influenced sociology and anthropology for a century.

“Go with the flow”… no set schedule.

Grounded Theory

A form of data collection and analysis that uses comparison as an analytic tool to generate concepts and hypotheses.

‘Core Variables’ emerge as data are formed together into a whole.

Analysis traces the emerging process to identify stages, dimensions, and characteristics.

“Grounded” because it emerges from the categories of data. Particularly useful where there is little previous research.

Critical Theory

Roots in neo-Marxism.

Concerned with political beliefs of both the investigator and subjects.

Purpose: To discover what should be done to improve the world of those being studied.

Feminist Theory

Influential in qualitative research in the last decade.

Attractive to feminists who study women’s experience from a woman’s point of view.

Examples: 1987, a study of women’s leisure examining why the game of bingo was important to a group of working class women, and 1990, a study of women’s leisure activity in a rural community demonstrated the relationship of men’s power and how women were excluded and defined as inferior.

Quantitative and Qualitative Research Data Collection

Three Methods:

1. Observation

2. Measurement

3. Questioning

Observation

Direct:

Subjects are cognizant of being observed and they know why they are being observed as in a try-out situation.

Indirect:

Subjects are filmed or videotaped. Participant: The observer participates in the

research situation. (Campers – 2 weeks)

Measurement

Physical: Static and dynamic strength tests,task complexity, physiological responses to training, distance, interval and mixed methods of training.

Cognitive : Tests to measure knowledge of something. Health, fitness, sport, and leisure knowledge of college students, health knowledge of elementary teachers, leisure time knowledge, etc.

Questioning: Affective measures such as opinion, attitude, and perception.

Questioning

Questionnaires:

Structured: closed-ended such as in yes/no; true/false types of questions.

Unstructured: open-ended or, essay type.

Pg. 93-96. Instrumentation: a data collecting instrument is any

paper or pencil test or measure, mechanical or electronic equipment measure, or physical performance test used to collect information (data) on the variable under study.

cont.

Decide: 1. Is the instrument one that has already been

developed and will be used as is?2. Is it one that already exists but will be

revised?3. Is it one that will be new and needs to be

developed?Decision based on the needs of the research and what instruments are available.

Qualitative Data Gathering

Direct Observation Focused Interviewing Document Analysis Photographs Supportive Qualitative Data

Goal: To produce the richest, most comprehensive description possible.

Trustworthiness of Qualitative Data

May be criticized for lack of rigor, suggestions, reliability and generalizability.

Controls for Trustworthiness:1.Credibility: by the researcher. Findings

should be credible if grounded theory corresponds to observations.

2. External Validity: heightened by careful explanations of the research setting and individuals, and providing rich descriptions of data.

cont…

3. Reliability: carefully document the research plan, triangulate the methods used, triangulate researchers to gather other data interpretations, and document the researcher’s role.

4. Objectivity: can be assessed by other researchers. Increased by: being clear about observations in the final report, and providing several explanations for observations. See p. 222.

Uses and Applications of Qualitative Data

To make practical decisions about and improvements in programs, curricula, and practices.

Can provide unique and valuable data about the motivations of participants, their adherence to health and fitness regimens, and their reasons for low participation rates in health and fitness programs.

Developing the Instrument…

Qualitative and Quantitative

(pp.202-205).

Handout: An evaluation of Instruments