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

EMPIRICISM

Knowing is the result of first-hand,direct observation

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

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: INTERVIEWING

An interview is a conversationwith a purpose

Dexter (1970)

PURPOSES OF INTERVIEWING

Here and now constructions

Reconstructions

Projections

Triangulation

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

Post-construction checks

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE ANALYSIS

Disinterested peer

Member checking

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)