#edrem7781 ## Week 1 Video: ASU SAM How to Present your Academic Research  **Key Points:** 1. **Qualitative Research Overview:** It focuses on non-numerical data to understand opinions and experiences, answering "why" and "how" rather than "how much" or "how often" as in quantitative research. 2. **Comparison with Quantitative Research:** Qualitative research uses smaller sample sizes, open-ended questions, and exploratory approaches, whereas quantitative research uses larger samples, closed-ended questions, and tests hypotheses. 3. **Methods of Qualitative Research:** - Grounded Theory: Developing theories from data. - Ethnography: Studying people in natural settings. - Phenomenology: Capturing lived experiences. - Narrative: Constructing stories from individual experiences. - Case Studies: Observing and understanding a specific event or entity. 4. **Data Collection:** Common methods include interviews, focus groups, observational studies, and document reviews. Interviews can be unstructured, semi-structured, or structured, depending on the research goal. 5. **Data Analysis:** Involves transcribing interviews, coding data for themes, and conducting thematic or content analysis to identify patterns. Tools like Excel or NVivo are often used for organizing and analyzing qualitative data. 6. **Validity and Quality:** Ensuring research validity through prolonged engagement, rich descriptions, triangulation, sharing findings with participants, and addressing biases. 1. **When to Use Qualitative Research:** Best for topics related to human experiences that cannot be quantified, where the goal is to interpret and gain deeper meaning rather than compare or measure. ## Week 2 Video:  ![[CleanShot 2024-08-21 at [email protected]]] This overview introduces qualitative research methods, explaining their purpose and key differences from quantitative research. Qualitative research focuses on understanding human experiences through rich descriptions, useful for studying complex social environments. It differs from quantitative research in its focus, philosophical roots, goals, design flexibility, and data collection methods, where the researcher is the primary instrument. Qualitative research aims to explore and describe phenomena, often using case studies, ethnography, grounded theory, and phenomenology. Data is typically gathered through interviews, observations, and document analysis. Validity in qualitative research is ensured through strategies like prolonged engagement, rich description, triangulation, and member checking. This approach is suitable for studying subjective experiences and can be a powerful tool for social change. When considering a qualitative approach, it's important to review existing studies and literature, and prepare thoroughly through self-paced tutorials and literature reviews. ## Week 3  - **Purpose:** This module focuses on starting your dissertation and the ethical implications of your research. - **Ethics and Research:** Ethics are crucial to research because the act of observation changes the reality of what is being studied. - **Observer Effect:** The presence of an observer impacts both humans and non-human entities (like electrons in physics), altering behavior. - **Impact on Subjects:** Your research, especially on people, will change their reality, and this must be considered ethically. - **Power and Responsibility:** Researchers have great power in drawing attention to their subjects' lives, which brings significant responsibility to avoid harm. - **Ethical Concerns:** Research questions may cause discomfort, embarrassment, or stress for participants. Researchers need to be mindful of this, especially in qualitative research. - **Effect on Emotions:** Whether qualitative or quantitative, research affects emotions, bodies, and minds, making it a holy responsibility to treat participants with respect and dignity. - **Christian Ethics:** Participants are complex individuals created in the image of God, deserving utmost respect. Their time and attention are valuable. - **IRB Review:** Before research begins, the proposal must be reviewed to consider possible unintended harm. - **Pam’s Case Study:** Pam's research at a diverse high school adapted to avoid harm to students by shifting the focus to teachers and observations. - **Ethical Research Design:** Ethics will vary depending on the population studied, with greater ethical concerns arising when researchers and participants differ significantly in social status. - **Conclusion:** Validity and credibility in research are closely tied to ethics, and ethical research involves treating participants as whole people, not just research subjects.  - **Purpose:** Brooke summarizes complex reading concepts for clinicians and researchers using a PowerPoint. - **Focus on Two Paradigms:** - **Positivism:** Knowledge is obtained through direct observation and measurement. - **Social Constructivism:** Knowledge is created through interaction with others and the environment. - **Key Differences:** - **Epistemology:** Positivists believe knowledge is found; constructivists believe it’s created. - **Ontology:** Positivists think reality is singular and universal; constructivists believe in multiple realities. - **Introduction of Post-Positivism:** - Post-positivists acknowledge one truth but say it's not fully accessible, only approximated. - **Critical Theories:** - Paradigms like feminism and queer theory argue that reality is subjective and shaped by oppressive experiences. - **Importance for Research and Clinical Work:** - These paradigms help researchers position themselves and determine how to judge research validity. - Standards of what makes research "good" differ across paradigms. - **Validity Standards:** - Positivists demand uncontaminated research; critical theorists focus on subjective experiences. - **Conclusion:** Brooke encourages students to reach out if they need clarification. 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