PGwT Workshop University of Salford 2 nd December 2009

1. Teaching Qualitative Methods PGwT WorkshopUniversity of Salford2nd December 2009 Dr. Siobhan Hugh-Jones Institute of Psychological Sciences University of Leeds s.hugh-jones@leeds.ac.uk

2. Workshop Aims • i) to identify what aspects of qualitative psychology are important for undergraduate students to understand • to develop your skills in teaching interviewing • to develop your skills in teaching IPA • to be more aware of the ways in which the quality of student work can be progressed • To introduce you to the Psychology Networks’ Qualitative Dataset • Qualifier! Tricky to meet all needs given diversity in the time allocated to qualitative methods in UG curriculums and in the learning outcomes specified

3. Group task 1 • You have 2 minutes to list what you consider to be the key principles / aspects of qualitative research methods which undergraduate students should know / think about.

4. Qualitative Methods at Undergraduate Level • BPS benchmarking statements • include the acquisition and knowledge of a range of research skills and methods for investigating experience and behaviour, culminating in an ability to conduct research independently • apply multiple perspectives to psychological issues, recognising that psychology involves a range of research methods, theories, evidence and applications • carry out empirical studies involving a variety of methods of data collection, including experiments, observation, psychometric tests, questionnaires, interviews and field studies • analyse data using both quantitative and qualitative methods • 3

5. (Personal) markers of high standard at UG level • A flexible way of thinking about the ways in which knowledge can be produced in psychology • A fit-for-purpose approach to judging the quality of differing research paradigms • An appreciation of the variety of ways in which qualitative research methods can produce data (rather than collect it) and outcomes useful to psychology • An understanding of the role of idiographic approaches in psychology and its attention to meaning and process rather than causality • An awareness of the ways in which theory operates in qualitative studies • A considered understanding of the roleof the researcher (and interpretation) in qualitative methods • A basic knowledge of how the issues of subjectivity, validity, reliability, generalisability etc. are managed in qualitative paradigms

6. Most common starting point • Students are most familiar with quantitative approaches and will naturally compare qualitative methods to these. • Promote flexible thinking rather than an either/ or approach. • Some students seem to have real affinity with qualitative methods. • Still be prepared for the obvious questions about control groups, validity etc.

7. Example activities: Activity 1 Subjectivity • Many qualitative approaches in psychology are interested in people’s subjective experiences (i.e. what were things like for them? How did they experience an event / phenomenon?). • However, using subjective accounts as research data is sometimes criticised by psychologists and others. • Why do you think this is? • Do you think subjective accounts have a value • in psychological research? Point is to get them to think about this (probably for the first time). If they struggle with accepting subjective data, could point to survey / questionnaire data. Ask them to consideration limitations as well as benefits.

8. Example activities: Activities 2 & 3 Research Questions • Research question • we want qualitative work: • to focus on a defined aspect of a research topic • to generate a manageable amount of data • for use with an appropriate analytic method • and to subsequently provoke a critical discussion of that research field. • in other words, aim to say a lot about a little.

9. Teaching about interviewing • Point out “interview society” (Atkinson & Silverman, 1997) • Interviews are familiar, legitimate and (mostly) respected ways of generating information and understanding others. • “If you want to know how people understand their world and their lives, why not talk with them?” (Kvale, 2009 p xvii).

11. Teaching about interviewing • Point out “interview society” (Atkinson & Silverman, 1997) • Interviews are familiar, legitimate and (mostly) respected ways of generating information and understanding others. • “If you want to know how people understand their world and their lives, why not talk with them?” (Kvale, 2009 p xvii). • Activity 4: research interview vs. media interview • different types and procedures of qualitative interviews, for example: • structured • unstructured • semi-structured • dilemma interview • feminist interview • biographical interview • free association narrative interview • narrative interview • life story interview • Activity 5: list pros and cons of structured vs unstructured interviews

12. Experiencing interviewing Activity 6 • Being interviewed • Person A interviews person B with the interview schedule A for 2 minutes. • Person B interviews person A with the interview schedule B for 2 minutes. • Report on what it felt to be the interview / the interviewee. • Hopefully they notice things such as • Feeling there is a right answer • Wanting to please the interviewer • Finding it hard to remember • Knowing when to ask a question • Listening to interviewee without being distracted • Trying not to lead the interviewee

13. Interview schedules Activity 7 • If you wanted to understand the how ‘undecided’ voters made a decision to vote Tory or Labour in the last election, what would you ask them? • If you wanted to understand how comedians conceptualise comedy, what would you ask them? • If you wanted to know how older women make decisions about genetic testing, what would you ask them? • Can provoke discussions around how difficult it is to devise questions that are both helpful to the interviewer and helpful to the interviewee. • Interview schedules Activity 8-10 • closed vs open questions • spotting good questions • prompts

14. Key conceptual points in teaching about interviews • The interview is not a just type of data, nor even a way of collecting it (as Holliday, 2002 suggests) but rather a way of generating it (manufacturing it, Rapley 2004) • a professional conversation where knowledge is produced in inter-action (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) • can treat the interview itself as an observational site. • This distinction between collection / generating data is important • remaining aware that the way a person speaks is an artefact of the interview is important when it comes to analysing it and making claims about it. • the entire research enterprise influences the nature of data collected / generated • Do people think there is an agenda? Do they have one? • Conceptual thinking Activity 11 Do you think people tell the truth in interviews?Any speaker has at their disposal options to speak about things, truthfully, in many different ways. Consider talk about ASBOs.

15. Key conceptual points in teaching about interviews: ontology & epistemology • Different types of qualitative interviews have their own philosophical assumptions concerning: • what can be known? • can we know what people really think, feel, know, believe etc.? • is there a ‘truth’ / objective reality to be known? • how we should produce knowledge? • remaining sensitive to the context in which it was produced • based on differing conceptualisations of the relationship between language, cognition and reality? • Is there a direct link between what happened, what one thinks about it and what one says in an interview about it?

16. Diana-Bashir Interview (1995) • BASHIR: At this early stage, would you say that you were happily married? • DIANA: Very much so. But, the pressure on us both as a couple with the media was phenomenal, and misunderstood by a great many people. We'd be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, oh, she's on the other side. Now, if you're a man, like my husband a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it. • BASHIR: When you say `she's on the other side', what do you mean? • DIANA: Well, they weren't on the right side to wave at me or to touch me. • BASHIR: So they were expressing a preference even then for you rather than your husband? • DIANA: Yes - which I felt very uncomfortable with, and I felt it was unfair, because I wanted to share. • BASHIR: But were you flattered by the media attention particularly? • DIANA: No, not particularly, because with the media attention came a lot of jealousy, a great deal of complicated situations arose because of that.

17. Exploring epistemology / ontology Activity 12 • Are the interview questions in this extract any good? • What examples are there in this extract of co-construction of data? • Consider how alternative questioning might have delivered a different response. • Does this mean that the interview lacks validity?

18. Theoretical positions on interview data Data as time and context bound social interaction Data as a factual verifiable record “Between these two positions, one may consider that what respondents say does have some significance and reality for them beyond the bounds of this particular occasion, that is part of their ongoing self-story and represents a manifestation of their psychological worlds, and it is this psychological reality that one is interested in” (Smith, 1995, p10).

19. Metaphors for interviewing 1.opening up interviewees’ head and accessing the knowledge inside it • job of researcher to extricate information from interviewee who was reluctant, or unable, to hand it over. 2. have moved away from this basic model to new active (collaborative) model • focus on allowing participants to speak for themselves and formulate own account (Gubrium & Holstein, 2002) • The aim is interpretation and understanding of how and why, not 'fact-finding' (Warren, 1988).

20. Subjective Experience / Psychological world Events Representation Need sensitivity to interactional context

21. Exploring epistemology / ontology Activity 13 • What does this all mean for the kinds of claims psychologists can make when they have based their research on semi-structured, qualitative interviews?

22. TQRMUL Dataset http://www.psychology.heacademy.ac.uk/Webdocs_not_nof/tqrmul/dataset/ • Collected for teaching purposes; participants fully informed. • On topic of friendship • Have two types of transcripts available – Jeffersonian and playscript; we are using the latter. • Can never be a mirror image of the interview– bound to lose some aspects of the interaction. • Type of transcription depends on what you want to do with the data. • Should be verbatim, or near verbatim.

23. Workshop Part 2: Teaching IPA • What are the key features of IPA that we would want students to grasp? • What do you think they struggle with the most?

24. Workshop Part 2: grasping meaning-making • People are “self-interpreting beings” (Taylor, 1985) • Interpretative activity - “sense-making” – is central to human experience & action. Eva Early on at University, I met this guy and we seemed to just hit it off straight way – laughing a lot and finding it so easy to be with each other. Over dinner one evening, I really felt that he was interested in me but I began to feel that I was putting on a bit of an act. I know I started to withdraw a bit, as I was annoyed at myself, and though he had probably not seen the best of me. Out the walk home, I decided to tell me why I had gone a bit quiet as I really wanted to keep this openness between us. I went to University. I met a man. We went out to a restaurant. We ate our dinner. We went home.

25. IPA as a tool • IPA is a newly developed, and continually developing, methodological tool to analyse meaning-making • founded by Jonathan Smith (1997; In N. Hayes Doing Qualitative Research in Psychology) • Central concern is with • the uniqueness of a person’s experiences • how they are made meaningful • how these meanings manifest themselves

26. IPA : grasping theoretical underpinnings • Principle of Phenomenology (Husserl, 1859-1938) • challenges notion of absolute truth / the reality • Does redness mean the same thing to you as it does to me? • Did the dinner mean the same thing to Eva as it did to her date? • valid knowledge and understanding can be gained from people’s descriptions of how the world is to them • measurement of external, observable behaviour is not the only means to understand human behaviour

27. IPA : grasping theoretical underpinnings • Hermeneutic inquiry • Hermeneutics: development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts • IPA’s aim is achieved through interpretative activity on the part of the researcher • Researcher aims to assume an insider perspective (Conrad, 1987) – to stand in the shoes of the participant • Double hermeneutic (dual interpretation process) • Access to the participant’s experience depends on, & is complicated by, the researcher’s own conceptions • But interpretative activity is necessary in order to make sense of others’ personal worlds • “the participants are tying to make sense of their world; the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world.” (Smith & Osborn, 2003: 51) • Research is a dynamic process & the researcher plays an active role.

28. IPA : grasping double hermeneutic

29. IPA : grasping idiographic approach • Idiography • Focusing on the particular rather than the universal • Idiographic studies work at the individual level to make specific statements about those individuals • The alternative - nomothetic studies - work at the group/population level to make probabilistic claims/predictions • NOT either/or, rather we argue for: “(a)the intensive examination of the individual in her or his own right as an intrinsic part of psychology’s remit, and (b) that the logical route to universal laws & structures is an idiographic-nomothetic one” (Harré, 1979 cited in Smith & Eatough, 2006: 326)

30. IPA: the analytic stage Key Points • researcher as active in making sense of the data • purpose of the analysis – to make sense of the data in a meaningful way that addresses the research question (not trying to just generate a summary of what they said) • the researcher keeps moving between text and theme development • your interpretation must fit with the data, i.e. someone else could audit your analysis and should be able to confirm your evidence for themes • analysing the individual’s account, not analysing the person • i.e. not about claiming the individual said what they did because they had an awful childhood, are neurotic, greedy, in denial or full of themselves

31. Stages of IPA(see Willig, 2001, p 54) • Stage 1: read and re-read transcript • in left-hand margin, note your initial observations / thoughts about the data. Could include associations, questions, comments on language use, absences, descriptive labels etc. Often terms open coding • Stage 2: identify and label themes that characterise each section of text • these should be conceptual, should capture something about the essential quality of what was said, can use psychological terminology • Stage 3: relationship between themes • list themes and consider if any are related. Some will form natural clusters, since they share the same elements. If clusters can be formed, group them, and give a Cluster Label that captures their essence. • Stage 4: Produce summary table of clusters and themes, with quotes and line numbers etc.

32. Stage 1: Open coding – what do you notice? Sure of degree or this place? Getting swept along Idea of ‘the system’ sense of loss? I’ve never really been sure of coming to University…well, I mean, I’ve never been sure if it was what I really wanted but I guess it kind of just happened. I filled in the forms at the right time, did what everyone else was doing, and here I am. I guess there is some comfort in doing the same as lots of people, but I don’t know if I’ve done this for me really.

33. Stage 2: How to be conceptual • Move beyond description of the text, or paraphrasing of it. • Ask yourself, what is this text referring to? • What is the participant really getting at, or really trying to convey? • Attempt to capture more concisely the psychological quality inherent in the extract: can use psychological terminology here • Caution is essential so that the connection between the participant’s own words and the researcher’s interpretation is not lost.

34. Parallels with film reviewing Description of film Two main characters, both trying to figure out how to cheat casino One guy uses big group of hustlers Another guy relies on himself End up having to rely on each other, and share the pay out Thematic Analysis Greed amongst powerless Self-reliance vs. need Vulnerability

35. Stage 2: Generating themes • Possible themes? • ‘me’ • Wants • Conforming • Need for comfort • Uncertainty ‘me’ • I’ve never really been sure of coming to University…well, I mean, I’ve never been sure if it was what I really wanted but • I guess it kind of just happened. I filled in the forms at the right time, did what everyone else was doing, and here I am. I guess there is • some comfort in doing the same as lots of people, but I don’t know if I’ve done this for me really.

36. Stage 3 Introduce structure: relationships between themes • look for ways in which themes may be grouped • this may not be possible from just one transcript (but is essential when conducting larger scale studies) • between 2 and 5 themes could meaningfully form a cluster

37. Stage 3 Introduce structure: relationships between themes • Cluster Real vs. Supposed ‘me’ Theme 1: Real ‘me’ “ I just don’t know if this is right for me – for the kind of person I am” (Line 143) Theme 2: Perceived ‘me’ “I guess everyone just thought I’d fit in at Uni, that I’d do well.” (Line 64) Theme 3: Managing discrepancy “At times, I can convince myself I fit. Other times, I get angry and want to rebel.”

38. Stage 4 Write-up (good practice) • Cluster Real vs. Supposed This cluster represents reported experiences around a perceived real self, and one that is perceived by others. The participant often referenced the subjective self (i.e. me) and used this as a way to judge the suitability of her choices. Three theme have been placed within this cluster, ‘Real vs. Supposed Me’, ‘Perceived Me’ and ‘Managing Discrepancy’

39. Stage 4 Write-up (good practice) Theme 1: Real ‘me’ “ I just don’t know if this is right for me – for the kind of person I am” (Line 143) The participant spoke of her University choice in terms of a fit with her ‘self’. She referred to herself a as particular ‘kind of person’, suggesting a view of her self which was static, complete and able to drive her choices. “I am the sort of person who likes to know what’s happening, you know. I’m also quite keen to hear other’s views” “ I’m quite a reflective person” Much of her account centered around a theme of uncertainty, most prominent in terms of her choice of career. “quote” “quote”

40. Stage 4 Write-up (bad practice) Theme 1: Real ‘me’ “ I just don’t know if this is right for me – for the kind of person I am” (Line 143) The participant did not know what she wanted to do. She could not decide whether University was right for her. She may have been worrying about what others thought of her, or maybe she thought she would not enjoy University. She might also have been thinking she was too intelligent for the place, as she seemed quite aloof in the interview.

41. From analysis section of Dickson et al (2007) There is no doubt that the most frequently reported experience with the GP was a contested diagnosis between CFS and depression. The participants reported a sense of being ‘‘in tune’’ with their own bodies, and having a strong sense of insight into their own health. This allowed them the knowledge that they were definitely not suffering from depression or indeed any other medical condition but were suffering from CFS. The participants often had a strong sense of the truth of their own self-diagnosis with CFS. This personal understanding of their condition fuelled negotiations with the GP. Thomas presents a typical account of such contested diagnoses: ‘‘He [GP] goes ‘‘Oh, it sounds like you’ve got depression’’, he says ‘‘these are the symptoms of depression’’, I said ‘‘No they’re not’’, I said ‘‘some of the symptoms of depression yeah, I’m not sleeping!’’ And all these kinda but I said ‘‘It’s not depression, I know my own body and I know how I’m feeling and I know this is not depression’’. He goes ‘‘Well, depression can manifest itself in different ways’’ and he goes, and he kind of irritated me because what he said was ‘‘Oh, eh, the, kind of, the medical world is just a cop out what they call things like this CFS’’ and eh, what was it? ‘‘and irritable bowel’’ he said ‘‘It’s just a cop out on their part, basically it’s just an excuse cause they

42. Challenges in doing IPA What do / did you feel unsure about in doing this analysis? What do you find difficult? What do you ‘get’?

43. Evaluating qualitative studies • Criteria such as validity and reliability rest on assumptions of objectivity and aim to reduce bias (Lyons & Coyle, 2007). • But qualitative methods acknowledge context and role of researcher in production of knowledge. • Some qualitative researchers reject these criteria, whilst others work with them in tailored ways. • e.g. Validity: the extent to which our research method describes, measures or explains what it purports to describe, measure or explain. • interview data has high ecological validity. • reflexivity, transparency and triangulation to promote validity. • e.g. Reliability: not applicable given is time and context bound.

44. Evaluating qualitative studies • Henwood & Pidgeon (1992) 7 attributes of good qualitative research • Elliott et al. (1999) Evaluation criteria • Madill et al. (2000) epistemological stances necessitating tailored evaluation criteria • See Willig (2001) Chapter 9 – useful for students.

45. Useful resources • Interviews • Gubrium, J.F. & Holstein, J.A. (2001) Handbook of interview research. London: Sage. • Hermans, H. (2004) Interviewing as an activity. In U. Flick, E. von Kardoff and I. Steinke (2004) A companion to qualitative research. pp 209-221 • Kvale, S. (1996) Interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. London: Sage. • Kvale, S. and Brinkmann, S. (2009) InterViews: learning the craft of qualitative interviewing, London: Sage. • Quality control in interview-based research • Smith, J. (2003) Qualitative Psychology. See Chapter 11 • Willig, C. (2001) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology. See Chapter 9.

46. Useful resources - IPA • Larkin, M., Watts, S and Clifton, E. (2006). Giving voice and making sense in interpretative phenomenological analysis • Michell, J. (2004). The place of qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1, 307319. • Smith, J.A. (2004). Reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1, 39-54 • Wilig, C. (2001) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology: adventures in theory and method. Buckingham: Open University Press.

47. Useful resources - papers using IPA • Lavie, M. & Willig, C. (2005) "I Don't Feel Like Melting Butter": An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experience of 'Inorgasmia'. Psychology & Health. Vol 20(1), 115-128. • Parke, A. & Griffiths, M. (2005). Aggressive Behaviour in Adult Slot Machine Gamblers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. Vol 15(4), 255-272. • Smith, J.A. & Osborn, M. (2007) Pain as an assault on the self. Psychology and Health, 22 (5), 517-534.

48. Useful resources - papers using IPA • Eatough, V. & Smith, J. (2006). ‘I was like a wild wild person’: understanding feelings of anger using IPA. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 483-498. • Dickson, A., Knussen, C. and Flowers, P. (20070. Stigma and the delegitimation experience: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of pole living with chronic fatigue syndrome. Psychology & Health, 22 (7), 851-867. • Howes, H., Benton, D. & Edwards, S. (2005). Women's Experience of Brain Injury: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Psychology & Health. Vol 20(1), 129-142