Although the lack of conceptual clarity has been observed to be a widespread and fundamental problem in psychology, conceptual clarification plays a mostly marginal role in psychological research. In ...this article, we argue that better conceptualization of psychological phenomena is needed to move psychology forward as a science. We first show how conceptual unclarity seeps through all aspects of psychological research, from everyday concepts to statistical measures. We then turn to recommendations on how to improve conceptual clarity in psychology, emphasizing the importance of seeing research as an iterative process in which it is necessary to revisit the phenomena that are the foundations of theories and models, as well as how they are conceptualized and measured.
The article raises the question of the necessity to develop clear procedures and regulations for completing interviews that would allow the interviewer, regardless of the type of interview, not only ...leave a good impression of himself and maintain an empathic relationship, but also not violate the fundamentals of research ethics and maintain high standards of field work. The reader is provided with a protocol for completing an interview, consisting of five requirements, the fulfillment of which guarantees the successful completion of even the most difficult conversation. We are not talking about a set of instructions; rather, basic recommendations and guidelines are presented, guided by which the interviewer will be able to develop his own communicative techniques for completing the interview. The presented protocol is universal and suitable for qualitative and quantitative interviews.
The article deals with the techniques of how to involve university first-year students in speaking using the activities for small groups. The experiment was carried out at Vasyl Stefanyk ...Precarpathian National University with the freshmen of the Department of Foreign Languages. The focus of the research was on speaking skills as they are considered to play a significant role in enhancing students’ communicative competence. The experiment is of high methodological value as it was based on two types of studying, namely online and in class. The aim of developing speaking skills is threefold. It is a splendid opportunity to practice real-life communication. Any speaking activity can be provided feedback, which will make learners understand the level, progress, and language difficulties they face. The teacher’s productive feedback can evoke students’ great satisfaction from a speaking activity and positively influence their wish to take part in the discussion. It is crucial to find the most suitable ways to help learners speak English fluently and adjust methods and techniques how to engage them in speaking activities. To carry out the experiment qualitative and quantitative methods were used successfully. The observation was selected to do the qualitative research, namely for observing the learners’ participation during their work in small groups, which were selected as a means of conducting speaking activities in the class. The quantitative method in this research was represented by two questionnaires. The purpose of them was to find out students’ attitudes toward this kind of work before and after the experiment. The overall results proved to be positive and the experiment confirmed the hypothesis that engaging students in small group work could contribute to their greater participation in discussion activities. The data of the observation and questionnaires revealed that the learners felt more confident in small teams and they understood some responsibility for their work.
Building on recent developments in mixed methods, we discuss the methodological implications of critical realism and explore how these can guide dynamic mixed-methods research design in information ...systems. Specifically, we examine the core ontological assumptions of CR in order to gain some perspective on key epistemological issues such as causation and validity, and illustrate how these shape our logic of inference in the research process through what is known as retroduction. We demonstrate the value of a CR-led mixedmethods research approach by drawing on a study that examines the impact of ICT adoption in the financial services sector. In doing so, we provide insight into the interplay between qualitative and quantitative methods and the particular value of applying mixed methods guided by CR methodological principles. Our positioning of demi-regularities within the process of retroduction contributes a distinctive development in this regard. We argue that such a research design enables us to better address issues of validity and the development of more robust meta-infer enees.
Surgery in the prone position is often a necessity when access to posterior anatomic structures is required. However, many complications are known to be associated with this type of surgery, as ...physiologic changes occur with increased pressure to anterior structures. While several studies have discussed postoperative vision loss, much fewer studies with lower levels of evidence have addressed other complications. A systematic literature review was conducted using 2 different databases, and 53 papers were regarded as appropriate for inclusion. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed. Thirteen complications were identified. Postoperative vision loss and cardiovascular complications, including hypovolemia and cardiac arrest, had the most number of studies and highest level of evidence. Careful planning for optimal positioning, padding, timing, as well as increased vigilance are evidence-based recommendations where operative prone positioning is required.
What is it to be “an ideal parent”? Does the answer differ across countries and social classes? To answer these questions in a way that minimizes bias and ethnocentrism, we used open-ended questions ...to explore ideal-parent beliefs among 8,357 mothers and 3,517 fathers from 37 countries. Leximancer Semantic Network Analysis was utilized to first determine parenting culture zones (i.e., countries with shared ideal-parent beliefs) and then extract the predominant themes and concepts in each culture zone. The results yielded specific types of ideal-parent beliefs in five parenting culture zones: being “responsible and children/family-focused” for Asian parents, being “responsible and proper demeanor-focused” for African parents, and being “loving and responsible” for Hispanic-Italian parents. Although the most important themes and concepts were the same in the final two zones—being “loving and patient,” there were subtle differences: English-speaking, European Union, and Russian parents emphasized “being caring,” while French-speaking parents valued “listening” or being “present.” Ideal-parent beliefs also differed by education levels within culture zones, but no general pattern was discerned across culture zones. These findings suggest that the country in which parents were born cannot fully explain their differences in ideal-parent beliefs and that differences arising from social class or education level cannot be dismissed. Future research should consider how these differences affect the validity of the measurements in question and how they can be incorporated into parenting intervention research within and across cultures.
The article seeks to stimulate dialogue about the evaluation of cultural competence in healthcare. The first part of the paper presents the different attempts to measure cultural competence in the ...field of healthcare and critically analyses the problems that arise concerning the use of instruments that measure the cultural competence of health providers. The second part of the article focuses on the evaluation process of the first cultural competence educational programme for healthcare workers in Slovenia, serving as an example to demonstrate the importance of complementing quantitative methods with qualitative ones and to emphasize the need to shift the focus from measuring the cultural competence of individual healthcare workers to the evaluation of educator performances, patient perspectives, and the cultural competence of healthcare institutions as a whole.
The discourse of the non-method Roy, Olivier
Bulletin de méthodologie sociologique,
04/2023, Letnik:
158, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The article proposes a reflection on the methodological dimensions of a research path initially devoted to the relationship between Islam and politics in Afghanistan, then in various regional ...contexts, and finally extended to the relationship between religion, politics and culture in the contemporary world. The author returns to his concrete, empirical and intuitive relationship with fieldwork, nourished by a culture of human and social sciences impregnated with anthropology and philosophy. The article first examines the modalities and limits of the interview and/or questionnaire survey based on the author’s seminal investigations in Afghanistan, arguing for a prolonged coexistence with the actors. It then examines the comparative and interpretive challenge that any change of case study represents for this immersive posture. The article then examines the methodological and ethical effects of surveys conducted in contexts of political violence. Finally, the relative value of quantitative and qualitative methods and the implications of this debate for the teaching of methods are discussed in light of research on religion.
Combining qualitative and quantitative methods and data is crucial to understanding the complex dynamics and often interdisciplinary nature of conservation. Many conservation scientists use mixed ...methods, but there are a variety of mixed methods approaches, a lack of shared vocabulary, and few methodological frameworks. We reviewed articles from 2 conservation‐related fields that often incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods: land‐change science (n = 16) and environmental management (n = 16). We examined how authors of these studies approached mixed methods research by coding key methodological characteristics, including relationships between method objectives, extent of integration, iterative interactions between methods, and justification for use of mixed methods. Using these characteristics, we created a typology with the goal of improving understanding of how researchers studying land‐change science and environmental management approach interdisciplinary mixed methods research. We identified 5 types of mixed methods approaches, which we termed simple nested, informed nested, simple parallel, unidirectional synthesis, and bidirectional synthesis. Methods and data sources were often used to address different research questions within a project, and only around half of the reviewed papers methodologically integrated different forms of data. Most authors used one method to inform the other, rather than both informing one another. Very few articles used methodological iteration. Each methodological type has certain epistemological implications, such as the disciplinary reach of the research and the capacity for knowledge creation through the exchange of information between distinct methodologies. To exemplify a research design that can lead to multidimensional knowledge production, we provide a methodological framework that bidirectionally integrates and iterates qualitative and quantitative methods.
Estrategias para la Investigación Interdisciplinaria con Métodos Mixtos en las Ciencias del Cambio de Suelo y el Manejo Ambiental
Resumen
La combinación entre los métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos y los datos es crucial para el entendimiento de las dinámicas complejas y con frecuencia, de la naturaleza interdisciplinaria de la conservación. Muchos científicos de la conservación usan métodos mixtos, aunque existe una variedad de estrategias de métodos mixtos, una falta de vocabulario común y pocos marcos de trabajo metodológicos. Revisamos los artículos publicados en dos campos relacionados con la conservación, los cuales con frecuencia incorporan métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos: las ciencias del cambio de suelo (n = 16) y el manejo ambiental (n = 16). Examinamos cómo los autores de estos estudios abordaron la investigación de métodos mixtos al codificar las características metodológicas importantes, incluyendo las relaciones entre los objetivos de los métodos, la extensión de la integración, las interacciones iterativas entre los métodos y la justificación para el uso de los métodos mixtos. Con estas características creamos una tipología con el objetivo de mejorar el entendimiento de cómo los investigadores que estudian las ciencias del cambio de suelo y el manejo ambiental abordan la investigación interdisciplinaria de métodos mixtos. Identificamos cinco tipos de estrategias de métodos mixtos, que denominamos anidadas, anidadas informadas, paralelas simples, de síntesis unidireccional y de síntesis bidireccional. Con frecuencia se utilizaron métodos y fuentes de datos para responder a diferentes preguntas de investigación dentro de un proyecto y sólo alrededor de la mitad de los artículos revisados integraron de manera metodológica diferentes presentaciones de los datos. La mayoría de los autores usaron un método para orientar al otro método, en lugar de que ambos métodos se orientaran mutuamente. Fueron muy pocos los artículos que usaron la iteración metodológica. Cada estilo metodológico tiene ciertas implicaciones epistemológicas, como el alcance disciplinario de la investigación y la capacidad de creación de conocimiento por medio del intercambio de información entre las distintas metodologías. Proporcionamos un marco de trabajo metodológico que integre de manera bidireccional y reitere los métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos para ejemplificar un diseño de investigación que pueda derivar en la producción multidimensional del conocimiento.
Article impact statement: Articles with mixed methods fit into 5 methodological types in which there is limited integration and iteration among methods.
Understanding the effects of psychotherapy is a crucial concern for both research and clinical practice, especially when outcome tends to be negative. Yet, while outcome is predominantly evaluated by ...means of quantitative pre-post outcome questionnaires, it remains unclear what this actually means for patients in their daily lives. To explore this meaning, it is imperative to combine treatment evaluation with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. This study investigates the phenomenon of non-improvement in psychotherapy, by complementing quantitative pre-post outcome scores that indicate no reliable change in depression symptoms with a qualitative inquiry of patients' perspectives.
The study took place in the context of a Randomised Controlled Trial evaluating time-limited psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy for major depression. A mixed methods study was conducted including patients' pre-post outcome scores on the BDI-II-NL and post treatment Client Change Interviews. Nineteen patients whose data showed no reliable change in depression symptoms were selected. A grounded theory analysis was conducted on the transcripts of patients' interviews.
From the patients' perspective, non-improvement can be understood as being stuck between knowing versus doing, resulting in a stalemate. Positive changes (mental stability, personal strength, and insight) were stimulated by therapy offering moments of self-reflection and guidance, the benevolent therapist approach and the context as important motivations. Remaining issues (ambition to change but inability to do so) were attributed to the therapy hitting its limits, patients' resistance and impossibility and the context as a source of distress. "No change" in outcome scores therefore seems to involve a "partial change" when considering the patients' perspectives.
The study shows the value of integrating qualitative first-person analyses into standard quantitative outcome evaluation and particularly for understanding the phenomenon of non-improvement. It argues for more multi-method and multi-perspective research to gain a better understanding of (negative) outcome and treatment effects. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.
PDF
