Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pathways To Attrition: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Of Justifications For Police Designations Of Sexual Assault Complaints, Danielle M. Soulliere

The Qualitative Report

The present analysis is a reframing of an earlier study conducted by the author to compensate for perceived deficiencies in previous studies on police decisions in sexual assault complaints. Specifically, qualitative comparative analysis was employed at the micro-social level to reveal justification scenarios, employed by investigating officers, which resulted in attrition at the police level. It was found that police employed the legal model in justifying “unfounded” designations while police employed both legal and extralegal models in justifying designations of “departmental discretion.” Further rese arch, expanding the database through interview s and participant observation, is necessary to fully explore justification …

A Qualitative Examination Of Mothers' Resolution Or Non-Resolution Of Their Childrens' Disability Of Down Syndrome Or Autism Using A Cognitive Intervention, Denise M. Orme

The Qualitative Report

Research has shown that the inability of some mothers to resolve their emotions when confronted with the birth of a child with a disability of cerebral palsy or epilepsy can put the child at greater risk for disruptions of attachment. This qualitative study examined mothers' emotional state of resolution or non-resolution of their children's disability of Down syndrome or autism, and mothers' perceptions of the use of a cognitive intervention. Grounded theory was used to analyze the interviews and the cognitive intervention. The results showed that in addition to the two major categories of resolution and non-resolution, a third major …

The Application Of Interrater Reliability As A Solidification Instrument In A Phenomenological Study, Joan F. Marques, Chester Mccall

The Qualitative Report

Interrater reliability has thus far not been a common application in phenomenological studies. However, once the suggestion w a s brought up by a team of supervising professors during the preliminary orals of a phenomenological study, the utilization of this verification tool turned out to be vital to the credibility level of this type of inquiry, where the researcher is perceived as the main instrument and where bias may, hence, be difficult to eliminate. With creativeness and the appropriate calculation approach the researcher of the here reviewed qualitative study managed to apply this verification tool and found that the establishment …

Phenomenologically Investigating Mediated Nature, Tony E. Adams

The Qualitative Report

During the summer of 2001 I worked as a bartender in Wyoming, two miles east of Yellowstone National Park. This opportunity provided me with unique experiences of “the wilderness” and as a result, allowed me to become aware of intricacies of living with in a primarily simulated and mass mediated culture, i.e., the United States. Following tenets of phenomenology, this paper investigates the simulated- and mass mediated-ness of society with specific focus on experiences with two nature environments: simulated-nature places (e.g., shopping malls, zoos ) and televised-nature representations (e.g., Crocodile Hunter, Jaws) .

How Linguistic Frames Affect Motivational Profiles And The Roles Of Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research Strategies, Joseph Yeager, Linda Sommer

The Qualitative Report

The combined tools of psycholinguistics and systems analysis have produced advances in motivational profiling resulting in numerous applications to behavioral engineering. Knowing the way people frame their motive offers leverage in causing behavior change ranging from persuasive marketing campaigns, forensic profiling, individual psychotherapy, and executive performance. Professionals study motivation in applied or theoretical settings, often with strong implicit biases toward either quantitative or qualitative strategies. Many experts habitually frame behavioral research issues with ill-fitting quantitative and qualitative strategies. The third strategic choice offered here is state-of -the -art, psycholinguistic communications modeling. The role of these research strategies is explored.

Beyond Technique: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of How I Learned To Show Love Towards My Father, Sean D. Davis

The Qualitative Report

I offer an autoethnographic exploration of my experience with the culture of a marriage and family therapist (MFT) in training. As a beginning therapist I assumed that success would be determined primarily by how well I mastered different theoretical models. This belief shifted during an instance in which I was planning to begin differentiating myself from my family of origin using Bowenian techniques. I experienced a profound shift in the way I interacted with my father – and with others – as a result of an interaction completely void of therapeutic technique. I discuss the ways that this experience changed …

Tidings, Volume 7, Number 2 - Summer 2005, Nova Southeastern University

Tidings: A publication of Nova Southeastern University Libraries

No abstract provided.

Nova Southeastern University Libraries Annual Report 2004-2005, Nova Southeastern University

Brochures, Pamphlets, and Reports of the NSU Alvin Sherman Library

No abstract provided.

Systematic Metaphor Analysis As A Method Of Qualitative Research, Rudolph Schmitt

The Qualitative Report

George Lakoff and Mark Johnsons theory of metaphor (1980, 1999) provides a basis for describing everyday cognitive structures using linguistic models and thus, making it possible to uncover both individual and collective patterns of thought and action. Lakoff and Johnson have not, however, developed a workable system for carrying out qualitative research. This paper outlines the fundamentals of this approach and proposes a procedure for the reconstruction of metaphorical concepts. As is normally the case in qualitative research, such guidelines can only ever represent the interplay between the ability of the researcher to understand the sense of things and the …

Preparing A Qualitative Research-Based Dissertation: Lessons Learned, Glenn A. Bowen

The Qualitative Report

In this article, a newly minted Ph.D. shares seven lessons learned during the process of preparing a dissertation based on qualitative research methods. While most of the lessons may be applicable to any kind of research, the writer focuses on the special challenges of employing a qualitative methodology. The lessons are: (1) Read, read, read; (2) Consult the experts; (3) Adhere to university regulations; (4) Pay attention to rigor and trustworthiness; (5) Give details of the methodology; (6) Don't be afraid to include numerical data; and (7) Prepare to publish.

Implementation Of An Action Research Course Program For Science Teachers: A Case For Turkey, Mehmet Küçük, Salih Çepni

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study was to introduce an AR approach to a group of science teachers during an in-service AR course program and learn its contributions to their professional development. Data were gathered through an AR project by working with a group of eight science teachers throughout a four-week period. In the content of the course, knowledge on educational research was given to teachers and then the participants were encouraged to conduct small-scale AR projects. During this process, it was found that project teachers willingly participated in all the meetings, embracing the views of doing research based on their …

Through The Lens Of Postmodernism: Uniqueness Of The Anorectic Families, Zenobia C.Y. Chan, Joyce L.C. Ma

The Qualitative Report

This paper challenges the monolithic assumption of the anorectic families in Hong Kong by blindly adopting the western theoretical framework of family therapy. It is problematic that family therapy lacks indigenous culture-specific knowledge and ignores the voices of these multi-categories of families. It is inappropriate to conceptualize these families as being similar and to stereotype them as experiencing particular difficulties. In order to bridge the homogeneity and address the multiplicity of these families, the paper examines both the ideologies of postmodernism and the process of confession that can enrich the understanding of anorectic families and advance family practice. The paper …

Human Nature And Research Paradigms: Theory Meets Physical Therapy Practice, Margaret M. Plack

The Qualitative Report

Human nature is a very complex phenomenon. In physical therapy this complexity is enhanced by the need to understand the intersection between the art and science of human behavior and patient care. A paradigm is a set of basic beliefs that represent a worldview, defines the nature of the world and the individuals place in it, and helps to determine criteria used to select and define research inquiry. A paradigm guides scientific inquiry, not only in the manner in which an investigation is performed, but also in how the investigator defines truth and reality and how the investigator comes to …

Research As Improvisation: Dancing Among Perspectives, Glenda-Mae Greene, Shirley Freed

The Qualitative Report

This article captures the way research methods were intertwined with core identities to understand the success development of Caribbean-Canadian women. It highlights the importance of researchers experimenting with a blend of perspectives to fit their problem as well as their identity. Viewing the research process through the eyes of the researcher and her dissertation chair, issues of validity and collaboration emerge. Ultimately both authors listen to family voices as they dance among research perspectives.

Maps And Meaning: Reading The Map Of The Holy Land, Noga Collins-Kreiner

The Qualitative Report

The research methods of hermeneutics and semiotics were used to analyze maps of the Holy Land. The main conclusion of this study is how those methods could help us to read and understand maps. Other issues of concern are which religious elements actually appear and their form of representation in the range of maps. Narratives identified on the various maps were the holy Christian narrative- which proved the most dominant, the Jewish narrative and the Muslim narrative that was rarely found in the maps, even in those with a Palestinian narrative. A ubiquitous finding was disregarded for political issues, although …

An Evening Of Grounded Theory: Teaching Process Through Demonstration And Simulation, Frances Huels

The Qualitative Report

Grounded theory can be effectively introduced in a survey course through a combination of lecture/demonstration and simulation. The class session presented here illustrates a way to introduce graduate students to the process of grounded theory and gain hands-on experience through simulation. The lesson utilizes concepts that the students are familiar with, allowing them to focus on the research process, and encourages internalization of concepts through immediate application.

Transformation Of Rural Teachers Earning Graduate Degrees, Susan A. Santo

The Qualitative Report

This study tells the stories of four successful graduate students within a cohort of learners who were earning graduate degrees in technology for education and training by distance. The students were practicing teachers in the Dakota Interactive Academic Link (DIAL) consortium. Courses were offered by the University of South Dakota, using videoconferencing through the statewide Digital Distance Network (DDN) and WebCT asynchronous discussions. Mezirows 1991 theory of transformative learning suggests that adult learners may experience a transformational experience. Results showed that the four study participants experienced major changes in their way of thinking about learning and themselves. Conducting longitudinal studies …

Using Hermeneutics As A Qualitative Research Approach In Professional Practice, Margo Paterson, Joy Higgs

The Qualitative Report

This paper is targeted primarily at doctoral students and others considering hermeneutics as a research strategy. Research using hermeneutics was carried out with occupational therapy educators and clinicians in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK. A total of 53 participants engaged in focus groups and individual interviews over a one-year. The paper explores hermeneutics as a credible, rigorous and creative strategy to address aspects of professional practice that similarly need to be flexible, adaptable to particular needs, and justifiable in the contexts of evidence-based as well as client-centred practice. The hermeneutic study produced A Model of Professional Practice Judgment …

The Cyprus Problem And Greek Cypriot Preferences For A Solution After Their “No” To The Annan Plan, Craig Webster

Peace and Conflict Studies

The Greek Cypriots made a clear choice to reject the Annan Plan for their country in a referendum in April 2004. The Annan Plan offered a dichotomous choice to the electorate to accept or reject a federal solution to reunite Cyprus. In this paper, the author investigates the Greek Cypriot population’s preferences for a solution to the Cyprus Problem by performing multivariate analyses of data obtained from one thousand Greek Cypriots following the April 2004 referendum. The analyses find that preferences for solutions are a function of age and attitudes towards the ability of the two communities to interact successfully. …

Deconstructing The “War Of All Against All”: The Prevalence And Implications Of War Metaphors And Other Adversarial News Schema In Time, Newsweek, And Maclean’S, Michael Karlberg, Leslie Buell

Peace and Conflict Studies

This study examines and critiques the discursive construction of a Hobbesian “war of all against all” in North American commercial news magazines. The prevalence of war metaphors and related adversarial news schemas is documented over a twenty year period, from 1981 to 2000, through an analysis of TIME and Newsweek, along with their Canadian counterpart Maclean’s. After documenting the pervasiveness of these discursive constructs, the paper discusses the underlying causes and potential consequences of these patterns in commercial news discourse. The paper concludes by asserting that this discursively constructed “war of all against all” is highly problematic and unsustainable in …

Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2005), Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Reflections: Developing New Programs In Peace And Conflict Studies, Honggang Yang

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The field of peace and conflict studies has grown remarkably around the globe over the past few decades. In this new millennium, there will be a greater number of educational offerings being considered or launched in various higher education institutions, for the community and the world are in need of such interdisciplinary inquiries and multi-professional applications. As a long-time academic facilitator and administrator, I would like to take this opportunity to share with the PCS readers some of my experiences and observations in this arena, from an administrative and financial perspective. My hope is to assist colleagues and students …

Boardroom And Bedroom: Consulting With Organizations And Family Systems, James Hibel, Neil Katz

Peace and Conflict Studies

Neil Katz is a loyal St. Louis Cardinals fan and a career organizational consultant. Jim Hibel is a loyal Florida Marlins fan and a career family therapist. Nova Southeastern University brought their professional disciplines under the same roof at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences and the Cardinals and Marlins now share the same Spring Training Facility. Over the past several years, Neil and Jim have met regularly for Cardinal and Marlins spring training games, shared their mutual love of the game, and found ways to appreciate their different teams. In between innings, and rain delays they often talked …

Selling Mediation: Mimetic, Distancing, And Appellating Practices In The Marketing Of An Emerging Profession, Andrew Woolford, R. S. Ratner

Peace and Conflict Studies

Individuals both within and outside the legal profession have been drawn by the ‘promise’ of mediation. In it they see a means for facilitating communicative exchanges between actors in conflict, which they view as a dramatic improvement on the adversarial practices of the formal legal system. However, despite the appeal of mediation to potential practitioners, there is not yet sufficient consumer demand to sustain the number of people who possess mediation skills. This has resulted in an overcrowded mediation market in which practitioners are forced to market themselves so as to compete for a limited clientele. In this context, the …

Intragroup Subgroup Attitude Clustering, External Intervention, And Intergroup Interaction Patterns: Toward A Dynamical Model Of Protracted Intergroup Conflict, Peter T. Coleman, Adam Schneider, Douglass S. Adams, Catherine James Everett, Timothy A. Gameros, Lee R. Hammons, Cecil C. Orji, Ralph M. Waugh, Richard F. Wicker Iii

Peace and Conflict Studies

Scholars and practitioners working with protracted conflicts in polarized communities have long recognized the complex dynamics between intragroup disputes and intergroup relations in these settings. In fact, the multitude of factors interacting within and between groups in these conflicts, and their tendency to change over time, largely contributes to their intractable natures. Unfortunately, the ability of scholars to conduct research on such dynamic phenomena has been largely constrained by the atomistic, linear approach of traditional research models and methods. However, recent advances in dynamical systems theory have provided a new set of tools for developing computer simulations that allow us …

Conducting Qualitative Research On Desertification In Western Lesvos, Greece, Theodoros Iosifides, Theodoros Politidis

The Qualitative Report

The main aim of this article is to present some critical methodological strategies employed in a qualitative research study on local socioeconomic development and desertification in western Lesvos, Greece. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with local producers in western Lesvos, Greece, an effort was made to identify and analyze the links between the local socioeconomic trajectory and environmental marginality. The article concerns the justification of the choice of qualitative investigation on the matter, the main methodological strategies employed in the field, and the basic data analysis processes. In particular, we discuss the gradual development of a coding framework and a conceptual …

Teacher Perceptions Of Multicultural Issues In School Settings, Danielle Martines

The Qualitative Report

This study employed qualitative methods to analyze teacher's level of multicultural understanding and perceptions of cultural issues when discussing their culturally diverse students in the context of the consultation process. Three school psychologists in urban city high schools, engaged in audio-recorded consultation sessions with consultee-teachers who voluntarily sought services. Audio-recorded tapes of consultation sessions were transcribed and coded by two trained raters and qualitatively analyzed by co-researchers who recorded multicultural thematic issues as categories. Cultural themes and categories indicated that teachers demonstrated cultural awareness and sensitivity regarding their culturally diverse students, yet showed less developed cultural knowledge-base and skill levels. …

Maternal Postpartum Role Collapse As A Theory Of Postpartum Depression, Linda Clark Amankwaa

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of a theory of maternal postpartum role collapse. The influences of traditional role theory and symbolic interactionism are presented. The development of the maternal postpartum role collapse theory emerged from the study of postpartum depression among African-American women (Amankwaa, 2000). Major components of the theory of postpartum maternal role collapse consist of role stress, role strain, and finally role collapse. A discussion of the extension of role theory to role collapse as it is related to the postpartum mother is offered as an explanation of postpartum depression.

My Body, My Stigma: Body Interpretations In A Sample Of People Living With Hiv/Aids In Puerto Rico, Nelson Varas-Díaz, José Toro-Alfonso, Irma Serrano-García

The Qualitative Report

AIDS related stigma continues to impact the lives of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) negatively. Although the consequences of stigmatization have been widely documented, certain areas of study need to be further addressed in order to better understand their implications for PLWHA; such is the case of the perceptions of the bodys role in AIDS stigma. A qualitative study was implemented including 30 in-depth interviews of PLWHA in Puerto Rico in order to explore their perceptions of the bodys role in the process of stigmatization. Results include: participants perceptions on how their bodies evidence their serostatus, description of past body …

The Examination Of Change Management Using Qualitative Methods: A Case Industry Approach, Aaron C.T. Smith, Daniel M. Evans, Hans M. Westerbeek

The Qualitative Report

Despite the number of theories explaining the nature and antecedents of change, there is no consensus on a universally applicable model. Competing theories have been tested using deductive methods focusing on hypothesis testing. This study has utilized qualitative methods for collecting data within the sport industry to provide an initial understanding of change within that case industry Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 sport managers across Australian National and State Sporting Organizations and clubs participating in national league competitions. Interviews were transcribed and coded in a grounded interpretation culminating in a typology of change types. Results highlighted that Australian sport …