Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons^™

Data 334: Applied Research Syllabus (Sociology Department), Holly E. Reed

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is for a one semester, upper-level (300-level) undergraduate course in applied sociological research. It focuses on the importance of research, research ethics, research design and methods, and the presentation and dissemination of research, as well as the application of research skills in everyday life.

The Role Of Support System: A Phenomenological Study Of Pre-Service Teachers’ International Teaching Practicum, Amrita Kaur, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan, Hairul Nizam Ismail

The Qualitative Report

Professional and personal gains related to international teaching practicum (ITP) of pre-service teachers’ (PST) are evidenced in literature. However, challenges faced during ITP have the potential to function as stressors, which may inhibit PSTs’ learning and harm their emotional and psychological wellbeing, which in turn may influence their identity as future teachers and intention to continue as teachers. In the current study, we used interpretive phenomenological approach to examine 12 PSTs’ experiences of the provision of support system during international teaching practicum (ITP). We collected data for this study using in-depth phenomenological interviews and reflective journals. The positive experiences and …

Throwing Pebbles While Waiting: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Mental Health And Colonialism, Kelly Limes Taylor, Rita Sørly, Bengt Karlsson

The Qualitative Report

In this article, three scholars jointly investigate questions of Western colonization and mental health. While their areas of interest and experience vary, the authors discuss oppression as a common thread connecting their ideas about mental health and its medicalization. In line with Toyosaki et al. (2009), the researchers did a community autoethnography, performing written dialogue as a dynamic research method. Using a sequential model, Kelly Limes Taylor wrote about her experience, passed it on to Rita Sørly and Bengt Karlsson. Karlsson added his story to the previous writing, and he passed it on to Sørly for further addition of stories. …

Experiences Of Iranian Women With Prenatal Diagnosis Of Fetal Abnormalities: A Qualitative Study, Fahimeh Ranjbar, Fatemeh Oskouie, Shahrzad Hashemi Dizaji, Maryam Gharacheh

The Qualitative Report

Women are more likely to be diagnosed with congenital anomalies due to advances in new technologies in medical science. Following prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities, women may be forced to make decisions about whether to continue a pregnancy with fetal abnormalities. This can be a dilemma for the women. The aim of the study was to explore women’s experiences of prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities. A qualitative study was conducted in a referral women’s hospital in Tehran, Iran in 2018. Participants were a purposeful sample of 15 women with prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities. Data were collected by individual, in-depth …

A Crack In The Looking-Glass Self: Hearing And Socialization, Grace Keyes

The Qualitative Report

A significant problem of classic theories of socialization, such as Cooley’s looking-glass self, is that such theories fail to consider biological factors such as hearing in the process of socialization. To address this problem, I raised a two-pronged question: how does deafness affect social interactions upon which much of socialization is dependent and can the experiences of one person’s lifelong socialization help uncover limitations of a classic theory of socialization? The key study participant in this instrumental case study is an individual with moderately severe hearing loss and whose lifelong experiences were collected primarily through ethnographic field techniques. Findings from …

Research Beyond The Ivory Tower: A Book Review Of Researching With: A Decolonizing Approach To Community-Based Action Research, Wesley D. Cohoon

The Qualitative Report

This is a book review of Researching With: A Decolonizing Approach to Community-Based Action Research by Jessica Smartt Gullion and Abigail Tilton. The authors are both university professors and Deans who respectively specialize in Sociology and Social Work. The book uses qualitative research as it seeks to merge academia with the professional world. Researching With teaches academics to come alongside their study participants and apply research in professional contexts. I offered a critical analysis of Researching With by identifying themes and concepts that will benefit both expert and beginner researchers. The book will help readers frame research questions and understand …

Conducting Field Work With Microfinance Programs’ Participants In A Non-Western Setting: A Reflexive Account, Mohammad Shahjahan Chowdhury

The Qualitative Report

While volumes of procedural guidelines are available on how to conduct fieldwork, in practice a researcher encounters various challenges and dilemmas in the field. This paper presents a holistic view of the puzzles this researcher encountered in gaining access, negotiating positionality, application of the pre-determined methodology, and ensuring ethics during his fieldwork with microfinance program participants in a non-Western setting. This paper contributes to the fieldwork literature by enhancing a researcher’s understanding of the unanticipated challenges.

Escaping The Escapism: A Grounded Theory Of The Addiction And Recovery Process In Online Video Gaming, Jayson Carmona, Jason Whiting Phd

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe the experience of people who struggled with self-described addiction to World of Warcraft™ (WoW). WoW is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), and many players have shared their stories of compulsive use and recovery efforts on two different websites: www.wowdetox.com, and a Reddit forum called /r/noWoW. We analyzed 140 unique posts on these sites to develop a process model describing how posters experienced addiction and recovery from WoW. We used grounded theory methods to create a model with categories including, time sink, impairment in work and relationships, and …

And Still I Rise: Protective Factors For Black Counseling Psychology Doctoral Students From Predominantly White Institutions, Jessica L. Elliott, Jason D. Reynolds, Minsun Lee

The Qualitative Report

In this study, we sought to understand which protective factors Black doctoral students from predominantly White institutions (PWI) utilized to persist in their counseling psychology doctoral programs. Past research has examined the potential obstacles these students encounter and the importance of the mentor relationship in the doctoral process. In this study, we sought to explore the factors that motivate Black doctoral students to complete their respective programs, as well as important features in their relationship with their advisor. There were four males and three females with ages ranging from 22 – 41 (M = 27.57 and SD = 6.63) …

Investigating The Memorization Of The Quran Using The Grounded Theory Methodology, Nikhat Parveen

The Qualitative Report

Grounded theory methodology was utilized to investigate the process of memorization of the Quran in India from a psychological perspective as it occurs in the absence of semantic comprehension of the Arabic language. Data collection methods included participant observation in a seminary, semi-structured interviews with students and teachers of memorization, study of documents employed during the learning process, and practical demonstrations. Sample comprised of thirteen individuals including students and teachers. Data coding and analyses resulted in a large number of open codes, and eleven axial code categories besides a selective code that gave a comprehensive summation of the research study …

Social Wellbeing And Quality Of Life Of People Living With Disorders Of Sex Development And Sex Re-Assignment In Nigeria: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study, Abdurrahman Muhammad Sani, Ismaila Arzika Mungadi, Ismi Arif Ismail, Mohd Mursyid Arshad, Kim Lam Soh

The Qualitative Report

Disorders of sex development is a complex interaction between biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors, making it necessary for the multidisciplinary team to decide on the individualized patient basis. The characteristics of the individual patient, family and the social background are taken into consideration in order to derive maximum benefit. In developing countries, many people living with disorders of sex development faced serious psychological and social traumas such as marginalization, rejection, isolation, feeling of sadness, feeling of uncertainty, and feeling of shame. Therefore, this study explores the social wellbeing and quality of life of people with disorders of sex development …

Measuring Social Integration: Linking Personal And Associational Ties In Ego Networks, Sela Harcey

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Objective: Social integration is a foundational feature of society that influences individual-level outcomes. However, as our social worlds increase in complexity, integration becomes difficult to precisely measure. Contributing to research on social integration, this dissertation: (1) develops more precise ways to measure social integration, (2) identifies who is socially integrated, and (3) explores which social ties have the most influence on social integration.

Study 1: The first study aims to measure social integration more precisely by establishing a network structure and set of measures that utilize personal and associational ties with ego network data. Defined as personal affiliation networks (PAN), …

Perceived Barriers To Black And Asian Solidarity: A Pilot Study Of Internalized Racial Oppression And Perspective-Taking, Josephine Wu

McNair Scholars Program

Cross-racial solidarity between Asian and Black communities in the U.S. needs increased mutual understanding. Research has limited knowledge of intergroup relations and how these groups perceive each other. Research suggests that one barrier is internalized racial oppression (IRO), but doesn’t consider IRO in intergroup contexts. This qualitative pilot study uses semi-structured interviews to identify patterns of themes related to intergroup IRO perspective-taking and perceived barriers to Black-Asian solidarity.

Identity Transformation Through Substance Use Disorder Recovery: Introducing The Six Stage Model, Naomi Watkins, Austin Mcneill Brown, Kayce Courson

The Qualitative Report

Narratives of substance use disorder recovery experience can provide useful qualitative conceptual categories and novel theories about the way in which recovery is experienced by individuals. This information can better inform definitions, concepts, and supports for recovery processes. The current study reviewed 30 written personal recovery biographies which were contained within student applications to the collegiate recovery program housed in the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery at Kennesaw State University. Using grounded theory methodology, common benchmarks, or topographic recovery features were revealed involving the evolution of identity as an inter-negotiated process throughout the addiction and recovery biographies (Charmaz, …

I’M More Than A Farmer’S Wife, Stevie Munz

The Qualitative Report

Women have always contributed to family farming operations; however, their labor was largely positioned as “women’s work” and ignored as contributing to the economics of the farming enterprise. Through examining the stories of farmers’ wives, this essay examined how the gender division of work and the ideology of domesticity silenced women’s contributions to family farming operations. Through oral history interviews and thematic analysis, this research project presents stories from two farmers’ wives (Annie and Belle) from western Illinois. The resultant analysis reveals that Annie and Belle labored on their family farming operations for most of their lives.

Clarifying The Complexities Of Qualitative Research: A Book Review Of Phillip Adu’S A Step-By-Step Guide To Qualitative Data Coding, Gyeonghwa Lee

The Qualitative Report

Handling a large number of diverse types of qualitative data can be challenging for qualitative researchers. Also, there seems to be no clear standard for qualitative data analysis unlike the quantitative form. This is one of the main reasons for difficulties in analysing qualitative data and may cause concerns about the issue of research credibility. Dr Adu’s book may help to solve such worries and challenges by providing a step-by-step qualitative data coding process from setting up the research paradigms to presenting findings systematically, concretely, and comprehensively.

Three Essays On Responsibility And The Transition To Adulthood In Comparative Perspective, Andrew Lee Breidenbach

Sociology ETDs

This hybrid dissertation examines three related topics on the concept of responsibility regarding adulthood and transitioning into this status: a) youth conceptions of responsibility for delayed home-leaving, b) the relationship between family responsibility and transition timing, and c) global conceptions of parental responsibilities to children. First, I find that youth typically see external, structural causes preventing earlier home-leaving over internal, more culturally-motivated causes leading individuals to prefer staying at home longer. Second, I find that total housework and specifically the “female-typical” interior work of cooking, cleaning and caring speeds up parenthood while delaying the achievement transitions of finishing school and …

Policing Understood As A Racial Project: An Exploration Of The Role Law Enforcement Has Played In The Shaping Of Race Relations In The United States, Jahaan Chandler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Law enforcement and minority communities have had a complicated history in the United States to say the least. The theoretical propositions used to explain the myriad of interlocking relationships between race, criminal activity, neighborhood disorder, public perceptions of crime, and law enforcement itself, have provided us with nuggets of insight that have all contributed to enhancing our understanding of crime and policing in the U.S., but none have provided an overall interpretation of this complex and often convoluted relationship. This dissertation seeks to rectify this issue by not only examining the history of law enforcement and its relation to minority …

Reflexive Thematic Analysis For Applied Qualitative Health Research, Karen A. Campbell, Elizabeth Orr, Pamela Durepos, Linda Nguyen, Lin Li, Carly Whitmore, Paige Gehrke, Leslie Graham, Susan M. Jack

The Qualitative Report

Thematic analysis is a widely cited method for analyzing qualitative data. As a team of graduate students, we sought to explore methods of data analysis that were grounded in qualitative philosophies and aligned with our orientation as applied health researchers. We identified reflexive thematic analysis, developed by Braun and Clarke, as an interpretive method firmly situated within a qualitative paradigm that would also have broad applicability within a range of qualitative health research designs. In this approach to analysis, the subjectivity of the researcher is recognized and viewed not as problematic but instead valued as integral to the analysis process. …

Puhi In The Tree And Other Stories: Unlocking The Metaphor In Native And Indigenous Hawaiian Storytelling, Renuka M. De Silva, Joshua E. Hunter

The Qualitative Report

Human beings live and tell stories for many reasons, and it is a way to not only understand one another but to give a time and place to events and experiences. Therefore, a narrational approach within the context of this research offers a frame of reference and a way to reflect during the entire process of gathering data and writing. This study examines the importance of storytelling among Native (Kānaka ‘Ōiwi) and Indigenous (Kānaka Maoli) women of Hawai ̒ i and their interconnectedness to land and spirituality through accessing [k]new knowledge. The main focus of this article is to illustrate …