Qualitative General Depression - Essay Example

The purpose of our study was to investigate adolescent’s experiences with depression: how depression affected their relationship, their academic performance, their behavior with family members as well as treatment they have received. A comparison was then made on how qualitative study investigates the experience of depression compared to quantitative study in the following aspects. Data collection This survey involved Semi structured interviews of fifteen young adults who had been diagnosed with and treated for the major depression disorder between the ages of 15-19.

When collecting data, two approaches were used: qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative approach on the experience of depression applied more easily than qualitative research. It involved sampling the fifteen teenagers and the interview was audio taped for further reference. When collecting this data, the findings were summarized as follows: all the fifteen adolescents experienced significant factors in their family concurrent with the time of their first episode e.g. hatred and been neglected, all the fifteen adolescents were not involved in planning or even involved in treatment during their hospitalization, depression caused these teenagers’ broken relationships and traditional school setting did not help the teenagers in dealing with depression hence the great impact.

Data collected in quantitative research was hard and numerical. . It can also be used in studying human behavior and the social world which is inhabited by human beings. Qualitative research helps us to adequately answer the question why? E.g. why things are the way they are in our social world. For example in our study, we were able to answer the question why depression has caused many broken relationships between these teenagers. The answer was that, the public as well as the private schools did not help these participants to recognize or even manage their depression.

They were not even involved in planning nor were they kept involved of their treatment during their hospitalization hence this had a great impact on their relationships. Qualitative data collection describes tests and examines cause and effect relationship e.g. it shows a relationship between depression and family systems. Data collected shows us that there has been a dying relationship between the family members and the depressed adolescent as a result of behaviors’ which are associated with depression e.g. smoking.

Quantitative methods of data collection produce legitimate scientific answers and this can be seen as hard data. On the other hand, qualitative data collection produce soft data, which is seen as inadequate in providing answers and in trying to generate any, change (Strauss, & Corbin, 2000) Sample recruitment When sampling, the sampling procedures in each case are complex hence must meet the criteria of the data collection strategy. A sample in both qualitative and quantitative approaches is required which is a representative of the large group.

We sampled the fifteen teenagers and this was a representative of the large population of the depressed adolescents in most of our societies today. Sampling in this case is recommended since it becomes