Personal meaning of friendship - Essay Example

?Running head: Qualitative Research Proposal: Personal Meaning of Friendship Qualitative Research Proposal: Personal Meaning of Friendship Insert           Insert Grade Course Insert Tutor’s Name 23 January 2012  Qualitative Research Proposal: Personal Meaning of Friendship Introduction Background Forming friendships and existing within friendships remain some of the activities human beings cannot forego. Friendship is seen as being practiced and not formally learned, and this indicates how friendship is totally a unique concept (Tolman, 1996). Friendships, irrespective of the nature have been found to be important whereby individuals are able to derive both short-term and long-term physical, emotional, and psychological benefits (Noller, Feeney, and Peterson, 2001). Friendship is a concept that exists in different forms and perceived differently across cultures, age, social status, religious, and so on (Tolman, 1996). Numerous researches exist on social relationship, which friendship is part of (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). For example, friendship relationships in the family have been investigated, and aspects such as siblings’ relationships, parent-child friendship, and father-mother friendships have been analyzed and evaluated (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). At the same time, social relationships outside the family have again constituted large volumes of research works. For example, researchers have been interested in establishing the nature and role children and family members form with friends, peer groups, classmates, and many more (Bukowski, Newcomb and Hartup, 1998). In addition, the importance of friendship relationships in later life especially among adults has also been investigated (Blieszner and Adams, 1992; Lee and Shehan, 1989 cited in Sherman, Lansford and Volling, 2006). Research works that have been undertaken in these areas have largely aimed at exploring the nature and role of these friendship relationships in terms of benefits the participants are likely to draw from (Bukowski, Newcomb and Hartup, 1998). Although it has been noted that a lot of research work exist on friendship relationships, it has been observed that research works interested in adults have not approached the study of siblings and young people in similar manner (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). As a result, there exist large literatures on older people friendships (Adams and Blieszner 1989; Sherman, De Vries, and Lansford, 2000 cited in Sherman, Lansford and Volling, 2006). On the other hand, literatures pertaining to nature, quality and experiences of friendship relationships are less numerous and this are the reasons that make study in this area viable. More researches are critical in developing a better understanding of friendships during this period of development. People have been found to establish friendship for numerous reasons: psychological wellness (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). Friendship relationships act as support sources, which in turn boost individual and group happiness and self-esteem (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). Moreover, individuals are likely to derive companionship in friendship relationships and when such relationships are of high quality, such individuals are likely to experience less negative consequences of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and poor physical health (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). Selman and Watts (1997) observe that friendship relationships especially among young people are critical for developmental purposes. For example, friendship relationships have been found to provide young people with opportunity to develop fundamental interpersonal competencies they require to participate more fully and successfully in social world (Selman and Watts, 1997). Some of the identified competences young people are likely to derive in friendship relationships include: abilities to compromise, cooperate, compete, love, and many more, which are critical in forming sense of belonging within peer groups (Selman and Watts, 1997). Rationale It has been established that a lot of research on friendship concentrate on older people relationships and those involving siblings. Therefore, it seems there is gap in literature with regard to research on friendship relationships involving adolescents and young people. Moreover, research findings in earlier works constitute output largely from quantitative methods and this makes it impossible to perceive meaning of friendships in the realms of qualitative methods (Sherman, Lansford, and Volling, 2006). Qualitative methods provide more personal views, which provide insightful picture of aspects under investigation (Richardson 1996). Therefore, this research by utilizing qualitative research methods will make it possible to evaluate how young people perceive friendship relationships and what meaning is attached to it. Concise evaluation of this statement will be more possible through use of qualitative methods. Aim of the Research The aim of this study will be to gain a greater understanding of the personal meaning of friendship to young people. The young adulthood has been seen as transformation period in which young individuals participate in numerous activities to form relationships for various reasons. Hence, this research will make it possible to use qualitative research methods in establishing meaning attached to friendship relationships. Research Questions Research questions guide the research project in that they provide key areas upon which a researcher can concentrate investigation on. In most cases, research questions are developed based on research objectives and aims. The main research question to be investigated is how do the participants in friendship relationships view and experience their friendships? Another research question to be investigated is: How do young people form and participate in friendship relationships? Significance of research Research to be generated from this research project will largely form a concrete body of knowledge in understanding friendship relationships among young people. Such information will be important to diverse sections of stakeholders who may want to use it. Research Methods The purpose of this research project is to investigate and evaluate the meaning of friendship relationships among young people. Research Participants Population for this study includes all young people aged (18-30 years) who falls in category perceived to be in process of transformation hence likely to form friendship relationships for various reasons. Sampling for this study will largely be purposeful sampling (Holloway and Wheeler, 2010). Purposeful sampling involves selection of an element that represents the whole population and this is done to gain knowledge and information (Holloway and Wheeler, 2010). In qualitative research, sampling units are chosen for specific purpose according to various needs of the research and this makes it appropriate to use purposive sampling (Patton, 2002). This research project will therefore use purposive sampling technique to select sample units. Appropriate research samples to act as key research informants will be selected. As a result, this research project will make use of ten (10) participants (sample) between ages 18 and 30 years. In order to select these individuals, two questions will provide guidance. The two questions are whom to choose for the research, and how to choose individuals. In order to use purposive sampling technique more effectively, three key guidelines have to be fulfilled: have knowledge about the experience to be studied, have the will to talk, and sample to be representative of the range of points of view. The study will initially locate and identify young people in different friendships (marriage, courtship, peers, classmates, and so on). Information will be sought from such individuals through interviews. Information generating is deemed to be appropriate in establishing the meaning young people attach to friendships relationships they form. Initially, the research will start by contacting young people in different friendship relationships and interview conducted. Questions to be asked will be within realms of meaning young people attach to friendships. To reach the samples, emails will be sent to them and telephone calls will be made where appropriate. Semi-structured interview will be conducted involving the identified samples. Data Collection Data to be collected will be largely of two types: primary and secondary. Secondary data will be essentially important in the literature review, which will be part of finding answers to some of the research questions. At the same time, secondary data are important as they provide greater understanding on the topic. The sources from where the secondary data will be obtained include books and peer-reviewed journals from electronic databases. Primary data on the other hand will largely be generated through semi-structured interviews (Kumar, 2005). The interviews will involve contacting respondents face-to-face and through telephone. The aim of interviews is to gain understanding and have feedback about information meaning young people attach to friendship relationships. Qualitative research aims at finding explanations to social phenomena or reality. In more broad way, it is concerned with finding out experiences and feelings of people hence specialize in producing subjective data (Richardson, 1996). In describing social phenomena, qualitative research concentrates in describing phenomena in their naturality and holistic nature. Collection of data in qualitative research usually involves interaction with individuals on face-to-face basis or in-group setting. Hence, data collection methods and process are likely to take longer time thereby use of smaller number of respondents (Richardson, 1996). Semi-structured interviews will be conducted and this will base largely on the research questions to be explored. Open-ended questions will be developed. Interview process will constitute discussion between researcher and the interviewee and all attempts will be made to encourage the respondents to give more in-depth information concerning the needs of research questions (Wengraf, 2001). Rapport will be established between the interviewer and interviewee to make the entire process of interaction and question asking productive for the researcher. Reliability and validity of data are critical aspects in this study. For example, an instrument is only considered valid if it has ability and that capacity to measure what is intended and at same time to measure it accurately and be able to achieve the purpose for which it is designed (Smith, 2008). Therefore, effort will be made to generate reliable and valid data throughout the course of research. In this regard, the study will guarantee accuracy, reliability, and validity of its data using effective implementation of primary and secondary data collection tools (Smith, 2008). Ethics of Research This research project will involve humans and this will require ethical consideration (Willig and Rogers, 2007). First, permission will be sought from relevant bodies for research proposal to be approved and be given go ahead. After obtaining the necessary approval, finding the right settings for the study and the participants who will be involved in the research will be the next step. Thus, prospective young people in friendship relationships will be selected. The process of selection and participation will purely be voluntary. To apply fairness, purposive random selection technique shall be applied. Prior to continuing with the research, it is vitally important that consent be derived from the participants (Willig and Rogers, 2007). This will be in line in ensuring security of respondents and no particular harm is met on the respondents. Apart from this, the objective of the study is also explained to the participants so as for them to know the honest intention of the research and its purpose. Likewise, they will be guaranteed access to the results of the study and information. Data Analysis Data analysis will largely depend on responses that will be recorded and availed into qualitative statistical software package. Semi-structured interview schedules will be the main tool in which transcripts from interviews will be available (Lyons and Coyle, 2007). At the same time, the researcher will make and write down some field notes that are relevant to the area of study. Data analysis will start with preparation of collected data where they will be sorted and categorized to make the process of analysis easy (Lyons and Coyle, 2007). Information collected will be sorted and separated into different forms. Once data has been prepared, the researcher will embark on reading the data and information collected with view to generating meaningful understanding. Coding process will thereafter follow and this will largely be to categorize data to give meaning especially to research questions (Bryman, 1994). Next duty will be to describe participant, setting, and themes of the study as applied to research questions. Data representation techniques such as tables and figures will be used to represent the data. In addition, narrative passages will be created that describe respondent’s views and opinion of study questions. Therefore, data analysis will largely involve presenting the collected views and opinions in a more digested manner that is easy for audience to understand. Conclusion Friendship as a concept can be regarded to be relative with its definition being largely contextualized. Therefore, in order to have a clear understanding of what friendship is, it has been suggested that four main developmental and valuable tools of friendship have to be incorporated: agency, personalization, self-reflection, and social contextualization (Tolman, 1996). These tools are seen to be acquired through learning and socialization process, which has to start in childhood and continue all the way up to in adulthood. At same time, friendship relationship literatures among young people are scanty and it is believed that this research project will fill such gap. Reference List Bryman, A. 1994. Analyzing Qualitative Data. NY: Routledge. [Online]. Available At: http://books.google.com/books?id=KQkotSd9YWkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Analyzing+qualitative+data&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HboeT8-nLIbusga-vZWqDA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Analyzing%20qualitative%20data&f=false [Accessed 24 January 2012]. Bukowski, W. M., Newcomb, A. F., & Hartup, W. W. 1998. The Company They Keep: Friendship in Childhood and Adolescence. London: Cambridge University Press. [Online]. 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