The Key Concepts of Qualitative Research Approach to Understand Perception of Individual to Particular Experience - Coursework Example

Qualitative Research Report The purpose of this report is to understand the key concepts of qualitative research approach to understand perception, beliefs and consciousness of individual towards particular experience. The main objective of this research is to identify, if the change in the circumstances or personal goals affects friendship. IPA has been used to determine the case of the participant “Trevor Jefferson” that has been interpreted using theoretical underpinning of Phenomenology and Hermeneutics to decode the perceptions of the participants. The data has been collected through interviewing one participant. The information has been decoded using descriptive and analytic coding. The findings of the study highlights that the personal perception, trust and respect play the major role in the development of the friendship, whereas circumstance also impact friendship. Qualitative Research Report Introduction The findings of qualitative research are not derived from the statistical data interpretations but the other quantitative procedures. Scholars believe that the findings of qualitative research are naturalistic. One of the significant goals of the qualitative research is to understand perspectives of the participants and their experiences (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). It allows understanding individual’s daily life experiences through using naturalistic methods. It allows the researchers to have in-depth understanding about the perspective about the issue as it provides a broader platform for the participants to express in a broader manner. It has been argued that the qualitative research has greater understanding about the people’s behavior through probing question and observing individual’s behavior (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). Researchers argue that the statistical-based research does not provide understanding about the tiny phenomena of an individual’s life, whereas quantitative research focuses on every aspect of an individual’s life. It is because quantitative psychological research analyzes a large number of independent variables through using multiple linear regressions. There are several qualitative research methods to analyze the experiences and personal significance of individuals (Mills & Birks, 2014). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is one of the psychological qualitative researches that provide an insight to an individual’s about his life experiences about the major life events, or development of the relationship (Merriam, 2009). IPA provides a critical realistic approach through the combination of psychological, interpretative and ideographic components (Coolican, 2014). IPA is distinct from the other research method approaches because it makes use of combination of psychological and interpretative elements, it provides a close examination of experiences and activities that relate with the individual’s life experience (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). IPA is perceived as one of the most subjective experienced methods to investigate diverse human experience (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). IPA’s theoretical underpinnings are originated through the concepts of Husserl’s attempt to understand the philosophical conscious that can be combined with the hermeneutics that interprets verbal communication through the researcher’s perspective. It provides resources for the researcher to derive what the participant says and what it sense does it develops in their minds. Unlike Discourse Analysis (DA) IPA focuses on the researcher’s engagement with the text interpretive elements (Seidman, 2012). It analyzes the text with the careful and explicit interpretative methods that allow the researcher to explore the inner cognitive world of the participants. In addition, IPA and DA can be distinguished on the role of the language that the both approach make to describe person’s experience and meaning to their experiences, interaction and environment. Researchers claim that the IPA is a phenomenology to capture the experiences of individuals through the analyzing within a research and analytic process (Seidman, 2012). IPA underpins of the concepts of phenomenology that reflects about how an individual sense the world event. It enhances the analysis of the individual’s experience through improving interaction between participants and researchers, that is, participants’ account and researcher’s interpretation of participant’s accounts. IPA provides opportunity for the researchers to examine the unravel meaning of the participants experiences through interpretation how they real world means to them. The foundations of interpretation are underlying on the elements of conceptions, beliefs, expectations and experiences. The aim of this research is to determine the personal life experiences The aim of this research is to investigate the relation of friendship through investigating the life experiences of the participant (Trevor Jefferson). This report focuses on the life experience of an individual to develop sense and consciousness about friendship through IPA. It shall collectively study the experience of the individual participant of his life to understand his perception about friendship. Research question: Do friendship changes with the personal goals? Method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach has been used to conduct this research it is because the main focus of this report is on the experiences and interpretation of first person’s account of experiences and personal experiences towards friendship (Seidman, 2012). Purposive sampling has been done to determine the meaningful perspectives on friendship and idiographic approach has been used to determine the experience of the participant. Theoretical underpinning of phenomenology and Hermeneutics is used to analyze the experiences of individual (Coolican, 2014). Phenomenology has been used to understand the consideration of participants and researchers about their experiences and how the world makes sense to them under the fundamental assumption about the world and individual with some of the assumptions regarding the world and individual experiences that are took under account during extensive discussion in the interview (Coolican, 2014). The assumptions for the approach, that are, IPA does not provide support to the view that the reflection of the individuals concepts is dependent on meaningful concepts. Further, IPA determines the representation of validity of languages that have the possibility to look into the language that constructs the reality (Mills & Birks, 2014). Further, it highlights that the experiences of individuals a product of their cognition and perception about the life. IPA approach stresses on the assumption that there is nothing such as objective reality; it is because any particular event of a life can be interpretive in the different manner for individuals. Findings The interview with Trevor Jefferson (participant) revealed a variety of theme about the relationship. There are several subthemes that overlap with the themes (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). The themes identified in the report have been presented in the paper as below: - Meaning of friendship - Friendship and changing life circumstance - Friends as family - Participant perception about friendship and other forms of friendships - Participants understanding of their social network perception of the friendship between them Meaning of friendship There are different meanings that an individual perceives about friendship. Firstly, the participant was asked about the friendship through asking questions about his friend and what make Jefferson be best friend with Tom. The participant was queried about the closeness that the participant have with their friendship (Forrester, 2010). The narratives of the participant reflected that the friendship was defined in terms of opens, self-discourses, trust, support, mutuality, availability, understanding and comfort with one another. It can be identified from the narration of the participant ‘why he springs to mind cause he is more like a brother relationship that a friendship is suppose… you know when you get that close friend and that you know all each other’s thing and stuff.’ It can be identified from the statement of the friendship for the participant meant to be close with each other, sharing their personal, professional and everything in their life. According to him, friendship was defined to be more close to each other, spending much of the time together, hanging out, caring and understanding each other. It can also be identified from the above statement that the friendship for Jefferson was not just dependent on a particular time, but it meant a lifetime commitment like brothers to each other. Besides of the hardship of life the duration of friendship was dependent on the relation with each other. Proximity with one another does affect each other, but it does not merely meant him as a determinant of the relationship. It can be observed from the information that Jefferson was more inclined towards a long-term relation that he enjoyed with his best friend. The roots of his friendship are dependent on the time that they have spent together. Since, Tom has been married and lives in a different city. Jefferson was asked if it were the activities, circumstance or his personal illness that has affected their friendship (Seidman, 2012). The interview reveals that Jefferson perceives that the change of his personal circumstance were the major cause that affected the relation of Jefferson with the other people as he states ‘getting ill, lost my job, got fired and being not able to cope with his professional life. Friendship and changing life circumstances Further, the participant was asked about the different type of friendship that he encountered through his life. Jefferson was asked about the other friend apart of Tom, that is, his best friend. According to Jefferson, the other friend that he had in his life was from his professional training course, where they assessed and helped each other (Mills & Birks, 2014). Analyzing the interview it can be observed that the friendship for him was more intense, supportive and trustworthy relation that the other forms of relations. He believed that more of the friends become with the sharing similar circumstance and assistance that makes them friends for a particular time, but they are not actual friends. Sharing similar ideas and perception is also one of the fundamental aspects of the friendship that make an individual bound in a relationship of friendship (Merriam, 2009). When Jefferson was asked about the relation that he had with his other friend, it was evident from the interview that the one of the major reason that they were not long-term friends was because they shared similar circumstance, but they were genuinely friends as they shared their stuff with each other. Jefferson in the interview states that the ‘you know you loose a lot of friends that happens you know people that you ran with’. Friends as Family In addition, the information reflects that the participant defined his friendship with his friend using family term such as brotherhood. Therefore, it can be identified that the friend were characterized as brother (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). The use of kinship terminologies also shows the functioning, importance and meaning of friendship. When the participant was asked about the other friends, he explained that some of the friends become your friend because of the circumstance. It can be observed that the individuals often perceived friendship as a matter of their ‘family’ (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). However, it was observed in the interview that the real relationship made a different impact on the friends of life due to which friendship does not remain a dominant relation in the life. Jefferson explains this stating that the marriage of his friend has led him to get involved in wife, and they have become more good friends to each other. It is because they share much of the stuff in their life, as Jefferson and tom used to due (Nollaig, 2011). Herein, it can be identified that the distinction between the family and the friendship exist. The participant perceived differently about family and friends in his life. One of the major reasons behind associating friendship with the social representation of ‘family’ is because of sharing of the time, emotions and affections. Besides the fact people represent friends with family terminologies family members have a higher status. It is because they are tied with the blood and marriage relation. The foundations of these relations cannot be denied as they it comes from norms of our society (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). In this study, the use of the kinship terminologies can be identified as a way to express intense relation and importance of friends. The importance of Tom has been conveyed through using the word brother by Jefferson to express his importance in his daily life. On the contrary, he accepts that decline in their meeting occur because of marriage. It shows that distinct between friends and family is evident (Marvasti, 2011). The narrative of the participant Jefferson indicates in this study that there are certain characteristics that make an individual valuable and important for people (Howitt, 2012). The main characteristics that are evident from the interview are ‘respect, openness, social support and sharing stuff are valuable characteristics of friendship (Marvasti, 2011). One of the major elements that were evident from the interview was ‘valuing one another and respecting’ that makes the relationship of friendship stronger. Openness: the participant was inclined towards sharing their daily life and open conversation with their friend. Openness remains one of the prominent elements in the characteristics of friendship that makes the people to share their personal lives (work, family, illness). The reason that Jefferson perceived Tom different from his other friends is because of the openness he shared with him about his personal and professional lives (Marvasti, 2011). Respect and trust is one of the essential elements for friendship that the participant mainly stresses. Respect is stated to important element for the development of the form of relationship (Mills & Birks, 2014). The expression of respect makes a relationship of friendship stronger and lasting. Friendship without respect blurs the meaning and importance of a friend. Jefferson explains this stating ‘we are friends, trust builds the long the longer you know each other, the more the trust the close, the closer you get that is the different stage of friends’. Social support is the characteristics of participant’s friendship, as it enables the formation of supportive and highly valued, emotion and financial support. In addition, having fun is also playing a great role in developing supportive relation with each other. The participants talk about the fun that they have done together in the different forms of life and similar interest to have a good time with each other (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). Jefferson describes fun aspect of their friendship through stating about the hangouts at parties, drinking, socializing, etc. Discussion The purpose of this study was to determine if change in the circumstance of individual affects the relation of friendship. To determine the relationship, numbers of factors were evaluated taking indigenous sample of one person. The participant was interviewed about his lifetime experiences regarding friends and friendship. The findings of the study show that the participant’s personal thoughts play a crucial role in the development of friendship. Respect and trust remain one of the dominant factors that make the friendship lasting in all the circumstance of life for the participant (Coolican, 2014). Friendship meant more like a brotherhood in the life of participants. It is also evident from the analysis that the distinction between blood relations and friendship remain a prominent aspect of life that is accepted by the participant (Coolican, 2014). The circumstance changes in the life but individual’s personal perception and sense develops friendship (Coolican, 2014). Though, people become friends as they undergo similar situation or work together but what makes them real friend is their presence and interests. Trusting is the most important element in a friendship that makes the relation secure and last forever (Nollaig, 2011). However, the using kinship terminologies do not turn a friend to brother. It is reflected from the information that the family and friendship have distinct values that cannot be united on a similar ground. List of References Coolican, H., 2014. Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. New York: Psychology Press. Forrester, M., 2010. Doing Qualitative Research in Psychology: A Practical Guide. London: SAGE. Howitt, D., 2012. Introduction to Qualitative Methods in Psychology. London: Pearson Education. Nollaig, F., 2011. Qualitative Research Methods In Psychology: Combining Core Approaches: From core to combined approaches. New York: McGraw Hill International. Marvasti, A., 2011. Three aspects of writing qualitative research: Practice, genre, and audience. Qualitative Research, pp.383-96. Merriam, S.B., 2009. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons. Mills, J. & Birks, M., 2014. Qualitative Methodology: A Practical Guide. New York: SAGE. Seidman, I., 2012. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. London: Teachers College Press. Smith, J., Flowers, P. & Larkin, M., 2009. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research. London: SAGE. Read More