Qualitative research in psychology

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Qualitative research in psychology
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A distinct research process

• Inquiries of knowledge that are outside the
  framework prescribed by the scientific method,
• as well as assumptions of inferential statistics
• Important to review modern philosophies of
  science which have set rules for how
  psychologists have thought about research for
  past 80 years.

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Philosophy of science

• Understand why how philosophy of science is
  relevant to psychology
• Appreciate the basic issues of hypotheses and
  disconfirmation
• Be able to assess the relevance of different
  models of science to different areas of
  psychology

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What is the philosophy of science?

• concerned with the question of how we should
  carry out scientific research given our
  understanding of the nature of knowledge.
• how most scientists actually work given the
  social and practical circumstances of their work.

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Reality, Knowledge Science

• Philosophers interested in the relation between
• Ontology (the study of what actually exists)
• Epistemology (the study of what knowledge is,
  what we can know and what the limits of knowledge
  are)
• Methodology (the study of the ways in which the
  world can be studied).

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Definition Example in physical science Example in psychology
Ontology The study of what actually exists Is space infinite? Is the mind part of the brain?
Epistemology The study of the varieties, foundations limits of what we can know What are the limits to our understanding of the relationship between time space? What kind of limits are there on our understanding of the link between the brain and consciousness?
Methodology The study of means of investigating a phenomenon How should we study time space? How should we study the effects of drugs on consciousness?
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• Ontological assumptions
• ?
• Epistemological assumptions
• ?
• Methodological assumptions

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What is science?

• Objective testing of theories based on evidence
• Public sharing of data
• Theories competing with each other
• Careful measurements/recording/data analysis
• Therefore psychology is a science?

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Key concepts in philosophy of science

• Positivism
• Logical Positivism
• Disconfirmation
• Paradigms
• Anarchy
• Social Constructionism

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Comte, Ayer and logical positivism

• Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
• three phases of searching for understanding
• theological metaphysical positive or
  scientific
• Positivism unity of science project
• process of induction.
• Vienna Circle 1920s - logical positivism
• emphasis on theories logical deduction of
  hypotheses

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• Alfred Ayer (1910-89,) Language, Truth and Logic
  1936.
• a statement can only be true only if
• (i) it is a self-evident analytic, deductive
  truth (e.g. 224)
• (ii) the statement matches reality precisely.
• Statements had to be verifiable to be meaningful.
  
• commitment to empiricism, checking ideas against
  the world.

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• not about the process of discovery per se - just
  specifying what should be permitted as scientific
  conservative
• logical positivist criteria - Psychology
  borderline
• picked up by behaviourism.

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Positivism

• Facts
• Facts
• More facts
• Generalise from those facts
• induction

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Logical Positivism

• Theory
• Verifiability
• Tests
• Generalise
• deduction

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Disconfirmation

• Karl Popper (1902-1994) first major attack on
  logical positivism The Logic of Scientific
  Discovery (1935 / 1959)
• verifiability encouraged confirmation of theories
  rather than genuine discovery consistent
  evidence is merely corroboration.
• Bold conjectures required by science
• Disconfirmation/falsifiability principle
  hypotheses need to be capable of being wrong

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• Several problems
• theories and observations are neither independent
  nor neutral
• science is a practical business - find best
  answer rather than the application of logic

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Science should proceed in 4 stages

• Formal Stage. theory checked for internal
  consistency.
• Semi-formal Stage. separate propositions which
  do/do not have empirical consequences
• Comparison Stage. new theory compared with
  existing theories If it explains the same/less
  known facts then new theory should be abandoned.
• Empirical Testing Stage. test hypothesis least
  likely to be true - informativeness.
• And if prediction not supported? still our best
  guess
• Criticism scientists propose auxiliary
  hypotheses

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• What are the implications of Poppers ideas for
  how we think about psychological research?
• difficulty arises when considering theories
  rather than hypotheses
• Theories which are internally inconsistent are
  incapable of being disconfirmed

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Kuhn and revolution Paradigms

• Thomas Kuhn(1922-96) scientific progress not a
  purely rational process peaceful interludes-
  normal science where scientists share a paradigm
  - punctuated by violent intellectual revolutions.
  
• scientists dont listen to the data
• Routine procedures and ideas paradigm
• Normal science
• Revolutionary science

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• most scientists conservative do not abandon or
  revise theory but dismiss data
• when inconsistent data build up and new radical
  paradigm is offered there is a revolution
• old paradigm is never decisively shown to be
  wrong but simply withers away as fewer and fewer
  experiments are carried out within its frame of
  reference.

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• What are the implications of Kuhn's ideas for how
  we think about psychological research?
• relationship between evidence theory framed by
  paradigm in which research is carried out.

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Epistemological Anarchy

• Paul Feyerabend (1924-94) Against Method 1975
• No single correct method in science rejected
  realism for a form of relativism
• in principle all forms of theories are worthwhile
  theoretical pluralism
• Anything that works is fine epistemological
  anarchy
• argued theories could not be compared - concept
  of incommensurabilty
• theories give meaning to facts, not vice versa
• a form of social constructionism emphasising that
  the world is not singular but plural.
• Scientific inquiry constructs the objects it
  inquires into, scientific objects are created by
  the very practice of investigation itself.

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• Implications of Feyerabends ideas for how we
  think about psychological research?
• demystifies logical positivism. If no single
  correct method for doing science for all problems
  at all time in all places, then every research
  project has to find its own method.

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• Incommensurabilty principle forces us to think
  about each theory in its own terms.
• emphasises the doubts that logical positivism is
  studying the real world out there.

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Summary

• Many different ideas about science
• Psychology uses logical positivism
• but may not be always the best choice
• Qualitative work needs alternative model of
  science
• Philosophies of science clarify why experimental,
  scientific psychology adopts the practices that
  it does, but also that there are other models
  which can be adopted.

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Questions to ask

• What model of science is this study using?
• Could it have used a different one?
• What model of science is best for psychology?
• Should different areas of psychology have
  different models of science?