Reference no: EM132586568
Advanced Research Methods Assessment - Research Report
1. Students should conduct and report a small-scale qualitative piece of research. This involves selecting a research topic, a research question and form of analysis (see below for precise guidelines).
2. Data should be gathered using one of the research methods taught on the module (e.g. interviews, focus group, case study or document-centred) and analysed using the most appropriate qualitative analysis technique taught on the module (e.g. discourse analysis or IPA - the latter is recommended).
3. The report should be written primarily using the analysis as the focal point with some reference to the process of conducting the analysis (e.g. data collection, coding and theme development - presentation guidelines are below). Findings should be written up in a format appropriate to the analytic technique adopted. With this in mind, you are advised to find an example of a piece of research that has used your chosen method of analysis and that has been published in a Health Psychology journal. You should then base your presentation of findings on the analysis presented in that journal article. You should also specify the journal to which the report could be submitted.
4. The report itself should be approximately 2,000-2,500 words excluding tables, diagrams, data extracts/quotations and references. The work should be fully referenced where applicable using the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing system.
5. The project must be approved by a member of the Module team before any data collection is undertaken. Department ethical approval forms are required to be completed if the research project includes the use of human participants (but not for online document-centred research). Ethics forms should be submitted to a member of the Module team before the research is conducted.
Do remember this is not a full qualitative study and it would be expected that students use a different data collection method and resource (if using publicly available online data) if conducting a qualitative dissertation.
Presentation guidelines - please ensure you use the headings below to structure your report. No other headings are required.
Introduction and aims (up to 300 words):
Give a brief introduction to the report introducing the topic and briefly consider why a qualitative approach is preferred. You should also briefly outline the aims of the analysis. It would help to provide a clear, open research question and make reference to the journal where the work could be submitted.
Description of the approach and analytic process (300-400 words)
Provide a concise description of the chosen method of data collection and justify its suitability in relation to the research topic. Give some background to the method of analysis and include an appropriate reference(s). Here you should refer to the research topic and refer to your research question and/or aims.
Ensure you consider the process of analysis. How was data collected and prepared for analysis? Was ethical approval required? What were the analytical steps? The aim here is for the reader to be able to replicate data collection and analysis. Transcripts/ data should be appended to the report.
Analysis (up to 1500 words)
As stated, findings should be written up in a format appropriate to the analytic technique adopted, e.g. if using IPA then a summary table of themes should be included (including sub-themes), followed by a narrative commentary through the table including participant quotations. Introduce the analysis with reference to participant detail and a brief reminder of the aims of the analysis.
If applicable to the analytical technique, some reflexive comments should be offered.
Conclusions (up to 300 words)
Please also offer a concluding paragraph. Here there should be some brief reference/consideration of how your findings relate to health psychology research or theory. Offer some concluding points such as wider implications of findings for research and potential intervention.
A reference section should be provided prior to an appendix containing the data collected.