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• 2014-2015
• Psychology 3990G-001

Psychology 3990G-001

Special Topics in Psychology "Qualitative Research Methods"

If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.

1.0    CALENDAR DESCRIPTION

Selected topics of current interest in psychology.

Prerequisite: Psychology 2820E or both Psychology 2800E and 2810
3 seminar hours, 0.5 course

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor:    Dr. Paul Tremblay        
Office and Phone Number:  6336 SSC (ext. 85644)    
Office Hours:  by appointment        
Email:  ptrembla@uwo.ca            

Teaching Assistant: Anita Feher    
Office: SSC 7312            
Office Hours: TBA        
Email: afeher2@uwo.ca            

Time and Location of Classes:   Mondays 1:30 - 4:30  (starting Jan 4) SSC 3028

If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you.  Please visit:  http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you.  You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

3.0  TEXTBOOK

Creswell, John W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design. Third Edition. Sage

4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course provides an overview of qualitative research methods used in Psychology and allied disciplines. Qualitative methods subsume broad categories of thematic, narrative, language analysis, and naturalistic observation approaches. These methods are valuable for collecting rich data and discovering themes and categories from data, meaning from experience and the stories we tell, ways in which language is used for communicating different underlying motives, and in-depth views of human behaviour and social interaction.

The first part of each class will consist of lecture material on theory and methodology. The second half will be dedicated to hands on class activities such as practicing interviews and focus groups. Taken together, the lectures, class activities and assigned projects will help students develop skills in the following areas:

The qualitative research process from start to finish. The course covers the entire qualitative research process. This year students will have the opportunity to work on a service evaluation project for the Psychology Department at Western. More specifically, for this project titled “Psychology Students’ Perspectives on Learning and Development from the Psychology Honors and Major Modules” students in the course will conduct in-depth interviews with fourth-year psychology students about their experiences in the Psychology program at Western. Students will then transcribe these interviews, conduct a thematic analysis and write a report. In addition to their pedagogical value, the student reports will be used by the Department of Psychology as an evaluative component of its mandated curriculum review.

Conducting in-depth interviews. Students will gain extensive experience in conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews through in class mockups and real project interviews. We will also practice other data collection techniques including focus groups and observation methods.

Analytic skills. Data in qualitative methods consist of words, whether from the transcripts of in-depth interviews, focus groups or from archival sources such as newspaper articles, speeches, songs, movie transcripts, accident reports, or field notes.  The next stage is the systematic interpretation of these data using a combination of inductive and deductive thinking. The researcher typically combs through the text, word by word, line by line, or sentence by sentence to extract meaningful units of information and patterns, categories, or themes.

Writing well. Good qualitative research requires the willingness to write well. Qualitative researchers need to be able to communicate their findings, being aware and taking into account how their own lenses through which they see the world (i.e., reflexivity) probably differ from those of their participants. Students will develop their skills at extracting themes from their data and presenting these in a research report that will convey a clearer picture of a complex problem.

Applying ethical principles and critical thinking in the evaluation of qualitative research. We will see that the researcher-participant interaction in qualitative research is often more extensive than in conventional quantitative methods. Researchers talk and listen to their participants, often in the field (e.g., a hospital, an addiction centre, a music studio). We will see that there is no clear parallel between reliability and validity in qualitative and quantitative methods. Instead qualitative research uses criteria such as credibility, authenticity, criticality and trustworthiness/integrity.

5.0     EVALUATION

1.    Project: “Psychology Students’ Perspectives on Learning and Development from the Psychology Honors and Major Modules.” Students will conduct in-depth interviews with fourth-year psychology students about their experiences in the Psychology program at Western. Students will then transcribe these interviews, conduct a thematic analysis and write a report. In addition to their pedagogical value, the student reports will be used by the Department of Psychology as an evaluative component of its mandated curriculum review. (50% total)

a.    Interviewer practice performance (5%). Students will have several opportunities to practice developing their interview skills in class mockup sessions. They will be evaluated in one of these sessions.
b.    Pilot interview and one-page report (15%) (due Feb 1). As part of the listed project, students will conduct one preliminary 60 minute interview with a participant, transcribe the interview, and write a one-page summary report summarizing the experience and suggested modifications, especially with respect to the list of questions and follow-up probes.
c.    Interview project (30%) (transcripts due Mar 14, full project due Apr 4). As part of the listed project, students will conduct 3-4 interviews (the total should add up to approximately 180 minutes of interviewing either). The interviews will then be transcribed and coded using the steps described in class for a thematic analysis. Students will write a 10-page report describing their findings.

2.    Three thought papers (10% each = 30%). There will be five lectures each focusing on one of the following five methods: Grounded theory, Narrative research, Phenomenological approaches, Ethnography/Field observation, and Case studies. Students will be required to select three of these topics and write one-page thought papers (approximately 500 words each) of how they could use the method for a project in psychology. These will be due the week following the lecture on the topic. (See topic schedule below).

3.    Pecha Kucha presentation (20%). Students will select one of their thought papers and expand on the idea in an oral-visual presentation known as Pecha Kucha. This is a fairly new presentation format that consists of presenting 20 slides for no more than 20 seconds each (total of 6 min 40 sec).  We will view some examples in class but see also: http://www.pechakucha.org/ or http://www.pechakucha.org/presentations/failure

Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:

70%    1000-level and 2000-level courses
72%     2190-2990 level courses
75%     3000-level courses
80%     4000-level courses
   
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf ):

A+    90-100    One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A    80-89        Superior work that is clearly above average
B    70-79        Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C    60-69        Competent work, meeting requirements
D    50-59        Fair work, minimally acceptable
F    below 50    Fail

6.0  TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

None

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

*Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77-101.doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

8.0     STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES

Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link:  http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf

As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com

Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.

9.0    POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS

The University of Western Ontario’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2015/pg117.html

Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html


10.0        OTHER INFORMATION

Office of the Registrar web site:  http://registrar.uwo.ca

Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca

Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:

    http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html

- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences

- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2015 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.