Assignment: Chapter 18 Exercise: Patterns in Research
John and Lyn Lofland (1995) suggest six different ways of looking for patterns in a particular research topic. List the approaches and provide examples.
Describe concept mapping and how it can be used in understanding patterns in data.
Suppose you are interested in analyzing child abuse in a certain neighborhood, what are the areas you would concentrate to make sense out of your data?
Assignment: Chapter 18 Case Study: Self-esteem of Women with Breast Cancer Case Study:
A researcher conducted a study to understand the self-esteem of women suffering from breast cancer. The study was conducted on a group of 20 women between the ages of 40 and 50 years. All participants were undergoing chemotherapy. Some of whom had even lost hair. Three of the participants wore wigs of which one was unwilling to reveal the same. All of the participants received insurance.
Create a list of possible codes and map them on a screening sheet. You could develop the narrative for more detailed questions.
The unwillingness of a participant to disclose details could potentially lead to an interviewer’s bias. Elaborate.
Explain the importance of semiotics in a situation like this where expressing self-esteem would be rather subjective.
Assignment: Chapter 18 Reflection Activity
Suppose a researcher is interested in studying the parenting styles of adult survivors of childhood physical abuse.
Explain why employing the grounded theory method is an appropriate strategy for this topic.
Next, outline how you would use the constant comparative method to study participants in a study of the parenting styles of adult survivors of childhood physical abuse.
How could you apply grounded theory methods to your analysis?
While working on data analysis for the same parenting styles study, you will need to employ memoing. Describe how you will use this technique in your analysis. How would you use memoing? What kinds of decisions would you make?
After completing your data analysis for this same parenting styles study, a colleague asks you about the semiotics of your study.
What kinds of signs or symbols and their meanings do you think you might encounter in this type of study?
