Editorial

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in Cross-Cultural Psychology

In recent years, Problem and Project Based Learning (PBL) has been employed by a growing number of educational institutions to foster creative engineers. This paper aims to explore how PBL can develop creativity in engineering education. Accordingly, a qualitative case study was carried out with a student satellite project (AAUSAT3) in the department of electronic systems at Aalborg University in Denmark. Multiple methods including interviews and observation were employed. The analysis of the empirical data leads to the findings and discussions that PBL can foster creative engineers by providing conditions of problem analysis and solving, the shift from teaching to learning and team based projects. This research therefore contributes to both theory and practice in the PBL setting of engineering education.

This article reviews the current and emerging status of qualitative research in psychology. The particular value of diverse philosophical paradigms and varied inquiry approaches to the advancement of psychology generally, and multicultural psychology specifically, is emphasized. Three specific qualitative inquiry approaches anchored in diverse philosophical research paradigms are highlighted: consensual qualitative research, grounded theory, and participatory action research. The article concludes by highlighting important ethical considerations in multicultural qualitative research.

The authors review some of the problems faced by qualitative research in psychology, focusing on the aspects that limit its use and its inclusion in indexed publications. In order to determine whether these problems exist, a case study on textual analysis was performed. The authors conducted a literature search of many databases from the Web of Science (Sciences Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index), with the keywords “textual analysis” and “text analysis”. Subsequently, the authors completed an in-depth analysis of a sample of the publications found, reviewing publication aspects, substantive aspects, methodological aspects and contextual aspects. The results showed that “textual analysis” cannot be considered a specific methodology and so the use of this term as a particular technique could be misleading. This highlights the need to create a common vocabulary to facilitate the systematization and dissemination of work done with qualitative methods.

Management scholars often identify themselves -- or are categorized by others -- as either a “macro” or “micro” person. Following trends in psychology, micro-level management scholars often draw on quantitative experimentation as the preferred research method. However, studies of phenomena occurring at the micro-level often are well-suited to qualitative methods as well. The purpose of this panel symposium is to engage a group of panelists in a formal, moderated, interactive discussion of (1) the history of qualitative research in psychology and micro-OB; (2) what makes for a good qualitative, micro-level research question; and (3) how conducting qualitative research at the micro- level differs from the macro-level, and advice/tactics for navigating micro-level qualitative research successfully.

The purpose of this methodology paper is to describe an approach to qualitative design known as qualitative descriptive that is well suited to junior health sciences researchers because it can be used with a variety of theoretical approaches, sampling techniques, and data collection strategies. It is often difficult for junior qualitative researchers to pull together the tools and resources they need to embark on a high-quality qualitative research study and to manage the volumes of data they collect during qualitative studies. This paper seeks to pull together much needed resources and provide an overview of methods. A step-by-step guide to planning a qualitative descriptive study and analyzing the data is provided, utilizing exemplars from the authors' research. This paper presents steps to conducting a qualitative descriptive study under the following headings: describing the qualitative descriptive approach, designing a qualitative descriptive study, steps to data analysis, and ensuring rigor of findings. The qualitative descriptive approach results in a summary in everyday, factual language that facilitates understanding of a selected phenomenon across disciplines of health science researchers.

The MPOWER programme is a resource oriented intervention to support children and young people (CYP) affected by domestic violence and abuse. It draws on principles from feminist informed systemic family practice and creative therapies. The intervention was delivered in 4 European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain and England), reaching 58 CYP. This paper reports on young participants’ wellbeing outcomes and perceptions of the intervention. Participants completed the Children’s Outcome Rating Scale, and the Children’s Group Session Rating Scale (Duncan et al. Journal of Brief Therapy, 3, 3–12, 2003). A descriptive analysis of this data suggests improvement in subjective wellbeing as CYP moved through this programme. Qualitative interviews were also conducted with 21 CYP, exploring their experience of the group intervention and of its impact. These interviews were analysed thematically (Braun and Clark Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101, 2006). Three themes are discussed: These were “Working Together: Building Trust and Sharing Common Experiences”; “Disclosures, creativity and working with emotions”; and “Roots and Branches: Working with relationships”.

Orientation: Qualitative research is marked by phenomenal growth and development over the years.Research purpose: This article aims to offer insight into the emerging qualitative methodologies used in the fields of Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management.Motivation for the study: The value of qualitative organisational research has been recognised since the 1970s. Regardless of its perceived value, national and international trends show a greater tendency for quantitative research.Research design, approach and method: This article investigates qualitative articles (n = 242) published over two decades in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP), South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP), and the South African Journal of Human Resource Management (SAJHRM). More specifically, a content analysis was conducted to highlight the trends of paradigms, designs and analysis methods employed in the studies.Main findings: Although there seems to be a slight increase in qualitative publications over the years, qualitative studies show a lower volume than its counterparts. The SAJIP published the least qualitative articles when compared to the SAJP and SAJHRM. There is a pattern of preference for specific paradigms and methods in all the journals. Overall, all the journals carry a large number of articles that do not specifically state their paradigmatic alignment or the designs they used, while some articles omits the methodology used in the studies altogether.Practical/managerial implications: The results indicate a clear need for increased exposure to qualitative methodology, both by publishing more qualitative studies in local journals and by providing formal training opportunities. A publication does not solely rely on authorship, but also on a review process. Therefore certain adjustments in this process may lead to more and better qualitative publications in future.Contribution/value-add: This article provides a critical analysis of the current trends and developments in qualitative research conducted in Industrial and Organisational Psychology(IOP) research in South Africa. The study identifies dominant methodologies in use, and thereby identifies possible opportunities to expand the ‘methodological menu’ of IOP research.

Purpose This study explored service providers’ and help-seeking intimate partner violence (IPV) victims’ and IPV perpetrators’ experiences with mandatory reporting of intimate partner violence (MR-IPV) in Norway. We examined the following research questions: How do service providers experience work within the context of MR-IPV? How do help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators experience MR-IPV? Methods This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to identify, analyze and report themes and patterns uncovered in semi-structured interviews with 42 service providers and 6 help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators, following Braun and Clark’s Qualitative Research in Psychology six phases of reflexive thematic analysis. Results The service providers in this study aimed to establish collaboration with help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators to avert IPV rather than immediately reporting IPV to the police, thus working within the discretionary space allowed in the Norwegian legislation. Stories concerning breaches of trust related to MR-IPV were prominent in the interviews with both groups of help-seekers. The IPV perpetrators expressed having experienced a breach of trust when the IPV was reported to the police, while most of the IPV victims expressed a breach of trust due to a lack of MR-IPV. Conclusions IPV victims expressed ambivalence linked to a desire for interventions and a fear of not receiving adequate help. These findings highlight the challenges of certain requirements placed on service providers when working within the MR-IPV context; distinguishing between situations in which collaboration is appropriate and situations in which immediate reporting to the police is required.

<h3>Background</h3> Story completion asks the participant to produce a story, in response to an open, sometimes ambiguous, scenario. As a method for <i>qualitative</i> research, it is relatively unknown. Yet the method has deep roots, with origins in psychotherapy <i>practice</i> (projective techniques, such as Rorschach) and (quantitative) developmental psychology research (such as the doll play story completion test); in those domains, it offers a method to access information inaccessible through self-report. As a qualitative method, story completion has usually been used to research the meaning-worlds people occupy, exploring everyday sense-making in relation to topics such as infidelity¹ and health and weight loss.² <h3>Aims/Objectives</h3> This paper provides an overview and introduction to story completion as a qualitative technique for health research, including a brief signal of key design concerns. It demonstrates the exciting potential this method has for tapping collective sense-making, making git potentially very use for health researchers. <h3>Discussion/Conclusions</h3> We believe story completion has untapped, exciting potential for qualitative <i>health</i> research, offering something <i>quite different</i> to many of the more popular methods used (e.g. interviews, focus groups). Through highlighting conceptual and design considerations for story completion, this paper both introduces the method <i>and</i> sets the scene for the three empirical symposium papers that follow – each of which demonstrates the application of story completion within a different area of health (healthy eating; disability and physical activity; mental health in the workplace). <h3>References</h3> Clarke V, Braun V, Wooles K. Thou shalt not covet another man? Exploring constructions of same-sex and different-sex infidelity using story completion. Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology, 2015;25:153–166. Tischner I. (in press). Tomorrow is the start of the rest of their life – so who cares about health? Exploring constructions of weight-loss motivations and health using story completion. Qualitative Research in Psychology.

Who is sensitising whom? A participatory interview guide development as an awareness tool within a health care research project

Innovating qualitative research methods: Proposals and possibilities

Some topics for qualitative research in psychology are unsuitable for or cannot be adapted to the traditional qualitative designs such as case study, ethnography, grounded theory, or phenomenology. This paper explores reasons for this, and proposes that psychological researchers can use a generic qualitative design in such situations. After discussing the types of topics most suitable for a generic qualitative design, the paper differentiates generic qualitative designs from the more traditional qualitative designs, with particular attention to how generic qualitative inquiry differs from phenomenological psychological research. Finally, appropriate procedures for data collection and for thematic data analysis in a generic model are discussed and described in detail.

The aim of this article is to explore the future of qualitative research as seen from a students' perspective. This exploration will initially be incited through a discussion of the use of the term 'qualitative research', and the risks associated with the use of such an umbrella term. It is discussed that the use of an overarching umbrella term can lead to an overhomogenized understanding of qualitative research, that fails to represent the diversity and variety of methodological and epistemological approaches that exist within this research paradigm. It is also discussed that this overhomogenization reinforces the idea of qualitative research as an anti-doctrine to quantitative research, which is argued to discourage interparadigmatic integration. Lastly, it is considered how these (mis)conceptions of qualitative research influence how psychology students are taught about research methodology and how this education could affect these (mis)conceptions. We advocate that the future for qualitative research in psychology should be ensured through a restructure and a refocus on an educational level. This change should overall be centered around teaching students how to be reflective research practitioners based on an in-depth understanding of the variety of epistemologies within both meta-research-paradigms.

Principles and applications of open science (also referred to as open research or open scholarship) in psychology have emerged in response to growing concerns about the replicability, transparency, reproducibility, and robustness of psychological research alongside global moves to open science in many fields. Our objective in this paper is to inform ways of collectively constructing open science practices and systems that are appropriate to, and get the best out of, the full range of qualitative and mixed‐method approaches used in psychology. We achieve this by describing three areas of open research practice (contributorship, pre‐registration, and open data) and explore how and why qualitative researchers might consider engaging with these in ways that are compatible with a qualitative research paradigm. We argue it is crucial that open research practices do not (even inadvertently) exclude qualitative research, and that qualitative researchers reflect on how we can meaningfully engage with open science in psychology.