Qualitative Content Analysis session for MSc Media Psychology students at the University of Salford. The aim of the session is to consider knowledge and research on a continuum from positivist to interpretivist, realist to relativist, quantitative to qualitative. It's taken me the best part of four years to get a handle on my epistemological and ontological positions so I am hoping my 'pain' will be someone else's 'gain'. This is the first lecture where my PhD work is really showing its worth for my teaching. Would be interested to hear others thoughts on how to teach and learn qualitative research methods. A further aim is to expand what we consider to be 'data' and think about how we can generate new knowledge about new media in innovative and creative ways. Sometimes the more traditional methods don't translate very well to contemporary issues. The session therefore introduces the concept of researcher-as-bricoleur. As an exercise to develop our interpretative skills, Plan B's ill Manors track will be analysed in the session from different perspectives. We will start with the text, then listen to the song, then watch the music video, then see the trailer to the film to build more complex interpretations of Plan Bs work and consider its relationship to the 'real world'. Hopefully the session will work will:)

1. Flickr: Community Photography 'now & then'
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2. Session Overview
• Myth bust the quant-qual divide
• Understand importance of epistemology and
ontology
• Move from dichotomies to continuums.
• Explore the constructive nature of language
• Find your interpretative, subjective lens
• Interpret media content with two different
methodologies.
• Expand notion of what can be data.
• Examine evaluative criteria for qualitative
research.
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3. Commonly held assumption…
Quantitative and Qualitative methods are distinct
from one another
Quantitative Qualitative
• the collection and analysis of • collecting and analysing
data in numeric form information in as many forms,
(Hughes, 2006) chiefly non-numeric, as possible
(Hughes, 2006)
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4. Flickr: marcinlachowicz.com'
An oversimplification
• Both aim to understand the world
• Both interpret data
• Overlap
Unhelpful
• “…two opposing camps of researchers”
(Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005, p. 375)
• “real consequences” for those in the qualitative
camp (Abell & Walton, 2010, p. 688)
For more on the quantitative-qualitative debate see Hammersley (1992); Newman &
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Benz, (1998); Wood & Welch, (2010); Whaley & Krane, (2011)

5. Method – a word with three meanings
(Bernard, 2000)
The epistemology guides
the question A.K.A
How can we Epistemology
know
A.K.A. Strategic
Methodology choices
The question guides A.K.A.
Techniques
the method Method
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6. Flickr: CarbonNYC
Epistemology: How can we know
• “Epistemology is inescapable” (Carter & Little,
2007, p. 1319)
• A branch of philosophy (Willig, 2001)
• A theory of knowledge concerned with
knowing (Sullivan, 2012).
• Epistemology guides the research question
(Whaley & Krane, 2011)
• What counts as knowledge or ‘truth’?
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7. Flickr: SebastianDooris
Ontology: what can we know
• Concerned with what is there to know (Willig, 2001)
• Concerned with existence, what it means “to be”
(Packer & Goicoechea, 2000)
• At the core of this ‘debate’ is how researchers can
theorise about a world in a way which is independent of
our representations (i.e. language, perceptions, values,
beliefs) of it (Nightingale & Cromby, 2002).
• Realist (there is an external objective world that can be
known through research)
• Relativist (an external objective world is inaccessible to
us, we can only know the world through our
representations of it)
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8. Epistemological continuum
Positivism Interpretivism/
Constructionism
Today, very few researchers would align themselves
at the extreme ends of the continuum
How far along the continuum are you
prepared to travel?
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9. Ontological continuum
Realism Relativism
Today, very few researchers would align themselves
at the extreme ends of the continuum
How far along the continuum are you
prepared to travel?
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10. Positivism Review literature
• Only phenomena that are observable and Formulate Hypothesis
agreeable to testing can claim a truth in the and design study
world (Ashworth, 2008).
Collect data
• There is a unitary real world (aka realism).
• Events of interest to psychologists (e.g. Carry out descriptive
memory, identity, cognition, emotion) take statistics
place in that ‘real’ world.
Carry out statistical
• A positivist epistemology pursues objective (inferential) tests
and unbiased knowledge through
Decide whether result
‘reductionist and empirically based, rational is significant or not
enquiry’ (Jones, 2002, p. 247).
• Subsequently, quantitative methodology Interpret and write up
study
often most appropriate. 10

11. Review literature
Post-positivism
Formulate Hypothesis
• The limitations of positivism in terms of and design study
developing new theory and dealing with
complex human issues led to Collect data
postpositivism.
• In contemporary times, many scientists Carry out descriptive
statistics
and social scientists take a postpostivist
stance to knowledge and research. Carry out statistical
(inferential) tests
• While positivism asserts that there is a
reality out there to be studied and to be Decide whether result
is significant or not
captured in research, postpositivists
argue that reality can only be Interpret and write up
approximated (Guba, 1990). study
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12. Social Constructionism
SOCIETY
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13. Flickr: lovelornpoets
Knowledge is relative to
time and place
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14. Flickr: Leonard John Matthews
Social Constructionism
• There is no one knowledge, there are knowledges
(Burr, 2003)
• No two people perceive, experience, and understand
their worlds in the same way.
• What we experience or perceive is not a direct
reflection of objective environmental conditions
(Willig, 2001). It is constructed in talk and interaction.
• Research carried out from a constructionist standpoint
identifies the ways in which people construct their
social realities by taking into account the specific
linguistic, cultural and historical influences.
• ‘Critical’ approaches
• Subsequently, qualitative methodology often most
appropriate.
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15. Research as continuum
Ontology – what can we know?
Realism Relativism
Epistemology – how can we know?
Positivism Interpretivism/
Constructionism
Methodology – how can we find out?
Quantitative Qualitative
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16. Ensuring ‘quality’ in qualitative research
It is the researcher’s responsibility to
make clear their epistemological and
ontological positions
(Madill et al., 2000)
This goes for (post)positivists too!
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17. The Turn to Language
Discursive/narrative
Language does not simply
describe our world
From out of the heads of people
into the dialogues between them
Language is action oriented,
used to construct particular
versions of events
Language enables and constrains
what can be said, by whom,
where and when (Willig, 2001) 17

18. Discursive Psychology
• A theoretical approach from social psychology
which emphasises how knowledge is created in
interactions between people rather than
through direct perception of a true reality (SC).
• Discourse analysis is the method most used by
social constructionists.
• Preference for naturally occurring text/data.
• Usually ontological relativism but also critical
realism.
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19. Discursive Psychology: Two Strands or One?
Individual Structure
Discursive Foucauldian
Discourse
Psychology Analysis
Eclectic Discursive Approach
(Wetherell, 1998)
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20. Analysing Discourse
(no rule book, too many varieties!)
Exploring language ‘in action’.
Discursive Strategies
– E.g. “I’m not racist, but”
Interpretative Repertoires: reoccurring patterns
– E.g. “you just get used to it” Flickr: drbexl
Lived Ideologies & Ideological Dilemmas
– E.g. London as growing vs deprived
Subject Positions
– E.g. “Your country needs you”
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21. Discursive Psychology and Media Texts
How are we
being
What is all this constructed?
media saying to How is the
us? world being
constructed?
How does media impact upon our
subjectivity/lived experience?
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22. Flickr: Leonard John Matthews
Subjectivity
• Problematic for discursive psychology
• We are more than discourse (talk)
• Ontological relativism = everything is socially
constructed in language, what about
embodiment, materiality, power? (Cromby &
Nightingale, 2002)
• What can we say about experience when we are
reading for ‘suspicion’? (Ricoeur, 1981)
• Suspicion - what is the text/speaker aiming to
achieve?
• Reading for ‘trust’…
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23. Flickr: mohammadali
Interpretative
Phenomenological
Analysis
• An approach which
aims to understand
how people make sense of their worlds as they
are experienced by people.
• Sometimes referred to as ‘lived experience’.
• Research is dynamic – researcher has an active
role.
• Often uses interviews & thematic analysis.
• What people say is what they mean - ‘trust’. 23

24. How IPA works
(for Smith & Osborn 2008)
• Identifying the experiential claims, concerns and
understandings of speaker (participant)
• Look for themes in the first case (e.g. interview
transcript), then across cases
f
• Dialogue between researcher and data – what
does this mean?
• Connect the themes (clusters)
f
• Organise – final structure of themes f
• Test for coherence through reflexivity (tbd),
discussions with others, supervision etc
• Write up
f d f 24

25. Move from a position of knowing to a
position of understanding
(Condie & Brown, 2009)
What are the How does
effects of music reflect
listening to youth culture?
music?
When Qs are Why are
‘how’ and particular
‘why’, qual forms of
has the music
advantage popular?
(Maginn et al., 2008) 25
Flickr: Mike White Photo!

26. Interpreting
Content
We know the world
through our
interpretations
(representations).
Attending to our
interpretations in a
rigorous way for
media psychological
research…
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27. Case Study: Plan B “Ill Manors”
Oi! I said oi!
• Analyse song lyrics What you looking at, you
little rich boy!
• Read on Trust (IPA) We’re poor round here,
run home and lock your
• Read as Suspicion (DP) door
Don’t come round here no
• Make Interpretations more, you could get
• Which approach seems robbed for
Real (yeah) because my
more appropriate? manors ill
My manors ill
• Research question? For real
Yeah you know my
manors ill, my manors ill!
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28. The sound: Another layer of meaning
What does it add beyond the written word?
How does listening impact on your interpretation?
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29. The Visual: Another layer of meaning
What does it add beyond the spoken word?
How does seeing impact on your interpretation?
Link: http://vimeo.com/38223344
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30. The Narrative: Another layer of meaning
The flexibility of qualitative analysis
enables us to broaden our notions of
what can be data in media psychological research
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31. Flickr: Community Photography 'now & then '
The relationship between
media and the ‘real’ world
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32. Qualitative Analysis: Understanding
the complexities of lived experience
Life is more complex with media 32

33. The pragmatic researcher
Do whatever is best to answer the research question
Bricolage: concept adopted by qualitative researchers to
define those who are increasingly using an eclectic range
of methodological approaches together (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2000, McLeod, 2001, Kincheloe, 2001)
Researcher-as-bricoleur (from French word for craftsman)
Blurred boundaries: “We are no longer bound by the rigid
scientific rigour and instead we seem to adopt a ‘pick n
mix’ approach that is adaptable to the circumstance and
needs of the research question” (Watt, 2010, p. 51).
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Flickr: gregheo

34. Reflexivity – examining your role in research
“…how does who I am, who I have been, who I think I am,
and how I feel affect data collection and analysis”
(Pillow, 2003, p. 176)
• A central methodological tool for qualitative
researchers, contributes to ‘quality’
• Finlay (2002) argues reflexive analysis should ideally
start from the beginning of the research process.
• Challenged the fundamental and “conventional ideas of
science, which favour professional objectivity and
distance over engagement and subjectivity” (Finlay &
Gough, 2002, p. 1).
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35. The trouble with reflexivity
Difficulties psychology students can face when asked to
be reflexive:
“For psychology students, the expectation of writing
reflexively about the qualitative studies that they have
conducted constitutes a transgression of the scientized
code of detached, depersonalized, supposedly objective
narrative style that characterizes the pseudoscientific
model of their training. In my experience such
expectations usually generate some incredulity, and
occasionally resistance from too well absorbed
disciplinary codes; however, they are usually experienced
as relief, and even as emancipatory.”
(Burman, 1997, p. 796)
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36. Can never fully know how you
influence the research…
“Reflexive analysis can only ever be a partial,
tentative, provisional account”
(Finlay, 2002, p. 542).
But you should
still try!
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Flickr: astroshots42

37. ‘Quality’ Criteria for Qualitative Research
• Make clear epist. & ontol. positions
• Reflexivity – from personal to disciplinary
• Transparency - processes
• ‘Fruitfulness’ (Wetherell, 1998)
• Systematic interpretation
• ‘Good’ interpretation takes time and practice.
• Qualitative research should not be evaluated by
positivist criteria i.e. reliability, validity,
generalisation etc…doesn’t aim to be these things!
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38. Next session
• How to be systematic in qualitative research
• Prepare and practice qualitative interviewing
• Further reading
– Read Mauthner & Doucet (2003) Reflexive Accounts
and Accounts of Reflexivity in Qualitative Data (bb)
– Read one other research paper that interests you.
Identify the epistemological, ontological and
methodological positions of the research. Are they
identified? Are they assumed?
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39. Flickr: Community Photography 'now & then'
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