The Department of Psychology conducted a two
day training program in Research Methodology
on 19th and 20th August, 2015, titled
Overview of Qualitative and
Quantitative Research Methods in Psychology
and Social Sciences. The workshop
was well attended and well received.
The two day workshop was organized to give
an overview as well as practical experience
in conducted qualitative research using two
primary methods, namely, Thematic Analysis
and Phenomenological Analysis.
On day one i.e.19th August,2015 the workshop
started with Dr. Anuradha Sovani, Professor
and Head, Department of Psychology,
welcoming the participants. She gave a brief
overview and comparison of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. She touched
upon the philosophical differences as well
as methodological perspectives of each
method. She also highlighted the strengths
and weaknesses of each method and how as a
doctoral student or researcher we need to
use the methods judiciously.
After the inaugural session, the first
session of the workshop was conducted by Dr.
Mrinalini Purandare, the co-ordinator of the
workshop. She spoke at length on Thematic
Analysis as one of the foundational
qualitative method. She explained the
theoretical background as well as phases of
conducting thematic analysis. This
presentation was followed by group work of
simulated cases being analyzed using steps
of Thematic analysis method. The
participants did coding of transcribed
material, followed by identification of
primary themes, thematic map or thematic
table and so on.
The second session was conducted post lunch
by Dr. Srilatha Juwwa, Professor, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences. She spoke on
Phenomenological analysis as an important
qualitative method. She gave an overview of
theoretical and philosophical basis of the
method. She then moved on to an example of
personal experience of participants and how
that can be analyzed using phenomenological
analysis.
On day two i.e.20th August, 2015 the session
started with a brief discussion on
quantitative method by Dr. Mrinalini
Purandare. She highlighted the importance of
ensuring validity of collected data. She
also spoke about appropriateness of
statistical method keeping in mind the scale
of measurement and assumptions of the
statistical test being used.
After the brief introductory session the
participants were taken to the computer lab.
The next session moved to the Computer
Laboratory of SNDT University, and was
conducted by Prof. D.P.Singh on using SPSS
for quantitative data analysis. He started
his session with a presentation on
advantages of quantitative method and
software programs available to do data
analysis. Then he demonstrated how SPSS does
data grouping and analysis from descriptive
to inferential, from univariate to bivariate
to multivariate data analysis. He also
showed PSPP which is an open source and can
do similar data analysis. Finally he
demonstrated use of Excel for a range of
data analysis methods. His session was very
interactive and participants got hands on
experience of using different programs for
quantitative data analysis, as each worked
on their own data in the Computer
laboratory.
The workshop ended with summary of the two
days workshop presented by Dr. Nilesh
Thakre, followed by vote of thanks,
participants’ feedback and certificate
distribution. |
