The distinction between qualitative properties like mass and shape and non-qualitative properties like being Napoleon and being next to Obama is important, but remains largely unexamined. After discussing its theoretical significance and cataloguing various kinds of non-qualitative properties, I survey several views about the nature of this distinction and argue that all proposed reductive analyses of this distinction are unsatisfactory. I then defend primitivism, according to which the distinction resists reductive analysis.

Although theoretically rigorous, the book is comprehensible to the beginning qualitative researcher.

Fundamental assumptions behind qualitative modelling are critically considered and some inherent problems in that modelling approach are outlined. The problems outlined are due to the assumption that a sufficient set of symbols representing the fundamental features of the physical world exists. That assumption causes serious problems when modelling continuous systems. An alternative for intelligent system building for cases not suitable for qualitative modelling is proposed. The proposed alternative combines neural networks and quantitative modelling.

This paper presents a formalism that combines useful properties of both logic and probabilities. Like logic, the formalism admits qualitative sentences and provides symbolic machinery for deriving deductively closed beliefs and, like probability, it permits us to express if-then rules with different levels of firmness and to retract beliefs in response to changing observations. Rules are interpreted as order-of-magnitude approximations of conditional probabilities which impose constraints over the rankings of worlds. Inferences are supported by a unique priority ordering on rules (...) which is syntactically derived from the knowledge base. This ordering accounts for rule interactions, respects specificity considerations and facilitates the construction of coherent states of beliefs. Practical algorithms are developed and analyzed for testing consistency, computing rule ordering, and answering queries. Imprecise observations are incorporated using qualitative versions of Jeffrey's rule and Bayesian updating, with the result that coherent belief revision is embodied naturally and tractably. Finally, causal rules are interpreted as imposing Markovian conditions that further constrain world rankings to reflect the modularity of causal organizations. These constraints are shown to facilitate reasoning about causal projections, explanations, actions and change. (shrink)

Background: The increase in medical ethical regulations and bureaucracy handled by institutional review boards and healthcare institutions puts the researchers using qualitative methods in a challenging position. Method: Based on three different cases from three different research studies, the article explores and discusses research ethical dilemmas. Objectives and ethical considerations: First, and especially, the article addresses the challenges for gatekeepers who influence the informant’s decisions to participate in research. Second, the article addresses the challenges in following research ethical guidelines related (...) to informed consent and doing no harm. Third, the article argues for the importance of having research ethical guidelines and review boards to question and discuss the possible ethical dilemmas that occur in qualitative research. Discussion and conclusion: Research ethics must be understood in qualitative research as relational, situational, and emerging. That is, that focus on ethical issues and dilemmas has to be paid attention on the spot and not only at the desktop. (shrink)

Qualitative research, particularly phenomenology, is increasingly popular as a method for midwifery and health-related research. These approaches enable rich and detailed explanations to be uncovered and bring experience to life. Important recommendations and practice- based implications may then be raised and debated for future use. This book brings together a range of phenomenological methods and insights into one accessible text. Illustrated with plenty of examples of successful phenomenological research, Qualitative Research in Midwifery and Childbirth keeps the focus applied to midwifery (...) and childbirth and makes clear the links to practice throughout. The book introduces three key phenomenological approaches âe" descriptive, interpretive and the life world âe" and includes a comparative chapter which discusses the differences between these varied perspectives and methods. Each chapter focuses on how these approaches are used within midwifery research. The remaining chapters present a number of different research projects. These demonstrate how different phenomenological approaches have been used to explore and uncover experiences of childbirth and maternity as well as offering important insights into how women experience different facets of the birth experience during the antenatal, intra-partum and postnatal period. Designed for researchers and students undertaking research projects on midwifery and childbirth, this text includes contributions from a range of international and highly regarded phenomenological authors and researchers. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic account of the metaphysically important distinction between haecceitistic properties, such as being David Lewis or being acquainted with David Lewis, and qualitative properties, such as being red or being acquainted with a famous philosopher. I first argue that this distinction is hyperintensional, that is, that cointensional properties can differ in whether they are qualitative. Then I develop an analysis of the qualitative/haecceitistic distinction according to which haecceitistic properties are relational in (...) a certain sense. I argue that this analysis can capture the hyperintensionality of the qualitative/haecceitistic distinction and is generally in accordance with the use of the notion of a qualitative property in philosophical debates. (shrink)

Within healthcare ethics and public health ethics, it has been the custom that medical and public health interventions should adhere to the principle of the least restrictive means. This principle holds that public health measures should interfere with the autonomous freedom of individuals to the least possible or necessary extent. This paper contributes to the discussion on how best to conceptualize what counts as the least restrictive means. I argue that we should adopt a novel, qualitative interpretation of what counts (...) as the least restrictive means. Based on the multidimensional framework of the capability approach, the qualitative interpretation holds that the least restrictive means should be measured in terms of whether it restricts certain normatively valuable freedoms. I contrast this interpretation with quantitative interpretations that measure how much, or the extent to which, a public health measure interferes with the freedom of individuals. (shrink)

This paper sets out from the hypothesis that the embodied competences and expertise which characterise dance and sports activities have the potential to constructively challenge and inform phenomenological thinking. While pathological cases present experiences connected to tangible bodily deviations, the specialised movement practices of dancers and athletes present experiences which put our everyday experiences of being a moving body into perspective in a slightly different sense. These specialised experiences present factual variations of how moving, sensing and interacting can be like (...) for us as body-subjects. To use of these sources inevitably demands that qualitative research methodologies – especially short-term ethnographical fieldwork – form part of the research strategy and qualify the way the researcher involves a second-person perspective when interviewing dancers and athletes about their experiences. In the subsequent phases analysing the data generated, I argue that researchers first strive to achieve internal consistency of empirical themes identified in the case of movement practices in question thus keeping to a contextualised and lived perspective, also denoted as an emic perspective. In subsequent phases phenomenological insights are then actively engaged in the exploration and discussion of the possible transcendental structures making the described subjective experiences possible. The specialised and context-defined experiences of ‘what a moving body can be like’ are accordingly involved as factual variations to constructively add to and potentially challenge phenomenological descriptions. Lastly, I exemplify how actual research strategies have been enacted in a variety of projects involving professional dancers’, golfers’ and sports dancers’ practices and experiences, respectively. (shrink)

Knowledge about aspects that influence recovery and adaptation in the postacute phase of disabling health events is key to understanding how best to provide appropriate rehabilitation and health services. Qualitative longitudinal research makes it possible to look for patterns, key time points and critical moments that could be vital for interventions and supports. However, strategies that support robust data management and analysis for longitudinal qualitative research in health‐care are not well documented in the literature. This article reviews three challenges encountered (...) in a large longitudinal qualitative descriptive study about experiences of recovery and adaptation after traumatic brain injury in New Zealand, and the strategies and technologies used to address them. These were (i) tracking coding and analysis decisions during an extended analysis period; (ii) navigating interpretations over time and in response to new data; and (iii) exploiting data volume and complexity. Concept mapping during coding review, a considered combination of information technologies, employing both cross‐sectional and narrative analysis, and an expectation that subanalyses would be required for key topics helped us manage the study in a way that facilitated useful and novel insights. These strategies could be applied in other qualitative longitudinal studies in healthcare inquiry to optimise data analysis and stimulate important insights. (shrink)

Neither ethics committees nor qualitative researchers can predict the types of ethical dilemmas that will happen in the field, only that they will routinely occur. In Qualitative Ethics in Practice, a team of fifteen top researchers from various disciplines and nationalities offer ethical strategies unique to qualitative researchers for those "big ethical moments" beyond what can be predicted by ethics committees. Ideally structured for qualitative classes that tackle ethics issues, the book -calls for an ethical code unique to the practice (...) of qualitative research; -uses a variety of cases from education, community development, tourism, family, and other settings to examine how researchers addressed ethical dilemmas in practice, including the infamous Belfast Project; -highlights some relevant models and programs being developed that may lead to solutions. (shrink)

Ethics consultation is a commonly applied mechanism to address clinical ethical dilemmas. However, there is little information on the viewpoints of health care providers towards the relevance of ethics committees and appropriate application of ethics consultation in clinical practice. We sought to use qualitative methodology to evaluate free-text responses to a case-based survey to identify thematically the views of health care professionals towards the role of ethics committees in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas. Using an iterative and reflexive model we identified (...) themes that health care providers support a role for ethics committees and hospitals in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas, that the role should be one of mediation, rather than prescription, but that ultimately legal exposure was dispositive compared to ethical theory. The identified theme of legal fears suggests that the mediation role of ethics committees is viewed by health care professionals primarily as a practical means to avoid more worrisome medico-legal conflict. (shrink)

Background: Currently, graduating nurses face pandemic-related uncertainty including gaps in risk perception, unexpected Covid-19 moral dilemmas, and distress surrounding personal health risk. Research question/aim/objectives/Method: The purpose of this basic qualitative descriptive study is to describe the willingness of graduating nurses to provide care during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants and research context: One week prior to graduation, students were required to submit a written assignment describing willingness to practice in light of the ongoing pandemic. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by (...) an Institutional Review Board. Findings/results: Eighty-four ( n = 84) assignments were used for analysis. Of these, 82% (n = 69) of the graduating nurses describe a willingness to voluntarily care for Covid-19 patients. After summarizing narrative responses, two themes emerged including self-assessment of personal and familial risk and conflicting obligations. Discussion: The assessment of risk to self and family are key in determining whether graduating nurses will care for Covid-19 patients. Conflicting obligations may contribute to stress and uncertainty potentially leading to early burnout. Conclusion: Findings from this study can inform academicians of the need to adequality prepare graduating nurses for Covid-19-associated risks and ethical decision making. Organizations should alter residencies and orientation to support the needs of new nurses. (shrink)

If I told you that screening technologies are iteratively transforming how people experience pregnancy and early parenting, you might take notice. If I mentioned that a new class of newborn patients was being created and that particular forms of parental vigilance were emerging, you might want to know more. If I described how the particular stories told about screening in public, combined with parents’ fierce commitment to safeguarding their children’s health, make it difficult for problematic experiences with screening to translate (...) into negative opinions about it, you would most likely be intrigued. An extensive qualitative literature documents all these social phenomena, and more, in connection with the spread of prenatal and newborn screening. So why is it, then, that commentators frequently assert that the predicted psychosocial impact of increased screening and testing associated with “the genomic revolution” has been far less severe and worthy of attention than predicted? How can or should social science “evidence” that sits outside adopted measurement conventions be considered? Why is it that summary statements about the psychosocial impact of genomic information often ignore qualitative evidence, or sideline it as relevant only for improving communication among patients, clinicians, and public health systems? This essay addresses such questions, using qualitative research on prenatal and newborn screening as a case study for illustrating the broad methodological, ideological, and dialogical issues at stake. (shrink)

Experimental philosophy brings empirical methods to philosophy. These methods are used to probe how people think about philosophically interesting things such as knowledge, morality, and freedom. This paper explores the contribution that qualitative methods have to make in this enterprise. I argue that qualitative methods have the potential to make a much greater contribution than they have so far. Along the way, I acknowledge a few types of resistance that proponents of qualitative methods in experimental philosophy might encounter, and provide (...) reasons to think they are ill-founded. (shrink)

The evaluation of the quality of the processes of educational and social inclusion of people with disabilities is considered a key element in the improvement of their living conditions. The research presented here is part of the analyses carried out in Italy and abroad on the identification of indicators and categories able to provide a representative picture of the processes of school inclusion by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the system in local contexts. Assessing the quality of inclusive education (...) is complex because the contextual aspects of educational interventions cannot be ignored. In a research-action approach, the study analyses the Italian situation in the regions of Lazio and Campania through the point of view of 291 specialized teachers or in the process of specialization in the support of pupils with special educational needs Their evaluations, based on a scale from 1 (insufficient) to 5 (excellent), were obtained through a structured questionnaire that collects their opinions on cultural and educational aspects, on management, organisational and collaborative activities between teachers, school directors, local authorities and families, and finally on elements of a pedagogical and didactic nature necessary for quality school inclusion. The descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the aggregate data sketches a school whose strength in terms of inclusion lies in pedagogical and didactic planning. On the other hand, collaborative aspects, especially synergies between schools and local authorities, are pointed out and hinder effective co-planning of different types of support. These results therefore argue in favour of a systematization of integrated networks of support services for all pupils with special educational needs Regarding training, teachers generally have a negative view of in-service training, which should be deepened and extended to all categories of teachers. The article concludes on the need to promote the development and systematization of qualitative research and documentary collections on good practices of inclusive education in schools. (shrink)

The aim of our study was to explore the first three associations for the following two stimulus words: compassion and self-compassion. In addition, we were interested in whether the participants would conceptualise these words more in terms of emotions, cognitions, or behaviours. The sample consisted of 151 psychology students. A consensual qualitative research approach was adopted. Three members of the core team and an auditor analysed the free associations of compassion and self-compassion. The data showed that there were four domains (...) for both compassion and self-compassion: the Emotional, Cognitive, Behavioural and Evaluative Aspects of compassion/self-compassion. The only domains that differed were the Biological Aspect of compassion and the Situational Aspect of self-compassion. The most frequently represented domain for both compassion and self-compassion was the Emotional Aspect, while both more positive as well as negative emotions were associated with self-compassion than was the case with compassion. The findings of our study show that the participants perceived compassion as mainly consisting of empathy; the emotions of love, sadness and remorse; cognitive understanding; and behavioural displays of help, physical or mental closeness. Compassion was seen as being mainly directed at those close to them, such as family and friends, and at vulnerable people. Compassion occurs in situations of loss or any other kind of suffering. The participants viewed self-compassion primarily in terms of the positive emotions of love and calmness; the negative emotions of unhappiness, sadness and remorse; cognitive understanding; and behavioural displays of self-help through the provision of self-support and self-assurance. Self-compassion is triggered mainly in situations involving internal suffering caused by criticism or externally as a response to a difficult situation. Self-compassion is evaluated in both negative (because of its misuse) as well as positive terms (because of its connection to virtues). The findings of our qualitative study support the idea that compassion is a multidimensional construct consisting of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural aspects. (shrink)

Criticism and self-criticism have far reaching impacts on wellbeing and emotional balance. In order to create better interventions for criticism and self-criticism, more in-depth knowledge about these two constructs is required. The goal of our study was to examine three associations for criticism and self-criticism. The data were collected from a sample of 151 psychology students: 114 women and 37 men (Mean age 22.2; SD 4.4). We were interested in the associations participants would produce in relation to criticism and self-criticism, (...) whether participants conceptualized these two concepts in the same categories and whether the categories were equally important for each concept. The data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative research (CQR). The team consisted of four core members and one auditor. Separately all four members analyzed the data multiple times and then discussed it until all the researchers including the auditor reached a consensus. We identified four domains common to both criticism and self-criticism. These were – Emotional Aspects, Cognitive Aspects, Behavioral Aspects, and Preconditions. For both stimulus words, the most saturated domain was Behavioral Aspects. These findings suggest that both concepts – criticism and self-criticism – are multidimensional constructs consisting of Behavioral Aspects, Cognitive aspects, Emotional Aspects, and Preconditions. Further research on this topic would be beneficial. (shrink)

Qualitative research from a feminist perspective in the postmodern era: methodological, ethical and reflexive concerns Developing methodology is an ongoing process in certain types of qualitative research. This paper describes the process in a study of single midlife women, detailing reflexive concerns on the ethics of data collection and dissemination of research findings from a feminist postmodern perspective, as well as the way in which modification of techniques of analysis occurred as the study progressed. Beginning research questions were concerned with (...) identifying the impact of menopausal symptoms, and the debate surrounding HRT on the lives and decision‐making processes of single midlife women. Initial analysis of data, using grounded theory techniques, indicated a need to place greater emphasis on the way the women constructed or talked about the self, including the embodied self. This led to an exploration of the literature relating to reflexivity, identity construction and embodiment, including feminist poststructuralist interpretations of the discursive and embodied construction of self, and informed both the theoretical framework and the method. The way in which a type of analysis fitting under the broad rubric of discourse analysis, that is one that gave added emphasis to gendered subjectivity, directed further analysis is discussed, as well as the influence on the women of social and scientific discourses in circulation. (shrink)

It is difficult to find agreement on what constitutes perceiving.at Rovereto, Italy. The term is used in a wide array of domains ranging from psychology to physiology to aesthetics, and over time it has also acquired diverse connotations within various disciplines. Current perceptual science, however, even when it deals with qualitative aspects of experience, for example phenomena of lightness and colour, almost exclusively explains them in terms of primary qualities or stimuli quantitatively understood. The fact that science treats qualitative experiences (...) in terms of stimuli is important, because almost nothing of phenomenal perception as such is quantitative in nature. The paper argues for a qualitative science of perceiving, its methodology, its laws, and its possible developments. (shrink)

Qualitative Complexity offers a critique of the humanist paradigm in contemporary social theory. Drawing from sources in sociology, philosophy, complexity theory, 'fuzzy logic', systems theory, cognitive science and evolutionary biology, the authors present a new series of interdisciplinary perspectives on the sociology of complex, self-organizing structures.

This article discusses the concept of evidential reasoning in the context of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. A conceptualization of qualitative evidential reasoning is proposed...

In the literature, there are many axiomatizations of qualitative probability. They all suffer certain defects: either they are too nonspecific and allow nonunique quantitative interpretations or are overspecific and rule out cases with unique quantitative interpretations. In this paper, it is shown that the class of qualitative probability structures with nonunique quantitative interpretations is not first order axiomatizable and that the class of qualitative probability structures with a unique quantitative interpretation is not a finite, first order extension of the theory (...) of qualitative probability. The idea behind the method of proof is quite general and can be used in other measurement situations. (shrink)

Roald Hoffmann and other theorists claim that we ought to use highly idealized chemical models (“qualitative models”) in order to increase our understanding of chemical phenomena, even though other models are available which make more highly accurate predictions. I assess this norm by examining one of the tradeoffs faced by model builders and model users—the tradeoff between precision and generality. After arguing that this tradeoff obtains in many cases, I discuss how the existence of this tradeoff can help us defend (...) Hoffmann's norm for modelling. (shrink)

Although Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training is common in the sciences, the effectiveness of RCR training is open to question. Three key factors appear to be particularly important in ensuring the effectiveness of ethics education programs: (1) educational efforts should be tied to day-to-day practices in the field, (2) educational efforts should provide strategies for working through the ethical problems people are likely to encounter in day-to-day practice, and (3) educational efforts should be embedded in a broader program of (...) on-going career development efforts. This article discusses a complex qualitative approach to RCR training development, based on a sensemaking model, which strives to address the afore-mentioned training concerns. Ethnographic observations and prior RCR training served the purpose of collecting information specific to a multi-disciplinary and multi-university research center with the goal of identifying metacognitive reasoning strategies that would facilitate ethical decision-making. The extensive qualitative analyses resulted in the identification of nine metacognitive reasoning strategies on which future RCR training will be developed. The implications of the findings for RCR training in the sciences are discussed. (shrink)

The generation of route descriptions is a fundamental task of navigation systems. A particular problem in this context is to identify routes that can easily be described and processed by users. In this work, we present a framework for representing route networks with the qualitative information necessary to evaluate and optimize route descriptions with regard to ambiguities in them. We identify different agent models that differ in how agents are assumed to process route descriptions while navigating through route networks and (...) discuss which agent models can be translated into PDL programs. Further, we analyze the computational complexity of matching route descriptions and paths in route networks in dependency of the agent model. Finally, we empirically evaluate the influence of the agent model on the optimization and the processing of route instructions. (shrink)

Although Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training is common in the sciences, the effectiveness of RCR training is open to question. Three key factors appear to be particularly important in ensuring the effectiveness of ethics education programs: (1) educational efforts should be tied to day-to-day practices in the field, (2) educational efforts should provide strategies for working through the ethical problems people are likely to encounter in day-to-day practice, and (3) educational efforts should be embedded in a broader program of (...) on-going career development efforts. This article discusses a complex qualitative approach to RCR training development, based on a sensemaking model, which strives to address the afore-mentioned training concerns. Ethnographic observations and prior RCR training served the purpose of collecting information specific to a multi-disciplinary and multi-university research center with the goal of identifying metacognitive reasoning strategies that would facilitate ethical decision-making. The extensive qualitative analyses resulted in the identification of nine metacognitive reasoning strategies on which future RCR training will be developed. The implications of the findings for RCR training in the sciences are discussed. (shrink)

Dans cet article méthodologique, les auteurs reviennent sur la manière dont ils ont conduit une recherche qualitative multilingue consistant à explorer les barrières rencontrées par les personnes Sourdes en Ireland du Nord lorsqu’elles cherchent à avoir accès au système judiciaire. Dans la mesure du possible, les pratiques de recherche des auteurs ont respecté les principes d’une recherche participative prenant appui sur la communauté (CBPR). Ils explorent les défis d’une recherche réalisée en langue des signes américaine (ASL), britannique (BSL) et irlandaise (...) (ISL), en anglais parlé ou avec l’aide d’interprètes ayant la maîtrise de la langue des signes britannique et irlandaise. Centrant la recherche sur les expériences des Sourds qui apprennent à circuler dans le système judiciaire, les auteurs ont mis en place des méthodes de recherche participatives et prenant appui sur la communauté. Celles-ci ont conduit à une discussion soutenue et une action conjointe avec les auteurs et les membres de la communauté Sourde d’Irlande du Nord visant à lever les barrières auxquelles les personnes Sourdes font face lorsqu’elles interagissent avec le système judiciaire. En présentant l’approche méthodologique adoptée en Ireland du Nord, les auteurs souhaitent présenter de manière transparente leur démarche dans l’espoir que d’autres chercheurs pourront reproduire ce qui a le mieux fonctionné et éviter les obstacles qui ont été rencontrés dans la conduite d’un travail en partenariat avec les membres de la communauté Sourde dans d’autres pays. (shrink)

This volume, edited by three leading proponents and practitioners of human science psychology, serves as an invitation to readers new to this approach while also renewing that invitation to those who have long embraced and advanced research in the field from this perspective. It is a timely and important invitation. In 2009, the American Psychological Association declared psychology to be a core STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) discipline and advocated the teaching and practice of psychology with this natural science understanding (...) in mind, but in 2014 further reaffirmed alternative methods by adding a new journal, Qualitative Psychology. The varied essays in this volume, certainly, bolster the view that a purely STEM-centered vision would ignore much about the very experience of being human.In fact, it would be dangerous to rely solely on the methods of the natural sciences to study human beings, who operate in the realm of meanings, lived experience, and complex and complicated relationships with self and others. We create societies and belief systems, orient ourselves in time, experience beauty and pain. The Qualitative Vision for Psychology: An Invitation to a Human Science Approach argues that because we have aspects that are distinctly and uniquely human -- we are not rats, hydrogen, or rocks, for example -- this necessitates a distinctly human science, one that regards persons as humans rather than objects of study. The laws and formulas of the natural sciences simply do not take into account that particularly human way of being in the world.There are few comprehensive books on psychology conceived as a human science, even though it has a long history with roots in phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, and hermeneutics. In recent years, as these essays discuss, the field has been transformed through its contact with feminism, critical historical analysis, and deconstruction, and it has continued to examine new challenges. Further, we see here its specific applicability to issues as diverse as empathy, cultural history, apartheid, sexual assault, fetishes, and our natural environment. (shrink)

BackgroundLow literacy of study participants in Sub - Saharan Africa has been associated with poor comprehension during the consenting process in research participation. The concerns in comprehension are far greater when consenting to participate in genomic studies due to the complexity of the science involved. While efforts are made to explore possibilities of applying genomic technologies in diseases prevalent in Sub Saharan Africa, we ought to develop methods to improve participants’ comprehension for genomic studies. The purpose of this study was (...) to understand different approaches that can be used to seek consent from individuals with low literacy in Sub-Saharan African countries in genomic research to improve comprehension.MethodsUsing qualitative study design, we conducted focus-group discussions, in-depth interviews and participant observations as data collection methods. This study was embedded in a hospital based genomic study on Sickle Cell Disease at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the transcripts and field notes.ResultsFindings from this study show that literacy level has little influence on understanding the research details. According to the participants of this study, the methods used to provide information, the language, and time spent with the study participants were the key factors influencing understanding. The availability of group sessions held before individual consent to allow for a detailed questions and answers format was agreed to be the best method to facilitate the comprehension.ConclusionThe quality of the consenting process of participants will be influence by a number of factors. The type of research consented for, where the research will be implemented and who are the potential study participants are amongst the factors that need to be assessed during the consenting. Measures to improve participants’ comprehension need to be developed when consenting participants with low literacy level in genomic studies. (shrink)

Qualitative Analysis of Physical Problems ...

The paper presents a critical analysis of the current state of qualitative research approaches in the social sciences and humanities within Slovak academic institutions. The author has been inspired by the metaphor of academic “barbaricum”. This analytical category is based on a model of the relationship between core and periphery, which has no clear function or organisational logic. From the scientific point of view, the core/centre should produce and innovate the theory, whereas the periphery should apply it. In Slovakia—contrary to (...) the situation in Western academia—, the last two decades have seen a growth in the numbers of academic institutions dealing with the humanities (and partly with the social sciences), and stagnation in qualitative social research. The author suggests that if the Slovak social sciences aspire is to becoming part of the so-called European academic space, then this will certainly not be possible without much stronger and extensive support for social research based on qualitative approaches and methods. (shrink)

Choices rarely deal with certainties; and, where assertoric logic and modal logic are insufficient, those seeking to be reasonable turn to one or more things called “probability.” These things typically have a shared mathematical form, which is an arithmetic construct. The construct is often felt to be unsatisfactory for various reasons. A more general construct is that of a preordering, which may even be incomplete, allowing for cases in which there is no known probability relation between two propositions or between (...) two events. Previous discussion of incomplete preorderings has been as if incidental, with researchers focusing upon preorderings for which quantifications are possible. This article presents formal axioms for the more general case. Challenges peculiar to some specific interpretations of the nature of probability are brought to light in the context of these propositions. A qualitative interpretation is offered for probability differences that are often taken to be quantified. A generalization of Bayesian updating is defended without dependence upon coherence. Qualitative hypothesis testing is offered as a possible alternative in cases for which quantitative hypothesis testing is shown to be unsuitable. (shrink)

Experimental philosophers rely almost exclusively on quantitative surveys that potentially misrepresent participants’ multifarious judgments. To assess the efficacy of qualitative methods in experimental philosophy and reveal limitations with quantitative surveys, a study was conducted on the Kantian principle that ‘ought implies can’, which limits moral obligation to actions that agents can do. Specifically, the think aloud method and a follow-up interview were employed in a modified version of a prominent experiment that recorded participants’ judgments of ability, blame, and obligation using (...) quantitative surveys. The modified version produced quantitative results similar to the original experiment along with qualitative data that reveal that the surveys fundamentally misrepresented participants’ judgments. The qualitative transcripts from 40 participants are analyzed to show that ‘ought implies can’ judgments are complex and multifarious, that ‘ought implies can’ judgments are misrepresented by quantitative survey questions, and that the majority of participants uphold or preserve ‘ought implies can.’ The results suggest that experimental philosophers can more accurately capture judgments by using qualitative methods, and that studies which rely on quantitative surveys possibly misrepresent participants’ judgments. (shrink)

Previous studies have shown that misperceptions and illusory experiences can occur if sensory stimulation is withdrawn or becomes invariant even for short periods of time. Using a perceptual deprivation paradigm, we created a monotonous audiovisual environment and asked participants to verbally report any auditory, visual or body-related phenomena they experienced. The data (analysed using a variant of interpretative phenomenological analysis) revealed two main themes: (1) reported sensory phenomena have different spatial characteristics ranging from simple percepts to the feeling of immersion (...) in a complex multisensory environment and (2) the active contribution of the perceiver where participants report engaging in exploratory processes even when there is nothing to find. Detailed analysis of the qualitative data further showed that participants who reported more perceptual phenomena were more likely to report internal bodily sensations, move more during the experiment and score higher on the Revised Hallucination Scale than those reporting fewer percepts explicitly linking perceptual deprivation to somatic phenomena. The results demonstrate how the variety of sensory experiences induced by perceptual deprivation can give further insight into the factors mediating conscious awareness and may suggest ways in which the brain imposes meaning on the environment under invariant sensory conditions. (shrink)

An exploratory qualitative research was carried out in Madrid, Spain, focusing on early adolescents and adolescents from low-income families, most of them with a migration background. The main subject was to describe their perceptions about risk and harm in the use of information and communication technologies. Focus groups and creative workshops were conducted in order to identify risk perceptions, conflicts, solutions and the main agents involved in each case. Despite their lack of financial resources, these adolescents intensively use media and (...) modern technologies with the support of formal and informal institutions outside the family. In this context, they use technology as a set of different resources coordinated in a network in order to achieve specific goals of early adolescence and adolescence. Risks emerge as this network affects their family rules, the social construction of age, and the status inside the family and among peers. (shrink)

This article deals with the qualitative approach to empirical studies. This approach is presumed to be closer to the social sciences. Data collection in the qualitative approach follows a combination of these three methods—direct observations, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. It typically starts with the identification of methodology, data collection, analysis, ethical concerns, and adapt to the dynamics if working in a team. Well-compiled qualitative research enhances comprehensibility of social phenomenon. The technique used in the selection of data collection depends (...) on the research question, leading to the research strategy that best fits the research objective, availability/access to particular data sources, and available resources. While various beliefs are held in common between the quantitative and the qualitative, a researcher must first assert the purpose and nature of the project, in order to come to a deterministic conclusion as to which approach is best suited for the research to be conducted. (shrink)

A probability function is non-conglomerable just in case there is some proposition E and partition \ of the space of possible outcomes such that the probability of E conditional on any member of \ is bounded by two values yet the unconditional probability of E is not bounded by those values. The paradox of non-conglomerability is the counterintuitive—and controversial—claim that a rational agent’s subjective probability function can be non-conglomerable. In this paper, I present a qualitative analogue of the paradox. I (...) show that, under antecedently plausible assumptions, an analogue of the paradox arises for rational comparative confidence. As I show, the qualitative paradox raises its own distinctive set of philosophical issues. (shrink)

This paper presents a qualitative-quantitative method of analysis for semiotic narrative, applied to a case study of the image projected by immigrants in Spanish television series. The results contain five narrative prototypes in which immigrant characters tend to appear in Spanish television series. We consider the possible effects of recurring narrative settings on the construction of a public image of immigration in Spain.

ABSTRACTThe emergence of dimensional analysis in the early nineteenth century involved a redefinition of the pre-existing concepts of homogeneity and dimensions, which entailed a shift from a qualitative to a quantitative conception of these notions. Prior to the nineteenth century, these concepts had been used as criteria to assess the soundness of operations and relations between geometrical quantities. Notably, the terms in such relations were required to be homogeneous, which meant that they needed to have the same geometrical dimensions. The (...) latter reflected the nature of the quantities in question, such as volume vs area. As natural philosophy came to encompass non-geometrical quantities, the need arose to generalize the concept of homogeneity. In 1822, Jean Baptiste Fourier consequently redefined it to be the condition an equation must satisfy in order to remain valid under a change of units, and the ‘dimension' correspondingly became the power of a conversion factor. When these innovations eventually found an echo in France and Great Britain, in the second half of the century, tensions arose between the former, qualitative understanding of dimensions as reflecting the nature of physical quantities, and the new, quantitative conception based on unit conversion and measurement. The emergence of dimensional analysis thus provides a case study of how existing rules and concepts can find themselves redefined in the context of wider conceptual changes; in the present case this redefinition involved a generalization, but also a shift in meaning which led to conceptual tensions. (shrink)

The attribution of beliefs and other propositional attitudes is best understood as a form of measurement, however counter-intuitive this may seem. Measurement theory does not require that the thing measured should be a magnitude, or that the calibration of the measuring instrument should be numerical. It only requires a homomorphism between the represented domain and the representing domain. On this basis, maps measure parts of the world, usually geographical locations, and 'belief' statements measure other parts of the world, namely people's (...) aptitudes. Having outlined an argument for this view, I deal with an obvious objection to it: that self-attribution of belief cannot be an exercise in measurement, because we are all aware, from introspection, that our beliefs have an intrinsically semantic form. Subsequently, I turn to the philosophical and methodological ramifications of the measurement theoretic view. I argue, first, that it undermines at least one version of constructivism and, second, that it provides an effective alternative to the residually Cartesian philosophy that underpins much qualitative research. Like other anti-Cartesian strategies, belief-attribution-as-measurement implies that the objective world is far more knowable than the subjective one, and that reality is ontologically prior to meaning. I regard this result as both plausible and welcome. (shrink)

BackgroundThere is ambiguity with regard to what counts as an acceptable level of risk in clinical research in pregnant women and there is no input from stakeholders relative to such research risks. The aim of our paper was to explore what stakeholders who are actively involved in the conduct of clinical research in pregnant women deem an acceptable level of risk for pregnant women in clinical research. Accordingly, we used the APOSTEL VI study, a low-risk obstetrical randomised controlled trial, as (...) a case-study.MethodsWe conducted a prospective qualitative study using 35 in-depth semi-structured interviews and one focus group. We interviewed healthcare professionals, Research Ethics Committee members and regulators who are actively involved in the conduct of clinical research in pregnant women, in addition to pregnant women recruited for the APOSTEL VI case-study in the Netherlands.ResultsThree themes characterise the way stakeholders view risks in clinical research in pregnant women in general. Additionally, one theme characterises the way healthcare professionals and pregnant women view risks with respect to the case-study specifically. First, ideas on what constitutes an acceptable level of risk in general ranged from a preference for zero risk for the foetus up to minimal risk. Second, the desirability of clinical research in pregnant women in general was questioned altogether. Third, stakeholders proposed to establish an upper limit of risk in potentially beneficial clinical research in pregnant women in order to protect the foetus and the pregnant woman from harm. Fourth and finally, the case-study illustrates that healthcare professionals’ individual perception of risk may influence recruitment.ConclusionsHealthcare professionals, RECs, regulators and pregnant women are all risk adverse in practice, possibly explaining the continuing underrepresentation of pregnant women in clinical research. Determining the acceptable levels of risk on a universal level alone is insufficient, because the individual perception of risk also influences behaviour towards pregnant women in clinical research. Therefore, bioethicists and researchers might be interested in changing the perception of risk, which could be achieved by education and awareness about the actual benefits and harms of inclusion and exclusion of pregnant women. (shrink)

Background The rise of a new generation of intelligent neuroprostheses, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and adaptive closed-loop brain stimulation devices hastens the clinical deployment of neurotechnologies to treat neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, it remains unclear how these nascent technologies may impact the subjective experience of their users. To inform this debate, it is crucial to have a solid understanding how more established current technologies already affect their users. In recent years, researchers have used qualitative research methods to explore the subjective (...) experience of individuals who become users of clinical neurotechnology. Yet, a synthesis of these more recent findings focusing on qualitative methods is still lacking. Methods To address this gap in the literature, we systematically searched five databases for original research articles that investigated subjective experiences of persons using or receiving neuroprosthetics, BCIs or neuromodulation with qualitative interviews and raised normative questions. Results 36 research articles were included and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Our findings synthesise the current scientific literature and reveal a pronounced focus on usability and other technical aspects of user experience. In parallel, they highlight a relative neglect of considerations regarding agency, self-perception, personal identity and subjective experience. Conclusions Our synthesis of the existing qualitative literature on clinical neurotechnology highlights the need to expand the current methodological focus as to investigate also non-technical aspects of user experience. Given the critical role considerations of agency, self-perception and personal identity play in assessing the ethical and legal significance of these technologies, our findings reveal a critical gap in the existing literature. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the current qualitative research landscape on neurotechnology and the limitations thereof. These findings can inform researchers on how to study the subjective experience of neurotechnology users more holistically and build patient-centred neurotechnology. (shrink)

This volume provides concise and accessible guidance on how to conduct qualitative research in human geography. It gives particular emphasis to examples drawn from social/cultural geography, perhaps the most vibrant area of inquiry in human geography over the past decade.

The arts provide openings for symbolic expression by engaging the sensory experience in the body they become a source of insight through embodied cognition and emotion, enabling meaning-making, and acting as a catalyst for change. This synthesis of sensation and enactive, embodied expression through movement and the arts is capitalized on in The BodyMind Approach®. It is integral to this biopsychosocial, innovative, unique intervention for people suffering medically unexplained symptoms applied in primary healthcare. The relevance of embodiment and arts practices (...) in TBMA are discussed in relation to the views of participants in the pursuit of self-management. If widely employed TBMA could have an enormous impact, reach, and significance for patients and global health services. This original pre-clinical trial of qualitative research reports on the perceptions of participant patients with generic MUS, a world-wide issue usually treated by either psychological therapy or physiotherapy. TBMA is not a therapy but a health education program founded upon the concept of an integration of psychological elements with physiological, bodily, and sensory experiences. Thematic analysis of qualitative data sets from open-ended questions in semi-structured interviews and a written questionnaire post intervention is presented. Five aspects which appear to be key to learning self-management were derived from analyzing the data: body with mind connections; importance of facilitation; potential benefits; preparedness for change; self-acceptance/compassion. This article advances the discourse on the nature of self-management for MUS through changing the mind-set and the relationship participants have with their bodily symptom/s through employing embodied methods and arts practices, challenging current, and solely verbal, psychological conceptual frameworks. Rigor lies in the method of data analysis using cross verification of credibility between reported findings and scrutiny by stakeholders. We conclude that facilitated TBMA groups employing embodied methods and arts practices can act as a method for developing the self-management of MUS and improving wellbeing. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that Dewey’s ultimate solution to the mind-body problem is grounded not in his emergentist metaphysics per se but rather in his metametaphysical qualitative naturalism. The latter precedes Dewey’s emergent theory of mind, as postulated in his Experience and Nature. Thus, Dewey’s emergentism is rather a consequence of his qualitative naturalism. As such, Dewey’s ultimate metametaphysical solution to the mind-body problem precedes his emergentist metaphysics, and not vice versa. The essence of Dewey’s qualitative naturalism can be (...) captured in a maxim “Quality first, quantity second!” which is an alternative to Galileo’s quantitative naturalism with the maxim “Quantity first, quality second!”. (shrink)