Introduction and Alignment

In social work, the use of qualitative research methods often involves interviewing participants. As discussed in Workshop Six, interviews are good to use when you want to learn or explore more about a particular subject, especially if there is little known about that subject. As with all research methods, however, interviews have advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include learning about a subject or topic in more detail and gaining an “insider’s” perspective. Disadvantages can include bias, the issue of social desirability, the amount of time interviews take, and others.
Social workers do not often use other forms of qualitative research, such as participant observation, archival, phenomenology, conversation analysis, and the like. However, some studies use a sort of shortened version of some of those methods.
In this discussion, you will explore the pros and cons of the qualitative interview method. You also will apply the findings of a qualitative research study about Iranian wives involved in an individual and group educational program to social work practice and theory. The participants were interviewed, and the interviews were analyzed using content analysis—a broad concept of applying commonly accepted methods of categorizing and analyzing people’s words.
Resources
• Article: Empowering newly married women in Iran: A new method of social work intervention that uses a client-directed problem-solving model in both group and individual sessions: https://tinyurl.com/yahc5s8n
Background Information
In this discussion assignment, you will read a scholarly qualitative research article about an intervention with newly married Iranian women. Along with interviewing the participants, other forms of textual data were collected. This data was analyzed using content analysis. Content analysis is described in one of the optional media lessons, so you are encouraged to review the lesson on “Indirect Methods of Research” to get a sense of what content analysis is and why it is important and meaningful in qualitative research. You will evaluate the research article for issues related to marginalization and oppression of vulnerable populations in connection with a particular context or social work specialization. Doing so will expand your understanding of research and how to apply it to social work practice and theory.
Instructions
1. Read the article, “Empowering newly married women in Iran: A new method of social work intervention that uses a client-directed problem-solving model in both group and individual sessions,” by Hamidah Addelyan Rasi, Alireza Moula, Antony J. Puddephatt, and Toomas Timpka (2013). SEE THE FILES
2. Answer the following questions in order using the article: “Empowering newly married women in Iran: A new method of social work intervention that uses a client-directed problem-solving model in both group and individual sessions,” and, of course, any relevant resources.
a. Analyze and discuss the research study design and methods used in the article, which include a descriptive field study design and interviews. Include such elements as:
i. What is a descriptive field study design? (Include components and elements of the design, along with any other relevant information to thoroughly describe it.)
ii. What are the pros and cons of this method?
b. What different types of data were collected for the study?
. Analyze and discuss the data that was collected. Was it appropriate? Would some other type of data have made the study or information to analyze better?
c. The authors report that they used content analysis to analyze the data. What is involved in content analysis?
. Did the authors provide a thorough and descriptive enough discussion of how they analyzed the “texts” that were the data collected from the participants? What was missing?
i. What did the authors mean by this statement: “Because meaning is interpreted from the content of textual data attained from real-world settings, our content analysis adhered to a naturalistic paradigm, but focuses primarily on language through a contextual interpretation of the text” (p. 772)?
ii. How did the researchers code the texts (or data)? Do you think they coded them appropriately? Why or why not? How would you know?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Solution

This question has been answered.

Get Answer