Carefully-selected SAGE Journal articles expand upon chapter material, and accompanying exercises offer practice in applying the concepts.

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Article 1: Vogt, P. W. (2008). The dictatorship of the problem: Choosing research methods. Methodological Innovations Online, 3(1), 1-17.

Summary: It is relatively easy to investigate how to employ a particular research method in the social sciences. It is considerably more difficult to decide which to use. Which method to use is arguably a more important question than how to use that method.

Questions to Consider

1. After reading this article and Chapter 1, what type of worldviews do you hold that might be a factor in your research methodology selection?
2. The author discussed asking yourself six questions to help in the selection of an appropriate research design approach. As you begin to think about what works best for you, why would the other approaches not be a good fit for your research?
3. The author discussed how the design process is the first stage in a natural sequence of choosing a methodology, but a researcher needs to be thinking about the audience they are trying to reach. What approach (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods) would be the best to communicate with your audience and why?

Article 2: Finlay, L. (2012). Unfolding the phenomenological research process: Iterative stages of “seeing afresh.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 53(2), 172-201.

Summary: Phenomenology is an umbrella term encompassing a philosophical movement and a range of research approaches. It is a way of seeing how things appear to us through experience. More than a method, phenomenology demands an open way of being—one that examines taken-for-granted human situations as they are experienced in everyday life but which go typically unquestioned.

Questions to Consider

1. Finlay (2012) stated, “Phenomenological research starts with the researcher who has a curiosity or passion that is turned into a research question.” What is it that you want to research?
2. Finlay (2012) also stated, “The immediate challenge for the researcher having this passion or curiosity is to remain open to new understanding—to be open to the phenomenon— in order to go beyond what they already know from experience or through established knowledge. The researcher starts to engage a phenomenological attitude, which is one of noninterference and wonder.” Do you foresee any challenges or biases in your research based on previous personal experiences?