PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEACH

1. PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEACH

3. Have we got sufficient understanding to hypothesize - to start the research? • Who controls the process? • When is the right time to stop? • Teen age mums and contraception

4. Ethical context – What are the effects of: • raising some questions and not others, • involving some people in the process (or even apparently only one) and not others, • observing some phenomena and not others, • making this sense of it and not alternative senses, and • deciding to take this action (or ‘no’ action) as a result of research rather than any other action and so on.

7. Participation • ‘...action research is the way groups of people can organise the conditions under which they can learn from their own experiences and make this experience accessible to others.’’ • All research involves a social context. • How would it improve the research if the participants, the community it might impact on and the audience for the research had a role in the planning, doing, reviewing and dissemination of the research?

8. Keydetails • Participation, action and research are not exclusive and permeate all stages of the PAR cycle • Hard to plan for initially, because you don’t know what is going to happen – the focus often changes over time • It can involve a wide variety of research methods

9. Participants • The researcher/s – the people with research skills • The researched – the people, environments, animals or objects from whom information is gathered • The researched for – the people whose lives will be affected by the research. This is called the critical reference group • The research users – the people who will use the findings of the research

10. Action • Any research process that seems appropriate – qualitative or quantitative • Will include focus groups, interviews, surveys, case studies, experiments • Will frequently move from one type of research method to another on different stages of the PAR spiral • Can involve many methods simultaneously

11. Benefits • improved relevance to the community; • sharper questions; • enhanced relevance service providers and funders • better research design (what is asked, by whom, of whom, when, where and how); • information gained more meaningful (and in the right language) • better theory developed, greater innovation • higher commitment, better, longer follow up

12. Challenges • Getting access to the community that should be the focus of research • Being able to accept that the research process may be slower than you would like it to be • Being limited in what you can do or being removed from the project after you have served your usefulness • Not being acknowledged for the work you have done.

13. METHODS OF OBSERVATION

14. Observation: noticing what’s really there

15. Observational dimensions • Perspective (Degree of training) - unless we prepare we won’t observe • System level - macro to micro. System - interaction - behaviour - physiological event • Aspect - presence/absence, quantitative (duration, frequency, intensity), qualitative (beauty, likeability, skilfulness), meaning. • Analysis level - one small feature/moment of time through to ongoing total picture • Context in time - antecedents, behaviours, consequences

16. Methods of observation • Narrative recording - record everything - text record, tape, video tape. • “I just wanted to talk about the transition through this hump [in the development of groups] here, which happens at around about the one year period. To work out what these groups are doing over here which is more about service and being there for people who might come and go. Umm, which resonates for me because um ……”

17. Methods of observation • Event recording - record all instances of a particular behaviour or event Word categoryCount I (or) {me, my, myself, own, mine. . . } 133 group (or) {groups, member. . . teams} 113 man (or) {men,men/s, guy, he, male. . .} 96 people (or) {person, anyone, both.. . } 61 children (or) {boy, family, divorce, schools} 18 friend (or) {buddy, gunners, mate. . .} 13 women alias (or) {she, girls, postnatal} 6

18. Methods of observation • Interval recording. Count of specified events/ interval over a a set number of intervals

19. Cumulative record of talking

20. Methods of Observation • Time sampling - Instead of recording over the whole period of interest observation is done over one or more short periods

21. Methods of Observation • Sequential act coding - Behaviours are defined and behavioural sequences are recorded. • Counsellor: l=listening, r=reflecting, o=offering options, i=interrupting, f=affirming • client: d=describing, q=questioning, p=repeating, t=tearful, • Possible sequence: dlqrdrtfqlprpiqo…… • tf 80%, qo 25%, pi 15%

22. Methods of observation • 1st level: counts presence or absence of an event • 2nd level quantitative recording – focus measurable aspect such as duration or intensity. • Counsellor talks for 13/55 minutes • Client talks for 40/55 minutes • 2/55 minutes silence • 2nd level qualitative - degree of engagement

23. Looking at the people you see on the way to Unitec tomorrow morning • Find someone you feel is satisfied with life at the moment. • Observe them and try to identify what features they have that make you think they are satisfied. • Find someone you feel is not satisfied with life at the moment. • Observe them and try to identify what features they have that make you think they are not satisfied.

25. Definition of violence A violent act is an act of force that physically harms a human or other animate being. The act may be carried out or just be a credible physical threat of violence. It may or may not result in visible harm. It may be intentional or accidental. It may be an act of nature or of an animate being. It may involve natural or supernatural beings or force. It may be a credible verbal threat of violence, or verbal behaviour which increases the probability of physical violence. The violent act itself may be shown, or only the consequences of the act. Included are beings that are animate but not ‘human-like’.

26. Excluded from this definition are: attempted but unsuccessful acts of violence, acts which cause psychological but not physical harm, offensive language which does not increase the threat of physical harm violent acts against inanimate objects unless the acts increase the threat of physical harm

27. Type of incident coding Assault:Iintentional S sexual Accidents: U unintentional ND natural disaster/act of God Threats: CV clearverbal NV non-verbal II indirect inciting   DK don’t know whether act was intentional or not

28. NZ2003 TV Violence study

29. NZ2003 TV Violence study • Environmental mapping - measuring an aspect of environment as a predictor of behavioural patterns

30. Graphicness of the violence Presence of blood Close-up of injuries Close-up of action Slow motion used with the fighting Drawn out fight sequences. Drawn out aftermath Replays of violence Sounds of injury occurring Powerful presentations of pain Threatening, frightening music Threatening, frightening lightening or visual environment Accompanying narration that describes pain, injury, fear, etc

31. NZ2003 TV Violence study

32. % of programmes with moderate to extreme pain

33. Key surveys into the impact of TV • Infant TV watching and ADHD at age 7 • Infant TV watching and Autism in childhood • TV watching in children and violence in adulthood • TV watching in children and obesity and diabetes in adulthood • TV watching in children and low educational achievement in adulthood.

34. Environmental mapping

35. Strengths of Observational Data • Allow one to directly see what people do without having to rely on what they say they do • Allow relatively objective measurement of behavior • Can be used with participants with weak verbal skills • Good for description • Can give access to contextual factors operating in natural social settings • Moderate degree of realism (when done outside of the laboratory)

36. Weaknesses of Observational Data-1 • Reasons for behavior possibly unclear • Possible reactive and investigator effects when respondents know they are being observed • Possibility of observer being biased (e.g., selective perception) • Possibility of observer "going native" (i.e., over identifying with the group being studied) • Interpretive validity possibly low

37. Weaknesses of Observational Data-2 • Cannot observe large populations • Unable to observe some content of interest Dross rate possibly moderately high • More expensive to conduct than questionnaires and tests • Data analysis sometimes time-consuming