Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success. Three classes of evidence--crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental--are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect--the hallmark of well-being--may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.

/pdf/the-benefits-of-frequent-positive-affect-does-happiness-lead-4k0h6bmoho.pdf

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

Meta-analyses were conducted on 14 separate risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the moderating effects of various sample and study characteristics, including civilian/military status, were examined. Three categories of risk factor emerged: Factors such as gender, age at trauma, and race that predicted PTSD in some populations but not in others; factors such as education, previous trauma, and general childhood adversity that predicted PTSD more consistently but to a varying extent according to the populations studied and the methods used; and factors such as psychiatric history, reported childhood abuse, and family psychiatric history that had more uniform predictive effects. Individually, the effect size of all the risk factors was modest, but factors operating during or after the trauma, such as trauma severity, lack of social support, and additional life stress, had somewhat stronger effects than pretrauma factors.

Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults.

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was developed to assess satisfaction with the respondent’s life as a whole. The scale does not assess satisfaction with life domains such as health or ﬁnances but allows subjects to integrate and weight these domains in whatever way they choose. Normative data are presented for the scale, which shows good convergent validity with other scales and with other types of assessments of subjective well-being. Life satisfaction as assessed by the SWLS shows a degree of temporal stability (e.g., 0.54 for 4 years), yet the SWLS has shown sufﬁcient sensitivity to be potentially valuable to detect change in life satisfaction during the course of clinical intervention. Further, the scale shows discriminant validity from emotional well-being measures. The SWLS is recommended as a complement to scales that focus on psychopathology or emotional well-being because it assesses an individuals’ conscious evaluative judgment of his or her life by using the person’s own criteria.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2199194_code1909335.pdf?abstractid=2199194&mirid=1

Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale

Meaning in life is an important construct in psychology, but one which has been the focus of limited research. Most research has concentrated on the relation between meaning and psychopathology, and has been conducted with the Purpose in Life Test. This paper examines the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being using several meaning measures and both positive and negative well-being dimensions. A strong association is found between meaning in life and well-being, which is replicated in two different samples. Meaning in life is found to have a stronger association with positive than with negative well-being dimensions, suggesting the value of taking a salutogenic approach to mental health research. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

/pdf/on-the-relation-between-meaning-in-life-and-psychological-2mwpg8oc5j.pdf

On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being.

PART ONE: CONSTRUCTING HEALTH AND ILLNESS THROUGH LANGUAGE Health Psychology and Qualitative Research - Michael Murray and Kerry Chamberlain Social Realms and the Qualities of Illness Experience - Alan Radley Understanding Embodied Experience - Lucy Yardley The Storied Nature of Health and Illness - Michael Murray Discourse, Health and Illness - Mandy Morgan Making Sense of Illness Experiences - Mary-Jane Paris Spink Feminist Approaches to Qualitative Health Research - Jane M Ussher PART TWO: CONVERSING ABOUT HEALTH AND ILLNESS Interviewing the Ill and the Healthy - Cynthia M Mathieson Talking to Children about Health and Illness - Christine Eiser and Sarah Twamley Qualitative Research in the Field of Death and Dying - R Glynn Owens and Sheila Payne Cross-Cultural Research in Health Psychology - Jane Selby PART THREE: TRANSFORMING TALK INTO TEXT Using Grounded Theory in Health Psychology - Kerry Chamberlain Action Research - Sue Curtis, Helen Bryce and Carla Treloar Doing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis - Jonathan A Smith, Maria Jarman and Mike Osborn Shaping Health Psychology - Antonia Lyons Qualitative Research, Evaluation and Representation

Qualitative Health Psychology: Theories and Methods

Foreword - James E Birren Introduction - Gary T Reker and Kerry Chamberlain PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES Philosophical Foundations of Existential Meaning - Gary M Kenyon Meaning as Movement - Hubert J M Hermans The Relativity of the Mind Theoretical Perspective, Dimensions, and Measurement of Existential Meaning - Gary T Reker PART TWO: RESEARCH ON EXISTENTIAL MEANING Structural Components of Personal Meaning in Life and their Relationship with Death Attitudes and Coping Mechanisms in Late Adulthood - Nancy Van Ranst and Alfons Marcoen Dimensions and Discourses of Meaning in Life - Kay O'Connor and Kerry Chamberlain Approaching Meaning from Qualitiative Perspectives An Inquiry into Existential Meaning - Dominique L Debats Theoretical, Clinincal and Phenomenal Perspectives The Personal Meaning System in a Life-Span Perspective - Freya Dittman-Kohli and Gerben J Westerhof The Development of a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Sources of Life Meaning - Edward Prager, Rivka Savaya and Leora Bar-Tur PART THREE: APPLICATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS Finding Meaning in Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease - Carol J Farran, Karen Lowe Graham and Dimitra Loukissa African American and White Caregivers' Perspectives Making Meaning within the Experience of Life-Threatening Illness - Doris D Coward Religion and Meaning in Late Life - Susan H McFadden Logotherapeutic and 'Depth Psychology' Approaches to Meaning and Psychotherapy - David Guttmann PART FOUR: OVERVIEW AND NEW DIRECTIONS Existential Meaning - Gary T Reker and Kerry Chamberlain Reflections and Directions

Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether doses of the pineal hormone melatonin alleviate jet lag. DESIGN: Double blind, placebo controlled crossover trial. SETTING: Long haul return flights from Auckland, New Zealand, to London and back. SUBJECTS: Twenty volunteers with experience of transcontinental flights (eight women and 12 men aged 28 to 68). INTERVENTIONS: Melatonin (or placebo) 5 mg three days before flight, during flight, and once a day for three days after arrival. END POINT: Symptoms of jet lag. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Visual analogue scale for feelings of jet lag and tiredness; profile of moods states questionnaire for vigour-activity and fatigue-inertia; and retrospective ratings 10 days after arrival of sleep pattern, energy, and daytime tiredness. Feelings of jet lag were less for subjects taking melatonin (mean score 2.15 v 3.4); these subjects took fewer days than the placebo group to establish a normal sleep pattern (2.85 v 4.15), to not feel tired during the day (3.0 v 4.6), and to reach normal energy levels (3.25 v 4.7). Results for fatigue-inertia and vigour-activity were similar. For all subjects jet lag was more severe on the return (westward) than the outward (eastward) journey. CONCLUSIONS: Melatonin can alleviate jet lag and tiredness after long haul flights.

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/298/6675/705.full.pdf

Effect of melatonin on jet lag after long haul flights.

This paper reviews literature on the structure of subjective well-being, and examines the support for a number of proposed well-being dimensions. It is considered that a distinction between cognitive and affective dimensions is conceptually useful, but poorly researched. Clear support, however, is available for a distinction between positive and negative affective dimensions, as well as for a general second-order dimension of subjective well-being. Proposals for a distinction between inner and outer dimensions of well-being are considered promising but speculative at present. Although the intensity and frequency of affective experience are clearly distinct, it is considered that affect intensity should not be regarded as a dimension of well-being. Three issues related to the dimensionality of well-being, the time focus of assessment, attempts at cross-classification of dimensions, and research on the stability of well-being structure, are also discussed. Although considerable research into subjective well-being exists, the structure of well-being is not yet well established or researched.

Kerry Chamberlain

Papers

On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being.

Qualitative Health Psychology: Theories and Methods

Exploring Existential Meaning: Optimizing Human Development Across the Life Span

Effect of melatonin on jet lag after long haul flights.

On the structure of subjective well-being.