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A Research Study On Human Conduct

Decent Essays

Qualitative research, also known as descriptive or naturalistic research aims to understand specifics of human conduct in everyday life by studying them in their natural surroundings with findings expressed in words (Saks & Allsop, 2007). According to Aveyard and Sharp (2013) qualitative research aims to explore an area or topic where little is known seeking to advance a theory. Critiquing is a vital tool in research, useful in revealing strengths and weaknesses of a research study, which enables researchers to give recommendations and suggestions for the improvement including for future research studies (Polit & Beck, 2014).

This assignment aims to critically analyse and appraise a research article of choice, written by Shaw & …show more content…

The study design was not included in title and as suggested by Jack et al, (2010) that including a study design in title informs reader straight away the research design used therefore this can be viewed as a weakness. A better title could have been, “Issues of alcohol misuse among older people: A qualitative study to evaluate attitudes and experiences of social work practitioners”.
Abstract
An abstract is a short summary of the research indicating the research process stages and it also guides the reader whether article is worth reading or not (Moule and Hek, 2011). The abstract in this article was not labelled but the first line of the abstract states that it is a qualitative research study, with research problem information highlighted and study reasons justified (Shaw & Palattiyil, 2008). Also provided were the methods, namely how the data was collected, sample size, research findings and recommendations, all which are considered as strength in an abstract (Crombie, 1996). How data was analysed was not indicated and Morse & Richards (2002) describes this information as essential, as it links data to real events so therefore omitting this information is a weakness. Although keywords were identified, qualitative research was omitted from the keywords list and according to Polit & Beck (2014)

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