Introduction
The analysis of qualitative studies has several goals and outcomes. It is not only an opportunity to observe how other people develop their projects, but also a chance to understand how to take the first independent steps. The purpose of writing this paper is to analyze a qualitative study, focusing on its methods, findings, and ethical issues. Farmer, Mackinnon, and Cowie (2017) are the authors of the article “Perfectionism and Life Narratives: A Qualitative Study”. The study has two research questions, including the necessity of defining perfectionism from the point of people high in maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and learning the themes in autobiographical narratives shared by perfectionists.
The authors used peer-reviewed studies as background information, including the investigation by Sherry, Mackinnon, and Gautreau (2016) about perfectionism and social disconnection. The authors investigate various forms of perfectionism and its impact on human behaviors but fail to pay much attention to perfectionists’ life narratives. Although there is no apparent bias in the studies, the use of a qualitative perspective limits research. This qualitative study shows the benefits of properly chosen methods and ethical issues in discussing perfectionism in human behaviors.
Summary of Methods
A qualitative research design on the basis of thematic analysis was applied to this study to promote a better understanding of how perfectionists define perfectionism. Twenty students of Dalhousie University were selected to participate in the study via online advertisements and locally distributed flyers. The selection criterion included the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R) cutoff scores for adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists (Farmer et al., 2017).
The APS-R scale measured perfectionism facets (42 and higher on the Standards and Discrepancy subscales for maladaptive perfectionists, and 42 and higher on the Standards and lower than 42 on the Discrepancy for adaptive perfectionists). The researchers used perfectionism interview questions and life narrative interviews to gather information from the participants. They mentioned reflexivity as a contribution to epistemological constructivism in their study (reflect real lived experiences) and used adaptive/maladaptive labels as a value judgment to bracket unnecessary assumptions in thematic analysis.
The qualitative analysis strategy includes the evaluation of interview questions through the prism of thematic analysis (transcription and code generation). Holistic themes were chosen for the offered codes until the data is thoroughly summarized (Farmer et al., 2017). The method of inductive thematic analysis helped to describe data via five additional themes discovered in life narrative interviews. To reduce biases and ensure trustworthiness, the authors did not give any predictions but focus on the description of the details. No feedback from participants was taken into account during interviews’ transcription.
Summary of Findings
The combination of interview answers from all the participants is a crucial step in sharing the findings of the study. In this case, the authors used all 166 data items obtained from interviews and categorized them into five major themes (Farmer et al., 2017). They included “high personal standards and goals”, “performance is never good enough”, “being neat and organized”, “feels superior to others”, and “gets caught up in the details” (Farmer et al., 2017, p. 6). The analysis of life narrative interviews also defined five themes like relationship success, problems, agentic redemption/contamination, and academic success (Farmer et al., 2017).
Relationship success was found as the most appropriate topic for adaptive perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists were interested in agentic redemption, meaning increased self-confidence and personal development. To support conclusions, the authors used the findings of other researchers and compared them with their own results. In addition, evidence obtained from testing surveys was an effective tool for proving the appropriateness of the chosen approach in discussing perfectionism among students with different interests and preferences.
Ethical Aspects
In the article under analysis, there is no separate section with ethical issues being identified and explained. However, one of the common rules of conducting research is to get the approval from an institutional review board (IRB) and clarify all ethical concerns that could emerge (Newman, 2016). Therefore, the authors give several explicit statements about the nature of their research. In notes, Farmer et al. (2017) state that they complied with ethical obligations when they decided not to place information about participants and their replies in an open-access database.
The Dalhousie University Health Sciences Research Ethics Board was the institution that gave approval to conduct the study and involve the required number of participants (students from the local university). The protection of students’ confidentiality was another ethical point for consideration. The interviewer (one of the authors of the article) had no relationship with participants, and the only information the parties had was the purposes of the study and the details of data collection methods. All students received guarantees that their responses remained anonymous during and after the project. No evident ethically questionable practices were defined in the article.
Evaluation of Study
Considering the questions and results discussed in the article, the authors succeeded in investigating the chosen topic. According to Newman (2016), qualitative studies aim at providing a thorough description of specific circumstances. Farmer et al. (2017) introduced the area of their potential study and used interviews as the main method. Newman (2016) gives similar recommendations because interviewing is a unique way to understand human experiences.
The strengths of this project are the application of thematic analysis and the development of a structured framework. Specific themes and their comparison help determine the most appropriate answers to the research questions. The authors also mentioned such limitations as a small sample, the inability to generalize the results to the population, and the necessity to analyze cause and effect relationships within the frames of qualitative data only.
No other evident limitations could influence the results of the study. Still, Farmer et al. (2017) recommend incorporating grounded theory and discourse analysis to continue investigating perfectionists’ behaviors in larger control groups. At this point, the chosen methods and research questions seem to be properly chosen and developed to create a solid background for other studies.
Conclusion
In general, the article about the necessity to define perfectionisms by those who consider themselves as perfectionists introduces a properly developed qualitative study. The main points of this work include the necessity to gather narrative life events and interpret them by means of thematic analysis. The goal was to identify if there was some new meaning of perfectionism through the information obtained from autobiographical narrations.
However, in the majority of cases, perfectionist students admit that success in their relationships and self-development are the most common concerns in their lives. To develop a follow-up study, the evaluation of particular behaviors like prejudice or competition can be defined as dependent variables for controlling changes in mental health, family relationships, or loving affairs of perfectionists. Online surveys and interviews as the methods of a quantitative research design are recommended.
References
Farmer, J. R., Mackinnon, S. P., & Cowie, M. (2017). Perfectionism and life narratives: A qualitative study. SAGE Open, 7(3), 1-14. Web.
Newman, M. (2016). Research methods in psychology. (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.
Sherry, S. B., Mackinnon, S. P., & Gautreau, C. M. (2016). Perfectionists don’t play well with others: Expanding the social disconnection model. In D. Molnar & F. Sirois (Eds.), Perfectionism, health and well-being (pp. 225-243). New York, NY: Springer. Web.