Methods - Canon Law

Methodology of research in the field of religious studies
23/09: Introduction
30/09: The role of research in theology - Terminology in research
07/10: Steps in the research process - Research questions and research designs
14/10: Data collection (samples & instruments) in quantitative research - Data analysis in quantitative research
21/10: Working with some questionnaires - Research reports
28/10: The research process applied: Religiosity and mental health (Dezutter et al., 2006), Are religious people nicer people? (Duriez, 2004)
04/11: Research ethics
18/11 - 09/12: A closer look at qualitative research
16/12: Closing lecture
http://unjobs.org/authors/kate-l.-turabian

The role of research in theology Imagine , as vividly as you can, a scientist at work… What does the imagined scientist look like? Where is he working? What is he doing?

Give me a short description of your scientist.
The role of research in theology Before 19th century: Philosophers and theologians wrote about behavior and their approach was not scientific - research is by thinking abou the problem
Last quarter of the 19th century: Behavioral science was born. Wundt - first experimental psychology empirical research lab in Europe. Testing theories. Wm James - look at religious extremists to see what the norm is. Interviewed: what is religion, what is mysticism. Abstracted to a theory. Watson, Hall - first experimental psychology empirical research lab in USA - interested in Religion first, then Psychology - he set up a school and journals to exchange ideas. Same approaches as in more established sciences.

The role of research in theology - Behavioral research fulfills four functions. 1) Describing behavior - what are the stages of moral development, of faith development. What is it? 2) Understanding behavior - Why is it? To advance knowledge - Basic research. 3) Predicting behavior - What will it be? Behavioral research methods. 4) Solving applied problems

The role of research in theology. The value of research for you: Understanding research that is relevant for your professions. Becoming an authority in a particular field. Development of critical thinking. A more intelligent and effective ‘research consumer’ in everyday life.

What is research? Way of understanding or knowing. A process of systematic inquiry. Designed to collect, analyze and interpret data.

The empirical cycle: Knowledge problem, induction, deduction, testing, evaluation.

Research terminology.

Subject-participant: The individual you are studying, e.g. God-images in children aged 6 to 10, Feelings of loneliness in priests.
Population: The complete set of events, people of things a researcher is interested in and from which a sample is taken, e.g. children between age 6 and 10
Sample: The group were you collect your data; e.g. children between age 6 and 10 in Leuven. The choice of sample will affect whether or not you can generalize your findings to a wider population.
Independent variable, predictor variable: The variable on which the groups in your research study differ. You expect that this variable will have an influence on another variable. e.g. gender affecting God-images, or religion affecting stability of marriage.
Dependent variable, criterion variable: The variable that the researchers will measure, he is interested in the changes of this variable. e.g. gender affecting God-images, or religion affecting stability of marriage. Independent variable is Expected to have an influence on the dependent variable which is the variable which you measure.

Steps in the research process

the research problem: observation or a gap in research is often the beginning. Very little is known about religion and empathy. Are they associated?
The research problem: the research question and hypotheses, Reformulation into a research question. For example: Is there an association between religion and empathy? Reformulation of research question into a hypothesis: Clear statement that can be accepted or rejected. Often based on the literature or previous research. For example: Religious people show more feelings of empathy in comparison with non-religious people
Use of hypotheses: more common in psychology than other human sciences, concept derives from natural sciences.
Character of a hypothesis: orking assumption, Statement describing the relationship between variables.
Nature of the relationship: Positive association: More of one quality goes together with more of another quality. Negative association: More of one quality goes together with less of another quality.

Research design - two types

Quantitative research with Dr Dezutter; Qualitative research with Prof. Corveleyn.

Four broad categories: 1) Descriptive research: describes behavior, thoughts, or feelings of a particular group of subjects; no attempt to relate behavior to other variables or to study the causes of behavior. 2) Correlational research: investigates relationships among variables; no information whether one variable causes the other. 3) Experimental research: interested in identifying variables that cause changes in behavior, thought or emotions; manipulation of independent variables to see change in the dependent variable = active intervention; experimental group/ control group. There are two conditions: 4) Quasi-experimental research: when researchers are not able to manipulate the independent variable, the effect of some variable or event that occurs naturally.

Steps in the research process

Step 1: research problem

Step 2: research question/hypotheses

Step 3: researchdesign (quantitative, qualitative)

Step 4: select sources of data (participants), collection method (procedure) and instruments

Step 5: collect data

Step 6: analysing data (results)

Step 7: reporting and discussing the results

data collection

Where? When? Who? How?

select participants::

Population: 1) Group you’re interested in; Religious people, buddhist children, young priests
Sample: Group were you collect your data; E.g. Religious people in Flanders, buddhist children in Bangkok, young priests in India
Generalization: Religious people in Flanders > religious people in Europe? // Buddhist children in Bangkok > buddhist children? // Young priests in India > young priests in Asia?
Sample selection is important!: Random sample; Sample is representative

measures

Behavioral measures: study particular forms of behavior and make interferences about the psychological phenomena that caused or contributed to them; e.g. measuring the frequency of church attendance in a certain church
Physiological measures: examines things that are believed to be directly associated with forms of mental activity; e.g. blood pressure, heart rate for anxiety
Self-report measures: ask people about their thoughts, feelings or reaction to given issue: Cognitive self-reports; Affective self-reports; Behavioral self-reports - most often used in Religious Studies. e.g. questionnaire to study the God image of religious individuals
Standardised tests and measures: Consistency of results is achieved by the use of identical materials, prescribed administration procedures and prescribed scoring procedures; e.g. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Consistency of interpretation of the test is maximised by providing normative or standardisation for the test or measure. Norms or normative data in the manual.
Overview: Designing a survey: Formulate a research question; Decide on the measurement of dependent and independent variables; Decide on the population of interest; Decide on the sample size; Decide on the sampling method; Decide on the technique; Consider possible experimental manipulations.

analysing data Two forms of statistics:

Descriptive statistics: To describe the properties of a particular data set; Describing a typical score: measures of central tendency
Describing a typical score: measures of central tendency; 1) Mean: a measure of the average score; Median: a measure of the middle score; Mode: the score that occurs most frequently. e.g.: A researcher is interested in how often individuals go to church. He asked 5 persons how often they went to church during the last month. The number of visits were 2, 5, 7, 4, 2. What is the mean, median en the mode?
Describing the spread of scores: measures of dispersion. Range: the difference between the maximum and the minimum score; Mean deviation: the average distance of all the scores from the mean score; Variance: squared deviation from the mean (Var); Standard deviation: square root of the variance (SD).
Inferential statistics: To make appropriate inferences from those descriptions in order to decide whether those descriptions can be applied to a population. Comparing means: T-test.
Relationship between variables: Correlation - Negative correlation: high scores on the first variable are associated with low scores on the second variable or vice versa; Positive correlation: high/low scores on the first variable are associated with high/low scores on the second variable. From -1 to +1. Regression
Path-analysis: To search for complex connections between several variables. Create a model that shows realtion between the variables.
Confirming theoretical models: To investigate if a proposed model indeed appears in the reality.

25/11

Delusion / Delirium: thinking that is off the track, thinking that is not 'like others', cannot share intersubectively. Verrücht - crazy, but thrown out of normality. It may be psychosis / or psychogenic (hysterical) / (psychosomatic as well). Avila is crazy - it is out of the ordinary - it is ideosyncratic - not like others. How does she behave with this way of thinking. She checks her reality with others. A truly delirious person will never check it out, never subject it to intersubjective dialogue.
Schizophrenia: caused by psychosocial factors and genetic vulnerability - psychosis. Psychosis means cognitive and perceptual disorder; the term doesn't indicate causes. It can also be a result of severe depression: delusion of loss, guilt, etc.; the illness or cause may be diverse.
Psychogenic: developmental factors, hysteria.
Schreber: Saxon Atty General Leipzig - his father, a medical doctor, helped develop home gymnastics (newly urbanized peasants), Schreber Gardens - exercise and vegetables. DP treated for depression. No children. Corveleyn focusses only on religious aspects. 1901 publication coincides with psychology of religion and psychoanalysis. Freud developed a theory of psychopathology, before it was seen as manifestation of physical illness - discovered by listening to his patients, the psychosis was related to inner conflicts. Unresolved leads to symptoms, suppressed conflicts. Jung caught these ideas from Bleuler at Zürich. Jung treated schizophrenics, Freud with psychogenic psychotics. Freud saw Schreber book and developed theory on psychosis - the self problem. Anti-psychiatry revived shreber (Thomas Szasz, R. May, R. Laing, D. Cooper, Basaglia, Verdigione. Social psychiatry responded to protests of the 1960s. Psychiatry was considered leftist, phenomenological, expressed repression of authority. Using psychiatry to punish political enemies. Open society for psychotic patients to be citizens - there were pharmaceutical possibilities - to help patients dominate delusional thinking. Schatzmann - Soul Murder. Explains schreber in terms of father's interests in training children. Psychosis is a symptom of the illness of society: repression, competition, money, family dynamism.
Comparison of discourse types: Elias canetti. Schreber's was a political discourse like dictators - monomanical. He saw himself as the only remaining human. a precursor of Hitler and Mussolini. Coveleyln disagrees, it is primarily religious delusion, based on Schreber's discourse around the book.
Marie: Elected by God, given a message: love and all shall be well. Convinced as Schreber was convinced of messianism. Hospitalized. Strength of conviction and alienation of family lead them to believe it was schizophrenia. Talked about life history, and was able to identify conflicts and distanced from convictions. She sought a connection between personal conflict and delusions. For schreber instead systematizing the delusion helped him to reconnect with the world, and he could reintegration. Marie's delusion was like an emotional volcano but it could be deconstructed.

2/12

Marie: By telling the delusion, it helped her undo the delusion. She lived a hard life and escaped from this in delusion. Her brother recommended Jakob Lorber as an author for her, southern German peasant who was inspired by religious visions in mid 20th century, on the daily life of Jesus - very concrete. As she became more withdrawn, the husband became concerned and had her hospitalized.
Structural differences between delusional types: Three differences: 1. the place of religion in the delusion. In Shreber, religion was a source of inspiration after delusion to reconstruct his lost world, but the religious delusion was also the final point of delusion. In Marie, religion was the invitation into the delusion. 2. For Shreber, religion is a system of truth, a solid unshakable construction. For Marie, it isn't about truth, but a language to express her condition and source of happiness, escape. For Shreber, the entire delusional system is an effort at reconstruction of inner life. More Marie it is a discourse that serves communication.
Qualitative Research: Case study method, comparing historical Case studies and actual case studies. Statistical approach reality after reduction to essential components. Case studies generally work from texts: interviews writings of the patient. The more documents, the more you can conclude. Quantitative approach is far from the particular reality of the patient thus today, there is a return to qualitative approach which had been for a time discredited. Case is used as an exemplar to demonastrate a theory. Case studies must care for validity and reliability of the study. Reliability is about absense of subjectivism in the study; not telling personal feelings. Another can redo the study. Validity refers to the relation to the theory, controls in the course of study. Case is a particular instance of what your theory is about. Often the case is whatever is at hand. But if you can choose, you can take precautions, group quantitative study. Close reading, and reading. Content analysis - reduse the bulk by categorizing to describable categories which makes the text manageable to treat and describe. Developed in the context of communication sciences. Trends in public opinion