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|
Positivism |
Transcendental Realism |
Hermeneutics |
Subjectivism |
| |
|
Question |
What Factors influence participant motivation? |
What factors do participants understand as influencing their
motivation? |
What causes differences in motivational behavior between participants in
the CWVC project |
What factors influence participant motivation in the CWVC project |
|
Research Strategy |
Stratified survey of samples from categories of volunteers identified
a priori |
Ethnographic study involving key participants |
Use of different kinds of documents, i.e., meeting minutes, emails,
documents about project involvement, as well as past documents, which may help to
understand previous projects and past information about participants |
Ethnographic (a research strategy attempting to describe meanings and
understandings of members of a culture in detail) study involving key
participants identified by the study. There is no specific hypothesis |
|
Method of data collection |
Questionnaires |
Questionnaires using qualitative and quantitative questions |
Structural semiotics (the study of signs and texts and how they are
represented and interpreted) |
Interviews |
|
Type of Analysis |
Inferential statistics. Estimation and test of hypotheses |
Phenomenological analysis (interviews are transcribed and key themes
identified from frequency of appearance) |
A dialectical process involving three “moments:”: social
historical analysis, formal analysis, interpretation–reinterpretation |
Thematic analysis |
|
Presentation Type |
Graphs, Tables |
Discussion |
Discussion |
Discussion |
|
Potential Interpretation |
Evidence that some types of participants are more likely to be retained
(e.g., single volunteers vs. members of organized groups) or and identification
of variables and interventions that increase this, (e.g., presence of otters,
water voles/, mink) |
Phenomenological analysis will gain insight into how individual
participants understand what they are motivated by. The use of quantitative
questions alongside this gives insights for the project management, but can also
be generalized and provide guidance for other similar projects |
Using the results of this hermeneutic approach, trends in behaviors, which
may motivate participants in the project, are elucidated, including past project
involvement, their family’s historic involvement in the Cairngorms
|
The thematic analysis allows themes to be identified in the interviews as
to participant motivation, thus giving insight into the participants’ real
motivations. This is of particular use to the management of the
project |
|
How is management guided by the results? |
Management has knowledge on what type of volunteers are better retained
that can be extrapolated to a large number of volunteers. Results can be
combined with biological data |
Management can incorporate insights given by volunteers as to what
motivates them. Quantitative results can be combined with biological data to
analyze if motivation is linked to mink encounter frequency |
Management is able to identify differences in levels of motivation and
provide a varied means of re-motivating volunteers. Data cannot be combined with
ecological data as they are not quantitative |
Results are specific to the project, allowing management to provide varied
means of re-motivating volunteers. Data cannot be combined with ecological data
as they are not quantitative |