What motivates individuals to access and persevere with complementary and alternative medicine? A thematic analysis
Procedure:
Participants will be recruited to join the study on Facebook. Holistic Therapy and Practitioner Group, Workshops, Courses in UK). If people respond, I will send them an invitation letter (App. 1) on Facebook direct message and invite them to converse through Outlook email provider. If they approve, I will send the information sheet (App. 2) to the participants, along with a GAD7 and PHQ9 questionnaire link which would need to be filled in and a screen print of their score. If individuals are interested, they will have to return the mental health measures and if they do not suffer from mental health issues, I will send a consent form (App.3) via Docusign website link for the participant to sign. After this I can arrange a mutually convenient time. The participants will be provided with an approximate 30-minute semi structured interview (App.4). When the data gathering procedure occurs, the participants will attend a call conducted by Microsoft Teams where they will be asked a series of questions that are relevant to the research being conducted. After the research is conducted, participants will receive a debrief document (App. 6).
According to Braun & Clarke’s ‘Answers to commonly asked questions about thematic research’ (2019). Qualitative interviews for the research are beneficial to collect data as the data is a conversation, whereas quantitative research is about numerical which does not correspond with the type of research I am conducting.
A small TA project for UK undergraduates could include 6-10 interviews. This approves my decision to conduct interviews with 6 adult participants to a network of individuals who regularly use CAM therapies. I will find interviewees on Facebook via various social groups referring to CAM therapies I have joined and reviewed for the past few months. I intend to contact the individuals on the group page and ask them for their permission to take part in my research with an invitation letter (App.1), if they agree to participate, I will disclose all the information (App.2) required for the research and interview them on Microsoft Teams where I will record the interview (App.4) and later transcribe for coding.
2.5a Does your research involve children under 18 years of age?
2.5b If yes, do you have an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau/Disclosure and Barring Service
2.6 Are participants in your study going to be recruited from a potentially vulnerable group? See RPU website
No,
2.7 How will your data be analysed?
2.8 Is ethical approval required by an external agency? (e.g. NHS, other university, outside organisation)
2.9 What, in your view, are the ethical considerations involved in this project? (e.g. confidentiality, consent, risk, physical or psychological harm, etc.) Please explain in full sentences. Do not simply list the issues. Please make it clear how you are going to deal with issues with regard to your own welfare and safety.
Confidentiality
Consent
Participants under 18
2.10 Have participants been/will be fully informed of the risks and benefits of participating and of their right to refuse participation or withdraw from the research at any time?
2.11 How will you ensure that the identity of your participants is protected? See RPU website here
To keep their information confidential, I will ensure the interview content and transcripts are secured on my password protected laptop.
2.12 How will you ensure that the data remains confidential? See RPU website here
2.13 How will you store your data during and after the project? See RPU website here
