Methodology and methods are often used interchangeably, but methods are really the tools you use to collect and analyze your data. There is a close relationship to the methods you select, your methodology, and the theoretical frameworks guiding your thinking. Discuss the methods you might use.

 My research question is, how does retirement impact a police officer’s health and wellness? I will use a mixed method of obtaining my data. I will primarily focus on qualitative data using methods such as semi-structured interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources such as newspaper articles, journals, and official records. I am interested in accessing experiences, interactions and documents in their natural context. My findings will be reported by way of a written narrative style. Observations will be made, and field notes will be taken throughout the data collection process. My observations will be a researcher as participant-observer, whereby I will record observations of my participant’s verbal and nonverbal behaviour, including their accounts of the events. The thoughts and events described made by my participants will be recorded by me as observations and reflections. I will be careful to be non-invasive and noncolonial by very diligently avoiding projecting my meanings of the research or experiences on those being interviewed. I say this because I was in policing, I am retired, and I follow a successful wellness program.

 I will design a questionnaire, which will produce quantitative information with the appropriate consent form completed. My participants will be random, and I wish to generalize my data to a larger population.

Closed questions will generate my quantitative numerical data or data that can be put into categories. An example is the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a self-rated questionnaire that assesses sleep quality and disturbances over a 1-month time interval.

 Even though my study will consist of interviews with primary recorded content and questionnaires, I am confident the content analysis of my research question and subsequent results will be objective and with well-defined criteria.  The tools I will use for my research will satisfy Joseph Maxwell’s (1992) five categories to judge the validity of qualitative research: descriptive validity, interpretive validity, theoretical validity, generalizability, and evaluative validity.  

References

Carpenter, J., Andrykowski, M. (1998). Psychosomatic evaluation of the Pittsburgh sleep quality index.    Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 45(1), 5-13.             https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399997002985  https://www.opapc.com/uploads/documents/PSQI.pdf

Maxwell, J. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard Educational Review.       62(3):279-300.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284892180_Understanding_and_Validity_in_Qualitativ e_Research