Social Psychology Special Issue

Conference review:
Purls of Wisdom: Reflections on
presenting qualitative research
Astrid Coxon
30th Annual PsyPAG Conference, 22–24 September 2015, The University of Glasgow.
Having given her first academic conference presentation at the 30th Annual PsyPAG Conference in Glasgow,
Astrid Coxon reflects on the experience, and encourages future PsyPAG conference delegates to take the plunge.
ON WEDNESDAY 22 JULY 2015, in
Glasgow, at PsyPAG’s 30th Annual
Conference, I presented a piece of
qualitative research for the first time. No, let
me qualify that: I presented a piece of
research for the first time, in front of a room
full of my peers. It just happened to be qualitative.
Not only am I a relatively new convert
to qualitative research methods, but I had
never before given an academic presentation
at a conference, and to say I was nervous is
an understatement.
That is not a typo in the title, by the way.
The spelling ‘purls’ is deliberate, echoing the
title of my first foray into conference presentation,
‘Close-knit communities: cross-generational
social cohesion through knitting
together’. I had, flippantly, imagined that this
process would be a cake-walk. Because the
study was light-hearted, I assumed it would be
fun (and easy!) to present it to a room full of
my colleagues and peers. What could be
more straight-forward than getting up in
front of a room full of fellow postgraduates,
and talking about the wonders of social knitting?
But then the conference programme
was released, and I realised: I was the only
qualitative presentation in my symposium. In
fact, I was one of only a small handful of qualitative
presentations being given at
PsyPAG2015. For some reason, this filled me
with trepidation. And, like any self-respecting
philosopher and psychologist, I felt it was
important to explore why I reacted this way.
I think I have a bit of a chip on my
shoulder, still. I used to think that if a study
did not involve statistics, it was not worth the
paper it was written on. I have since changed
my views on this significantly (p-values
notwithstanding) – I ended up conducting a
qualitative study for my MSc dissertation,
and my current PhD research uses primarily
qualitative research methods. However, old
opinions die hard, and I find myself
constantly feeling defensive about the
validity of my research, even in the absence
of an explicit question.
Qualitative research is legitimate and
meaningful; I know this to be true. Since
being ‘converted’ to qualitative research
during my MSc, I have been surprised and
encouraged by the meaningful impact that
qualitative research can have. There is still
an implicit hierarchy between qualitative
and quantitative research methods: anecdotally,
qualitative colleagues often bemoan the
lengths they must go to defend their
methods. I still have to regularly revisit the
supporting literature, seek the advice of
experienced qualitative researchers and the
support of peers, to strengthen my resolve.
I am definitely more certain of the value of
my qualitative work than before. I set off to
Glasgow with confidence.
As my Hour of Judgement drew closer,
however, I began to doubt. My slides had no
graphs, no tables, and no p-values to cling
onto. These were things I would traditionally
56 PsyPAG Quarterly