Following a report from a cross-party group of UK MPs on the possibility of cannabis being legalised in the UK within the next five to ten years (source: BBC news website, 29 July 2019), the issue of young people’s identities around the use of recreational drugs is becoming more prominent in debate and reflection, both by the lay public (i.e. not experts) and by the media.
Briefly describe the approach a phenomenological researcher might take when researching this topic and state a suitable research question for a phenomenological inquiry into the topic. In order to answer this, describe some key aspects of the methodology they would need to research this topic (for example, the data source, the method of capturing this data and the analysis they would need to use to satisfy the research question you have stated). 500 words
A discursive researcher has designed a project to research this topic using ten focus groups of five participants in each group. The researcher will be looking at the interpretative repertoires, subject positions and ideological dilemmas interpreted from the focus group data. State a suitable research question for this researcher to base their focus group questions on, and briefly discuss the strengths and limitations of using the discursive approach to research this topic. 500 words
Word limit: 1000 words in total (excluding the title and any references). After Part 1, write the total word count for both parts.
Reference
Connolly, J. (2019) ‘Cannabis “to be legalised in the UK” within five to ten years, say MPs’, BBC News, 29 July [Online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49073222 (Accessed: 20 May 2020).
Question 2 asks you to write a suitable research question (as you did with Question 1), but for a discursive psychology project on the topic. You are then asked to discuss the strengths and limitations of using a discursive approach to research this topic. Again, the research question you create needs to be a broad question addressing the aims of this discursive project; it is not asking you to come up with individual questions you would ask in the focus groups, rather it is the overall guiding research question, which will guide the overarching research and focus groups discussions. The discursive approach is discussed in Weeks 9, 12 and 13 of the module, and we think Chapters 7 and 9 of Book 1 should be particularly useful. In Chapter 9 you can read about how identity is the main focus of discursive psychological studies, and researchers are primarily interested in the construction of those identities through the way people talk and act. So how could this be expressed as a research question on the given topic? You are only required to state this research question, so you do not need to explain it. Instead, the majority of this answer should be on providing a brief discussion of the strengths and limitations of using discursive psychology to research this topic. In addition to Chapters 7 and 9, for a discussion on strengths and limitations, you may find the Book 1, Chapter 1, and Week 1 materials useful. While you do not need to include other methodological approaches in your answer to this question, thinking about the types of knowledge and data the different methods generate and the types of questions they can and cannot answer may help you to answer this question. When considering strengths or limitations, do make sure the point is in the context of this topic. For example, if I wished to make the point that discursive psychology helps us to examine how ideas are negotiated in real-life conversations, I could express this as being able to explore recreational drug-users’ attempts to make valid subject positions with the discourse available to them, something not available to other methods and approaches. Remember to address a few limitations as well as strengths.
