Qualitative Research Report: Family Experiences & Prison Impact

This report delves into qualitative research methods within social science, examining epistemological issues and ethical considerations. It analyzes an interview transcript concerning the experiences of individuals with male relatives in prison, exploring themes such as mental health challenges, social stigma, and financial strain. The report identifies key themes emerging from participant responses, including health problems, social isolation, transportation difficulties, and emotional distress. Policy materials are used to discuss these themes. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations, including informed consent, confidentiality, and the responsible handling of data. It interprets respondent answers, including direct quotations, to illustrate the profound impact of imprisonment on families. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and underscores the significance of qualitative research in understanding complex social issues.

Qualitative research
methods for social
scientists

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Epistemological issues related with research.........................................................................3
Evaluate relevant ethical issues..............................................................................................4
Identify themes emerging from participants responses in transcript......................................5
Discuss identified themes by using appropriate range of policy material..............................5
Interpret the respondents answer using above ......................................................................7
Include quotations from transcript where appropriate............................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This report focuses on different epistemological issues and help in understanding about
epistemological issues. This report focuses on concept of epistemology and its ethical issues
related with epistemology. This report includes information about the interview transcript which
is related with experience of people which have a male relative in person. This report focuses on
research which is suitable for this topic as interview transcript is based on qualitative data. This
report also focuses on different themes which are emerged from the transcript and help in
understanding the issues related with epistemology. This report includes information about the
ethical issues which should be followed during the research and help in understanding the need
and importance of research (Azungah, 2018).
MAIN BODY
Epistemological issues related with research
Epistemology is defined as theory and knowledge of regard to its various methods and it
includes validity, scope and distinction between justified belief and opinion. This part of report
focuses on issue which is mentioned in the transcript and it is based on the experience and effects
on people which have a male relative in person. This part of report focuses on the issue which
are faced when some close to them is in prison and what different challenges people faces
socially, mentally and physically. This report help in understanding about issues faced by people
whose relatives are in prison and how they would feel because of this issue. This research shows
that people faces mental trauma sometimes in this type of issue because the person in prison is
the only one who look after them. This research shows that people also faced hatred and
discrimination from society and might be ignored by the people of society. This report also
shows that people are also mentally affected by this issue as it can be very hard for them to cope
up with the situation and live their life normally. It is been very hard for the people to see their
loved ones in prison and feel their emotion as they are sad and affected by the things faced by
their relatives in prison (Beach, 2017). Someone having a male relative in prison is hard for their

family because in some situation that male person is the only one on which the whole family is
dependent and after that male have gone to jail it is hard for the family to survive which also
faces various problems mentally, socially and physically. In some situations, families are
affected by the people of society as people of society treat families of prisoner very harshly and
consider them harmful for society. This research is based on realism philosophy due to existence
of independent data and data which is taken for this research is based on real experience as this
data is based on qualitative data. The epistemological issues related with research are the effects
on people of having someone in prison and another issue which is involved in research is the
effect on the people mentally, physically and socially.
Evaluate relevant ethical issues
This part of report focuses on ethical issues which should be followed during the research
and should be kept in mind by researcher when collecting and obtaining data. Ethical issues are
connected with people feelings and values as this part focuses on the ethical issues as during the
research ethics should be followed and data should be kept safe for use. Ethical issues focuses on
collecting data by approval of volunteer and data should be taken after the permission of
volunteer. Research should be well-planned and adjusted that it should comply the need of topic
and it should be done by using appropriate methods for research (Carminati, 2018). Ethical
issues are based on understanding the need of research and how it should be conducted. Good
research should be appropriately designed and ethically approved. Lower standard during
research is considered as misconduct and poor ethics. During the research, it is important to
approve from the volunteers where data is being collected and it should consist information
about issues related with ethics during research. During research it is important to follow the
ethical codes pertaining to the subjects which can affect and considered as vulnerable which
includes children, prisoners etc. Ethical issues are also based on the fact that data should be
collected from people after their approval as data cannot be collected by forcing them and the
people which have volunteered for research their identity should be kept confidential and the
data which is collected by research also should be kept confidentially. Other ethical issues
includes authenticity of data as it should be collected from authentic source and data should be
reliable and effective. Research should be based on the topic which doesn't hurt sentiment or
feelings of people and society as it shouldn't be disrespectful to someone and data of respondents
should be kept safe. Ethical issues also focuses on analysing data appropriately and effectively as

collected data shouldn't mislead anyone and there should be no type fabrication with relation to
data. Research should should effective as there shouldn't be any kind of conflict of interest
among researcher and respondents (Chu and Ke, 2017).

Identify themes emerging from participants responses in transcript
The themes which are identified from the interview are:
Theme 1- There are many health problems which are faced by family members such as heart
palpitations, insomnia and others.
Theme 2- They are avoiding meetings, interactions and social gathering with people.
Theme 3- Due to use of public and private transportation many problems are faced by house
members.
Theme 4- Long waiting hours in prison visit.
Theme 5- Tired of waiting in every situation of life.
Theme 6- We cant communicate properly as there are lots of people, i.e lack of privacy creates a
barrier in visiting prison.
Theme 7- Going through emotional and mental abuse.
Theme 8- Is involved into wrong crowd and started consuming drugs because of which he lost
the job.
Theme 9- Started dealing in drugs.
Theme 10- Whole family feel punished due to a single person in family.
Theme 11- Initially was not able to tell family about prison.
Theme 12- Being a single mother and to handle whole family alone is a big responsibility.
Theme 13- Children are unable to attend class properly.
Theme 14- Facing huge financial problems and every activity involves high cost and expenses.
Theme 15- After you have a record, employment opportunities are very low.
Discuss identified themes by using appropriate range of policy material
According to Theme 1, it can be concluded that Frank and her wife are unable to sleep and Pam
is getting heart palpitation which makes her health worse.
According to Theme 2, it can be concluded that after Josh went to prison it was hard for
other family members to meet and interact with other people and for which they started avoiding
gathering and events (Collins and Stockton, 2018).
In Theme 3, it can be observed that to meet Josh in prison, many transportation mediums
are used by family members for which they also have to wait.

According to Theme 4, it can be discussed that when family members go to meet Josh in
prison, they have to wait for longer hours. As Victoria stated that they have to wait for 3 hours in
prison waiting room to meet Josh.
In Theme 5, it can be discussed that Josie feels terrible while waiting in situations such as
waiting for bus, call and for going to prison and meeting Josh.
According to Theme 6, it can be discussed that Frank states that waiting there makes eyes
hurt due to too much light and we can't share and tell everything as there are other people also
who can hear.
According to Theme 7, it can be concluded that having a family member in prison is a
mental and emotional abuse which affects life (Korstjens and Moser, 2017).
In Theme 8, it can be discussed that Frank states that Adam got into a wrong crowd with
the people he used to know from school with whom he started consuming drugs.
According to Theme 9, it can be observed that Adam was involved in dealing and
consuming drugs which also made him loose his apprenticeship.
In accordance to Theme 10, it can be discussed that Frank thins that is a relative goes to
prison, it makes whole family feel they are in prison and are punished for the wrongdoings of
that relative.
In Theme 11, it can be discussed that Victoria was unable to tell her family about Josh
going to prison and use to hide every time and she lied to her family members as knowing this
will make them feel more upset.
In accordance to Theme 12, it can be discussed that Josie feels that she is unable to
handle the responsibility of all family members alone and she doesn't wanted to be a kind of a
mother she is being.
In accordance to Theme 13, it can be discussed that, Victoria is getting call from school
each alternative day as he is unable to attend her classes properly and and is asked to leave the
class daily. It can also be observed that he is suffering from ADHD.
According to Theme 14, it can be observed that Victoria feels it is hard in coping up with
all financial matters such as rent and bills after Josh went to prison.
In accordance to Theme 15, it can be observed that Frank feels it is hard to get
employment opportunities after you have any record in prison (Le Grange, 2018).

Interpret the respondents answer using above
According to different responses of respondents, data has been collected and interpreted
as Frank, Victoria and Josie are the three persons which are taken as respondents and helped in
providing data for the research by the interviews conducted on personal basis. From the above
themes, it is understood that Frank and his wife suffered from mental and physical trauma as
their son went to prison as Frank have stated that he and his wife didn't get wink of sleep and her
wife had heart palpitations which is dangerous for health. Another respondent by the name
Victoria told about various challenges she have to face in order to visit to prison to meet his son
and she stated that it is very long day for her as she have to leave early from her house in order to
reach prison and she takes different train and buses to reach her destination and when she reaches
to prison she have to wait so much in order to meet her son. She also stated that once she have to
wait for three hours to meet her son and there is so much chaos in the prison and people which
visits prison to meet their relatives have to wait for very long hours. Frank also stated that when
someone from your relatives goes to prison it is not the single person which suffers because
everyone in the family suffers which includes their children, parents etc. He states that it is very
heart-breaking for everyone to suffer and kids who goes to visit centre waits for their dad eagerly
to meet them (Levitt and et. al., 2018).
Above respondent gave vivid description about how they feel and what effects these issues have
made on their lives. It also help in explaining about the amount of mental and physical trauma
faced by their families and different problems and situations faced by them.
Include quotations from transcript where appropriate
Different quotations which are included from transcript explains about how these three
respondents have faced several problems by the issue of their relative being in prison and what
different impact it has made on their lives. As frank have stated that it has affected lives of their
kids as they wait to see their fathers and also this issue also affected people and their lives as
they are affected mentally, physically and socially. Families of person have faced several
problems which includes guilt as Victoria stated that it took lot of efforts of her to tell her family
and sometimes she has to lie about his son James. Being a person in prison make its family
members sad and depressed as Victoria, Frank and Josie faced sadness and depression due to this
and it also affected their daily lives (Mohajan, 2018).

CONCLUSION
This report focuses on different epistemological issues faced by researcher during the
research and how these issues affected research. The issues on which research has been done is
about the experience of people whose relative or family members is in prison. This report also
concludes about the different ethical issues involved in the research and should be kept in mind
by the researcher during its research. Ethical issues involves information about the
confidentiality and authenticity of collected data and collecting data from respondent with their
permission. This report concludes about different problems faced by families of person which is
in prison and how it is affected them mentally,physically and socially as people in society judges
them and treat them badly and doesn't behave with them appropriately. This report concludes
about treating families and relatives of person which is in prison fairly and their families have
equal rights to live their life according to their will.

REFERENCES
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