| Date | November 2017 | Marks available | 10 | Reference code | 17N.Paper 3.HL.TZ0.02 |
| Level | HL only | Paper | Paper 3 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Describe | Question number | 02 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
The stimulus material below is based on a research article that addresses the psychosocial consequences of female infertility and treatment in a country in the Middle East.
In some countries, giving birth is often the only way for married women to enhance their status in the community. Women are often blamed for infertility, regardless of the actual cause, leading to stress.
The aim of this study was to investigate the psychosocial consequences for females being treated for infertility in a country in the Middle East. Since staff in this fertility centre did not address psychological or social issues related to infertility, the female researcher wanted to investigate which psychosocial needs could be addressed in the future.
The study took place in a public fertility centre in a country in the Middle East. A purposive sample of 25 women aged between 21 and 48 years was selected for the study. An ethics committee approved the study. All women signed consent forms after first being informed about the aim of the study and their ethical rights.
The researcher carried out the individual semi-structured interviews herself and the participants gave her permission to audio-record the interviews.
The inductive content analysis of the transcripts revealed two higher-order themes with related lower-order themes:
• Social: Concerns that the husband would find another wife, worries that people might find out about the infertility, or worries about being able to pay for continued treatment.
• Psychological: Feelings of guilt, loneliness and anxiety as well as fear of taking a pregnancy test or telling the husband about the negative results.
The researcher asked participants to confirm the accuracy of their statements. Additionally, the researcher asked other researchers to verify the results. As a control, several infertile women who did not participate in the study agreed to compare the findings of the study with their own experiences.
The conclusion was that because of the social pressure in the Middle East for married women to give birth, infertility and its treatment can be a major source of psychological suffering. As a result of the findings the researcher suggested that having professionally trained social workers could be a valuable addition to medical interventions in the clinics in order to help the women manage the psychosocial consequences of infertility and its treatment.
Describe how the researcher in this study could use inductive content analysis (thematic analysis) on the interview transcripts.
Markscheme
Refer to the paper 3 markbands when awarding marks.
The command term “describe” requires candidates to give a detailed account of how inductive content analysis could be applied to the interview transcripts in the study.
Responses that use the term “experiment” as a generic term for “study” should not be penalized.
In the context of this study, candidates should describe characteristics or features of the procedure of inductive content analysis and apply that to the study mentioned in the stimulus material. Relevant parts of the procedure of inductive content analysis in this study could be, but are not limited to:
• Analysis of the transcripts of the interview to identify possible categories and themes that relate to how the women in the study experience their infertility and the treatment.
• Following a systematic analysis of the transcript for emerging themes (for example, “worries that other people might discover the infertility” or “feelings of guilt” and “fear of taking a pregnancy test”) the researcher could try to connect emerging themes in meaningful ways to establish possible hierarchies of themes.
• The researcher reads and rereads the transcript many times until the data is saturated and no more categories/themes can be found.
• Constructing a summary table of the two higher-order themes mentioned in the stimulus material. (social and psychological)
• Connecting the subordinate themes with relevant quotations from women in the study to support the choice of each theme.
• The final task is to make interpretations based on the analysis and check these, for example, by asking other researchers and the participants involved to ensure that the interpretation truly reflects the views of the participants. The credibility check is the final step in the process.
Responses that do not describe how inductive content analysis could be used in this study but merely refer to the themes mentioned in the stimulus material should be awarded up to a maximum of [3].
