| Date | May 2018 | Marks available | 10 | Reference code | 18M.Paper 3.HL.TZ0.2 |
| Level | HL only | Paper | Paper 3 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Discuss | Question number | 2 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
The stimulus material below is based on a research article that addresses participants’ motivation to participate in “extreme sports”.
Extreme sports are physical activities that are dangerous and may result in serious injury or even death. Researchers are interested in why people would be willing to participate in activities that are dangerous, although at this stage there is not yet much qualitative research in this area.
The aim of this qualitative study was to explore motivations for taking part in sky diving or mountaineering (mountain climbing).
Five males and three females who practise sky diving or mountaineering were recruited for the study. An ethics committee approved the research and all participants signed informed consent before the study. They were also asked to choose another name, which would be used to refer to them in the final report.
A semi-structured interview was carried out with each participant. Each interview lasted an hour and took place in locations that each participant chose. The interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed verbatim before conducting an inductive content analysis (thematic analysis).
The inductive content analysis of the transcripts showed the following themes related to motivation:
• the challenge of pushing themselves beyond their existing mental and physical limits
• striving for achievement and mastery of their sport
• the feeling of getting better at their sport worked as a reward for the participants
• the feeling of “being in the present” and clearing all other thoughts from their mind
• experiencing pleasurable feelings such as excitement or “adrenaline rush”
• accepting suffering and physical injury as part of the experience of doing extreme sports.
The researchers concluded that the participants’ own explanations suggest that pushing one’s limits and striving for achievement are major motivational factors that outweigh the possible risks involved in taking part in extreme sports.
Carla Willig, A phenomenological investigation of the experience of taking part in ‘extreme sports’ in
Journal of Health Psychology, vol 13(5), pp. 698-699, copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications.
Reprinted by Permission of SAGE Publications, Ltd.
Discuss the use of semi-structured interview in this study.
Markscheme
Refer to the paper 3 markbands when awarding marks.
The command term “discuss” requires candidates to offer a considered review of factors relevant to the use of a semi-structured interview in this research study.
Responses that use the term “experiment” as a generic term for “study” should not be penalized.
Semi-structured interviews normally use a combination of closed and open-ended questions and the interview is often informal and conversational in nature with many open-ended questions. The semi-structured interview is based on an interview guide with a number of themes to explore. This is a checklist to encure standardization of interviews but there is flexibility in terms of order of questions and how to phrase them.
Discussion related to reasons for choosing the semi-structured interview in this study could include, but is not limited to:
• Good reasons for choosing the flexibility of the semi-structured interview could be the personal and somewhat sensitive nature of the topic in this study. Using open-ended questions makes it possible for respondents to give a detailed account of their personal experiences and to reflect on their motives for participating in extreme sports, which would eventually provide richer data in relation to this rather unexplored topic.
• The interviewer can also ask participants to elaborate if more information is needed on topics brought up by the respondent. This seems a major advantage in this study where the purpose is to get an insight into the complex motives for engaging in a sport that is potentially deadly.
• The semi-structured interview allows researchers to not only use open-ended questions, which means that they get rich data, but also to get answers to specific questions, for example related to the specific version of extreme sport of each participant.
• If the researchers had used a structured interview with closed questions, they would probably not gain the same insight into the eight participants' ideas, perceptions and feelings about motivations to participate in extreme sports. There is still limited research on possible motivations for participating in extreme sports. The results of this study could serve as a platform for further research into the topic, using other methods.
• If the researchers have chosen not to use a focus group interview it is possibly because it is impossible to guarantee anonymity of participants, which was very important in this study. Another reason could be that the topic of this investigation is sensitive and with more participants present there is a risk that participants do not want to disclose what they really feel and this could compromise the purpose of this research.
• In the discussion of the use of semi-structured interviews candidates are likely to include particular strengths of the semi-structured interview and link them to this specific study. One example could be that the more informal and conversational nature of the semi-structured as well as the one-on-one encounter is more likely to have participants open up and reveal their subjective experiences of engaging in extreme sports. This contributes useful information to this research in a new area.
Candidates may (but do not have to) refer to the disadvantages of semi-structured interviews, for example, that analysis of data is extremely time-consuming or that there may only be limited space to explore themes that have not been planned beforehand. Since the researchers have chosen to use the semi-structured interview in spite of possible limitations, it could be because of the possibility to obtain rich data in a field that has only just begun to be studied by qualitative researchers.
Responses may refer to other research methods and be credited for this as long as the focus of the response is on semi-structured interviews.
