QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER
Qualitative Interview Project Report
Analysis on owning a pet
Anahi Ruiz
ASU School of Social Work
Submitted to Leslie Carlson, SWU 320
Introduction
Besides medical benefits, working with us and helping with daily activities, animals can help us mentally and socially. This project seeks to know if there is an emotional benefit to owning a pet. My two classmates and I have organized an interview that contains six questions for the participants that can demonstrate their feelings about owning their pet. Each of us completed one interview with a pet owner and was recorded with participant’s consent. After obtaining responses, the interviews were prepared into typed-transcripts and discussed among our group members. We then coded and analyzed the data from our three interviews and examined the findings. We have concluded that pet ownership
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clearly has an emotional affect towards the individual. Pets are excellent company, whether they are considered as friends, children or even significant others. People feel attached with them, and this gives them power against difficulties or boredom. Pets also express happiness as they notice its human companion. Many responses in the three interviews were very similar, which helped us with our conclusions. Research Method The interview questions were formed and suggested by the instructor and students in the class.
My group members and I selected interview subjects such as, family members or a close friend, and asked if they owned a cat or a dog. If their answer was yes, we then continued and read the introduction and consent to them. If their answer was no, they were not adequate interview subjects for our research analysis. In the introduction and consent we explained the purpose and process of the interview and asked for their permission to be recorded, keeping the information they give us anonymous. In our research we wanted to gain knowledge of individual’s feelings of owning a pet. For example, the amount of time they have owned their pet, their reasons for owning their pet, their impacts, positives, and negatives about their pets. Each interview lasted around 2 minutes and was being recorded with our phones. There were a total of three interviews completed and transcripts were prepared based on the recording for each one of them. My group and I then got together and discussed the gatherings
together. Results Through our analysis we discovered some topics and themes within the interviews. Some of these topics/themes were emotional benefit, unconditional love, companionship, happiness, and costs toward their pets. We had a lot of commonalities among the three interviews. All interviewees have owned their pet for years and expressed unconditional love towards them. We can see this as they smile through the interview responses. Some of their main reasons for having a pet were for companionship. They are all used to having a pet around which explains their joy of having them. Their positives were the happiness they bring to them. Their negatives were also similar. They all said the inconvenience of the cost of owning a pet and having to spend so much money on health issues, such as diseases or simply when they’re sick. The interviewees mentioned that they can be very costly. It is interesting how one of the interviewers smiles throughout most of the interview. We can see how much she appreciates having her dog. Another one mentioned “it is somewhat like having a child it changes your life.” He continued saying “how you can’t go about doing anything you like because you have something there that you need to take care of or look after.” We see how owning a pet is also a huge responsibility for them and can prevent them from doing certain things sometimes. Overall they make it clear that the positives outweigh the negatives. An additional thing I thought was interesting was how this same pet owner said “they may just be there as part of your life to you, but to them you are their whole world.” This again explains their affection for their pets. Their pets are dependent to their owners and they need to feel their love and their care, making the owner obtain great sensibility of completion. Discussion In our findings, we discovered that people can love their pets in the same approach as they do their children or family members. Their feeling is mutual. Our interviewers are all pet lovers and gain emotional benefit owning a pet. They feel content and enjoyment having them around. Their dog can brighten their day after having a bad day. Pets like seeing how their pets return their devoted affection when they see how excited they get as they arrive home. Their attitudes and personalities connect with the each other, the greater the connection, the stronger the bond. The most common difficulty with these pet owners was the expenses of having a pet, but it was not a main reason to not own a pet. As you can see, the positives are more important than the negatives. We researchers consider that the data shows an animal can give the actual benefits of a best friend, just like any human companion would.
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The participants were invited to a university building made aware of the 20-minute videotaping was to be recorded of a communication situation. They were then introduced for the first time by their first name when entering the observation room. The participants were free to choose a topic for their discussion provided it was about something serious and personal. The dyads were in the room by themselves for the first time being aware of the pre-installed camera pointing in the direction of their chairs. After their 20 minutes on camera there would be a knock on the door to end the session. Once the recording had been finished, the participants filled in a questionnaire to check on the legitimacy of the arrangements and to cover the participant’s subjective outlook of the situation before the purpose of the study was disclosed to them. They were guaranteed the tapes would stay confidential and the statistics used they will not be recognized also they can withdraw the consent to use their data at any time. At this time any question was answered as openly as the participants demanded before they were asked to give consent for their videotape to be used in the
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