Research Journal

What was the process by which you narrowed down potential topics to two appropriate ones? And how were these decisions made on the basis of either class discussion, or our required, course textbook (Aveyard 2014), or both?

Ethnography (I used this in a sense of sports communities in higher up sports such as collegiate and professional communities.)

In a sense I wanted to narrow down my original research question due to it being so broad,a nd after finding many articles giving data to many specific situations I felt that I could create a topic inside my question that would give an answer to what most people want to know. That is how do I get the thought of recurring injury out of my head?

What research question did you choose, and how are I can be sure you're making a reasoned, academic judgement on the basis of chapters 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

My research question is: What makes athletes scared psychologically after a major injury? In a sense I want to know is the fear of sustaining a major injury the cause of mental trauma, or if the pain lingers with no relief to the point where an athlete can’t bear performing to such high standards anymore?

What article (or articles) are you basing this question on, and what type of article is it (research, theory, policy, practice) (citation[s] in APA, please)? 

Granito, V., JR. (n.d.). Athletic Injury Experience: A Qualitative Focus Group Approach.

Bjornstal, W. (n.d.). Psychology and socioculture affect injury risk, response, and recovery in high-intensity athletes: a consensus statement .

Podlog, B. L. (n.d.). Psychological Readiness to Return to Competitive Sport Following Injury: A Qualitative Study .

How can I be sure that the key vocabulary of the question corresponds not only to literature in the field, but also to chapter 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

Ethnography I figured I could use in a way that I could split up different levels of sporting communities to find an outcome on severity of injury and impact on life or social life or even money making. It was still pretty difficult to try to narrow down until used some of my key words down below to find a more adequate topic. 

Based on what your question is, what kind of literature are you going to need? Again, please explicitly reference the text (Aveyard 2014). What is your hierarchy of evidence?

In the order of importance going downward (those are the top are the most important) (cf. pg. 69 Aveyard):

Systematic reviews of qualitative studies of major injuries to athletes 

Quantitative and qualitative studies of athletes who sustained major injuries

How exactly did you research question arise out of “practice"?

My research came from the reading of Podlog on how psychologically ready an athlete must be in order to return to sport following an injury. I’ve picked sources that have provided studies on athletes who have sustained injuries and had to be psychologically put back in the state of mind to play sports again. 

How do you define your key terms, and how do these definitions link to key journals in the field?

“Major Injuries”

“Major Sports Injuries”

“PTSD in Sports”

“Psychological healing”

“Anxiety”

“Injury”

“Mental Impact on Physical Healing”

Did anything unexpected happen? From you initial search, does it appear as though your research question will work? Or does the vocabulary and/or type of research sought need to be changed?

My research question will work, but it will need some tweaking on the key terms to search in order to get the proper qualitative data. I have found a lot of qualitative data, but I want to narrow it down to either an individual sport or possibly even down to a gender related study on sports injuries. Even so I could still interpret both if the data is found available.