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Choice of method
The choice of the method must always be subordinate to the study’s purpose and the purpose must therefore control the choice of method (Andersson, 1995). Based on the purpose of the study a literature review was conducted as a first step to get further engaged in the topic and collect information useful for structuring the work. The history of nuclear power in Sweden was studied giving a better picture of the recent situation. The literature review helped further in designing the structure and formulating the questions for the interviews conducted in this study. Both focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used in this study. Important to mention here is that I myself have been working as a system designer in the nuclear power plant Forsmark since January 2015. The knowledge and experience I obtain have helped me a lot throughout the study.
Patel and Davidson (2011) argue that whether the study is quantitative or qualitative depends on how one chooses to generate, process and analyse information. A study can use both approaches in varying degrees. Qualitative research includes how to investigate, interpret and understand the events and incidents that people were part of and also their experiences of these events (Patel & Davidson, 2011). When choosing to use qualitative methods, one intends to obtain information from direct observations or interviews and dialogues. This is preferable when you need to understand the meaning of the information you get. “Meaning” here refers to how emotions and values reflect on how to take a stand on specific questions. This method can be considered more involvement than quantitative since the researcher must be present to be able to take part of feelings and expressions. Two prevalent methods that are associated with the qualitative are interviews and observations. (Eriksson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 2011)
David Morgan (1996) defines a focus group as a research technique where data is collected through group interaction around a topic determined by the researcher. It is a way to reduce the impact and control from the researcher, in comparison with individual interviews. Thus it gives another dimension to the study since it may uncover hidden variables that are hard to get to through structured or semi-structured one-to-one interviews. Besides that the topic is determined by the researcher, other key concepts that distinguish a focus group from other forms of group interviews are that it aims to collect data through group interaction and that it is conducted for research purposes (Wibeck, 2000).
Using focus groups as a method is useful for attracting the social aspects of the interviewees. The views of a participant can be compared to another participant. Thus it is easier for the interviewer to differentiate between different opinions (Kjaer Jensen, 1991).
Focus groups & semi-structured interviews
A major focus in this study was on conducting focus groups and semi-structured interviews with individuals from the project’s target group, i.e. engineering students. The choice fell on engineering students partly because of their positive view on and their knowledge about advanced technologies. Being myself an engineering student from Uppsala with a lot of contacts is another reason of choosing to focus on engineering students in Uppsala.
Seven short semi-structured interviews and five focus groups were conducted in total. The participants in the interviews and the focus groups were students from different engineering educations at Uppsala University, more precisely Ångströmlaboratoriet. Some own friends studying an engineering education at Uppsala University participated in the study and helped by spreading the word and recruiting more participants from their educations or friends at the university. The distribution of the participants based on educations and gender is as follows:
3 males and 1 female studying Master Programme in Electrical Engineering
4 males and 2 females studying Master Programme in Energy Systems Engineering
2 males studying Master Programme in Chemical Engineering
4 males and 3 females studying Master Programme in Sociotechnical Systems Engineering
3 males and 1 female studying Master Programme in Engineering Physics
2 males and 1 females studying Bachelor Programme in Construction Engineering
3 males studying Bachelor Programme in Electrical Engineering
2 males and 1 female studying Bachelor Programme in Mechanical Engineering
The participants are between 21 and 29 years old. For each focus group I tried to mix the participants to get students from different educations and different genders in each focus group. After performing the literature review in the study and before starting the work with the focus groups, three short semi-structured interviews with engineering students at Uppsala University were conducted. The aim of these interviews was to examine how the students, who are the target group for the focus groups, would answer some specific questions, how they choose to answer and what they choose to focus on. This helped a lot in the preparation for the focus groups that were conducted later. The understanding obtained from the interviews facilitated the designing of the focus groups and further formulating the questions discussed between the participants.
Totally 32 engineering students participated in the five focus groups, 14 in two occasions (seven participants each) and 18 in the remaining three (six participants each). The conversations in the focus groups were moderated by the author of this thesis and the respondents were allowed to discuss freely the predetermined questions. The questions discussed in the focus groups are the following:
How familiar are you with nuclear power?
What are your thoughts on nuclear power and how do you feel towards that?
Is there any specific incident that affected your opinion?
Where do you get your information about nuclear power from?
Do you trust these sources?
Do you trust the nuclear power companies/the government/different organisations/ media?
Did your current studies affect your opinion in any way?
The questions were explained further when needed to make sure that the level of understanding was on the highest level possible. Furthermore, discussions on some questions led sometimes to answering other question indirectly leading to more continuous conversations. The discussions were recorded and notes were taken by the moderator, i.e. the author of this study.
After conducting the focus groups, four participants from the different groups were each chosen for a further semi-structured interview. These participants were chosen based on their interesting point of views that they did not get the opportunity to totally discuss in the focus groups due to other dominant participants and other factors such as shyness and lack of time.
Both the interviews and the focus groups were conducted in Swedish. Thus it is important to mention that the results obtained were first translated to English by the author of this study before being analysed and discussed.
Method Critique
Interviews are socially and linguistically complex situations that require a reflexive attitude (Alvesson, 2011). The qualitative data obtained from the interviews are based on understanding and need therefore neither verification nor falsification. Instead, the material has been interpreted and analysed, which is influenced by the context and the person who analyses the material (Thomsson, 2010). For qualitative methods it can be difficult sometimes to determine whether the respondent has given his true answer in the interview. If the respondent does not understand the question or answers as he thinks the interviewer wants him to answer, so-called adaptation responses, the risk for a distortion of the results is bigger (Abdallah & Zand, 2017). Thus the choice of explaining some questions further and making sure to obtain the highest level of understanding.
Focus group as a method is very useful in such studies however it is still far from flawless. One important disadvantage to take in consideration is that not everyone in a focus group will be able to take equally space. So called shadow respondents will not be able to share as much of their opinions as other participants. Moreover, having several participants sharing a single and same interview occasion will often lead to less time spent on each person than in the case of a personal interview. Even gathering a specific group of people at the same time may be impossible sometimes (Kjaer Jensen, 1991). The author tried to minimize the effects of such problems by conducting additional personal interviews with some of the participants in the focus groups.
Literature review
The literature review aims to investigate what literature and research is conducted in the area studied. This is important, partly to see if similar work has been done but also to find references that substantiate statements made in the report. The execution of the literature review can largely be described as a work process in different steps. In the first step, a selection of a number of keywords expected to provide a good coverage for the area to be investigated is made. The second step involves searching in a literature database.
In order to limit the number of articles and increase the relevance of the results, searches are made for different combinations of the keywords. The search is further limited by including only articles and studies in relevant subjects in the final step of the process, after which the abstract is read. Depending on the abstract of each article it is then considered if the article is interesting for the work, and thus chosen for further reading of the entire content.
Furthermore, the references in some articles led to other useful literature. The two databases used in this study are presented and described below:
DiVA (Digital Scientific Archive) – The database contains research publications and student essays from 44 Scandinavian universities and research institutes. The literature database was developed by Uppsala University Library, but is being managed today in collaboration with other higher education institutions (DiVA, 2017).
Libris Uppsök – LIBRIS is a national search service with information about titles in Swedish libraries. The Royal Library is responsible for the operation and development of the service. The registering libraries contribute in common to the building of the content. LIBRIS contains nearly 7 million titles from approximately 300 library units at Swedish university, college and research libraries and about twenty public libraries. (Libris, 2017).
Table of contents :
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Purpose
1.3 Question formulation
1.4 Delimitation
2. Method
2.1 Choice of method
2.2 Focus groups & semi-structured interviews
2.3 Method Critique
2.4 Literature review
3. Nuclear power in Sweden – a historical overview
4. Previous studies and relevant theories
4.1 Previous studies
4.2 Risk communication
4.3 Resistance to Attitude Change
4. Results & Analysis
5. Conclusion
6. Further studies
7. References
7.1 Figures
