EXPERIENCE OF APPLICATION OF MIXED METHODS OF RESEARCH: CASE «SOCIAL TENSION» IN THE SUBJECTIVE DIMENSION

Abstract

Strategies for using mixed research methods are almost never used in domestic social and behavioral research. The article is devoted to the presentation of the results of a study conducted on the design of Quant → Qual strategy. The subject of analysis is the features of the emergence and functioning of the phenomenon of social tension in the system of personality-society. The results of the quantitative stage of the study of social tension are presented, which is based on the data of an all-Ukrainian representative survey (N = 1800, 2017) and their in-depth conceptualization at the stage of a qualitative study based on the analysis of texts of 91 semi-structured focused interviews (interviews were conducted in two series on the same guide with a year interval in order to test the stability of the fixed components of subjective perceptions). An analysis of narratives found a coherence in the picture of «social tension» that was obtained in quantitative research and in narratives. At both stages, it was recorded that the key signs of tension are concentrated around three main topics - deprivation, instability, dissidence and antagonisms. A comparison of the filling of the semantic space of the concept of «social tension» created in the narratives of the first and second waves of qualitative research has confirmed its stability. The application of the strategy of mixed methods made it possible to fix the existence and introduce a new theoretical construct «background tension» into the analysis of the phenomenon of social tension. Despite the variety of features of tension, the key attribute of a calm situation in the subjective dimension turned out to be quite unambiguous and associated with the expectation of stability and predictability of the social situation, which at the level of personality is designated as «confidence in the future». A routine of tension at the individual level is a way of adapting to the present, but the long-range forecast in all narratives is based on the expectation of a decrease in social tension