Chapter 5- Interpretation of Findings

The section of Chapter 5, Interpretation of Findings is one of the most important ones in the entire paper. You should take your time and carefully consider this section. It is here that you put your study in the context of the greater literature- what have you added to the literature? What do we know now that we didn't know before? 

Begin this section with a description of the ways in which your findings confirm, disconfirm, or extend knowledge in the discipline. You will need to do this by comparing your findings with what has been found in the peer-reviewed literature described in Chapter 2. Yes, you will have to go back to Chapter 2 and see what other studies reported- describe how yours are the same or different. This is not something that can be done in a paragraph or even a page. Discuss each of your themes/ findings and determine how they fit in the literature. 

Next, you turn to your theories, analyze, and interpret your study's findings in the context of the theoretical and/or conceptual framework, as appropriate. This section needs to be in-depth, what did your theory predict? How do your findings relate to the predictions? Do we need to rethink the theory? How? What needs to be added? Just be very sure that your interpretations do not exceed the data, findings, and scope. You can always mention areas that still need to be studied. 

What do you do if your study did not work as expected? For example, you got non-significant results or your interviewees did not say what you expected them to. Discuss what was expected based upon the literature, and then speculate as to why your results may not have come out as expected. Did you have a small sample? Were your subjects from a different area/population than previous studies? Think about theoretical implications of your findings- what does it mean to the theory that things didn’t work out? Should we consider changes in the theory? Any advice for future researchers in this topic area? 

Next time we will examine Chapter 5- Limitations and Recommendations. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu