Exploring gender stereotypes using qualitative-quantitative methodological integration

Abstract

This paper presents the research possibilities of the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to explore gender stereotypes underlying the professional practice of psychology. The self-report technique, used as a research tool for stereotypes, has shown deficiencies in the control of the effect of social desirability on responses. This research accessed through qualitative methodology the discursive forms used by the study population to express covert gender stereotypes in socially acceptable formulations. From the Discussion Group with Psychology students, textual statements concealing these stereotypes were taken to transform them into items of a quantitative scale to assess large samples. The results were analyzed qualitatively by and with participants in the study. The methodological integration was an adequate strategy to access socially shared meanings, both in the design of instruments and in the explanation of the phenomena investigated.