Qualitative Yoga

Methodologies serve as the guidelines that lead research work (Willis, 2007). The action of measuring is based in the necessity to evaluate an idea or to provide support to explanations or concepts; these measurements help in the connection of ideas and perceptions, in order to understand the social world (Neuman, 2014). There are two major categories of research methodologies, the quantitative and the qualitative, and they both are used to answer research questions but in different ways. The main distinctions between these approaches lie in foundational premises related to how human beings understand the nature of the world in a better way (Willis, 2007). The selection of the approach to be used will depend on the research problem to be analyzed.
The purpose of this qualitative research is to seek answers about the causes of the poor participation of males in yoga by examining yoga social settings, specially the UQ Yoga and Meditation Club (UQYMC), and the members that are found in these settings (Berg & Lune, 2012). The research will analyze how is that these participants make sense of their environment through social structures, traditions, and customs. The qualitative approach will help in the exploration of the yoga members structure, the understanding of male yoga practitioners, their relationship with other members, and the meaning that yoga has in their lives (Berg & Lune, 2012). This approach will search for detailed descriptions from the male yoga participants perspectives, by exploring their behaviors, experiences, feelings and motivations, which are observable elements that require our perception and intuitive
The purpose of the observation will be to describe the yoga classes setting, yoga practitioners and the meanings of what is observed through my perspective (Quinn Patton, 2002). It will involve the direct observation of yoga practitioners in a natural setting. The type of observation that will be used is the non-participant observation where I will attempt to observe yoga members and taking notes without participating in the yoga practice and without letting them know that they are being observed (Singleton & Straits, 2010). Some of the observation method advantages are that it provides a better understanding of the context within people interact (Silverman, 2013); it also offers a first-hand experience within a setting, which also provides the researcher to deduce on personal knowledge during the interpretation of analysis; it also helps to see things that sometimes escape from members because of routine; it also allows the opportunity to discover things that sometimes people is unwilling to talk about in interviews, and allows to observe without the selective perceptions of others (Quinn Patton,