Hi, I am getting very confused with methods for my social work masters dissertation, so any help would be massively appreciated!

I want to analyse/synthesise 'conceptual' articles. I was told the way to do this was to carry out a 'metasynthesis', which as far as i'm aware involves searching for and selecting articles to appraise, then appraising them (using some kind of tool), then coding the findings of the articles, then synthesising these codes i.e. bringing the findings together.

However, all the info I have come across on metasynthesis describes how to do this with RESEARCH articles, rather than CONCEPTUAL articles.

Does anyone know of any methods/tools to synthesis conceptual articles?

Hope this makes sense.. it just about does to me...

Thanks!!

You are doing meta-theory analysis or simply meta-theory.

Here are some possibilities:
1. Identifying the cognitive paradigms that underlie the proposed theory.
2. Identifying the assumptions underlying the theory.
3. Identifying the historical evolution of the theory…

So, you want to become a meta-theorist? Meta-theorist’s work may evoke criticism and hostility due to the resistance to change one’s belief…