12: Qualitative Research I & II ✅ Flashcards
QR
Collection and analysis of words and not numbers
Words= qualitative data
Numbers= quantitative data
Group size in QR
Small number of research participants
Aim: present results specific to a group of people not generisable results
What does QR require?
Research question
Aka a question that can be addressed by conducting research
The question should be specific enough in order to collect the most appropriate research method
Researchers start with a general topic, then read relevant literature to refine their question
QR can
Stand alone and answer specific research questions
Or
Support quantitative research
Main methods of qualitative data collection
Interviews
Focus groups
Observation
How is collection of words done?
Asking or observing
Interview
Form of conversation
Researcher poses question, participant expected to do most of the talking
Usually recorded
Usually transcribed verbatim
Start with 10 interviews and stop when saturation is achieved
Purpose is to gather enough data to understand a phenomenon in depth or answer a question adequately
Interviews can be unstructured or semi-structured
Focus groups
Group discussion
Helps study many people at once
Less expensive
Largely used to gauge a situation before setting up a larger study
Used to make sense of quantitative results
When can focus groups be a stand-alone research method?
If there’s a specific research question to answer and data saturation is checked
Observation
A systematic and long observation of behaviour in its natural environment
Largely used in social anthropology
Other disciplines such as sociology and education are
using it
Purpose is to understand the rationale of behaviour
Observation can be..
Overt: participants know they are observed
Covert: participants do not know they are observed
Participant: research observe by participating
Observation process
Observer writes everything observed on paper
Everything then is coded and analysed
Usually combined with interviews in order to compare what people say with what they do
QR aims to
Understand phenomena in depth
What type of question is used for collecting qualitative data?
Open questions
Sampling
Very important in qualitative research
Common question is “where shall I stop interviewing?”
No pre-determined answer, the answer is however clear
Data saturation
When there are no new themes or topics from the data
Importance of data saturation
Shows the data in enough in depth for understanding of phenomena
That the study is robust and thus publishable
When is coding of qualitative data started?
Once the data is collected
Code
A word or short phrase which represents larger amounts of info
Coding could rely on predetermined codes or come directly from the data
Coding of qualitative data
Codes can then be grouped together as categories or themes (broader codes) before data analysis
Coding can be done through softwares (Atlas Ti, NVivo, Ethnograph)
If using software, it’s necessary to use the same codes to label the same or similar words/sentences
Possible codes
Personal info: information about job, age, marital status
Doctor decided: doctor check and prescribed, tells what to do
Time: short consultation
Feelings during consultation: feeling like an object
Next step after coding
Group codes from interviews together into broader codes or themes
Themes
Representative of the codes
Can work as chapters/ sections for analysis
Main themes
History taking (personal info)
Decision making (doctor decided)
Duration of consultation (time)
Patients’ feelings (feelings during consultation)
What do you put under each of the themes?
The codes and actual quotations
Start the analysis of data by..
Writing a description of representative text for each
theme and
Incorporating a quotation or quotations as examples
This representative text is the academic/ scientific presentation of results
How do you interpret the data at the end?
Use the literature
-explain why your participants behaved the way they
did
-discuss how your findings compare with findings from other studies
Qualitative data needs to be
Coded and classified
Coding helps
Sampling size and achievement of data saturation
Helps the organisation of data in themes
Through the construction of themes..
Researchers start analyzing their data
