CH 11. Qualitative Design and Approaches

Question 1

Which of the following qualitative research approaches is most commonly used for theory building?
a. Case study
b. Phenomenology
c. Grounded theory
d. Ethnographic method

Answer 1

C

Feedback
A) Case study focuses on specific clinical scenarios or situations.
B) Phenomenology focuses on the lived experience of a particular phenomenon.
C) Grounded theory is associated with theory building.
D) The ethnographic method focuses on culture.

Question 2

Which of the following features distinguishes intensive dialogue from a simple interview?
a. The researcher makes detailed notes about the participant’s responses during the interview.
b. The researcher is fully engaged, becoming a thoughtful presence during the interview.
c. The researcher develops the interview questions before the actual interview occurs.
d. The researcher completes the questionnaire for the participant to avoid any misunderstanding or confusion

Answer 2

B) The researcher is fully engaged, becoming a thoughtful presence during the interview

Feedback: A dialogue is more extensive than a simple interview because the researcher is present and actively engaged in a dialogue

Question 3

How does nursing research using the phenomenological approach differ from more traditional forms of research?

a. The results present the “lived experience.”
b. The study participants are people with illness, injury, or disease.
c. The focus of the study is the actual or objective phenomenon itself.
d. The focus of the study is on understanding the reality of the phenomenon to the person experiencing it.

Answer 3

d. The focus of the study is on understanding the reality of the phenomenon to the person experiencing it

Rationale:
North American forms of phenomenology may focus on the realities of the participants instead of the phenomenon itself

Question 4

What forms the final synthesis of participants’ descriptions after a researcher has analyzed data from a phenomenological study?
a. Description of the lived experience
b. Identification of thought sequences
c. Generalization of the findings
d. Classification of themes

Answer 4

a. Description of the lived experience

Feedback: The final synthesis is a narrative of the lived experience.

Question 5

Which of the following research questions is most appropriate for a grounded theory approach?
a. How do incarcerated persons interact with fellow prisoners convicted of violent crimes against children?
b. How do First Nations adolescent girls select a method of contraception?
c. What percentage of primary school teachers has a master’s degree?
d. How is the total number of clinical hours in a nursing program related to NCLEX pass rates?

Answer 5

a. How do incarcerated persons interact with fellow prisoners convicted of violent crimes against children?

Question 6

Why does the investigator ask a question different from a formal research question when initiating dialogue with a participant in a phenomenological study?

a. Qualitative methodology dictates that research questions be implied rather than explicitly stated.
b. The investigator needs to ensure that the initiating question is clear and understandable to the study participant.
c. Research questions are considered an outcome of qualitative research rather than a driving force for the conduct of the study.
d. Research questions must be congruent with the themes and connected to the data generated by the study.

Answer 6

b. The investigator needs to ensure that the initiating question is clear and understandable to the study participant.

Question 7

How should the researcher proceed when the second person interviewed during a phenomenological study makes statements that are very similar to those made by the first participant?

a. Stop interviewing more participants because the data are considered saturated.
b. Ask the second participant whether he or she has been talking with the first participant.
c. Continue to interview more participants to determine whether the similarities in responses persist or were just coincidental.
d. Continue to interview participants but change the phrasing of the question used to initiate dialogue.

Answer 7

c. Continue to interview more participants to determine whether the similarities in responses persist or were just coincidental.

Feedback: The researcher should continue with further interviews. Themes need to be consistent among multiple interviews before the researcher stops collecting data

Question 8

How does the researcher know that data saturation has occurred?

a. When all participants agree on the themes derived from the study
b. When the ideas or data coming from new participants have all been expressed by previous participants
c. When the emerging themes are congruent with those developed as a result of previous studies of the same phenomenon
d. When the participants are no longer interested or willing to discuss their experiences or feelings

Answer 8

b. When the ideas or data coming from new participants have all been expressed by previous participants

Feedback: Data saturation is determined to have occurred when the researcher recognizes that he or she has heard the themes in multiple prior interviews.

Question 9

In a report of a phenomenological study, you find direct quotes from the participants threaded throughout the narrative. What is the significance of this observation?

a. The researcher is supporting his or her findings.
b. The researcher is attempting to make the report more personal.
c. The technique violates the human participants’ right to protection.
d. The technique ensures that the proper level of data saturation has been reached

Answer 9

a. The researcher is supporting his or her findings.

Feedback: Direct quotes allow the reader to evaluate what the participants said and how the researcher labelled what was said

Question 10

Which of the following is considered the foundation of the grounded theory method of qualitative research?

a. Cultural anthropology
b. Spirituality or religiosity
c. Philosophy, art, and science
d. Symbolic interaction and social science

Answer 10

d. Symbolic interaction and social science

Feeback: Grounded theory emerged from social science and symbolic interaction

Question 11

Which of the following data-gathering techniques is accepted in the grounded theory approach
but not in the phenomenological approach?
a. Face-to-face interview
b. Recorded interview
c. Participant-written response to written questions
d. Skilled observation of individuals in a social setting

Answer 11

d. Skilled observation of individuals in a social setting

Feedback: Grounded theorists observe participants in their natural settings. This practice is
referred to as fieldwork. Phenomenologists do not use fieldwork.

Question 12

Why is literature review expected to be limited in a study that employs grounded theory
methods?
a. Studies using grounded theory methods are sparse.
b. Grounded theory is more sensitive to cultural values than to the researcher’s
values.
c. Theories are expected to emerge directly from current research data and not from
previous research.
d. By limiting the literature review, the researcher ensures that personal biases are
bracketed.

Answer 12

c. Theories are expected to emerge directly from current research data and not from
previous research.

Feedback: Grounded theory emerges from current research data and reflects the contextual
values that are integral to the social processes being studied

Question 13

Which of the following actions or behaviours should be avoided in a study employing
grounded theory methods?
a. Having “hunches” about emerging patterns before data gathering is completed
b. The researcher expressing his or her opinions or values to the participant
c. Changing how data about experiences are collected or selected after the study has
been initiated
d. Expanding codes or data categories as the study progresses

Answer 13

b. The researcher expressing his or her opinions or values to the participant

Feedback: Researchers want to observe participants interacting in natural social settings.
Interjection of the researcher’s opinion disrupts the natural setting.

Question 14

Which of the following statements is consistent with an emic view of a factor or situation?
a. A health care provider’s statement that Aboriginal people are stoic in the
experience of pain
b. A kindergarten teacher’s statement that there are fewer discipline problems among
Asian children
c. The Canadian Cancer Society’s report that the incidence rate of prostate cancer is
higher among African-Canadian men
d. A Caucasian teenager’s statement that being skinny is more socially acceptable
than having normal weight or being overweight

Answer 14

d. A Caucasian teenager’s statement that being skinny is more socially acceptable
than having normal weight or being overweight

Feedback: Emic refers to an insider’s view. The teenager’s statement provides a view on
body weight related to the teenager’s personal experience

Question 15

Which of the following titles suggests that the study employs the ethnographic method?
a. The Phenomenon of Breast Self-Examination Among African-Canadian Women
b. The Lived Experience of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women
c. The Need for Culturally Sensitive Cancer Prevention Patient Education Materials
d. Preserving Femininity After Mastectomy

Answer 15

a. The Phenomenon of Breast Self-Examination Among African-Canadian Women

Feedback: Researchers use the ethnographic method to examine cultural variations in
health. The other answers do not refer to issues related to cultural behaviour.

Question 16

For an ethnographic study titled “How Rural Northern Albertan Families With Preschool
Children Define and Practice Health,” the researcher gathered data from mothers who were
identified as the primary directors of health care within the family unit. What role did the
mothers have in this study?
a. Community informants
b. General informants
c. Local informants
d. Key informants

Answer 16

d. Key informants

Feedback: Key informants are individuals with special knowledge who are willing to
provide information to the ethnographer about a phenomenon.

Question 17

Which of the following research questions illustrates the ethnographic approach to qualitative
research?
a. In what ways do Puerto Rican women obtain health information?
b. What is the quality of life for persons living with HIV infection?
c. What was Florence Nightingale’s involvement in sanitation reforms during the
1860s?
d. How do individuals with heart disease experience anger?

Answer 17

a. In what ways do Puerto Rican women obtain health information?

Feedback: Ethnographic studies address questions that concern how cultural knowledge,
norms, values, and other contextual variables influence one’s health experience

Question 18

In historical research, what or who constitutes the sample of the study?
a. Individuals who are the main characters in the historical context under study
b. Physical setting(s) in which the event occurred
c. Researchers and data gatherers
d. Data sources

Answer 18

d. Data sources

Feedback: The sample consists of multiple data sources such as documents, videos, and
witnesses that describe the event under study.

Question 19

Which of the following pioneers of qualitative nursing research is known for the
phenomenological study that provided the basis for the theory of “human becoming”?
a. Leininger
b. Newman
c. Parse
d. Strauss

Answer 19

c. Parse

Feedback: Parse developed the theory of Human Becoming.

Question 20

What is the purpose of a “grounded theory” research design?
a. To ensure that the theory used has appropriate philosophical underpinnings
b. To move a concept from the perceived view to the received view
c. To test a theory for its specific application
d. To examine patterns of action and interaction between and among various types of
social units

Answer 20

d. To examine patterns of action and interaction between and among various types of
social units

Question 21

Which of the following specific major premises of grounded theory is represented when the
members of a nation are outraged by their nation’s flag being burned by the members of
another nation?
a. Social interactions are the focus of grounded theory.
b. Humans respond to objects on the basis of the meanings those objects have for
them.
c. People use interpretive processes in order to deal with or change the meanings of
their situations.
d. Personal meanings arise from interactions with others over time and are perceived
through one’s individual worldview

Answer 21

a. Social interactions are the focus of grounded theory

Feedback: Symbolic interactionism supports grounded theory studies, and social
interactions are the focus of these studies

Question 22

How are ethnographic and phenomenological studies different?
a. Ethnographic studies include both qualitative and quantitative data, whereas
phenomenological studies employ only qualitative methods of data collection.
b. Ethnographic research makes extensive use of case studies, whereas
phenomenological research relies more on questionnaires that include multiplechoice options.
c. Phenomenological research focuses on the meaning of an event or experience to an
individual or group of people, whereas ethnographic research focuses on patterns
of behaviour of people within a culture.
d. Phenomenological research requires that data be collected face to face over an
extended period and in the person’s natural setting; ethnographic studies collect the
history of a culture by using primary and secondary documents as key data

Answer 22

c. Phenomenological research focuses on the meaning of an event or experience to an
individual or group of people, whereas ethnographic research focuses on patterns
of behaviour of people within a culture.

Feedback: Phenomenological research focuses on the meaning of an event or experience to
an individual or group of people, whereas ethnographic research focuses on
patterns of behaviour of people within a culture. This accurately describes
phenomenological and ethnographic research