Lecture 12: Qualitative research methods (Data collection and data analysis) Flashcards
What are the most important methods for qualitative research?
Interviews, focus groups, observations
What is the purpose of interviews in qualitative research?
To gather information and describe experiences from participants’ perspectives
What are the advantages of using interviews in qualitative research?
- In-depth exploration of experiences
- Understanding how participants construct meaning
- Participants express themselves in their own words
- Flexibility in questioning
What are the disadvantages of interviews?
- Time-consuming
- Requires communicative skills
- Captures only reconstructed experiences (not behavior at the time)
What are the three ways of structuring interviews?
- Structured
- Semi-structured
- Unstructured
What is a focused group in qualitative research?
A method involving group discussions to explore specific issues
What are the advantages of focus groups?
- Explore new research areas
- Examine questions from participants’ perspectives
- Collect direct evidence on similarities and differences
What are the disadvantages of focus groups?
- Tendency toward conformity
- Polarization of views
- Potential for one person to dominate
What considerations should be made when conducting a focus group?
- Type of participants
- Homogeneity vs. heterogeneity
- Natural vs. artificial groups
- Moderator’s role
What roles can an observer take in qualitative research?
- Complete observer
- Observer-as-participant
- Participant-as-observer
- Complete participant
What are the main questions to consider in observation?
- What are people doing?
- What are they trying to accomplish?
- How do they characterize their actions?
- What assumptions are made?
These questions guide the observer in understanding the context.
What is data analysis in qualitative research?
The process of making sense of data through consolidation, reduction, and interpretation
What are the two levels of data analysis?
- Abstract level
- Descriptive level
What is thematic analysis?
A method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within qualitative data
Involves a coding process to develop themes from the data.
What are the stages of thematic analysis?
- Familiarizing with data
- Generating initial codes
- Searching for themes
- Reviewing themes
- Defining and naming themes
- Producing the report
What is content analysis?
A method to analyze documents and texts by quantifying content in predetermined categories
Requires systematic reading and coding of the text.
What are codes in qualitative content analysis?
Labels that put meaning to units of text
Codes help identify and interpret content meaning.
What are categories in qualitative content analysis?
Grouping codes under higher headings that share commonality
exhaustive, mutually exclusive.
What is CASP?
A tool with 10 questions and sub-questions for evaluating qualitative research
What is the purpose of Letts et al’s Canadian Evaluation process?
A tool with 12 questions to evaluate the quality of qualitative research
