Lecture 8 - Qualitative Research Flashcards
What is qualitative research?
“any research that produces findings not arrived by statistical procedures or other means of qualification”
– The concept of measurement does not feature within this this research paradigm
– Concepts such as distribution, representative sample, summarising data to a single value etc do not apply within this research paradigm
Philosophical problems
- Unscientific and anecdotal
- Lack of scientifically rigorous methods
- Personal perspective dominant
- Questionable applicability and relevance (hard to take evidence from the sample and make sense for the population)
Are these philosophical problems true?
No
– Clinical practice itself is more than just science
– Clinical practice is underpinned by personal observation, reflection, judgement
– Personal experiences of a therapist and the delivery of services, plays a key role in the outcomes of intervention
• Recognition of qualitative evidence as “scientific” in recent years
Qualitative research and EBP
- Qualitative research findings often provide an underlying framework for quantitative research
- Qualitative methods can help bridge the gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice
- Qualitative research findings provide rigorous accounts of treatment regimens in everyday contexts
Philosophical frameworks
• Interpretive (constructivist)
– Reality is socially constructed through the use of language and shared meanings
• There can be number of realities depending on the viewpoints within a social context (refugee on boat vs first class flights)
– Understand phenomena through listening or watching what people do in order to interpret their meaning
• Critical (post-positivism)
– Knowledge is value-laden and shaped by historical, social, political, power, gender, economic conditions etc.
• Critiques and amends positivism – many things can influence what is being observed – knowledge created hence can be influenced
– Not just what is happening but why and seek to generate theory and knowledge in order to help people bring about change (not everyone gets better at same rate, e.g. work cover, slow recovery and fear)
Aims of qualitative research
• Naturalism - understanding treatment regimens in an
everyday context
– E.g.: Compliance with your treatment such as doing prescribed exercises
• Interpretation - what meaning do symptoms and treatment regimens have for patients and practitioners?
– E.g.: Do patient perceive that they have a problem? Men not seeking health care in a timely manner?
• Process – social life is a process and how might these meaning change over time?
– E.g.: People with stroke/ heart disease and taking medications, diet modifications, life style changes and integrating these with everyday life
• Interaction - how does communication between patients and practitioners impact on care delivery?
– E.g.: Patient interacting with health system such as grandmother living at home by herself
• Relativism - scientific “reality” may look different from different perspectives
– E.g.: Biomedical approach vs patient centred
Qualitative research approaches
- A research approach is a strategy of inquiry which moves from the underlying philosophical assumptions to research design and data collection
- Various qualitative research methodologies
- The choice of research approach influences the way in which the researcher collects data
Qualitative research - basic assumptions
- Reality is complex, constructed and ultimately subjective
- Research is an interpretative process
- Knowledge is best achieved by conducting research in the natural settings
Qualitative research methodologies
• There are many and numerous
• Common qualitative research methodologies are
– Participatory Action Research (PAR) – Ethnography
– Grounded Theory
– Phenomenology
– Qualitative description – Feminist Research
– Discourse Analysis
– Case Study
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• Aims to examine the political structures that disempower marginalised, deprived and oppressed groups of people to find ways in which these structures be changed (e.g.. homelessness - look at their experiences and create new forms of knowledge away from ignorance or arrogance)
• Aims to create new forms of knowledge through creative synthesis of the different understandings and experiences of those who take part
• Since knowledge is created from the point of
view of marginalised, deprived and oppressed groups of people and classes, it aims to transform “social realities”
Ethnography
• Ethnographic research comes from the discipline of social and cultural anthropology where an ethnographer is required to spend a significant amount of time in this field
• Involves the researcher participating overtly or covertly in people’s daily lives of an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions & collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the
focus of research
Grounded Theory
• Grounded theory is a research methodology that seeks to develop theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analysed
• An inductive, theory discovery methodology that allows the researcher to develop a theoretical account of the general features of a topic while simultaneously grounding the account in empirical observations or data
eg. why do young people have a tendency to take part in risky behaviour like ice
• The major difference between grounded theory and other methods is its specific approach to theory development- grounded theory suggests that there should be a continuous interplay between data collection and analysis
• Consequently theories, concepts are identified and developed while the research is being conducted
Phenomenology
• Aims to study situations in the everyday world from the viewpoint of the experiencing person
• Phenomenology emphasis the individual’s construction of a “life-world” (ethnography characteristically emphasis on culture)
• Studies everyday events from the life-world of the person experiencing them ie. What an experience means for the person who has experienced it
eg. child abuse, sexual assault
Feminist Research
• Grew from the perspective that existing research and theory was biased to a male perspective
• Research largely had a masculine driven agenda
• Could be considered a political, critical and constructivist
• Large focus on female health issues
eg. pill when first invented
Discourse Analysis
• Aims at revealing what is being said, thought and done in relation to a specific topic or issue
• It captures public, professional, political and private discourses and deconstructing these “messages”
• Can be helpful in uncovering dominant and marginalised discourses and locating inconsistencies
eg. why did a certain policy exist at the time, what drove the decision making
