Qualitative Flashcards
Research process
- Research question
- Design study
- Collecting the data
- Interpreting data
- Reporting the data
Purpose of research
- Further knowledge about a profession/therapy
- assess needs for services
- evaluate the effectiveness of interventions
- develop assessment tool
- provide info about client’s experiences
- Examine the process of therapy
Difference between Qualitative vs Quantitative
- Used to obtain an understanding of the world from an individuals or social groups perspective
- Often involves interviewing people to understand their perspective
- Data in the form of words
Quantitative
- used to find out about relationships between variables, or quantify how common a phenomena is
- data is often collected by use of standardised measures, questionnaires or objective measurement methods
- the data gathered are quantifiable and statistical, using counts and measures
What is sampling and what are the advantages
- Aa researcher chooses a small, carefully chosen subgroup of the population, serves as a reference group for drawing conclusions about the population
- Must specify inclusion and exclusion criterion.
Advantages - More economical
- Time efficient
- Cana be more accurate because there is greater control over the measurements and procedures used.
What is ontology
a set of ideas, values, frameworks and beliefs
What is epistemology
A theory about the nature of knowledge and how we know what we know
Methodology
A specific ways to generate knowledge
Describe how different paradigms represent different epistemology
Positivism (Quant)
- Knowledge is objective
- Hard data
- Can be measured
- Natural and social world are the same
- Deduce hypothesis
Interpretivism (qual)
- Knowledge is subjective
- Meaning has action
- Relies on interpretation
- Social world is different to natural world
Advantages and Disadvantages Quantitative
Advantages
- Measurement: quantity is powerful tool in producing data on phenomena
- Rigour: methods transparent
- Internal validity: method are able to explain phenomena with independent and dependent variables explaining cause and effect
- Generalisability to large population
- Replicability by others
Disadvantages
- Social world diff from natural world
- Measures used by positivist researchers are artificial, measuring the constructs of researcher and not life as it is lived by respondents
- Surveys only measure responses at a single point in time, but people have the capacity for change and self-reflection
- Positivist methods are less effective at determining why people act as they do
Advantages and disadvantages of Qualitative
Advantages
- Flexibility of thinking
- Flexibility in interpretation of data
- Rich description: findings based on an empathetic understanding of the research participants
- Compensation: qualitative methods can be used to investigate areas where quantitative methods are inappropriate
- Validity: qualitative methods are high on internal validity as they draw of understanding of research participants
Disadvantages
- Observer bias
- Lack of consensus
- Lack of focus: sometimes too broad
- Lack of generalisability: undertaken with a small number of participants
- Poor replication
- Time costly
Not mixed methods
- Having both quantitative and qualitative data available
- Collection and reporting separately without combining them
- Using multiple quantitative or qualitative approaches AKA multi-method research
why is it important to know the research design
- Many different research designs with different purposes
- Strength and limitations well established
- To know which design is ‘best’ design to look for when you are looking for the bet available evidence
Ethical issues in health research
- Voluntary participation
- No harm
- Anonymity and confidentiality
- Deception
5 categories of study desigm
- Experimental
- Quasi experimental
- Observational
- Systematic reviews
- Qualitative
What is a paradigm
is a framework for a set of beliefs about what should be studied, what methods should be used, and how data should be interpreted
How does qualitative contribute
- Illustrate meaning
- Study how things work
- Capture stories to understand people’s perspectives and experiences
- Elucidate how systems function and their consequences for people’s lives
- Understand context: how and why it matters
- Identify unanticipated consequences
- Compare cases to discover important patterns and themes across cases
What are the 12 core strategies of qualitative inquiry
- Naturalistic inquiry: involves natural environment to understand human behaviour
- Design flexibility: Research design flexibility due to open-ended nature of
naturalistic inquiry and pragmatic decisions - Purposeful sampling: no rule for sample size in qualitative, choose data sources that can inform the phenomenon being investigated
- Data collection methods
- Personal experience and engagement
- Empathic neutrality: being non-judgmental and empathetic to build trust, sit in the middle (not too involved or too distant), mindfulness
- Dynamic systems perspective: shift and change methods as needed
- When interviewing disability/illness:
- -Gain ongoing consent (particularly if people have memory loss)
- -Ask if participant would like a break (especially if topic is emotional, or they fatigue quickly, or are in pain)
- -Ask if participant would like a family member present (e.g., for supportor as a prompt) - Unique case orientation
- Inductive analysis and creative synthesis
- Holistic perspective
- Context sensitivity
- Reflexivity: perspective & voice
Explain Phenomenolgy
Answers the question: “What is it like to
have a certain experience?”
• Provides rich descriptions of
experience as it is lived; deeper understandings.
• Findings often uncover meanings or
“essence” of an experience or
phenomenon.
Explain Ethnology
• Aims to describe and interpret a culture or its subgroups. • Asks “What is happening here” and “Why is it happening?” • Interpretive - a search for meaning within social norms, culturally patterned behaviour. • This method involves observation and note taking.
explain Grounded theory
• Primary purpose is to explore social processes and to generate explanatory theories of human behaviour which are grounded in the data. • Data collection and analysis occur simultaneously. Analysis includes constant comparison and systematic coding. Theoretical sampling guides further data collection to explore the emerging theory. • Analysis leads to identification of the core social processes and development of an explanatory theory based on the data.
Explain Narrative inquiry
• Life-story research • Based on tendency for people to story their experiences • Data analysis methods focus on plot or structure of stories, the use of metaphors and linguistic devices, as well as the influence of the listener • Purpose – to understand meaning individuals give to experiences
Explain action research
Aims to change something through systematic cycles of action & reflection (plan, act, observe, reflect) • Pursues action (or change) and research (or understanding) with local stakeholder involvement
Explain Pragmatism & generic qualitative inquiry
- stay close to the data and to the surface of the words and events
- combination of sampling, data collection, analysis, and representation techniques
- Method of choice for wanting straight phenomena descriptions
Means of interview
Face to Face
Telephone
Skype
Adv and Dis Face to Face
Ad Develop rapport better readily collect supporting data eg facial expression and body language Can note the participants’ context
Dis
- quiet , accessible space
- Booking and fees
- Increase resource demand for travel
A & D Telephone
Ad Convenience Flexibility increases numbers of participants Ic. geographical range of recruitment
Dis -development of rapport dec. -miss the faceto- face cues and responses -recording can be problematic and Unethical -interstate and overseas connections vary in quality, and calls can be costly for interviews 30-60 minutes
Ad and dis Skype
Ad Free reduced time and cost of travel participant can relax in own space
Dis
- connections quality vary (e.g.,
- may not see face clearly); interruption can occur.
Style of interview
Semi
• Open-ended questions with prompts for the interviewer
• Allows both structure and flexibility in exploring complex questions
Participant centered
Unstructured
- Allows Participants to discuss personal issues of importance
- Useful when know little and don’t want to influence with personal views
- minimal open ended questions
- improtu questions with focus on desired topic
Structured
Each participant is asked the same set of predetermined questions in the same way
• Useful for comparing answers from different participants
Number interview of interview
Individual
Focus group
Data collection methods
-Interview
Naturalist observation
-Participant or non-participant
Physical and virtual documentary sources
-Books, online websites, policy documents, graphics, artefacts
Trustworthiness of Qualitative Data
- Credibility= conclusions “ring true” for the people studied … participants will react like this to the study’s findings “Yeah, that’s right, but I hadn’t thought about it in that way.”
- Dependability = External checks must make the researcher’s process
trackable – i.e., an outsider must be able to see how a researcher went from point A to point B to point C in the interpretive process. - Confirmability = are conclusions the result of phenomenon not biased opinions
- Transferability = detailed description of the setting or group under study so readers can judge for whether personally relevant.
How to enhance rigour (thoroughness)
-• Reflexivity - being aware of impact of researchers’ attitudes, their power
and influence; accounting for mistakes and insights
• Member checking or respondent validation
• Peer review of data analysis / consensus coding
• Triangulation (e.g., data sources, sites, types of data, data analysts)
- Field notes: record observations and describe aspects of the field impacting data collection (e.g., interruptions, dominant informants in a focus group)
- Memos: make notes to aid data analysis by recording your thoughts and ideas (e.g., comparisons, depth of feeling in response to a topic, novel ideas prompted by reflection of one or more transcripts, ways of representing your findings).
What is content analysis
Is form of analysis appied to content of documents and other written form of communications to identify concepts and categories.
Manifest content
analysis of what the text says deals with the content aspect and describes the visible, obvious components of the data
Latent Content
analysis of what the text talks about deals with the relationship aspect and involves an interpretation of the underlying meaning of the text
Process of content analysis
Meaning units→ Condensed meaning units→ codes→ sub-categories→ categories→ themes
What are meaning units?
words, sentences or paragraphs containing aspects related to each other through their content and context
Condensed meaning
shortening the meaning unit while still preserving the core
Codes
the label of a meaning unit
Sub categories and categories
a group of content that shares a commonality, a description of content, an expression of manifest content, answer the question ‘what’ and can be identifies as a thread throughout the codes
Themes
something that links the underlying meaning of a group of categories together, answer the question ‘how’, an expression of the latent content of the text
Five stage framework of approach
Familiarisation Identifying a thematic framework Indexing (coding, annotating) Charting or developing a matrix by case and themes Mapping and interpreting
Thematic analysis
- Familiarising yourself with data→ transcribe, re-read
- Generating initial codes–> work systematically
- Searching for themes
- Reviewing themes
- Defining and naming themes
Producing the report
Levels of naturalist participant observations:
Participant-observation continuum
• Researcher is complete participant = takes part in the setting and may observe covertly
• Researcher is participant as observer =negotiated into setting and observe own work
group
• Researcher is observer as participant = marginally involved in setting but cannot play a
full role
• Researcher is complete observer = no participation in setting but observation only
Hawthorne effect
participants change their behaviour as a result of being observed or studied, therefore, researcher must avoid making comments on individual mistakes or irresponsibility. Instead focus on routine practices and processes
Steps in naturalistic observations:
Descriptive: provides a starting point, non-specific descriptions (general ideas and use of sensory data)
Focused: identifies most essential and important aspects of the study
Selective: at the end, mets the aim of the study by finding more examples and evidence for the the types of practises and processes found in step 2 (focused)
Naturalistic observations:
Who? How many? Characteristics and roles?
What is happening? What are actions and rules of behaviour?
Where do the interactions take place? Where are people located in the physical space?
When do conversations and interactions take place? What is the timing of the activities?
Why do people in the setting act in the way they do? Why are there variations in behaviour?
Pros and cons of participant observation
pros
Immediate accessibility of data Less disruptive than interviews Open settings are easier to access Others in setting forget about observer presence easier Low technology required
Cons
Extended periods of observation
Closed settings hard to access (therapy sessions)
Ethical issues of observing others (clients)
Hard to distinguish what is important when documenting
Need to manage relationships
Explain physical and virtual documentary sources
- Inquiry that is either text non-text based which might consist of written documents and records as well as graphics, photographs and film.
- For analysis, qualitative researchers treat these documents just like transcripts of interviews or detailed descriptions of observations.
when would you use physical and documentary sources
If the purpose of your research question is to understand a culture/organisation, activities within a culture, organisation, or services delivered by an organisation: Policy documents, reports, medical reports
- If the purpose of your research question is to understand the perceptions, experiences of individuals:
Written narratives, reflections, stories, diaries, blogs, tweets, emails, photos
Pros and cons of physical and virtual doc sources
Pros
Data is in own words
Large amounts readily availability
Access convenience
Saves time and cost with recruitment, collection and transcription
No need to develop interview skills
Provides data about events, settings and situations not easily obtained
Cons
Data may be inaccurate or not full recounts
Some data not readily available or difficult to access
Not documented directly for research purpose or question
Sites may disappear
Uncertainty with ethical reviews
Art approaches
- Participant-response activities: various media to engage
2. Participant-generated activities: drawing, pictures
Advantages of participant-response and participant-generated, artbased approaches:
- Calms participants by steering the focus for the discussion.
- Enhances brainstorming.
- Break up the monotony/repetitiveness of another lengthy method (e.g., a long interview)
- Personalise the activity by providing participants with the opportunity to share or create photographs, diaries, and other artefacts themselves.
- Engage with particular populations in ways that best suit their stage of development or personal circumstances.
Pros and cons of audio visual
Pros
• Unobtrusive/discrete collection possible
• Provides novel data collection sources which can support other data sources or stand alone
• Cultural way for individuals and
groups to capture and express their
opinions, perceptions, feelings,
experiences.
Cons
- Interpretation difficulty
- May not be accessible
- May require publisher’s permission
- Need to get advice about legal aspects (e.g., invasion of privacy, breach of copyright)
Explain transferability
Give readers enough of the context and participant details to enable them to decide if findings are relevant to their own setting.
