Qualitative Data Collection and Quality Flashcards
Describe goodness of fit in qualitative designs:
Goodness of fit between:
- Purpose
- Design
- Research questions
- Conceptual and operational definitions
- Data collection method
What do we critique in the data collection of qualitative studies?
- Is data collection focused on the human experience?
- Does the researcher describe data collection strategies? What are they?
- Was the data of sufficient depth and richness?
Describe rigour as part of qualitative research:
- Constant comparative data collection
> Con’t comparing data as they are acquired during research - Data collection and analysis simultaneously
> Compare findings to literature and other transcripts/findings - Close adherence to philosophical orientation (design)
- Thoroughness in collecting data
- Consideration of all the data in developing theory
What are the four criteria we used to judge scientific rigour?
- Credibility
- Auditability
- Transferability
- Confirmability
What is credibility?
- Authors present such a faithful description of human experience that is it recognizable as one’s own to others who have experienced this phenomenon
- The confidence placed in truth of the findings
- Truth of findings as judged by participants and others within the discipline
- Refers to accuracy, validity and soundness of data (similar to internal validity in quantitative research)
- E.g. prolonged engagement, member checking, peer debriefing, “thick” description, researcher credibility, reflexivity
What is transfer-ability?
- How well the findings “fit” into contexts outside the study situation and whether the data “fit” the findings
- “Thick” description, verbatim data in research reports
- Faithfulness to the everyday reality of the participants, described in enough detail so that others in the discipline can evaluate the importance for their own practice, research and theory development
What is auditability?
- Whether another researcher is able to clearly follow the “decision trail” used by the researcher
- Investigator triangulation, detailed field notes re: methodological decisions, reflexivity
- Accountability as judged by the adequacy of information leading the reader from the research question and raw data through various steps of analysis to the interpretation of findings
- E.g. reviewing all documents r/t the study, such as research protocol, memos, correspondences, field notes, research tools, etc.
What is confirm-ability?
Findings that reflect implementation of credibility, audit-ability and transfer-ability standards
What is data reduction?
- Ongoing process as data is collected
- Process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data
- Organized into meaningful clusters (themes or structured meaning units)
- Thematic analysis: process of recognizing and recovering the emergent themes
Describe phenomenological analysis:
- Immersion in the data - read and reread
- Extract significant statements
- Determine relationship among themes
- Describe phenomena and themes
- Synthesize themes into a consistent description of phenomenon
Describe ethnographic analysis:
- Immerse in the data
- Identify patterns and themes
- Take cultural inventory
- Interpret findings
- Compare findings to the literature
Describe grounded theory analysis:
- Examine each line of data line by line
- Divide data into discrete parts
- Compare data for similarities/differences
- Compare data with other data collected, continuously - constant comparative method
- Cluster into categories
- Develop categories
- Determine relationships among categories
Describe case study analysis:
- Identify unit of analysis
- Code continuously as data is collected
- Find commonalities, themes
- Analyze field notes
- Review and identify patterns and connections
Describe presenting the findings:
- Results section = presentation of the raw data and analysis
- Discussion section - interpretation of the results/findings
Describe interpreting the findings:
- What are the major findings?
- Are the findings accurate and discussed in relation to problem/purpose, framework and lit review?
- Are the researcher’s conceptualizations true to the data?
- Are various explanations for the findings examined?
- Are limitations of the study identified by the researcher?
Describe implications and recommendations:
- Do conclusions, recommendations and implications give the reader a context in which to use the findings?
- What are the recommendations? Do they reflect the findings?
- How has the researcher made explicit the significance of the study to nursing theory, research or practice?
What four conditions does scientific observation fulfill?
1) Observations undertaken are consistent with the study’s specific objectives
2) A standardized and systematic plan exists for the observation and recording of data
3) All of the observations are checked and controlled
4) Observations are related to scientific concepts and theories
Why are observations a suitable choice for qualitative studies?
- Collects data in complex research situations that are best viewed as total entities and difficult to measure in parts
- Can be the best way to operationalize some variables of interest in nursing studies, particularly individual characteristics and conditions (e.g. traits, behavior)
What is the difference between concealment and intervention?
Concealment means that participants do not know they are being observed, and in intervention, the observer provokes actions from those being observed
What are the four basic types of observational roles based on the levels of concealment or intervention?
1) Concealment without intervention
2) Concealment with intervention
3) No concealment without intervention
4) No concealment with intervention
If a researcher is concerned about reactivity, what type of observation is likely to be employed?
- Concealment without intervention (researcher watches participants without their knowing they are being observed and does not provoke action)
- May face an ethical dilemma, as it violates assumptions of informed consent
What is debriefing?
Allowing a participant the right to refuse to have data included in a study and to discuss any questions; may be done after an observational study in which concealment without intervention was used
Describe unstructured observational methods:
- Not characterized by a total absence of structure but usually involve collecting descriptive information
- Observer keeps field notes recording activities
Describe structured observational methods:
- Require formal training and competence of evaluator’s
- Involves categories, systems, checklists, rating scales, etc.
- Standardized tools evaluates observations
Define: Rigour
The strictness with which a study is conducted to enhance the quality, believability or trustworthiness of study findings
What is the basic approach to ensure rigour in qualitative research?
- Methodical research design
- Data collection
- Interpretation
- Communication
What are the two goals of qualitative researchers?
1) Account for method and the data (must be independent so another researcher can analyze the same data in the same way and make same conclusions)
2) Produce a credible and reasoned explanation of the phenomenon under study
What happens in prolonged engagement and persistent observation?
Researchers spend sufficient time with participant’s to check for discrepancies in responses
What happens in peer debriefing?
Conducted with experts in the field, whose probing questions and review about the research can assist the researchers in improving trustworthiness in data
What happens in member checking?
Verifies the accuracy of participant’s responses by asking the participants to review themes and narratives to determine whether the researchers accurately described their experiences
What is triangulation?
- Cross-checking and verification of data through different information sources, such as data sources, investigators, theoretical models and research methods
- Viewed as offering completeness to naturalistic inquiry
When is confirmability achieved?
- When the criteria of credibility, fittingness and audit-ability were met
- These criteria are used to judge the scientific rigour of a qualitative study
