Qualitative Research Flashcards
Approaches
A qualitative ‘approach’ is a general way of thinking about conducting qualitative research. It describes, either explicitly or implicitly, the purpose of the qualitative research, the role of the researcher(s), the stages of research, and the method of data analysis.
Ethnography
The emphasis in ethnography is on studying an entire culture. The most common ethnographic approach is participant observation as a part of field research. The ethnographer becomes immersed in the culture as an active participant and records extensive field notes. As in grounded theory, there is no pre-set limiting of what will be observed and no real ending point in an ethnographic study.
Phenomenology
The goal of qualitative phenomenological research is to describe a ‘lived experience’ of a phenomenon.
Grounded Theory:
The purpose of grounded theory is to develop theory about phenomena of interest. The theory needs to be grounded or rooted in observation, hence the term.
Grounded theory is a complex process. The research begins with the raising of generative questions which help to guide the research but are not intended to be either static or confining. Core theoretical concepts are gradually identified. Tentative linkages are developed between the theoretical core concepts and the data. This early phase of the research tends to be very open and can take months. Later on the researcher is more engaged in verification and summary. The effort tends to evolve toward one core category that is central.
Methods
The most common methods used, particularly in healthcare research, are interviews and focus groups.
Sampling
Convenience (or opportunistic) sampling:
This is a technique that uses an open period of recruitment that continues until a set number of subjects, events, or institutions are enrolled. Here, selection is based on a first-come, first-served basis.
Purposive sampling:
Participants groups are selected according to preselected criteria relevant to a particular research question (for example, HIV-positive women in Capital City).
Quota sampling is sometimes considered a type of purposive sampling. In quota sampling, we decide while designing the study how many people with which characteristics to include as participants. Quota sampling is more specific with respect to sizes and proportions of subsamples, with subgroups chosen to reflect corresponding proportions in the population.
Snowball sampling (aka chain referral sampling):
Participants or informants with whom contact has already been made use their social networks to refer the researcher to other people who could potentially participate in or contribute to the study. Snowball sampling is often used to find and recruit ‘hidden populations’, that is, groups not easily accessible to researchers through other sampling strategies.
Case study sampling:
This involves selecting a single individual, institution, or event.
Assessing validity
Triangulation:
Triangulation compares the results from either two or more different methods of data collection (for example, interviews and observation) or, more simply, two or more data sources (for example, interviews with members of different interest groups).
Respondent validation (aka member checking):
Respondent validation, or member checking, includes techniques in which the investigator’s account is compared with those of the research subjects to establish the level of correspondence between the two sets.
Bracketing:
Bracketing is a methodological device of phenomenological inquiry that requires deliberate putting aside ones own belief about the phenomenon under investigation or what one already knows about the subject prior to and throughout the phenomenological investigation.
Reflexivity:
Reflexivity means sensitivity to the ways in which the researcher and the research process have shaped the collected data, including the role of prior assumptions and experience, which can influence even the most avowedly inductive inquiries.
Analytical approaches
Content analysis:
Interviews, both individual and group, are transcribed to produce texts that can be used to generate coding categories and to test theories. This can involve enumerating procedures such as counting word frequencies, sometimes aided by computer software.
Constant comparison:
This is an approach based on grounded theory. It allows researchers to identify the themes that are important (i.e. important in answering the research question) in a systematic way, providing an audit trail as they proceed. The method is used by the researcher to develop concepts from the data by coding and analysing at the same time.
Which of the following is an analytic technique based on grounded theory?
Constant comparison
