Qualitative Studies

Question 1

What questions are studied in Qualitative research?

Answer 1

Why people behave the way they do
How opinions and attitudes are formed
How people are affected by events around them
How and why vultures have developed they way they have
Differences between social groups

Question 2

Types of qualitative research

Answer 2

Phenomenology
Ethnography
Grounded theory
Case study
Participant action research

Question 3

What is phenomenology research?

Answer 3

Studies many phenomenon that happen around us all the time but go undefined

Question 4

What is ethnographical research?

Answer 4

‘Portrait of people’

Method for descriptive studies of cultures and people who have something n common

Question 5

What can ethnography be divided into?

Answer 5

Emic

Etic

Question 6

What is emic?

Answer 6

Perspective of an individual from a group about his own group

Question 7

What is etic?

Answer 7

Perspective of an individual outside a specific group being studied

Question 8

Who defined Grounded Theory?

Answer 8

Glaser and Strauss

Question 9

How is the term grounded theory used?

Answer 9

1. To describe qualitative analysis in general where theories generated are ‘grounded’ in collected data
2. To describe a precise technique of generating theories and categories

Question 10

How are theories/categories generated in grounded theory?

Answer 10

Initially a constant comparison of collected data takes place
From these comparisons, categories are generated until theoretical saturation is reached
These categories are tested by collecting more data on the basis of these categories - theoretical sampling

Question 11

What is Participant action research (PAR)?

Answer 11

Involves individuals and groups researching their own groups and experiences.

Question 12

Situations where qualitative research is useful

Answer 12

Exploring nature of problem to be studied
Generating hypothesis based on observations made
Investigations anomalies or oddities observed during clinical practice
Examining policy implementation
Collating service user/carers/staff views

Question 13

Data collection methods in qualitative research

Answer 13

Interviews
Observation
Document analysis

Question 14

What is a structured interview?

Answer 14

Tight schedule of questions

Question 15

What is a semi-structured interview?

Answer 15

Series of open-ended question based on previously selected topic areas

Question 16

Another name for a semi-structured interview?

Answer 16

Focused interview

Question 17

What is another name for unstructured interviews?

Answer 17

Depth/in depth interviews

Question 18

What is an unstructured interview?

Answer 18

Interviewer has topics in mind but does not follow an order and frames questions based on the interviewees previous answers

Question 19

Who created the term focus group?

Answer 19

Kitzinger 1995

Question 20

What is a focus group?

Answer 20

Conducting interviews in groups with some predetermined structure to provide a focus

Question 21

When are focus groups useful?

Answer 21

Useful when limited resources prevent individual interviews
used when studied individuals share a common factors which are the topic of investigation
If group interaction may allow greater insights to be developed

Question 22

When should focus groups not be used?

Answer 22

To have just one group for the entire research - should have many small groups

Question 23

What are field notes?

Answer 23

What a researcher writes down when collecting data on the field

Question 24

What is transcribing?

Answer 24

Procedure of producing written version of the interview; full script of the interview

Question 25

Estimated ratio time for transcribing interviews

Answer 25

5:1 (10 minute interview would need 50 minutes to be transcribed)

Question 26

What is coding?

Answer 26

Process of transforming raw data into standard format to allow data analysis

Question 27

What might coding involve?

Answer 27

Identifying recurrent words, concepts or themes

Question 28

Types of data analysis

Answer 28

Content analysis Conversation analysis Discourse analysis

Question 29

What can content analysis help with?

Answer 29

Categorisation of spoken, written or observational data to classify, tabulate and summarise it

Question 30

Types of content analysis

Answer 30

Manifest level | Latent level

Question 31

What is content analysis at manifest level?

Answer 31

Basic descriptive account of the data

Question 32

What is latent analysis in content analysis?

Answer 32

What was meant from the response | What was inferred or implied from the response

Question 33

How can content analysis be conducted?

Answer 33

Enumerating procedures such as counting word frequencies, analysing annotations or intonations etc

Question 34

What is conversation analysis?

Answer 34

Combined audio and visual recordings are used to study interactional practices in particular settings

Question 35

What is discourse analysis?

Answer 35

Centres on interpretation of social discourse in the context of the occurrence via analysis of personal accounts or written autobiographical documents

Question 36

Methods of assessing validity of qualitative research

Answer 36

Triangulation Respondent validation Reflexivity Deviant case analysis

Question 37

What is triangulation?

Answer 37

Compares results from two or more methods of data collection, looking for patterns of convergence

Question 38

What is investigator triangulation?

Answer 38

More than one investigator involved and findings are cross-validated

Question 39

What is respondent validation?

Answer 39

Techniques in which the investigator's account is compared with research subjects to establish level of correspondence

Question 40

What is reflexivity?

Answer 40

Sensitivity to the ways in which the researcher and research process have shaped collected data such as prior assumptions/experiences which can influence results

Question 41

What is deviant case analysis?

Answer 41

Paying attention to, searching for and discussing elements of the data that may contradict emerging explanation of the phenomena under study

Question 42

Relationship of phenomenon studied in qualitative data

Answer 42

Describe social phenomena as they occur naturally

Question 43

Relationship of phenomenon studied in quantitative research

Answer 43

Describes effects of interventions either on naturally occurring phenomenon or nodal points where natural phenomena could be modified e.g. diagnosis

Question 44

Sampling in qualitative studies

Answer 44

Purposeful sampling; no predetermined sample size, sampling takes place until theoretical saturation occurs

Question 45

Sampling in quantitative studies

Answer 45

Representative - random or matched with predetermined numbers based on power of study

Question 46

Which type of study uses a deductive approach?

Answer 46

Quantitative - making generalisations from samples

Question 47

Which type of study uses an inductive approach?

Answer 47

Qualitative - applying general facts to subsamples to understand an experience

Question 48

Representativeness of qualitative studies

Answer 48

Sample is interested in outliers

Question 49

Representativeness of quantitative studies

Answer 49

Sampling seeks to demonstrate representativeness so generally outliers not preferred

Question 50

Purpose of qualitative studies

Answer 50

Phenomenological | 'Describing'

Question 51

Purpose of quantitative research

Answer 51

Scientific | 'Explaining'

Question 52

Consideration of multiple factors in qualitative research

Answer 52

Holistic

Question 53

Consideration of multiple factors in quantitative research

Answer 53

Reductionist

Question 54

Hypothesis in qualitative research

Answer 54

Research may generate new hypothesis

Question 55

Hypothesis in quantitative research

Answer 55

Research tests a proposed hypothesis