Qualitative Studies Flashcards
What questions are studied in Qualitative research?
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
Types of qualitative research
Phenomenology Ethnography Grounded theory Case study Participant action research
What is phenomenology research?
Studies many phenomenon that happen around us all the time but go undefined
What is ethnographical research?
‘Portrait of people’
Method for descriptive studies of cultures and people who have something n common
What can ethnography be divided into?
Emic
Etic
What is emic?
Perspective of an individual from a group about his own group
What is etic?
Perspective of an individual outside a specific group being studied
Who defined Grounded Theory?
Glaser and Strauss
How is the term grounded theory used?
- To describe qualitative analysis in general where theories generated are ‘grounded’ in collected data
- To describe a precise technique of generating theories and categories
How are theories/categories generated in grounded theory?
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
What is Participant action research (PAR)?
Involves individuals and groups researching their own groups and experiences.
Situations where qualitative research is useful
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
Data collection methods in qualitative research
Interviews
Observation
Document analysis
What is a structured interview?
Tight schedule of questions
What is a semi-structured interview?
Series of open-ended question based on previously selected topic areas
Another name for a semi-structured interview?
Focused interview
What is another name for unstructured interviews?
Depth/in depth interviews
What is an unstructured interview?
Interviewer has topics in mind but does not follow an order and frames questions based on the interviewees previous answers
Who created the term focus group?
Kitzinger 1995
What is a focus group?
Conducting interviews in groups with some predetermined structure to provide a focus
When are focus groups useful?
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
When should focus groups not be used?
To have just one group for the entire research - should have many small groups
What are field notes?
What a researcher writes down when collecting data on the field
What is transcribing?
Procedure of producing written version of the interview; full script of the interview
Estimated ratio time for transcribing interviews
5:1 (10 minute interview would need 50 minutes to be transcribed)
What is coding?
Process of transforming raw data into standard format to allow data analysis
What might coding involve?
Identifying recurrent words, concepts or themes
Types of data analysis
Content analysis
Conversation analysis
Discourse analysis
What can content analysis help with?
Categorisation of spoken, written or observational data to classify, tabulate and summarise it
Types of content analysis
Manifest level
Latent level
What is content analysis at manifest level?
Basic descriptive account of the data
What is latent analysis in content analysis?
What was meant from the response
What was inferred or implied from the response
How can content analysis be conducted?
Enumerating procedures such as counting word frequencies, analysing annotations or intonations etc
What is conversation analysis?
Combined audio and visual recordings are used to study interactional practices in particular settings
What is discourse analysis?
Centres on interpretation of social discourse in the context of the occurrence via analysis of personal accounts or written autobiographical documents
Methods of assessing validity of qualitative research
Triangulation
Respondent validation
Reflexivity
Deviant case analysis
What is triangulation?
Compares results from two or more methods of data collection, looking for patterns of convergence
What is investigator triangulation?
More than one investigator involved and findings are cross-validated
What is respondent validation?
Techniques in which the investigator’s account is compared with research subjects to establish level of correspondence
What is reflexivity?
Sensitivity to the ways in which the researcher and research process have shaped collected data such as prior assumptions/experiences which can influence results
What is deviant case analysis?
Paying attention to, searching for and discussing elements of the data that may contradict emerging explanation of the phenomena under study
Relationship of phenomenon studied in qualitative data
Describe social phenomena as they occur naturally
Relationship of phenomenon studied in quantitative research
Describes effects of interventions either on naturally occurring phenomenon or nodal points where natural phenomena could be modified e.g. diagnosis
Sampling in qualitative studies
Purposeful sampling; no predetermined sample size, sampling takes place until theoretical saturation occurs
Sampling in quantitative studies
Representative - random or matched with predetermined numbers based on power of study
Which type of study uses a deductive approach?
Quantitative - making generalisations from samples
Which type of study uses an inductive approach?
Qualitative - applying general facts to subsamples to understand an experience
Representativeness of qualitative studies
Sample is interested in outliers
Representativeness of quantitative studies
Sampling seeks to demonstrate representativeness so generally outliers not preferred
Purpose of qualitative studies
Phenomenological
‘Describing’
Purpose of quantitative research
Scientific
‘Explaining’
Consideration of multiple factors in qualitative research
Holistic
Consideration of multiple factors in quantitative research
Reductionist
Hypothesis in qualitative research
Research may generate new hypothesis
Hypothesis in quantitative research
Research tests a proposed hypothesis
