Qualitative studies

Question 1

5 main types of qualitative research

Answer 1

1. phenomenology
2. ethnography
3. grounded theory
4. case study
5. participant action research

Question 2

Phenomenology

Answer 2

-helps define phenomena around us that are not characterised clearly

Question 3

Ethnography

Answer 3

• descriptive study of cultures and people who have something in common
• Emic perspective- refers to perspective of an individual from a specific cultural group about his own group
• Etic perspective- refers to the perspective of an individual outside a specific cultural group about the studied group

Question 4

Grounded theory

Answer 4

-formally acknowledges and describes an experience
-shows if theories are’grounded’ with evidence
=categories are tested by collecting data on the basis of new categories made-theoretical sampling

Question 5

Case study

Answer 5

• case can be a person organisation or institution

- some research studies describe a series of cases

Question 6

Participant action research

Answer 6

-involves individuals and groups researching their own personal beings, socio-cultural settings and experiences

Question 7

Data collection methods in qualitative research

Answer 7

• interviews
• observation
• document analysis

Question 8

Interviews

Answer 8

• can be structured, unstructured or semi-structured

- or can be a focus group

Question 9

Observation

Answer 9

-field notes used

Question 10

Coding

Answer 10

• transforming raw data into a standard formal to enable analysis
• involves identifying recurrent words, concepts or themes

Question 11

Content analysis

Answer 11

manifest level- what was actually said

latent level- what was meant

Question 12

Conversation analysis

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Discourse analysis

Answer 13

-centres on the interpretation of social discourse in the context of the occurrence via analysis of persona accounts or written autobiographical documents

Question 14

Triangulation

Answer 14

-compares the results from either two or more methods of data collection or data sources

Question 15

Respondent validation

Answer 15

-investigator’s account is compared to those of the research subjects to establish the level of correspondence between the two sets

Question 16

Reflexivity

Answer 16

-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 the results

Question 17

Deviant case analysis

Answer 17

• refers to paying attention to, searching for and discussing elements in the data that contradict or seem to contradict the emerging explanation of the phenomena under study