SOWO 921

Question 1

List and describe the types of research objectives best suited for qualitative research.

Answer 1

• Explore a topic about which little is known (e.g., exploratory studies seeking to gain more knowledge/insight on an under-explored topic area)
• Sensitive topics (e.g., commercial sexual exploitation of children)
• Understanding meaning (making meaning of participants’ lived experience)
• Understanding the context of action (e.g., making meaning of why participants took certain actions like HIV disclosure)
• Understanding the process by which events take place (making meaning of how people think/act and why)
• Explaining results of quantitative studies (provides in-depth insight related to perceptions, perspectives, and experiences that help explain statistical findings)
• Merging activism and research (e.g., action research focused on community empowerment)

Question 2

Identify the 3 major research paradigms used in qualitative research and describe the ontological,
epistemological, and methodological assumptions of each of these paradigms.

Answer 2

1. Positivist/post-positive
   • Ontological: naïve/critical realist
   • Epistemological: objective/partial understanding
   • Methodological: experimental/hypothesis testing
2. Constructivist/interpretivist
   • Ontological: relativist
   • Epistemological: subjective/transactional (researchers presence influences or helps co-create reality); created findings
   • Methodological: dialectical/naturalistic
3. Critical theory
   • Ontological: historical realism
   • Epistemological: transactional/values-mediated
   • Methodological: dialectical/naturalistic

Question 3

List and describe the five (or 6 if you so choose) major research approaches (aka designs) in qualitative research.

a. Describe each approach’s defining features.
b. Identify and describe the types of research problems that are best addressed by each approach.
c. Using your research, practice writing a research question that each research approach would best address.

Answer 3

1. Narrative: detailed picture of individuals life
2. Phenomenology: describes the essence of lived experience for several individuals about a concept or phenomenon
3. Grounded theory: builds theoretical/conceptual models
4. Ethnography: describes the behaviors/experiences of a group of people
5. Case study: the in-depth study of a case that is bound by space and time
6. Action oriented: committed to community empowerment; embraces perspective, partnership, and participation
7. Narrative:

Features:

i. Focused on attaining a detailed picture of participants’ life
ii. Unit of analysis is the life story and individual experiences.
iii. Data collection: interviews, documents (e.g., journaling, diaries, personal communication, case files), and archive materials.
iv. Goal is not to challenge meaning making but to give context to understand it more fully.

Research problem:

Research questions: What stories are embedded in their narratives? How do these participants “voice” themselves and others in their social networks? What do these narratives reveal about exposure to factors that increased or decreased their risk of experiencing commercial sexual exploitation?

2. Phenomenology: describes the essence of lived experience for several individuals about a concept or phenomenon

Features:

i. concerned with the meaning of lived experiences
ii. reveal underlying meaning through “bracketing” experience (epoche), focused on perceptions of specific phenomenon

Research problem

Research questions: What is the lived experience of being HIV positive? What is the lived experience of being commercially sexually exploited? What are the essential elements of the life worlds of these individuals?

3. Grounded theory: builds theoretical/conceptual models
   Features:
   i. Primarily concerned with processes with the goal of generating a theory, conceptual model, or abstract schema that explains a phenomenon or particular situation
   ii. “ground” the theory in data collected in the field through iterative data collection/analysis  constant comparative method, often using analytic memos

Research problem

Research questions: How do individuals with HIV balance commercial sexual exploitation with other life demands? Are there common elements of their experiences that can be identified as part of a grounded theory of having HIV while commercially sexually exploited?

4. Ethnography: describes the behaviors/experiences of a group of people

Features

i. Description of cultural/social group or system
ii. “thick description” or “word pictures”
iii. Typically involves observation, fieldwork, and prolonged involvement to immerse in day-to-day life

Research problem

Research questions: Are there tactic beliefs, values, or practices that characterize a local culture of commercial sexual exploitation? If so, how do these affect the individuals’ decisions about personal health and HIV prevention? How do these individuals navigate/negotiate relationships with exploiters and others being exploited? What is daily life like for them?

5. Case study: the in-depth study of a case that is bound by space and time

Features:

i. Exploration of a bounded (by time and space) system
ii. Both a method and an object of study
iii. Several different units of analysis (e.g., person, event, process)
iv. Intrinsic (the case itself is interesting and should be described) v. collective (two or more cases combined to further larger narrative)
v. Key is multiple, triangulated sources of data (going deep into detail of each case)
vi. Case file in clinical research where a single case is used to illustrate a theory  more inductive, so select a case and glean meaning

Research problem
Research questions: What life events (childhood or recent) that led these individuals to experience commercial sexual exploitation and to become HIV positive? How are their life stories similar or different from other individuals their age?

6. Action oriented: committed to community empowerment; embraces perspective, partnership, and participation

Features:

i. Similar to other approaches, but a community-engaged approach that is committed to community empowerment and partnership.
ii. 3 Ps: Perspective, partnership, and participation

Research problem

Research questions: What are the needs of individuals living with HIV after being commercially sexually exploited as they see them? How can researchers join them in partnership to conduct research that addresses these needs?

Question 4

Using Padgett (2017), list and describe the ethical issues that require consideration in qualitative research. Select 2-3 of these ethical issues and give an example of how they could arise in qualitative research in your topic area.

Answer 4

• Deception and Disclosure: Necessity, potential for harm/benefit
• Informed Consent: Must be ongoing and mutually negotiated progress, must also obtain permission from community gatekeepers
• Coercion: Consider power differentials, existing relationships, and IRB guidelines. Example: Incentives/compensation may limit the freedom to consent, and coercion may arise for populations facing economic hardship.
• Confidentiality and Privacy: More context/details in qual research = more risk of breaching confidentiality. Legal implications like subpoenas.
• Distress and Emotional Harm: Sensitive issues must be raised voluntarily and carefully, and arrangements must be in advance to deal with adverse responses. Preferably only discussing potentially distressing or sensitive topic areas after extended engagement.
• Incentives and payback: Consult with experienced researchers who have worked with the focal population.
• Dealing with moral ambiguity and risk: Participants may share despicable opinions, admit to illegal and morally reprehensible acts, or conduct harmful activities that blur boundaries. For researchers, it is not whether to do something (e.g., report behavior) but what, how, and when to do it.
• Socially responsible research: Researchers must think carefully about the impact of their of their participants, as portrayed by the researcher’s lens, will have on the participants.

Question 5

Identify and define the different types of purposeful (or “purposive”) sampling methods as described by Padgett (2017). (8 total)

Answer 5

Purposeful: particular settings, persons, or events are selected deliberately in order to provide important information that cannot be received as well as from other choices

• Extreme/deviant case: explore outer edges or most extraordinary cases (e.g., youth impacted by sex trafficking with the best and worst outcomes)
• Intensity: slightly less exceptional than extreme cases (e.g., youth with moderately good/bad outcomes)
• Maximum variation: capture heterogeneity, all possible options (e.g., any youth with a history of sex trafficking)
• Homogenous: captures a very specific type of experience (e.g., only those who have experienced sex trafficking and contracted HIV/AIDs)
• Typical case: recruit “average” members of population (e.g., youth with moderate success)
• Critical case: recruiting to illuminate extremeness (e.g., youth who have never received mental health treatment for their exploitation)
• Snowball: participants refer others in their network, especially good for “hard to reach” populations (e.g., asking participants who invite/recruit their peers/friends/others in their network who might be eligible)
• Criterion: Only participants who meet specific criteria (e.g., only youth with histories of commercial sexual exploitation)

Question 6

Describe the following data collection methods: individual interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. Compare and contrast these three data collection methods, considering their relative strengths and weaknesses. Then identify situations when you would use each type of data collection method in a research project.

Answer 6

Interviews
• Strengths: Neither systematic or standardized responses. More focused, in-depth than conversation. Enables researchers to see the world through the participants’ view.
• Weaknesses: Asking people to reflect and examine experiences in a different way. May be uncomfortable, can lead to saying how they wish things were instead of how they are, but can also be cathartic or therapeutic. Can be exhausting and/or anxiety-provoking.
• Reasons to conduct: Develop detailed or holistic description, integrate multiple perspectives, describe processes, insight into how events are interpreted/perceived, bridging inter-subjectivities, and identifying variables for quant work

Focus Groups
• Strengths: Concentrated amount of precise data, access to topics that are not directly observable, can observe similarities/differences between respondents, time and labor efficient, group (the unit of analysis) produces the data
• Weaknesses: interactions are less naturalistic, only verbal interactions, engineered environments, group dynamics can influence trustworthiness, limited data from each participant, not for sensitive or polarizing topics
• Reasons to conduct: When focused on efficiency, group dynamics, and/or differences of opinion between participants, especially on non-controversial topics

Participant Observation
• Strengths: gathering data about what people do rather than what they say they do
• Weaknesses: easy to ascribe etic (outsider) rather than emic (insider) perspective. Potential for moral risk.
• Reasons to conduct: Want to learn about the context and actions, rather than participants’ perceptions of their ascribed meaning to experiences.

Question 7

Define inductive and deductive approaches to qualitative data analysis and describe a situation where you would use each of these data analysis approaches in a qualitative research project.

Answer 7

Inductive: data-driven approach in which the meaning making occurs naturally from the data. No predetermined codes/themes/categories, instead these are generated when data are reviewed

• Good for exploring lived experience de novo to reduce filtering and distortion that can undermine authenticity.

Deductive: researcher uses template approach in which a priori codes/themes/categories are used to examine the data.
• Good for theory-driven research, including when using data to test a theory/framework. This approach targets specific experiences, phenomena, or actions.

Question 8

Using Denzin’s 1989 article, describe what triangulation means in qualitative research and define 5 different types of triangulation that can be used in qualitative research, providing examples of how you would use each in a research project.

Answer 8

Triangulation: The combination of methods to examine the same phenomena to produce grounded/trustworthy interpretations/findings

Data triangulation: Use multiple data sources which can be at different times, locations, or persons but study the same phenomenon. Persons can be aggregate (individuals selected have no established linked), interactive between individuals (multiple individuals that interact in some way, such as small groups or families—the unit of analysis is interaction rather than the person/group), or collectivity (a collective body, such as an organization, community, or entire society—persons and their interactions are treated only as they reflect pressures and demands of the total collectivity). Example: Interview multiple professionals who worked on a case (person, interactive)

Investigator triangulation: Multiple observers of the same object, remove the potential for individual bias and ensures greater reliability in observations. Example: Have multiple researchers observe the same conversation or environment and compare insights.

Theory triangulation: Apply multiple theories and all possible interpretations to the data. Interpretations that map and make sense of the phenomena are assembled into an interpretive framework. A reformulated interpretive system is stated based on the empirical materials examined/interpreted which helps researchers avoid ignoring alternative explanations. Example: Applying social ecological theory, critical race theory, and feminist theory to help interpret a body of empirical materials (e.g., case studies, interviews) related to commercial sexual exploitation of racial/ethnic minority groups.

Methodological triangulation: Use of multiple methods to study a phenomenon; beneficial in providing confirmation of findings, more comprehensive data, and increased validity and enhanced understanding of studied phenomena.
• within-method triangulation: use of a single method but employs multiple strategies with that method to examine the data (e.g., survey contains several different scales to measure the same empirical unit).
• between-method/across-method triangulations: combining two or more different research strategies in the study of the same phenomenon (e.g., combining observation and interviews to explore commercial sexual exploitation).
• Multiple triangulation: Combining the above

Question 9

Using Padgett (2017) as a guide, identify and describe six strategies for enhancing trustworthiness and rigor in qualitative research and describe what aspects of trustworthiness and rigor each strategy addresses.

Answer 9

1. Prolonged engagement (spending a long time in the field/holding multiple touch points with the participants and becoming accepted) = reactivity and respondent bias
2. Triangulation (combining methods to study the same phenomenon) = reduce reactivity, researcher bias, and respondent bias
   a. Theory
   b. Methodological
   c. Observer
   d. Data source
   e. Interdisciplinary
3. Peer debriefing and support (group reflexivity) = researcher bias
4. Member checking (seeking verification of preliminary findings/interpretations with participants) = reactivity, researcher bias, and respondent bias
5. Negative case analysis (reporting the minority voice) = researcher bias
6. Audit trail (documenting study activities from data collection through analysis, and engaging in reflectivity through analytic memos) = researcher bias