WEEK 3: EXPLORING THE PATIENT'S PERSPECTIVE Flashcards
What is research?
What is research method?
A procedure used to gather raw data and generate information for
quantitative and qualitative data analysis
What is qualitative research?
A systematically examines the way people interpret and
make sense of their experiences and environment.
It interested in understanding how people do what they
do and why people do what they do.
Explores the point of view of those experiencing the
problem or condition being studied.
Seeks a depth of understanding regarding the context in
which the problem or condition is occurring.
Outline the uses of qualitative research
When the aim is to get an in-depth sense of what people think about an event, object or a phenomenon
▪ Xenophobia
Part of a process to establish some form of action or campaign in a community
▪ Test and treat
With quantitative research methods to get additional perspective on a problem
▪Organ donation
Explore a hypothesis before carrying out a full survey
▪ Widows black attire
When is qualitative research used?
- In general, when less detail is known about a situation or an issue.
Qualitative research is, exploratory, and is useful when:
- learning about an issue
- Defining a concept
- Developing an approach to address a problem.
- When events change quickly
- When we lack ways of quantitatively measuring something
- When we want a deeper understanding of an issue.
Outline the characteristics of qualitative research
- Seeing through eyes of
respondents - Emphasis on content
- Emphasis on process
- Flexibility but limited
structure - Concepts and theory
grounded in data
Outline the characteristics of quantitative research
- Measurement
- Causality
- Statistical
(generalizations) - Researcher objectivity
rather than subjectivity
Outline the characteristics of quantitative research
- Measurement
- Causality
- Statistical
(generalizations) - Researcher objectivity
rather than subjectivity
List the 5 qualitative research designs.
Phenomenology:
Grounded Theory:
Ethnography:
Case study
Historical Research
Discuss phenomenology
A phenomenological study describes the meaning of the lived experiences for several individuals about a concept or the phenomenon.
Phenomenological research is a qualitative research approach that focuses on exploring the subjective experiences and perspectives of individuals.
Phenomenology aims to understand how people make meaning of their experiences and how they interpret the world around them.
Purpose: Describe experiences as they are lived
Central tenets: to determine what an experience means for persons who have had the experience and are able to provide a comprehensive description of it.
E.g. polygamy
Describe the Grounded Theory
Used to generate/develop theory.
- The term grounded means that the theory developed from the research is based on the data from which it was derived.
- Example: what is the nature of addiction recovery
- Grief reaction
Describe ethnography
- Ethnography is a description of a cultural or social group
or a system - Understanding culture requires a holistic perspective
that captures the breadth of beliefs, Knowledge and
activities of the group being studied. - Context is important for an understanding of a culture.
- Requires intensive face-to-face contact over extended
time. - A researchers examines the groups observable and
learned patterns of behavior, customs, and ways of life
Describe case study as qualitative research.
A case study is a qualitative research method that involves the in-depth exploration and analysis of a particular case, which can be an individual, group, organization, event, or community.
The primary purpose of a case study is to generate a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the case, including its history, context, and dynamics.
Describe historical research
Historical research is a qualitative research method that involves examining past events to draw conclusions and make predictions about the future
What types of questions are answered by qualitative research?
- Explanatory
* what events, beliefs, attitudes and policies are shaping this phenomenon e.g. adherence to treatment
* How do these factors interact to shape a phenomenon - Exploratory
* What is happening in this social program? To gain insight into a problem (immunization program)
* How are patterns of behavior, variables linked with each other?(theory generating) - Descriptive
* To document a phenomenon of interest
* What are the key behaviors, events, attitudes, processes occurring in this phenomenon - Predictive
* What will occur as a result of this phenomenon
* To forecast events and behaviors resulting from a phenomenon
List the qualitative data collection methods
- Interviews
* In-depth
* focus groups
* Key informants - Participants observation
- Field notes
- Diaries
Describe what happens in in-depth interviews.
- Can be unstructured or semi-structured
IDI
* Informal conversation
- Much less structured
- Interviewer can depart from schedule
- Interviewee may be interviewed more than once
- Researcher looking for rich data
- Verbatim transcripts: verbatim transcription is the process of converting audio into text
- IDI using native language
State the advantages and disadvantages of in-depth interviews
Strengths
* Effective being focused
* Flexible enough for emerging themes
* Data easy to systematize
Weaknesses
* Requires time and commitment
* Depends on respondents’ self-expressions
Describe group interviews
- Not all interviews are 1 to 1
- Groups can also be interviewed
- Size varies between 6-10 members
- Used to analyze how certain persons form a common opinion about something
- May also used to gather information about subcultures and relatively clearly
limited homogenous social settings - Utilizes group interaction* Before survey to construct questionnaire
- At analysis stage to help interpret survey findings
- Complement to other qualitative methods
- Solely to explore complex behavior, communication gap, social network, norm, belief
- People’s own experience and knowledge
- Ideal to capture experiences, opinions and norm systems
- Inference about groups than individuals
Where are group interviews normally used?
- Used in public health research
What is group formation based on?
- Small enough for participants to forward their views
- Homogeneous/ Heterogeneous
- Pre-existing/ Newly formed
- Concerned/ Naïve
- Large enough to ensure range and depth
- Usual recommendation is 6-10 persons per group
- Smaller groups with experts on the topic
- Larger group if the aim is getting many ideas
- No of group depends on the research question
- 3 to 5 FGDs capture the diversity
- Rely on saturation
- To compare different groups, consider saturation for each.
State the advantages and disadvantages of focused group discussions
Strengths
- Quick source of information
- Exploration of beliefs, attitude & behavior of groups
- Encourage participants to talk being a natural form of communication
- Identification of relevant questions for further study
Weaknesses
- Researcher less control over the discussion
- Less suitable for sensitive topics
- Requires considerable facilitation skill
- Data transcription and analysis are difficult
Describe observation as a data collection method
- Malinowski in reaction to the traditional “arm chair” anthropology
- Researcher close enough to participants
- Commonly used with interviewing
- Full participant versus passive onlooker observation
- Training very important
- Increased sensitivity to details
- Focused to phenomena to be dealt
- System of taking field note
Outline the strengths and weaknesses of observation
Strengths
- Formulate relevant question in native language
- Intuitive understanding of culture
- Useful for new or hidden issue
Weaknesses
* Time consuming
* Needs observer’s skill and commitment
* Losing focus when researcher gets familiar with the culture
What are key informants?
Key informants are people with specific knowledge about certain aspects of the community, the site visited, the population, or the emergency either because of their professional background, leadership responsibilities, or particular personal experience.
Describe using Key informants as a data collection method
- Helps ethnographers make sense of their observation
- Insiders with special knowledge, status or communication skills
- Speak on behalf of others
- Fills gap of researcher’s observation
Functions
- Explains cultural norms
- Comments on researcher’s interpretations
- Introduce other KI
- Liable to biased information
- More than one KI helps
What are field notes?
- Practical information on data collection activity
- Descriptive diary of study period
- Events/ Feelings/ Decisions
State the advantages and disadvantages of Qualitative Research
Advantages
- Direct representation of
feelings - Less superficial setting
- Accessible results of
“real situations” - Provide new info for
other studies - New info can be explored
further during the study - Probes and non-verbal
cues reduce the
Hawthorn effect
Disadvantages
- Data analysis affected by
researcher bias and
subjectivity - Transcription and analysis
time consuming and costly - Lack of transparency
- Difficult to replicate
- Generalizability affected
What does the analytic process usually depends on?
- The researcher or research team getting to know their data
- Categorizing information
- Identifying patterns and connections within and across the categories
- Interpreting results.
Describe qualitative data analysis
- Lacey and Luff (2007:6) describe data analysis as a process by which researchers
describe and summarise accumulated information generated by interviews or
observations - They look for relationships between various themes identified
- relate behavior or ideas to specific characteristics of participants
- may develop trends and patterns from the analysis.
Describe the factors to be considered when doing analysis?
1 Words
2 Context (tone and inflection)
3 Internal consistency (opinion shifts during groups)
4 Frequency and intensity of comments (counting, content analysis)
5 Specificity
6 Trends/themes
7 Iteration (data collection and analysis is an iterative process moving back and foth)
Describe the how the results are reported in qualitative research
- Reported as narratives
- Use of quotations from respondents
- Can use computer software to analyze results
- No statistical tests as would be in quantitative research
- The researcher is strictly interested in the effect of the text on reality not whether it represents something correct or incorrect
- Researcher is interested in how something is presented
- There could be multiple presentations of the same thing
Describe triangulation used to verify validity and interpretation of results.
- Triangulation involves:
- Compare different methods
- Compare results between interviewers
- Analyze same section by different people
- Relate results to theoretical framework
Outline the importance of knowing the patient’s perspective
- Psychological reactions
- Health and anxiety
- Treatment adherence
- Grief reactions
