Week 3-Qualitative Research Methods Flashcards
What is a focus group?
-“A group of individuals selected and assembled by researchers to discuss and comment on, from personal experience, the topic that is the subject of the research” (Powell et al., 1996, p.499)
* Facilitated by researcher (often helped by another person)
* Getting people to think about, discuss/debate an issue (or set of issues) – related to the research question
* Key is group interaction not just many interviews happening at once
* The sum should be more than its individual parts
Why/when might you use focus groups?
- To understand the perspectives of particular groups towards events, beliefs or practices (dentists, GPs, nurses, patients, homeless etc.)
- To generate discussion/debate about your research question/ area of research
- When people may not feel ‘safe’ talking in individual interviews
- When you think that individuals may not be able to provide adequate responses on your research question:
-Haven’t thought about the issues
-The issue requires discussions
-Might be normal/ taken for granted issues - Lack of research in area, wanting to develop theory, wanting to develop a quantitative stage of study
What are the types of research questions?
- Describing or answering questions about a particular, localised occurrence or context
- Understanding the perspectives of particular groups towards events, beliefs or practices (dentists, GPs, nurses, patients, homeless etc)
- Exploring complex research area where little is known (theory generation)
- …….. Answering the WHY question……..
-Why do young girls continue to smoke?
-Why do young men engage in many high-risk activities?
What are the benefits of focus groups?
- Allows for interaction + discussion (does not happen in interviews)
- Participants ‘bounce’ off each other “Do you remember that time” “How about if this happened”
- Allows for people to change their mind
- Many forms of communication: jokes, anecdotes, teasing, arguing (knowledge and attitudes not encapsulated in reasoned responses)
- Allows participants to interpret each others’ responses
- Conflicting data
- Compared to observation/ interviews provides a large amount of info in a short space of time
- Facilitates discussion of taboo topics
- Can encourage contributions from people who feel they have nothing to say or are reluctant to be interviewed on their own
- Can be empowering to the participant
What are the challenges and limitations of focus groups?
- Researcher has less control over the data produced
- Labour/ time intensive
- Less confidentiality and anonymity
- Determining conflicts in opinion
- Power dynamics
- Honesty
- Maybe less detailed or in-depth than some interviews
- Practically difficult to arrange
- Getting a ‘repressive’ sample
- ‘Generalisability’ ‘reliability’
- Engaging shy/ quite people
- Ensuring it’s a discussion and not just one / two people talking
How would you conduct a focus group study?
- 6- 10 per group (8 considered ideal, but been done 4- 15)
- Sample: Heterogeneous or homogenous ?
- Incentives
- Advertising : social media, posters, word of mouth, support groups
- Semi- structured
- 1 – 2 hours
- Appropriate venue (wheelchair access, easily assessable to public transport/ parking)
- Refreshments
- Good quality recording equipment
- MODERATOR
- ‘Observer’
What are some definitions of photovoice methods?
-An established method originally developed by health promotion researchers Wang & Burris (1997).
-Qualitative method used in community-based
participatory research.
-Method that uses interviews and group discussions, and photographs that participants are invited to take.
-Participants use photography to document their
experiences and ‘tell stories’ about the photographs which identify and represent issues of importance to them. (Wang et al., 1998)
What is Freire’s (1974) 3-stage approach to critical
consciousness?
1.Critical Reflection
2.Critical Motivation
3.Critical Action
Photographs are an important instrument for:
(i) Encouraging individuals to reflect about their community
(ii) Becoming conscious of the contradictions that govern the world
(iii) Advocating for positive social change
-The production of knowledge is in the hands of participants, who determine what to represent in a photograph
-Through collective discussions, people share the meanings of the photographs they have taken
Freire (1974); Wang & Burris (1997); Wang et al. (1998)
What are the phases of a photovoice study?
- Recruit participants, plan the study, and provide photographic training
- Get out and take the photographs
3: Facilitate group discussions (after transferring the photographs to slide form) - With participants, use the three-stage process to select the photographs that most accurately reflect the research issue, then contextualise whatwhat
photos mean (provide captions) and codify issues, themes or theories - With participants, use the key photographs to narrate the stories: ‘VOICE - Voicing our individual and collective experience (Wang & Burris, 1997: 381)(Wang & Burris, 1997: 381)
- Disseminate the findings (select slides and stories for photo exhibitions and journal articles)
Wang & Burris (1997); Wang et al. (1998
Which issues/phenomena have been explored
through photovoice?
Feelings (of health, social inclusion, loneliness in the community…)
* Experiences (of living with mental health issues, of being homeless, of living with chronic pain, diabetes, intellectual disabilities…)
* Features of the environment (e.g. how the local environment influences people’s diets, physical activity, access to green spaces, access to clean cooking energy…)
What was the aim and participant sample for older people’s perceptions of respect and social inclusion in the urban context?
- Aim: To explore older people’s perceptions of respect and social inclusion in Liverpool City, and to
encourage them to find solutions to some of the issues identified - Participants: Four groups of older people recruited purposively (n=26; >60 years) from 4 contrasting areas in Liverpool
Photovoice methods: What’s ‘Impact’?
- Last phase: dissemination of the findings and advocating for change
- Photographs and accompanying captions presented through an exhibition used as tool to bring participants’ voices to the attention of key stakeholders (e.g. policy makers), raise their awareness about the issues identified, so that they can stimulate change (Wang & Burris, 1997; Wang et al., 1998)
What are the benefits/impact of using photovoice methods?
- Encouraged engagement between participants and stakeholders
- Photovoice invited participants to successfully engage with the photographs, with the collective discussions offering an opportunity to critically think as a group about strengths and issues of their community Ronzi et al. (2016); Catalani & Minkler (2010):
‘I have enjoyed the interactions with other people, your focus groups, and it was interesting for me to find things to photograph… I really thought ‘what is
important for me as an older person?’’ […] (P3)
Provided a deeper level of knowledge:
* The combination of different methods (photos, transcripts from focus groups and interviews) allowed us to gain a greater comprehensiveness of understanding of the topic from the participants’ point of view
Creative tool to reach key stakeholders (e.g., policy makers)
* The public exhibition, offers a creative way to present, discuss and reflect on the findings in a way that can engage a diverse set of key stakeholders and the wider community
What are the challenges of using photovoice methods: Ethical aspects related to taking photographs?
- Important to ask written permission before taking photos of individuals
- Some people may not want their photograph taken and will have individual reasons for this. People often feel protective of their communities
- Photo ownership: asking written permission to use participants’ photos in dissemination of results
Factors that can prevent participants from taking photographs that they want to take:
* Photographing negative social concepts (e.g., social isolation) in comparison with more ‘tangible’ aspects (e.g., rubbish in the street)
‘[…] some of the negative aspects that I thought you can’t take a picture of are […] ‘I don’t know my neighbourhoods’ […] or I can’t take a picture of somebody who is isolated or lonely.’ (P17 FG2)
- Time period for taking photographs ‘Some of the vandalism, which does happen, and just didn’t happen when I had the camera!’ (P15 FG2)
What is Ethnography?
- The defining characteristic of Ethnography is participant observation, with the researcher participating / observing the daily lives and events being studied over an extended period of time (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2003).
Other characteristics of ethnographic research include: - Using multiple methods of data collection
- Placing emphasis on context
- Focusing on what people do, as well as what they say they do (Savage, 2000)
- The ethnographic approach is underlined by the assumption that accessing beliefs and behaviours in the context in which they occur will aid understanding and provide a holistic perspective (I.e., what they say/think they do and what they actually did) (Patton, 2002).
-Historically comes from anthropology
