Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research Paper 3

Qualitative Research: Theory & Practice

The debate in relation to epistemology • Epistemology: The study of knowledge and justified belief • How can we know about the world? • Ontology: Looking at if social reality exist independently of human perceptions and interpretations • Ritchie & Lewis (2003) created 3 questions in the debate in relation to epistemology • Helps understand the difference between research in the natural sciences (biology, anatomy, etc.) and the social sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc.) • Social Sciences uses quantitative (e.g. surveys) as well as qualitative methods and they should not be viewed as competing but complementary to research questions

Three Questions • What is the relationship between the researcher and the researched? • Researched should not be impacted by the researcher • Not objective and value-free…assumptions can influence analysis • Researcher should use reflexivity • What can be held as truth? • Natural Sciencescorrespondence theory of truth • Social Sciencescoherenece theory of truth • How is knowledge gathered? • Natural SciencesDeductive process (cause-and-effect relationships, generalization, and prediction) • Social SciencesInductive process (collected evidence reaches a conclusion)

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research Qualitative Quantitative • Text data (transcripts or field notes) • Open-ended and flexible (open for interpretation) • “Rich data” (plenty of details about people, places, conversations, etc.) • Not easy to analyze • Can use a theory or create a theory • Numerical data • Uses statistical tests • Meant to be used for generalization beyond the sample which was used

Strengths & Weaknesses of Qualitative Research Strengths Weaknesses • Provides rich data • Investigate complex issues • Explain a phenomena • Identify and evaluate factors that help solve problems • Generate new ideas for theories • Own environmentvalidity • Time consuming • No clear strategy for analysis • Interpretation of data may be subjective • Reflexivity can help reduce this

Generalization • Results are relevant to situations outside the original study • Representational: • Applied to populations outside the population of the study • Inferential: • Applied to settings outside the setting of the study • Transferability or external validity • Theoretical: • Theoretical concepts derived from study can be used to further develop theory

Ethical Considerations • Informed consent • Protection of participants • Anonymity & confidentiality • *We’ve already covered this info, revisit it!

Sampling Techniques Probability Non-probability • Related to statistical probability and representativeness • Random selection • Does not use random selection

Sampling Techniques • Purposive Sampling • Snowball Sampling • Convenience Sampling

Qualititative Research: Interviews

Qualitative Research: Interviews • Semi-structured interviews • Focus groups • Narrative interviews

Considerations before the interview • Consider relevant sampling methods (purposive) • Training the interviewer to reduce interviewer effects • effects caused by the presence of an interviewer • Reading non-verbal signs • Choice of interviewer • gender, age, ethnicity • Create an interview guide • script based on previous literature • Ethical considerations • Flexibility and open-ended questions • Practice questions, difficult words (equipment too)

Type of Questions • Descriptive • “What happened?” “What does it feel like to…” • Structural • “What does it mean to your life to suffer from cancer?” • Contrast • “Did you prefer being in that school or the other one?” • Evaluative • Did you feel afraid when you went through chemo?”

Considerations during the interview • Data recording • notes, recorder, video taping • Permission for recordings • Eye-contact • Prepare notes/questions in front of interviewee • Establish rapport (trust) • Active listening technique: repeating thoughts/answers back to interviewee

Considerations after the interview • Transcription of the data • Changing it into a written and useful text in preparation for analysis • Verbatim vs. postmodern transcripts • Word for word or included all pauses, false starts, laughter/sobs • Informed consent and briefing must take place • Allow them to read over notes/listen to recording

Data Analysis: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) • Used to identify key themes, concepts, & categories • Includes Grounded Theory: Used to study social processes in sociology which involves coding (finding specific categories in the data material) • Identifies & integrates categories of meaning from the data • Aim: Generating a new theory based on the data

Coding Process

Thoughts According to Willig (2001) • Grounded Theory enables the researcher to study social processes but IPA allows the researcher to gain an insider’s view of how individual participants make sense of the world • IPA uses hierarchal organization just like grounded theory • Goal of IPA: gain insight into how an individual perceives & explains a phenomenon • Uses semi-structured interviews, focus groups, diaries, or narrative interviews • Data collection is not based on prior assumptions or existing theories

Analysis Based on Interpretation • Analysis is based on interpretation of participant’s experience which is derived from paying attention to the presented phenomenon rather than including one from the outside • Diversity is key; looks for divergence and convergence in the themes • Looks at the interpretation of texts to gain insight of the lived experience of the participants but this does not reflect the actual lived experience

Process for Rich-thick Descriptions

Analytic Strategy in IPA • Reading and rereading the transcripts • Identification of emergent themes • Structuring emergent themes • Summary table of the structured themes and relevant quotations that illustrate each theme • Data saturation: analyzing data until no new information can be extracted

Qualitative Research