209 qualitative research

qualitative research key characteristics

• meaning(s) people attach to their experiences of the social world

• how people make sense of the world (describe & give meaning to life experiences)

• not artificial or experimental settings (instead, day-to-day; naturalistic settings)

• can combine qualitative methods (photography with interviews, interviews with review of documents

• researcher is part of study

• simultaneous data collection and interpretation

researcher-participant relationship

• participants are informants not subjects

• maintenance of relationship is extremely important

• participant may find sharing and listening therapeutic or may find it traumatic

recruitment

• posters, social media, clinics

• collaboration with community groups, support groups where individuals may be

• may require consultation/permission from area prior to beginning recruitment

• may be challenging if stigmatized groups/sensitive topic

• ? translator

structure qualitative interviews

• typically closed questions - answers “yes” or “no”

• not intended to understand issue in any depth/detail

semi-structured qualitative interviews

• based on an interview guide - but guideline only

• encourage participant to talk openly & probe/ change issues as raised

in depth qualitative interviews

• few, open-ended questions

• more control for participant, more time to speak

sampling

• actual number of participants varies

• in cases of very small sample - need to be able to justify (selection criteria)

theoretical sampling

sample develops from early analyses and from data

criterion sampling

pre-defined criteria

purposive sampling

• researcher determines who to include

• driven by research question

convenience sampling

• few potential participants, readily available

• individuals in a particular area, experiences, characteristics etc

• when doing a pilot study

snowball sampling

interviewee(s) finds or suggests other participants

important role of interviewer

• listens carefully, minimizes interruptions

• thinks about what participant is saying (prompts to deepen/expand accounts, makes sense of what they are saying

• minimizes non-verbal cues (facial expressions, tone, movement, posture

• listens carefully - what is NOT said as much as what is said

• attempts to minimize power differential &pays attention to effect

bracketing

• “suspending” or laying aside what the researcher knows/feels.assumes about the experience under the study

• used to help researcher avoid misinterpreting phenomenon as it is being experienced/revealed by participants

analysis

• produces vast amount of data

• recordings transcribed verbatim

• data is coded based on existing literature/emerging themes

• requires researcher(s) to sift through large amounts of data to uncover codes/themes/categories

• may be managed by software program - nvivo, atlas etc

• researcher moves back and forwards between original (already coded during data collection) and new data and emerging interpretations

triangulation

process of comparing results from either 2 or more different methods of data collection (interview & observation) or two or more data sources (interviews with different interest groups)

• if 2 different data sources, can’t assume that one account is to believed over the other

• therefore, shows a more reflexive data analysis, rather than a way of assuring validity

respondent validation/member checking

• investigator’s interpretation is compared with account of participants to check how correspond to other

• provide participants with themes to see if they resonate with them, is there anything that doesn’t, is there anything that is missing

• this reaction is incorporated into study findings

reflexivity

sensitivity to ways in which the researcher & research process have shaped data collected - includes prior knowledge, assumptions and experience

• researcher may keep a diary (in addition to field notes) to record reactions to events that occur during the data collection and analysis and any changing interpretation

• need to make biases (personal or intellectual) clear at outset of research report

• also need to record “distance” between researcher and participant(s)

attention to negative cases

• look at any elements in data that (appear to) contradict emerging themes, explanation

• may attempt to look at findings from different studies & incorporate this into synthesis

reflexivity also refers to

an awareness of the social setting and context that might influence patients’ descriptions

theoretical framework/contextual perspectives

1. feminist theory

2. queer theory

3. critical social theory

4. postcolonial theory

feminist theory

focus on gender inequality with goal to reduce or eradicate those inequalitues

queer theory

focus on sexual and gender diversity

critical social theory

focus on power and justice issues

postcolonial theory

power and justice through lens of the legacy of the colonization of indigenous peoples

common approaches to qualitative analysis

1. thematic analysis

2. grounded theory

3. interpretive phenomenological analysis

4. ethnography

thematic analysis

simplest, most common; basis for all other approaches

may be enough by itself if: descriptive, exploratory and small part of mixed methods

thematic analysis; themes emerge from

literature (anticipated) and data (emerging); identify relationship between themes - how are they connected

grounded theory

• identify categories as they emerge from the data, from the ground up

• data collection and analysis are cyclical and iterative

• deliberate selection of new participants or setting to test the emerging theory(ies) - theoretical sampling

• move back and forward between data and theory

• constant comparison

• develop theory

interpretive phenomenology

• how do people experience and construct their world, how they construct meaning

• additional emphasis on how people interpret and make sense of events

• researcher adds their interpretation to the particpants’ interpretation

• examine small # of interviews in great depth

ethnography

• explore cultural phenomena from subjects’ pov

• type of social research examine behaviour of participants in a particular social situation

• how do group members interpret this behaviour

• participant observation

• researcher participates in setting - documents patterns of social interaction of participants in depth and seeks to understand within the specific context