HLTH 313 Qualitative Exam 2024

What is the essence of qualitative inquiry

Capturing the human experience

Inductive reasoning (in terms of qualitative inquiry)

Inductive reasoning: The opposite of deductive. We let the data tell the story, and that story may change if we were to collect more data. The "factual" information or the construct we compare to is determined by what we find ourselves.

Deductive reasoning (in terms of qualitative inquiry)

Deductive reasoning: we have a construct of which we want to compare our data. This is where we do statistical data. We're comparing our observations to something that is already known. The story has already been told, we're just comparing our data to something we already understand to be factually true.

Context (in terms of qualitative inquiry)

Describes the overarching circumstance that the researchers are looking at

Complex (in terms of qualitative inquiry)

What the researchers are actually looking at inside of the context (circumstances/environment)

Define methodological coherence

Means that all of your steps or pieces of your study work together well and make sense

Define qualitative annoyances

Its when people try and say that qualitative research isn’t real science and is all just guessing and biases

Define epistimology

What you bring to the table in asking questions and answering them. Your view on what participants may or may not think. It's your personal viewpoint as a researcher outside of your research. These opinions and background on a subject explains whether or not you're maybe a good fit or not to be the person researching this question and influences how you may ask questions in your study and how you analyze data.

Define theoretical perspective

The perspective we take in relation to our study. A basic set of beliefs that guides actions.

What is the difference between a methodology and a method?

Methodology = the study of methods

Method = A collection of research strategies and techniques based on theoretical assumptions that combine to form a particular approach to data and mode of analysis.

What three components make up our study identity?

Epistimology, method(s), theory

Give a basic description of an Ethnography - what is it, when do we use it, what are its strengths/weaknesses

Aka an ethnographic study or method. Really interested and focused on the culture surrounding a topic, problem, or scenario. (Ex. cougartails at BYU are part of the BYU football game culture).

Give a basic description of Photovoice - what is it, when do we use it, what are its strengths/weaknesses

A way of giving participants voice through pictures. Can be really useful for groups or communities that don't get served very much or don't have a lot of power. Very cooperative with the community. Works by giving or developing a prompt. Community members will then go out with the prompt and take photos of something they think represents it. Then they'll write up a little blurb about why that picture works with the prompt.

Give a basic description of Mixed Methods - what is it, when do we use it, what are its strengths/weaknesses

A 2 part approach - usually 1 part is quantitative and 1 part qualitative. Might have interview and numeric data you're collecting at the same time (ex. were doing interviews AND getting weight or something like that)

What does a research question serve to do?

Serves as a guide on how to do our research and what our send point is

What makes something the “practical approach”?

Focusing less on asking the "right question" than on having methodological coherence, moving forward, and adjusting along the way.

What is sampling?

means two things:

• how are we gonna get or find people to give us their information. Describing or defining the group of people that we can get info from (aka how we find people)

• Essentially a subset of our entire population (is a sample)

What is the primary sampling strategy used in qualitative research?

Purposeful sampling —— the general idea is that we have some idea of a specific group and we're trying to target THEM. We're just gonna pick the people who have the stuff we're interested in.

Describe convenience sampling

We're just gonna talk to whoever is around and whoever we can get into contact with. Ex. if I want to talk to people about their bus riding experience, I'm just gonna stand at the bus stop and randomly choose people to talk to

Describe deviant case sampling

We are trying to find unusual cases. (ex. people who ride the bus for 4 hours a day, 7 days a week. Or someone who brings a bunch of luggage with them on the bus). We want to hear about weird, unusual stuff.

Describe maximum variation sampling

 the opposite of typical - you want to hear from the most different people possible. You want as much varying perspectives and backgrounds as possible.

Describe snowball sampling

The idea here is that you're trying to find a group of people that are a little bit harder to reach. You cannot be a part of this group. You have to use recommendations and connections from others to reach the group you want to talk to.

Describe typical case

means you want to average of the population you're looking at. Allows for a little more variability. (ex. what does the average bus rider look like? What does the average BYU student look like). Avoid giving too much criteria, or else it can become homogenous.

What is saturation?

Answers the question of how much data you need to get.

What factors influence how quickly a saturation is reached?

How do you know when you're done/when your data is saturated? If we keep asking people and we're still getting new answers, keep answering questions. Once you start getting the same data over and over and over again, you know you're data is saturated

Describe the differences between structured, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews

• Structure interview: all of your questions are written out beforehand. The interviewer has no ability to deviate from the questions. Issue is that if the person just says something like, "good", you can't ask a follow up. REQUIRES THE LEAST AMOUNT OF SKILL. Good beginner level for interviewers.

• Unstructured interview: we have an idea or objective we want to ask someone about, but how we go about it is very unspecified. It’s a lot more like a conversation. Runs the risk of getting off topic. It's more chit chat. Conversation can be a lot more organic. REQUIRES THE MOST SKILL on the part of the interviewer.

• Semi-structured interview: Short list of set question, but interviewers are allowed to ask for follow up questions to answers. REQUIRES MEDIUM SKILL LEVELS.

How many people are usually in a focus group?

6-10 people

When are focus groups a good choice

When you’re not talking about super sensitive or private topics

What is open thematic coding (aka open coding)

Means the way we go through and sift out the important bits of data. Explains how we construct what bit data goes into

What are units/data units

The smallest yet most helpful pieces of information. Could be single words, phrases, a few sentences. Trying to pair down/cut out all the other stuff so it still retains the core piece of information.

Whare are themes/groupings

Bins or categories that we sort units or data into. Those themes are the answers to our questions or our objective.

What are the 5 steps for preforming open thematic coding analysis?

1. Organize data

2. ID units

3. Group units into themes

4. Reconsider groupings

5. Prepare for sharing

What is rigor?

We can show that our research is trustworthy because we used a systematic, deliberate way to go about gathering our research

What are the 4 criteria of rigor?

Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, Confirmability

What is credibility in rigor?

2 fold idea: tailored to the "in crowd" (whoever you want to talk to specifically), and gives people who aren't in the "in crowd" a vicarious experience

BIG IDEA: is your work credible? How do you know - peer debriefing, triangulation, long time w/ participants, self reflection to make sure your bias wasn’t involved

What is transferability in rigor?

Idea that our findings are someone useful in another settings (ex. different population, geographic location, etc.)

BIG IDEA: Can you use the same data collection method in a different area w/ different demographic groups?

What is dependability in rigor?

How repeatable is our study if someone else were to follow the same procedure

BIG IDEA: Analysis isn’t done solo. Repeat the study yourself to confirm your findings

What is confirmability in rigor?

Once previous 3 are established. Reflective, the level of confidence that the research study’s findings are based on the participants’ narratives and words rather than potential researcher biases.

BIG IDEA: Make sure your findings are based on your FINDINGS and the actual results of your participants. Avoid confirmation bias or looking for only what you want to see while ignoring other trends. Look at the whole picture and how it all ties together.

When reporting your findings, what are some things you can do to make your presentation more user friendly?

• Block indents for larger quotes

• Section headings to split up ideas

• Break up your text to make it more approachable to the reader

What is triangulation?

Just means we’re not relying on a single data source (ex. in addition to interviews, we may also do a survey or a lit review)