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Qualitative ResearchDesign

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Questions for Thought

• What are the three types of qualitative research traditions that have been especially useful for nurse researchers?

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Design of Qualitative Studies

• Study design typically evolves over the course of the study

– Emergent design: a design that emerges as the researcher makes ongoing decisions reflecting what has already been learned

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Design of Qualitative Studies

• Study is based on the realities and viewpoints of those under study

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Design of Qualitative Studies

• Characteristics of Qualitative Research Design– Usually choose topics poorly understood or little is

known about them– Flexible, ability to adjust as needed– Use various data collection strategies– Holistic– Researcher very involved, usually in the field– Researcher becomes the research instrument– Requires ongoing analysis throughout data collection

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Qualitative Design

• Characteristics of Qualitative Research Design– Do not have independent and dependent variables– Do not develop hypothesis but the findings are often

used in quantitative research hypotheses formulation– Do not pose refined research questions, have broad

research question– They usually don’t control or manipulate any variables– Don’t make group comparisons– Design is usually nonexperimental– Can be cross-sectional or longitudinal– Can have multiple data collection points over time

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Planning of Qualitative Studies

• Researcher Plans for the Study by Determining:– Which research tradition will be used– Study site or setting– Determine who are the gatekeepers– Time and resources available– Required equipment

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Qualitative Design

• Research Setting– Real-world– Naturalistic settings– In the field– May study phenomena in a

variety of settings

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Qualitative Research Traditions

1. Ethnography

2. Phenomenology

3. Grounded Theory

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Qualiative Research Traditions: Ethnography

• Ethnography– Focuses on the culture of a group of people

• CULTURAL BEHAVIOUR (what they do)• CULTURAL ARTIFACTS (what they make and use)• CULTURAL SPEECH (what they say)

– Every human group evolves a culture that guides members’

view of the world and cultural values– Researcher learns from the culture versus studying the culture– Can be viewed from macroethnography (broad) or

microethnography (narrow) focus

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography

• Ethnography– Emic perspective

• The way the members of the culture envision their world, insiders’ view

– Etic perspective• The outsider's interpretation of the experiences of that culture

– Ethnographers attempt to gain an emic perspective

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography

• Ethnography– Researchers may spend years with a culture as an active participant

– Researcher as instrument • As the researcher plays a significant role in analyzing and interpreting a culture

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Ethnography

• Ethnography– Collect data through

• Observation• In-depth interviews• Records and charts• Photographs• Diaries

• Usually 25 to 50 informants

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology

• Phenomenology– Focuses on the lived experience– Interpreting and understanding human experience– What people experience in regard to a phenomenon

and how they interpret (perceive) those experiences

• i.e. meaning of stress, experience of bereavement, quality of life in chronic illness

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology

• Phenomenology attempts to understand and describe– Spatiality – lived space– Corporeality – lived body– Temporality – lived time– Relationality – lived human relations

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology

• Phenomenology– Steps of study process

• Bracketing– Identifying preconceived beliefs and opinions in attempts to view the

data without bias

• Intuiting– Researcher is open to alternative meanings

• Analyzing– Categorizing and making sense of the meanings of the phenomenon

• Describing– Researcher understands and defines the phenomenon

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Phenomenology

• Phenomenology– Collect data through

• In-depth conversations

• Usually 10 or fewer informants

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory

• Grounded Theory– Study's the social processes and social structures – Assesses the manner in which people make sense of social

interactions and the interpretations they attach to social symbols– Purpose is to generate explanations of phenomena that are

grounded in reality– Uses the data to provide an explanation of events as they occur

in reality

• i.e. study process used by mothers to cope with the stress of managing multiple responsibilities

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory

• Grounded Theory– Data collecting, analysis and sampling of participants occur

simultaneously – Constant comparison – categories are developed from the data

are constantly compared with data obtained eariler

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Qualitative Research Traditions: Grounded Theory

• Grounded Theory– Collect data through

• In-depth conversations• Observation• Existing documents

• Usually 25 to 50 informants

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Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

• Integrated designs– A research design that

integrates qualitative and quantitative methodologies and data

• Can be in a single study or a cluster of studies

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Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

• Integration Strategies– Embedding qualitative approaches within a survey– Embedding quantitative measures into field work– Qualitative data in experimental and quasi-

experimental research

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Reference

Loiselle, C. G., Profetto-McGrath, J., Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2011). Canadian essentials of nursing research. (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.