Week Twelve

Question 1

qualitative paradigm/logic

Answer 1

social constructuralism paradigm.

• builds knowledge
• generates theory

Question 2

quantitative paradigm

Answer 2

positivism

- deductive approaches to test theory

Question 3

design for qual. research

Answer 3

flexible and responds to context.

naturalistic enquiry

Question 4

positivist paradigm

Answer 4

quantitative research, aims to discover universal laws and to predict and control events.

Question 5

constructionist/interpretive paradigm

Answer 5

Characterised by attempts to understand or interpret how people make sense of their experience. Qualitative research seeks to provide in-depth understanding of an individual or a situation in a natural setting. Seeks to understand social life and how people construct meanings.
- Constructionist paradigm accepts that people are not rule governed.
○ Seeks to understand how people respond to the situation.
○ People respond differently.

Question 6

theoretical framework

Answer 6

paradigm

Question 7

interpretive approaches to qualitative research (theoretical frameowrks)

Answer 7

phenomenology
narrative
ethnomethodology

Question 8

phenomenology

Answer 8

Explores consciousness and experience from the perspective of the individual.

Question 9

narrative

Answer 9

§ The uniqueness of humans sits within our capacity to use and tell stories to convey meaning.
§ Looks at how stories carry meaning and how they are used.

Question 10

ethnomethodology

Answer 10

§ How do humans make sense of behaviours.
§ Conversation analysis- applies understanding of behaviours to conversations.
□ How do people talk about their own death? Directly? Indirectly?

Question 11

critical approaches

Answer 11

interested how social, cultural, political, ideological, and historical discourses shape (and are shaped by) subjective meanings and experiences
- How does class, gender etc. shape experiences
○ Feminism
§ Gender
○ Marxist analysis
§ Social class
○ Critical discourse analysis
§ Subconscious, unconscious.
§ Discourses that become integrated into society.

Question 12

methodologies

Answer 12

• people as research methods
• people as informants
• people as research partners

Question 13

people as research methods

Answer 13

§ Many human experiences are communicated or displayed in some way.
○ People as informants

Question 14

people as informants

Answer 14

§ Need them to tell about the world
§ Many human experiences are subjective, private, and therefore hidden from view
§ To access many subjective experiences, researchers must:
□ treat people as informants
□ find ways to facilitate communication of subjective experience

Question 15

people as research partners

Answer 15

§ Need them to make sense of the world.
§ experiences cannot be understood by researchers alone
§ Ongoing engagement with people as active research partners is necessary to make sense of their experiences

Question 16

methodologies in an example

Answer 16

How do families and professionals work together when a child has a life-limiting condition?
○ Research participants as subjects
§ Video-record real-world encounters involving participants
§ Examine recordings to identify how these parties collaborate
○ Research participants as informants
§ Interview participants
§ Analyse interviews to identify their experiences of how these parties collaborate with each other
○ Research participants as partners
§ Interview participants
§ Analyse interviews, working with participants to interpret their experiences in an appropriate way

Question 17

phases of qualitative research

Answer 17

selecting participants –>collecting data –> analysing data.

Question 18

selecting participants

Answer 18

• Qualitative researchers consider things in-depth rather than to make a generalisation.
  
  • Sampling techniques:
    ○ Purposeful / theoretical
    § Cases that will help to understand the research question
    § Comparative to a representative sample.
    ○ Snowball
    § Useful for hard to reach populations.
    § Develop relationships with a small group of population and then they recruit others.
    § Less control than purposive sampling.
    ○ Convenience / pragmatic
  • Sample size:
    ○ Analytic determination
    ○ Depth vs breadth
    § Do you need to understand a lot of cases or cases in detail?
    ○ Information redundancy / saturation

Question 19

collecting data

Answer 19

Interacting 
		○ Informants or partners
		○ The most common
	- Observing 
		○ subjects
	- Gathering 
		○ Subjects

Question 20

interacting

Answer 20

• Individual interviews
  ○ Different types
  § Unstructured conversation
  § Semi-structured (through use of topic guide) –
  □ Can be developed based information such as past research
  ○ Unstructured interviews may not be comparable –
  ○ Semi-structured interviews may sacrifice some depth
  § Pit fall is that to a certain extent you are making the interviewee direct the conversation in a certain way.
  § Might lose some depth.
  
  • Can be integrated with other data collection methods:
    ○ Photo elicitation
    ○ Walking interviews
  • Focus groups
    ○ Led by an (experienced) moderator
    ○ Usually up to approximately 12 participants in each group
    ○ Useful when interaction is important
    § E.g. identify convergent and divergent perspectives
    § Sometimes it is easier to understand if one situation is common place. If a story is told that is unusual, the others in the group will be able to communicate this.
    • Challenges:
      § ‘Group think’
      § ‘Group-shy

Question 21

observing

Answer 21

• Associated with ‘field research’, especially in ethnography
  
  • Focuses on what people do rather than what they say they do
    
    • Important for when people are good at what they can do but are not able to explain why.
  • Observing human conduct in its ‘natural environment’ to gain insight into social processes and practices
  • Different methods for recording observations:
    – Field notes
    – Video/audio recordings
  • Can be integrated with other data collection methods:
    –Ethnographic interviews
    – Video-stimulated interviews

Question 22

gathering

Answer 22

- Human ‘artefacts’ 
		–Documents 
		– Visual objects 
	-  Sources 
		– Publically available 
		– Archival 
		– Private

Question 23

analysing data

Answer 23

• Some general trends: –
  - Analysis is ongoing and iterative
  § Time-intensive
  - Guided by an attitude of strangeness
  § Disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions
  § Make the ordinary extraordinary
  § Make the extraordinary ordinary

Question 24

inductive

Answer 24

• Inductive (e.g. grounded theory)
  § ‘Bottom-up’, data-driven
  § Observable → abstract
  § Theory building

Question 25

deductive

Answer 25

§ ‘Top-down’, theory-driven
§ Abstract → observable
§ Theory confirming

Question 26

why use qual. research

Answer 26

• Particularly well suited for natural settings.
  
  • Develop model or theories starting from local knowledge and then going to generalizations.
    ○ How do the people we are interested in go about doing X Y Z.
  • To understand local knowledge and practices
  • Research question as a starting point
  • Qualitative approach often used for:
    ○ Why questions?
    § Not hypothesis driven
    § Starts with general research questions.
    ○ How questions?
    § Whether or not a question is how or why can change the methods of the study.
    ○ One or few cases
    ○ Subjective experience and meaning
    ○ Theory building
    § Especially in instances when we have little understanding of a topic
    § By asking a general question.

Question 27

quality

Answer 27

transparency of the research process
Ability to explain to others why the research was conducted the way that it was. Why a particular design or method was used. Quality ≠ reliability

Question 28

credibility

Answer 28

validation of analysis
- Basis upon which an outside consumer of the study might believe its findings.
Credibility ≠ validity

Question 29

study design and methods

Answer 29

• Takes into account:
  ○ The phenomenon of interest
  § What is it that we want to understand.
  ○ Existing theories about this phenomenon
  ○ The social context of this phenomenon
  § If it has a particular context the design and methods needs to take this into account.
  ○ The range of methods could possibly be used to study this
  § This includes methods that may not have been developed yet
  § Qualitative research is not only based on (semi-structured) interview.
  □ However, most is.
  ○ Clear and explicit account of data collection methods
  Why was the method chosen? High quality research will make this transparent to the reader.

Question 30

problem with semi-structured interviews

Answer 30

® If the phenomenon exists in the real world, why not study this rather than ask people about the phenomenon.
◊ Don’t ask people about communication when you can directly study the issue.

Question 31

triangulation

Answer 31

§ Often done by using mixed method research.
□ E.g. using interviews and practice.
® Interviews provided insight into how clients experienced online interviews
◊ This is an experience.
® Practices
◊ Does not provide experience of the client but rather the practice of the therapist.
□ Problem lies with whether both methods are providing insight to the same things.
□ How do we know that these two things can be triangulated?
§ “One should not adopt a naively “optimistic” view that the aggregation of data from different sources will unproblematically add up to produce a more complete picture” (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983: 199)

Question 32

sample size

Answer 32

• Qualitative research generally has small sample sizes.
  
  • At some points even one.
  • Question is how can such a small sample size provide insight into a phenomenon?
  • “…one is also a number, the single case is also a quantity, and statistical significance is but one form of significance” (Schegloff, 1993: 101, emphasis in original)
  • Generalizability may / may not be an objective
    ○ Some times qual. Research does not seek to generalize to a population.
    ○ Sometimes there may be one case but the significance of this research is important
    ○ i.e. someone has died as a 000 call did not go well.

Question 33

sampling- generalisability

Answer 33

often qual. methods do not look for generaliability

Question 34

representative sampling

Answer 34

• Representative sampling
  ○ Large amount of data
  ○ Generally not suitable for rigourous qualitative research

Question 35

purposive sampling

Answer 35

An attempt to capture the diversity that you anticipate might be important
○ “…seek out groups, settings and individuals where … the processes being studied are most likely to occur” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994: 202)
Generally the most common or applicable.

Question 36

theoretical sampling

Answer 36

○ Developed within Grounded Theory research
○ “When conducting theoretical sampling, you are much more selective than before about whom you obtain data from and what you seek from these individuals. You may focus on certain experiences, events or issues, not on individuals per se, because you want to develop your theoretical categories and need to define how and when they vary” (Charmez, 1996: 46)

Question 37

methods of sampling in qual research

Answer 37

• convenience
• snowball
• theoretical
• purposive
• representative
• generalisability

Question 38

analysis of data - avoiding anecdotalism

Answer 38

(cherry picking).
§ Being selective and only choosing data that supports your theory.
§ Constant comparative method
§ Deviant / negative case analysis
- Ensures that you aim to make sense of deviant or differing cases.
thus, need to make sense of deviant or differing cases.

Question 39

‘thick’ descriptions

Answer 39

○ Wont simply state that a client’s behaviour is resistant: thin
Will rather deal with why and how this behaviour is done.

Question 40

saturation

Answer 40

○ An analysis that has been developed is seen over and over again across and within cases and that any new data collected does not change the data in any way.

Question 41

developing analysis with others

Answer 41

○ Peer debriefing / data sessions
○ Inter-rater agreement
§ Closer to quantitative.
§ Argued that often it is not surprising when researchers from the same background etc. will agree.
○ May be presenting data and have others interrogate it.
- Respondent or communicative validation (‘member checking’)
○ Going back and checking that the insight given is correct.
§ However criticized because sometimes we know what we are doing but that we cannot articulate this.
○ “There is no reason to assume that members have privileged status as commentators on their actions” (Fielding & Fielding, 1986: 43).
E.g. when telling someone that they are pregnant, this may or may not be surprising on the basis of the news deliverer, the receiver or the news itself.

Question 42

biases of qualitative analysis

Answer 42

• The observer’s paradox
  ○ The act of observing might affect the behaviour.
  ○ However, it is arguable that conducting this research is still more generalisable than if you were to ask someone into a laboratory.
  
  • Researcher biases
    ○ Biases can shine through research.
  • Social desirability
    ○ Behaviors can be changed due to fear of judgement.

Question 43

reflexivity

Answer 43

• Key technique for dealing with biases.
  
  • “Reflexivity is commonly viewed as the process of a continual internal dialogue and critical self-evaluation of researcher’s positionality as well as active acknowledgement and explicit recognition that this position may affect the research process and outcome. It is the self-appraisal in research” (Berger, 2015: 220)
  • Reflexivity provides a way in which the values, positions and ethics of the research are made explicit and is thus a way for managing the impact of researcher bias on research.
  • Reflexivity as turning qualitative analysis on yourself.
    ○ How do you know what you know?
    § Is it because of what you have been studying or is it because of your own values you have bought to the study.
    ○ What shapes and has shaped your perspective?
    ○ How has your research and fieldwork shaped your position and perspective

Question 44

being reflective

Answer 44

• Importance of the ongoing dialogue about data and its analysis
  
  • Can be done alone or with others:
    ○ Reflective journal
    § Self-dialogue about researcher •
    § Private record of methodological decisions, preliminary reflections on data collection or analysis
    § Can be a source material or complement/aid your analysis
    ○ Multiple researchers/ analysts
    § Dialogue with others to develop complementary and deeper, or divergent and alternative perspectives
    § Continuous questioning, multiple answers

Question 45

refelxivity- setpping in

Answer 45

tepping in – insider’s perspective
○ What do you already know?
○ How does your current position, perspective allow you to engage with your topic and participants?

Question 46

reflexivity- stepping out

Answer 46

outsider’s perspective
○ How can you distance yourself from this position? –
Who can help you see it as an outsider?

Question 47

reflexivity- stepping sideways

Answer 47

alternative perspective

- What other possible explanations are there? 
- What other theoretical frames can you use?

Question 48

whose perspective

Answer 48

○ ‘Understood and experienced by the participants’ does not necessarily mean consciously understood or experienced
○ People do not notice all the things they are capable of
Using expertise to explain why people do things.

Question 49

reporting findings

Answer 49

• Different structure, less conventional
  
  • More theoretical/conceptual
  • Often results and discussion presented together
  • Procedure of data collection and analysis need to be explained carefully
  • Data is usually presented:
    ○ According to themes, concepts, practices, etc
    ○ Active analysis/interpretation, rather than mere description
    ○ Quotations in their (interactional) context
    ○ Enables readers to critique the reported analysis

Question 50

COREQ

Answer 50

• Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ)
  ○ 32-item checklist
  ○ Used to appraise interview-based research

Question 51

DOMAIN 1

Answer 51

• Domain 1: Research team and reflexivity –
  ○ E.g. Item 8: Interviewer characteristics: What characteristics were reported about the interviewer/facilitator? E.g. Bias, assumptions, reasons and interests in the research topic

Question 52

DOMAIN 2

Answer 52

• Domain 2: Study design

○ E.g. Item 22: Data saturation: Was data saturation discussed?

Question 53

DOMAIN 3

Answer 53

• Domain 3: Analysis and findings

E.g. Item 30: Data and findings consistent: Was there consistency between the data presented and the findings?