Key Terms and Definitions Flashcards
What is Qualitative Research?
A research method focused on exploring human experiences, meanings, and social phenomena through rich, detailed data collection.
Example: Conducting in-depth interviews to understand how individuals cope with grief.
What is Reflexivity?
A process where researchers critically reflect on their biases, assumptions, and influence on the research.
Example: A researcher examining childhood trauma may keep a journal to track how their own experiences influence interpretation.
What is Triangulation?
Using multiple data sources, methods, or theories to enhance credibility and confirm findings.
Example: Studying work stress by combining interviews, surveys, and workplace observations.
What is Thematic Analysis?
A method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting themes in qualitative data.
Example: Categorizing interview responses into themes like ‘workplace support’ and ‘job stress’.
What is Grounded Theory?
A qualitative research method aimed at developing theories based on systematically collected and analyzed data.
Example: Investigating workplace burnout by continuously refining categories like ‘job demands’ and ‘lack of autonomy’.
What is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)?
A method exploring how individuals make sense of their lived experiences.
Example: Examining how cancer patients interpret their diagnosis and treatment.
What is a Case Study?
An in-depth investigation of a specific individual, group, or situation within its real-life context.
Example: Studying how a particular school implemented inclusive education policies.
What is Narrative Inquiry?
A qualitative approach that focuses on individuals’ personal stories and how they construct meaning from their experiences.
Example: Analyzing the career narratives of teachers to understand professional identity formation.
What is Member-Checking?
A technique where researchers share findings with participants to confirm accuracy.
Example: Sending interview transcripts to participants to verify their statements were interpreted correctly.
What is Transferability?
The extent to which research findings can be applied to other settings or groups.
Example: A study on leadership in healthcare settings being transferable to corporate environments.
What is Credibility?
The trustworthiness of research findings and how well they reflect participants’ realities.
Example: Using multiple interviews and peer review to ensure consistency in qualitative research.
What is Thick Description?
Providing detailed, contextualized descriptions of participants, settings, and events to support transferability.
Example: Describing a rural healthcare facility’s challenges in implementing mental health programs.
What is an Audit Trail?
A documented record of all research decisions, processes, and changes to ensure transparency and dependability.
Example: Keeping a log of data coding decisions in a qualitative study.
What is Theoretical Saturation?
The point at which data collection stops because no new insights are emerging.
Example: Interviewing teachers about classroom stress until responses become repetitive.
What is Inductive Research?
A bottom-up research approach where theories emerge from data rather than being pre-determined.
Example: Observing students’ study habits and developing a model of effective learning strategies.
What is Deductive Research?
A top-down approach where research begins with a theory or hypothesis and tests it through data collection.
Example: Applying Erikson’s psychosocial theory to predict how adolescents handle peer pressure.
What is Theoretical Sampling?
A process where data collection is guided by the emerging theory, selecting participants who provide the most relevant insights.
Example: Interviewing more nurses with varied hospital experiences after identifying a theme of emotional burnout.
What is Negative Case Analysis?
A process where researchers examine cases that do not fit the emerging patterns to refine theories.
Example: If most participants feel online learning is isolating but one finds it empowering, their perspective is analyzed further.
What is The Double Hermeneutic?
The dual interpretation process in IPA, where participants make sense of their experiences, and researchers interpret those interpretations.
Example: A participant describes feeling ‘lost’ in a new culture, and the researcher interprets this as identity reconstruction.
What is Coding in Qualitative Research?
The process of organizing and categorizing qualitative data to identify patterns.
Example: Assigning labels like ‘stress coping strategies’ to different interview excerpts.
What is The Constant Comparative Method?
A method in Grounded Theory where new data is continuously compared with previous findings to refine categories.
Example: Comparing multiple interviews about workplace conflicts to see if themes evolve.
What is In Vivo Coding?
A coding technique that uses participants’ own words as labels to stay close to their lived experiences.
Example: A participant saying ‘I feel invisible’ might be coded as ‘invisibility’.
What is a Research Paradigm?
A set of beliefs and assumptions guiding research methodology.
Example: Positivism relies on objective measurements, while constructivism emphasizes subjective experiences.
What is Axiology in Research?
The study of values and ethics in research, including bias minimization.
Example: Ensuring that research on marginalized communities is conducted ethically and fairly.
