Qualitative Research:

• The study of research questions about human experiences, behaviors, and social
phenomena from the people’s perspective.
• Qualitative research is often conducted in natural settings (one that people live in every
day.
• Uses data that are words or text, rather than numerical, in order to describe the
experiences that are being studied.

Setting:
Review of the Recruitment
Study design Sample
literature and data
collection

Data collection Data analysis Findings Conclusions

What is meta-synthesis?
 Systematic review of qualitative research
 Identified as systemic compilation & interpretation of qualitative study results to expand
understand & develop a unique interpretation of study findings in a selected area
 Main focus is on interpretation
 Uses comparative analysis and interpretative synthesis of findings

What is rigor in Qualitative research?

 Excellence in research; attained through the use of discipline, scrupulous adherence

to detail, and strict accuracy.
 The rigor or strength of a qualitative study is the extent to which the identified
meanings represent the perspectives of the participants accurately
 Is shown by credibility, auditability, fittingness
Criteria for judging scientific rigor:

 Criteria  Characteristics

 Credibility  Truth of findings as judged by participants and others

within the discipline
 How true are the findings?
 Auditability  Accountability as judged by the adequacy of information
leading the reader from the research question and raw
data through various steps of analysis to the
interpretation of findings
 When was the study conducted? Can those steps be
 followed? Are they appropriate?
 Fittingness  Faithfulness to the everyday reality of the participants,
described in enough detail so that others in the discipline
can evaluate the importance for their own practice,
research, and theory development
 Have they provided enough detail?
 Confirmabilit  Findings that reflect implementation of credibility,
y auditability, and fittingness standards
 Are these established?

What is purposive sampling?

 May select individuals typical in relation to the phenomenon under study
 May seek out individuals different in some way from other participants to get diverse
perspectives
 Snowballing technique is used commonly (snowballing technique to take advantage of
social networks and the fact that friends tend to hold characteristics in common.
Participants meeting the sample criteria are asked to assist in locating others with similar
characteristics. Network sampling is synonymous with chain sampling and snowball
sampling)
There is no set sample size so you basically continue to gather data until there is no new
information emerging which is called data saturation

What is triangulation?
 The use of multiple methods or data sources in research to develop a comprehensive
understanding of phenomena or enhance diversity
Types include:
 Data triangulation: A variety of data sources (e.g., at different times, from different
settings and groups)
 Investigator triangulation: Use of different researchers with divergent backgrounds
 Theory triangulation: Use of multiple perspectives during data interpretation
 Methodological triangulation: Multimethod used to study a single topic
 Interdisciplinary triangulation: Use more than one discipline to study the topic
Which designs is this commonly applied?
• Mixed Methods Research - “Involves combining or integrating qualitative and
quantitative methods and/or data in a research study” (Creswell, 2014)
• Inductive research—primarily qualitative
• Deductive—primarily quantitative

Research Methods:
Grounded Theory Method:

• Is an inductive approach involving a systematic set of procedures to arrive at a theory

about basic social processes
 • It explores how people define reality and how their beliefs are related to their actions
• Symbolic meanings are the basis for actions and interactions

When is grounded theory used?

 When no theory exists that explains that phenomena
 Or existing theory is not complete

The goal for this theory is to

 To discover underlying social forces that shape human behaviour

Grounded theory method:

 It is cyclical meaning: constant comparative analysis done during collection and analysis

Data collection Data analysis

 With this theory, FIRST you collect data & analyze it, THEN you derive theory from it
 Data collection process: Theoretical sampling is when you recruit a small group of
people to begin with and then plan to recruit more people later.

Step 1: Data collection – interview people and transcribe files then begin analysis
Step 2: Analysis: the first step for analysis is open coding (break up transcripts in individual
excerpts and then group them together into codes so you can go back to collecting more data
from more interviews and more people) you will compare your data codes to new data to see
similarities. As more interviews and data collected, your codes will change so you can group
codes together with axial coding (finding connection between codes).
Selective coding: the core category in which connects all codes together and is the basis for the
theory.

You want to first start with raw data as transcripts then turn them into a theory grounded by data.
So for every collection of data, the closer you get to developing a grounded theory.

Ethnographic Method: Focuses on scientific description of interpretation of cultural or social

groups and systems
 The researcher spends significant of time in the real environment to be observed
 Try not to alter
 The researcher observes people without disrupting them
 Researcher identifies own personal biases and brackets them when engaged with the
study participants
Method: Participant observation, consists of informal interviews, field notes, artifacts, art, and
videos
Collection is done simultaneously in cycles
Results: Cultural narrative
 The goal for this theory is: To understand the participants’ views of their world = emic view(one
of studying behaviors from within the culture that recognizes the uniqueness of the individual)

 understanding the culture, norms and values, and social environment of a group

Phenomenology: A process of learning and constructing the meaning of human experience

through intensive dialogue with persons who are living the experience

 Descriptive Phenomenology: Focuses on rich detailed descriptions of the lived world

(focuses on purpose is to describe experiences as they are lived)
 Heideggerian: Expands description to understanding, achieved through searching for the
relationships and meanings of phenomena. Researchers look how participants have
interpreted or given meaning to their experiences
 Hermeneutics: Focuses on interpretation of phenomena(doesn’t focus on describing)

Husserl Philosophy Heidegger Philosophy

• Phenomena are the world of experience, • The person is a self within a body (embodied).
• Cannot be examined by examining causal • The person has a world, which is “the meaningful
relations, set of relationships, practices, language that we
• Are studied as they are, and have by virtue of being born into a culture”
• Occur only when experienced by a person. (Leonard, 1989.p.43).
• Experiences must be described, not studied • The person’s beliefs and values are shaped by
using statistics their world, thus limiting the person’s ability to
• To describe, researcher must experience it in make meaning through language, culture, history,
a naïve way (Kvigne et al., 2002). purposes, and values.
• Self and world are mutually shaping, but it is • A person has limited freedom
• Believes researchers must BRACKET • The person experiences “being” within the
(separate their non bias & set aside framework of time (being-in-time), with the past
personal bias) to describe a phenomena in and future influencing the now and are part of
a native way being-in-time.
• Bracketing is not possible
Basically focused on the phenoma itsels, captures
experience without interpreting, explaining, or Believes you cannot separate bias from way of born
theorizing in an environment

Experiences must be described not studied

Sample selection: Purposive, people who are living the experience

- The researcher wants to practice bracketing for no preconceived notions while conducting these
interviews
It begins with a topic, so now the researcher will go through reflexivity(self reflect their beliefs
and own bias) by bracketing or analyzing their own bias. So start with data collection:

Data collection: in depth interviews, personal notes, memos

Data analysis: Thematic analysis(involves delving through a data set, identifying patterns,
systematically coding, deriving themes, and creating a narrative) to reveal the essence of the
phenomena through the experience of the study participants

 Same process with grounded- Familiarize with data- transcribe them, 2) create initial
codes that represent meanings and patterns of data, 3) decide what to code, 4) group
codes to see similarities for how you are going to interpret the data that relates to your
research question. See what is relevant in evidence to support your research question, 5)
write your narrative(tells the story of your data)

Goal: Thematic narrative

Case Study: Researcher investigates a contemporary phenomenon over to

 Provide an in-depth description of essential dimensions and processes of the phenomena

 Basically, capturing unique stories
 Perspective is reflected in the questions used to investigate the case study

Sample selection: Purposive, some choose most common cases, others the most unusual cases

Research question: Evolves over time and re-creates itself as the study progresses

Data collection: interviews, observations, document review. The data analysis is collection and
analysis done simultaneously in cycles= iterative process (This iterative approach allows for
ongoing refinement and development of ideas or theories based on the insights gained from each
cycle of the process) because each cycle can potentially lead to refinements or improvements of
the theories

Results: Thematic case-specific narrative (It involves capturing unique stories and creating a
narrative that focuses on specific themes related to the case under study. This type of narrative
aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the specific case being
investigated, often through the identification and exploration of key themes or patterns within the
data. It allows for a deep dive into the intricacies of the case, offering a rich and detailed account
of the phenomenon in question)

Historical Research Method: The systematic approach to understanding the past throufh
collection, organization, and critical appraisal of facts
What is the goal?

 To shed light on the past so that it can guide the present and future

Research question: Embedded in the description of the phenomenon studied

Researcher: Interpretation free of bias and is clear

Sample selection: Primary and secondary data(ensuring looking for the right and quality sources)
examples: documents, witnesses, objects, etc

Data collection: Books, records, documents, artifacts, eyewitness accounts and the data is
analyzed to analyze the authenticity & patterns

Results: Historical narrative

Participatory Action Research: exploration of, reflection on, and action on social and health
problems
 Systemically accesses the voice of the community to plan context-appropriate action
 Community-based participatory research- community is systematically accessed
 Working with people to improve the present

What is the goal?

 To facilitate change within a community with the participants involved in all steps of the
change process

Research question: Focused on who is affected by or has an influence on the problem being
studied

Researcher: Acts as an consultant, not an expert

Sample selection: Purposive; people from the community who have varied perspectives,
experiences, and background

Data collection: Through interviews, group sessions, observation, relevant documents, materials,
equipment and data is analyzed by refining all data into a cohesive set of ideas, patterns, themes
to plan the action phase

Results: Outcomes, report, narrative, presentations

Nursing theorists who is important and their research methodology:

Madeleine Leininger:
 She increased visibility of ethnography in nursing
 Studied culture care
Her focus:
 Learning about peoples beliefs, experiences, and culture care information

Nurses use Leininger’s theory of transcultural nursing (Leininger, 2002) in practice by

assessing multiple aspects of the patient, family, and their environment, including religion,
societal norms, economic status, country of origin, ethnic subgroup, and beliefs about
illness and healing

Rosemarie Parse:

 Theory: Human becoming

 Her method was: universal health experiences

Her focus:

 Participants life experience, supported by true presence during

interviews (sharing story) and data transcription

Margaret Newman:

 Theory: Health as expanding consciousness

 Her method was: Pattern recognition

Her focus:

 Recognized life patterns, studied through multiple interviews and

collaboration