Qualitative Research
Design
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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:
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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
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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
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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
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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 quasiexperimental 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.
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