Reviewing Qualitative
Research
Susan Hawkshaw
Qualitative research
Comprises of many methodologies and
research practices rooted in the social and
human sciences
 Questions asked by qualitative
researchers focus on in-depth
understanding of the human experience
and the contexts in which the experience
occurs.

Qualitative Research approaches
Are inductive - the researcher does not
start are with a hypothesis or theory to
test, but observe patterns & trends from
particular cases in the field; they can be
used when little is known about an
phenomenon
 Aim to understand and explain the world
by incorporating participants’ meanings

Its reflective and data driven- that is
working explanations and theories develop
during data analysis; in this way a valid
account is constructed that can be used to
guide knowledge development within a
discipline
 Incorporate subjectivity
 Acknowledge the interaction between
researcher and the participants

Influences on nursing research
Nursing Focus
Illustrative study
Research
approach
Origins
Testing or proving
efficacy of
interventions
Selecting a wound
dressing
Randomised clinical Quasi-experimental
control trial
design, natural
sciences
(positivism)
Understanding the
patients / clients
world
Coping with
depression
Phenomenological
Existential
Philosophy:
psychology
Understanding
social processes
Nurse /patient
rehabilitations
interactions
Grounded Theory
Sociology
Understanding
group or culture
behaviour
The factors
influencing
cigarette smoking
amongst street gang
teenagers
Ethnography
Anthropology
Empowering others
(effecting social
change)
Helping women to
access screening
facilities
Action research
Feminism, critical
theory
PHENOMENOLOGY RESEARCH TERMS
Essences: Internal meaning structures of
a phenomenon grasped through the study
of human lived experience.
 Lived experience: Everyday experience,
not as it is conceptualized, but as it is lived
(ie, how it feels).

Phenomenology
Phenomenology is proposed as a way of
understanding the meaning of phenomena
as they really are, and phenomenological
research is the process of gaining
understanding.
 It focuses on the human phenomena as
known through the meanings ascribed by
individuals. i.e. ‘the lived experience’

Phenomenological perspectives

Realist/interpretive perspective of
Husserls- the study aims to convey the
essence of the phenomenon, those
experiences which individuals might not
recognise. By interviewing enough people,
recurrent issues will suggest the essence
of the phenomena might be (deeper
meaning).
Phenomenological perspectives
Hermeneutic (Heideggerian) perspective,
To understand the phenomenon through
working with the respondents. Just as the
world is constructed, so research accounts
are constructed. By working together the
accounts are more meaningful than those
of individuals. The emphasis is on shared
truths rather than the pursuit of deeper
meaning.

Phenomenology

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Method of data collection –obtain by interview
(unstructured or semi structured) which is typed
and transcribed.
Purposive sampling (not subjects, they are
participants or respondents)
Data is analyses by content analysis
Construction of description of the essence of the
phenomenon is achieved from the analysis
process.
Authenticity

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Phenomenology is not generalisable.
The aim is authenticity, i.e. the reader can follow
how the research was conducted and ascertain
from this whether the results are authentically
represented.
Many researchers ask participants to review the
account of the interview including quotes to
verify it reflects their contribution.
Others use critical readers to see the codes
seem accurate in terms of the raw data shown.
Ethnography


Involves the study of a social groups culture
through time spent combining participant –
observation, in-depth interviews and document
analysis in the informants natural setting
This cultural understanding may help answer
questions about, peoples health illness beliefs
and practices, work –world issues of concern,
individual experiences in certain types of
settings.
Ethnography (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1998)
Is a form of social research that exhibits
 A strong emphasis on exploring the nature of a
particular social phenomena.
 A tendency to work with unstructured data (no
preset criteria for data collection)
 Investigation of a small number of cases
 Analysis of data that involves interpretation of
the meanings and functions of human actions,
the product which takes the forms of verbal
descriptions and explanations.
Ethnography research terms

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Culture: Shared knowledge and behaviour of people
who interact within distinct social settings and
subsystems.
Participant-observation: Observation and participation
in everyday activities in study informants’ natural
settings.
Fieldwork: All research activities carried out in and in
relation to the field (informants; natural settings).
Key informant: A select informant/assistant with
extensive or specialised knowledge of his/her own
culture.
Emic and etic: Contrasting “insider” views of informants
(emic) and the researcher’s “outsider” (etic) views.
Qualitative Descriptive Studies

Serve to summarise factual information
about the human experience with more
attention to the feel of the data’s subjective
content than tends to be found in
quantitative description but with less
reading into, between, over the data
required of the more interpretative
traditions.
Grounded Theory

The purpose of grounded theory,
developed by Glaser & Strauss (1967) is
to generate theory about how people deal
with life situations that is “grounded” in
empirical data and describes the
processes by which they move through
experiences over time.
Grounded Theory

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Data collection: Observation and interviews
Data analysis: the goal is to discover core
variable through procedures of constant
comparison (i.e. coding, categorising, analysing
incoming data and examined in different
contexts)
Theoretical sampling that directs data collection
to saturation (completeness)
Action Research (Critical theory)

Action research is a methodology which
involves reflection (Scho¨n 1987, Hart &
Bond 1995) and its spirals become an
advantage as the repetition of the cycles
together with reflection can progressively
narrow the theory–research–practice gap
(Lewin 1946, Elliot 1978, Kemmis 1988).
Action Research
The four common criteria of AR presented
by Holter & Schwartz-Barcott (1993) and
Hart & Bond (1995):
 the collaboration between the researcher
and the practitioners;
 the definition of the problem;
 the change in practice;
 the theory development.
Action Research Methodologies
 Usually
a combination of methods like
the use of like case studies, reflective
diaries, brainstorming, portfolios,
surveys, observation, documentation
analysis and discussion groups are
used.
Sampling – Qualitative Research
Since the aim of naturalistic research is to
discover the meaning, generalisability is
not the goal. Researchers target people
who can give authentic accounts of the
phenomenon under investigation. The two
guiding principles for sampling are
appropriateness and adequacy.
 Purposive sampling
 Theoretical sampling

Data collection
Interviews – unstructured, semi structured
 Focus groups
 Observation – participant / independent
 Field notes
 Diaries
 Document analysis

Data Analysis
Analysis of qualitative research involves
extracting themes, patterns, processes,
essences and meaning from “textual data”
 Content analysis most common, with
procedures that involve breaking down
data (e.g. coding, comparing, contrasting,
and categorising). Then reconstituting
them in some new form, such as
descriptions, interpretations or theory.

Authenticity and Credibility
Some authors use terms reliability and
validity others use any number of terms
such as
 Trustworthiness
 Credibility
 Dependability
 Transferability
Credibility
(roughly like validity) – refers to
the believability of the data. Various
techniques & activities are used increase
credibility, such as prolonged engagement
(adequate scope of data coverage) and
persistent observation (which aim to
achieve sufficient dept). Triangulation –
use multiple referents to draw conclusions
about what constitutes the truth (peer
debriefings and member checks).
 Credibility
Dependability, Confirmability,
Transferability
Dependability refers to the stability of data
over time and conditions (Inquiry audit).
 Confirmability refers to the objectivity or
neutrality of the data (audit trail).
 Transferability – extent to which findings
can be transferred. It is enhance by the
use of thick descriptions of the context of
data collection.
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In conclusion
Research Focus
Research approach
Understanding the patients
/ clients world
Understanding social
processes
Understanding group or
culture behaviour
Empowering others
(effecting social change)
Phenomenology
Grounded Theory
Ethnography
Action research