Chapter 10
Appraising Qualitative Designs
and Approaches
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Design
Is flexible, capable of adjusting to what is learned
during data collection
Benefits from ongoing data analysis to guide
subsequent strategies
Often involves triangulating various data sources
Tends to be holistic, aimed at understanding the
whole
Requires researchers to become intensely involved
and reflexive
Emergent: evolves as researchers make ongoing
decisions about their data needs based on what
they have already learned
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Contrasting Qualitative and Quantitative
Design
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Ethnography #1
Describes and interprets a culture and cultural
behavior
Culture is the way a group of people live—the
patterns of activity and the symbolic structures (e.g.,
the values and norms) that give such activity
significance.
Relies on extensive, labor-intensive fieldwork
Culture is inferred from the group’s words, actions,
and products of its members.
Assumption: Cultures guide the way people structure
their experiences.
Macroethnography vs. focused ethnography
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Ethnography #2
Seeks an emic perspective (insider’s view) of the
culture and to reveal tacit knowledge—information
about the culture that is deeply embedded in the
culture
Relies on wide range of data sources and three
broad types of information: cultural behavior,
cultural artifacts, and cultural speech
Participant observation is a particularly important
source.
Product: an in-depth, holistic portrait of the culture
under study
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Phenomenology
Focuses on the description and interpretation of
people’s lived experience
Asks: What is the essence of a phenomenon as it is
experienced by people, and what does it mean?
Acknowledges people’s physical ties to their world:
“being in the world”
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Descriptive Phenomenology
Based on philosophy of Husserl and his question:
“What do we know as persons?”
Describes human experience
Insists on the careful portrayal of ordinary conscious
experience of everyday life—a depiction of “things”
as people experience them
o Hearing, seeing, believing, feeling,
remembering, deciding, and evaluating
May involve maintaining a reflexive journal
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Phases of Descriptive Phenomenological
Study
Bracketing: the process of identifying and holding in
abeyance preconceived beliefs and opinions about
the phenomenon under study
Intuiting: occurs when researchers remain open to
the meanings attributed to the phenomenon by
those who have experienced it
Analyzing: extracting significant statements,
categorizing, and making sense of essential
meanings
Describing: defining the phenomenon
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Interpretive Phenomenology
Based on philosophy of Heidegger; Heideggerian:
hermeneutics as a basic characteristic of human
existence
Gadamer: the hermeneutic circle
Emphasis on interpreting and understanding
experience, not just describing it; bracketing does
not occur.
Relies on in-depth interviews and supplementary
data sources: texts, artistic expressions
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Question #1
What process is associated with descriptive
phenomenology?
a. Emic perspective
b. Bracketing
c. Fieldwork
d. Lived human relation
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Answer to Question #1
b. Bracketing
Rationale: Descriptive phenomenology involves four
steps, the first of which is bracketing. Emic
perspective and fieldwork are associated with
ethnography. Lived human relation is characteristic of
phenomenology in general.
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Grounded Theory
Focuses on the discovery of a basic social
psychological problem that a defined group of
people experience
Elucidates social psychological processes and social
structures
Has a number of theoretical roots—e.g., symbolic
interaction
Originally developed by sociologists Glaser and
Strauss
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Grounded Theory Methods
Developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), whose
theoretical roots were in symbolic interaction: how
people make sense of social interactions
Has contributed to the development of many
middle-range theories of phenomena relevant to
nurses
Primary data sources: in-depth interviews with 20
to 30 people; may be supplemented with
observations, written documents
Data collection, data analysis, and sampling occur
simultaneously.
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Grounded Theory Analysis
Constant comparison: used to develop and
refine theoretically relevant categories
o Categories elicited from the data are
constantly compared with data obtained
earlier so that commonalities and variations
can be detected.
Focus is on understanding a central concern or
core variable.
A basic social process (BSP) explains how
people come to resolve the problem or concern.
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Alternate Views of Grounded Theory
In 1990, Strauss and Corbin published a
controversial book, Basics of Qualitative Research:
Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques.
Glaser (1992) believed that Strauss and Corbin
developed a method that is not grounded theory but
rather what he called “full conceptual description.”
Nurse researchers also use an approach called
constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014).
Charmaz regards Glaser and Strauss’s grounded
theory as having positivist roots.
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Other Types of Qualitative Research
Not all qualitative studies are conducted within a
disciplinary tradition. Examples include the
following:
Case studies
o These focus on a thorough description and
explanation of a single case or small number of
cases.
o Cases can be individuals, families, groups,
organizations, or communities.
o Data often are collected over an extended
period.
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Question #2
Tell whether the following is statement True or False.
When applying grounded theory methods, the
researcher obtains the sample first and then collects
data.
a. True
b. False
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Answer to Question #2
b. False
Rationale: When using grounded theory methods, data
collection, data analysis, and sampling occur
simultaneously.
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Narrative Analysis
Texts that provide detailed stories are sometimes
analyzed through narrative analysis.
There are numerous approaches to analyzing texts.
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Descriptive Qualitative Studies
Descriptive qualitative studies tend to be eclectic in
their designs and methods and are based on the
general premises of constructivist inquiry.
Such descriptive studies seek to holistically describe
phenomena as they are perceived by the people
who experience them.
The researchers may say that they did a content
analysis of the narrative data with the intent of
understanding important themes and patterns.
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Research With Ideological Perspectives
#1
Critical theory research
o Concerned with a critique of existing social
structures and with envisioning new possibilities
o Critical ethnography focuses on raising
consciousness in the hope of effecting social
change. Transformation is a key objective.
o Critical ethnographers attempt to increase the
political dimensions of cultural research and
undermine oppressive systems.
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Research With Ideological Perspectives
#2
Feminist research
• Focuses on how gender domination and
discrimination shape women’s lives and their
consciousness
Participatory action research (PAR)
• Produces knowledge through close collaboration
with groups or communities that are vulnerable
to control or oppression
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Question #3
Which phrase best describes the key objective of
critical theory research?
a. Long-term data collection
b. Gender domination
c. Transformation
d. Vulnerable groups
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Answer to Question #3
c. Transformation
Rationale: A key objective of critical theory research is
transformation. Data collection over time is common
in case studies. The effect of gender domination and
discrimination is associated with feminist research.
Groups or communities vulnerable to control or
oppression are associated with participatory action
research.
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Appraisal of Designs
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