Critique of two research articles

Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis

Meriel Norris

Research Methods PH2600

2020

What this lecture will cover

• How is qualitative research conducted?

– Introduction to methods

• What is the role of the researcher?

– Introduction to reflexivity/ co-construction

• Analysis

– Introduction to thematic analysis

How do Qualitative Researchers Collect Data?

Research Question Qualitative Approach

(Methodology)

Data Collection

(Methods)

What is the meaning

attached to this

phenomenon?

Phenomenology

(philosophy)

Semi-structured

interviews (SSI)

Diaries

What is life like for this

group?

Ethnography

(anthropology)

Biography/Case study

Participant observation

SSI, FG, visual methods,

document analysis,

video…

What is happening?

Why is it happening?

Grounded theory

(sociology)

SSI, focus groups (FG)

What are they

communicating?

How are they

communicating?

Discourse analysis

(sociology, linguistics)

SSI

Interviews

• A conversation with a purpose

• Probably the most widely used method in qualitative research (Whiting 2008)

• Often personal and intimate encounters

But also

• “complex, labour intensive and uncertain business, fraught with tricky issues…”

(Bannister 1994:49)

Interview types

• Structured (not really qualitative)

• Semi-structured

• Unstructured/open

• Dyad

Example of SSI Extract: Living with Ataxia

• What’s it like to live with ataxia?... • ‘I’m aware that my general gait when I’m walking makes

you look like you’re drunk…and yeah, sometimes you do stumble and fall down. … part of my job involves working in big offices and when you walk about there or when you’re talking to somebody you can realise very simply there are loads of pairs of eyes going chu-chu-chu – looking at you and thinking ‘What’s wrong with him?’ I think that is probably the biggest problem that anybody with I suppose any disability has coming to terms with it, accepting that you are different.’ (Jim)

Some strengths and limitations

Strengths • Flexible enough to explore

experiences in depth

• Ability for participants to reflect on complex experiences

• Emic perspective

• Can gain large volumes of rich data

Weaknesses • Relevance of data

• Participants self-editing

• Reliant on skill of interviewer

• Transcription and data analysis time-consuming

Examples of use of photographs/images in qualitative research

Arti selected the photograph entitled ‘Arti standing’ (Fig 1) and commented on its significance.

I: Why did you select this picture? What does it mean to you?

Arti: I am very happy to stand. Makes me think I can walk independently, even though I know I can’t … give me hope that I will be able to do it eventually. I am happy when I stand. I ask myself, when will I be able to walk?

‘I view the world, the way the world’s set up is, if ... you’re up walking around, even though you’re not perfect, but visually you’re perfect ...’

Focus groups

• Discussion amongst a group – ‘added value’

• Able to gather multiple views in less time

• May address power issues (may also create some)

• Can vary in level of structure

BUT

• May impede discussion of sensitive subjects

Example of focus group

• Participant 5: ‘Whatever you do don’t medicalise it … I think one of the key benefits of this is that it’s not another bloody appointment. You know it’s not the hospital … It’s also a community facility … it introduces you and makes other things accessible. There is a gym just around the corner, there is a pool at the other end, and it brings you to a place where, suddenly … ‘ (36-year-old female).

• Participant 6: ‘ … It’s encouraged you to do stuff’ (81-year-old female).

• Participant 5: ‘It has … ‘

• Participant 7: ‘It has made this facility accessible to me. And it’s important that it’s in the community because it brings people that perhaps are stuck out of the community into the whole community’ (56-year-old male).

Topic guide

• List of indicative areas of interest

• Prompts to encourage depth

• Start general (accessible) and move to more sensitive subjects

– Open

– Not leading

– Freedom to go ‘off piste’

(Participant) Observation

• Vary in structure, location, duration • Observation vs immersion • Can help refine focus • Usually used in combination with other

methods

BUT • Ethics can be a concern • Being observed • Challenges with documentation

Field notes

Researcher co-produces the data in qualitative research

‘When I first got diagnosed [with MS], I think I was 24 or 25, that was really difficult then because I was single then as well and it’s not exactly a starting point of a conversation, and it did stop my doing a lot of things that my friends did, I couldn’t go to a night- club because the strobe lights completely, I can’t walk, when strobe lights are going on, and (pause) so it did stop me doing a lot of things, but now I don’t think of what I can’t do, I think of what I can do.’ • WHAT WOULD BE YOUR NEXT QUESTION?

Data from Dr Frances Reynolds

Researcher co-produces the data in qualitative research

• H When I first got diagnosed [with MS], I think I was 24 or 25, that was really difficult then because I was single then as well and it’s not exactly a starting point of a conversation, and it did stop my doing a lot of things that my friends did, I couldn’t go to a night-club because the strobe lights completely, I can’t walk, when strobe lights are going on, and (pause) so it did stop me doing a lot of things, but now I don’t think of what I can’t do, I think of what I can do

• F Mmm you try to look at it differently?……… • H Yes it’s no good thinking of what I can’t do

compared with what I used to be able to do, because you’d just go mad (pause) or really depressed so I don’t really dwell on it.

Reflexivity 1

• Recognising the influence of the researcher in the research process

• How experience, gender, profession, social status, ethnicity & culture influence the choices made in the study (from RQ to data collection, interpretation and discussion)

Reflexivity: acknowledging the researcher’s position in the research

Example of reflexivity in a qualitative research study (a study of women’s experiences after surgery for obesity (Ogden et al., 2006; p277):

• “In the case of the present study it is acknowledged that whilst none of the researchers are either obese or have had surgery all had gained sufficient experience of obese patients through clinical and research work to believe that severe obesity was not a desirable condition. ...As both the quantitative and qualitative studies progressed (Ogden et al., 2005) all researchers became increasingly impressed with the effectiveness of surgery ...It is therefore possible that such views influenced the nature of the analysis. However, ... the impact [of surgery] upon the individual’s broader psychological state and their sense of control … was surprising”.

• Embodied roles: being a student and daughter • Embodied gender, marital status, ethnicity and age • Embodying emotion • Embodied presences: being the body

What do Qualitative Methods have in Common?

• They typically take a social constructionist perspective on knowledge – that the data are created/ co-constructed during the research process, and the process is value laden

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What Else Do Qualitative Methods have in Common?

• They take the ‘emic’ perspective (insiders’ viewpoints are valued, rather than relying on ‘expert’ outsiders)

• They value subjectivity – participants’ own experiences, meanings, interpretations (‘lived experience’).

• They are naturalistic – qualitative methods seek to minimise ‘demand characteristics’, intervention, deception, dehumanising activities, artificial settings

Ethics and Qualitative Research: Harm and Burden

• Kvale (1996, p109) argues:

“An interview inquiry is a moral enterprise: the personal interaction in the interview affects the interviewee, and the knowledge produced by the interview affects our understanding of the human situation”

• Ethical issues arise throughout the qualitative research process, from initial planning to writing up and dissemination (especially as most interviews concern private, often troubling experiences) (Kvale, 2007)

Some ethical considerations

• Pseudonyms

• Removal of personal details (?photographs)

• Consent to quote

• Appropriate representation

• Behaviour in the ‘field’

• Management of potential distress

• Limits of confidentiality

• Fine line of intrusion

How Do Qualitative Researchers Analyse Data?

• Generally through a type / variation of thematic analysis • Thematic analysis is a method for identifying

analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data

• Organizes the data set and retains rich detail

Braun, V and Clarke, V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, pp77-101

Basic process

• Transcribe the data

• Read multiple times (immersion)

• ‘Code’ the data, assign a label to categorise or organise data

• Collect codes to create themes (crystalisation)

• Use direct quotations to ground the analysis in the data

• Check back for similarities and differences (-ve case analysis)

Variations within Thematic Analysis

• Thematic analysis can be descriptive or interpretative

• Essentialist/realist/descriptive: based on the experiences, meanings and the reality of participants

• Interpretative: looks for deeper meaning; the experiential claims of participants

• Constructionist: examines the ways in which events, realities, meanings, experiences and so on are the effects of a range of discourses operating within society

Interpreting Interview Data Realist versus interpretative approaches to understanding interview data: • Terry is explaining why she has become

involved in textile art… • “I like to create things. And I love colour

and I love learning new things…My mother, she used to paint as well. And my father was an architect… I had several aunts who used to paint as well. An uncle who was a musician. It’s definitely there [in the family] somewhere. We’ve never had any interest in sport. Bottom of the list always!” (Terry, mid-60s, rheumatoid arthritis)

Data from Dr Frances Reynolds

Realist approach – Terry is listing the family members who were interested in art

More interpretative approach to analysis – Terry is making an identity claim – she has an artistic ‘pedigree’; despite her arthritis which creates ‘difference’, she firmly belongs to her family traditions; she is much more than her arthritis ; she belongs to a lineage of artists

Other Data Analysis Methods

Constant Comparative Method (GT) – Sample is set on theoretical grounds; purposive and added to – the researcher moves back and forth between the data and the

emergent themes – the researcher checks emergent themes/theory against further

interviews (and will also return to earlier interviews), simultaneous data collection and analysis; helps to confirm or disconfirm emergent theory

– themes are refined – to achieve a better representation of participants’ meanings

Other methods of analysis – Narrative analysis may search for story structures, story type (heroic or

‘road of trials’ etc), characters in the stories

– Framework analysis – systematic – deductive and inductive themes

– Content analysis may count units of meanings or specific words or phrases (NB many types of content analysis – some like thematic)

Basic process (2)

Regardless of the type of qualitative research, data analysis requires a ‘deep dive’ - Sustained engagement - Immersion - Dwelling - Iterative

What do Qualitative Methods have in Common?

• They typically take a social constructionist perspective on knowledge – that the data are created/ co-constructed during the research process

• Researchers don’t tend to take a realist position (that the data describe ‘real’ events or ‘facts’)

• May take a more strongly interpretative position

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What is Qualitative Research? (Assumptions and Values)

Qualitative research:  Is a process of inquiry  Aims to deepen understanding or insight  It generally doesn’t seek to explain phenomena  Based on distinct methodological and philosophical traditions  The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture  Analysis is commonly based on words but pictures can be

used  Data is generally considered to be ‘co-constructed’  Provides detailed in-depth views of informants  Usually conducted in a natural setting (Creswell, 1998, p15)

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, you should be able to: • Define qualitative research • Explain the assumptions and values underpinning

qualitative research • Explain the main approaches underpinning

qualitative research • Describe qualitative data collection methods • Explain different strategies for analysing

qualitative data • Recognise rigour in qualitative research

Critiquing Qualitative Research

In the next lecture we will look at how to critically evaluate qualitative research, taking account of: - Credibility, confirmability, transferability,

dependability, trustworthiness - Rigour - Sample size - Member checking/ respondent validation - Negative case analysis - Triangulation - Saturation

References Bannister, P. (1994) Qualitative Methods in Psychology: A Research Guide. Philadelphia: Open University Press

Cassidy, E, Reynolds, F, Naylor, S and De Souza, L (2011) Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to inform physiotherapy practice: an introduction with reference to the lived experience of cerebellar ataxia. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 27 (4), 263-277.

Cresswell, J. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. London: Sage

Cross, K, Kabel, A. & Lysack, c. (2006). Images of self and spinal cord injury: exploring drawing as a visual method in disability research. Visual Studies, 21(2), 183-193

Dickson, A., Allan, D., O’Carroll, R. (2008). Biographical disruption and the experience of loss following spinal cord injury: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Psychology and Health, 23(4), 407-425

Gibson & Martin (2003) Qualitative Research and Evidence-based Physiotherapy Practice. Physiotherapy 89, 6: 350–358

Kvale, S and Brinkman, S (2009) InterViews: learning the craft of qualitative research. Sage, London

Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Jossey Bass

Norris, M, Allotey, P and Barrett, G (2010) ‘I feel like half my body is clogged up’. Lay models of stroke in Central Aceh, Indonesia. Social Science and Medicine, 71, pp. 1576-1583.

Norris, M. (2015) The complexities of ‘otherness’: reflections on embodiment of a young White British woman engaged in cross-generation research involving older people in Indonesia. Ageing and Society 35(5):986-1010

Norris, M, Jones, F, Kilbride, C, Victor, C 2014. Exploring the experience of facilitating self-management with minority ethnic stroke survivors: a qualitative study of therapists’ perceptions. Disability and Rehabilitation ISSN (print) 0963-8288

Norris, M, Kilbride, C, Mohagheghi, A, Victor, C. 2013. Exercise-instructor led functional training programme for community dwelling stroke survivors: A qualitative study. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation 20(12): 597-605