D3- Responses

Respond to Kimtrese Slaughter

 

Phenomenological

Phenomenological research investigates the shared meaning of a concept or phenomenon for a shared group of individuals (Creswell & Poth, 2024). This approach seeks to understand lived experiences from a first-person perspective. Phenomenology explores specific experience from a first-person perspective. Phenomenology explores specific experiences, such as examining the lived experiences of psychotherapists who encounter daily mental stress. Phenomenology is interested in how, rather than merely what, we experience. It concerns how the object reveals or displays itself (Zahavi, 2025). Data collection typically relies on interviews with one or more people who have all experienced the same phenomenon. Käufer and Chemero (2021) underscore that phenomenology seeks to explain the meaning of our experiences, that all meaningful experiences are conscious, and that phenomenology therefore focuses on conscious events. Zahavi (2025) identifies two types of phenomenological research, including transcendental phenomenology, which focuses on understanding the human experience free from any preconceived biases. Hermeneutic phenomenology focuses on how people make sense of their lived experiences. Given the need to immerse oneself in participants' perspectives, phenomenology presents its challenges. Phenomenological research requires researchers to manage their personal biases (Williams, 2021). Applying reflexivity and bracketing helps researchers to interpret narratives authentically.

Narrative

 Narrative approach is a genre of analytic frameworks in which researchers interpret stories told within research contexts of research and/or shared in everyday life (Usman et al., 2025). It focuses on the detailed stories or life experiences of a single event or a series of events experienced by a small number of individuals (Papakitsou, 2020). Biographical, autobiographical, oral history, and life history are types of narrative approaches (Usman et al., 2025). The key founders of this approach are Theodore Sarbin, Jerome Bruner, D. Jean Clandinin, and Donald E. Polkinghorne (Sevilla-Liu, 2023). The narrative approach can be labor-intensive as it requires extensive data, relies on participants’ memory, and may also introduce researcher bias (Usman, 2025).

Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory is one of the most widely utilized qualitative research methodologies across diverse disciplines, including social psychology, education, nursing, marketing, and health sciences (Tarozzi, 2020).  Originating in 1967 with Glaser and Strauss’s seminal study on the experience of dying in hospitals, the approach was initially defined as a systematic set of procedures for inductively generating theory from data (Creswell & Poth, 2024; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). To execute this method, researchers must collect and analyze data simultaneously; utilize rigorous coding procedures, engage in constant comparative analysis, and construct interconnected categories to produce a fully grounded theory (Turner & Astin, 2021). Consequently, data collection and analysis can be time sensitive, requiring advanced skills in both qualitative coding and conceptual theory development. (Cresswell & Poth, 2024).

Ethnography

According to Creswell and Poth (2025), ethnography involves the in-depth study of an entire culture or group within its natural, intact habitat over an extended period. In this research method, the researcher focuses on describing and interpreting the shared patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a specific culture. Data collection relies heavily on observation, fieldwork artifacts, and unstructured interviews (Creswell & Poth, 2025). Ethnography is grounded in the idea of naturalistic research, which focuses on research conducted in real-world settings (Wardell, 2025). This method of research has various contributors, such as Bronislaw Malinowski, who immersed himself in the Trobriand Islands; he emphasized the value of living among the subjects and learning their language. This laid the foundation for ethnography; Joseph Francois Lafitau provided the current definition of ethnography, and Henry Morgan was a pioneer of participant observation (Ugwu, 2017). This method has been used in fields such as sociology, psychology, geography, education, health research, and even tourism (Wardell, 2025). Finally, ethnography requires prolonged immersion in a culture or group (Coffey, 2018).

Case Study

A case study is one of the most widely used strategies in qualitative social research and is employed across several social science disciplines, such as sociology, management, anthropology, and psychology (Priya, 2021). Case study research explores a real-life, contemporary, bounded system using a single case or multiple cases, through detailed, in-depth data collection from multiple sources (Creswell & Poth, 2024). The key historical and academic figures of case study research design are Frederic Le Play, Robert E. Park, Earnest W. Burgess, Florian Znaniecki, Robert K. Yin, Robert E. Stake, and Alexander George (Sclafani, 2017). Researchers must first identify a bounded case: collect information from multiple sources, develop a detailed case description, and analyze themes and interpret findings within the case's context (Greenhalgh, 2025). A researcher cannot use a case study with a large population, as it can be time and labor-intensive, and can be subject to researcher bias  

Finally, include a sixth paragraph that explains which approach you plan to implement in your Research Plan Overview 2 and why it is the right approach for you to use.

 Finally, I am planning my research around the phenomenological approach. This approach is most appropriate because my goal is to understand the lived experiences and meanings of African American women associated with positive spiritual coping and resilience. The phenomenological research inquiry seeks to uncover the deep, shared experience of psychological resilience and culturally grounded coping mechanisms within a specific population (Creswell & Poth, 2024). My plan is to allow participants to share their detailed personal experiences. Phenomenology specifically aligns with my goal of understanding how participants experience spirituality and resilience in their daily lives. 

References

Agar, M. (2022). Ethnography. In  Handbook of pragmatics: Manual. Second edition (pp. 1546-1554). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Coffey, A. (2018). Doing ethnography. London: SAGE Publications. Available from:  https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526441874Links to an external site..

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2025).  Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (5th ed.). Sage Publications

Chowdhury, A., & Shil, N. C. (2021). Thinking ‘Qualitative’ through a case study: Homework for a researcher.  American Journal of Qualitative Research, 5(2), 190–210.  https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/11280Links to an external site.

Gallagher, S. (2022). What is phenomenology? In  Phenomenology (pp. 1-10). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Glasser, B.G., & Strauss, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine de Gruyter.

Greenhalgh T. Case studies: a guide for researchers, educators, and implementers. BMJ Med. 2025 Sep 21;4(1):e001623. doi:  10.1136/bmjmed-2025-001623Links to an external site.

Käufer, S., & Chemero, A. (2021).  Phenomenology: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.

Papakitsou, V. (2020). Qualitative research: Narrative approach in sciences.  Dialogues in clinical neuroscience & mental health,  3(1), 63–70.  https://doi.org/10.26386/obrela.v3i1.177Links to an external site.

Priya, A. (2021). Case study methodology of qualitative research: Key attributes and navigating the conundrums in its application.  Sociological Bulletin,  70(1), 94–110.  https://www.jstor.org/stable/48651580Links to an external site.

Tarozzi, M. (2020).  What is grounded theory? Bloomsbury Academic.  https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350085275Links to an external site.

Timonen, V., Foley, G., & Conlon, C. (2018). Challenges When Using Grounded Theory: A Pragmatic Introduction to Doing GT Research:   International Journal of Qualitative Methods,  17(1).  https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069187580Links to an external site.

Turner, C., & Astin, F. (2021). Grounded theory: what makes a grounded theory study?  European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing,  20(3), 285–289. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvaa034

Ugwu, C. (2017). History of ethnography: Straitening the records.  International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 9(7), 64-68.  https://doi.org/10.5897/IJSA2016.0670Links to an external site.

Usman, A. C., Al-Hendawi, M., & Bulut, S. (2025). Approaches to qualitative research: A narrative literature review.  Advances in Medicine, Psychology, and Public Health, 2(2), 81–95.  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12804998Links to an external site.

Sevilla-Liu, A. (2023). The theoretical basis of a functional-descriptive approach to qualitative research in CBS: With a focus on narrative analysis and practice.  Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science.,  30, 210–216.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.11.001Links to an external site.

Sclafani, C. (2017). A case study primer: Origins and basic principles.  Global Journal of Human-Social Science: G (Linguistics & Education), 17(3)  https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume17/4-A-Case-Study-Primer-Origins.pdfLinks to an external site.

Wardell, S. (2025).  Ethnography : the basics (First edition.). Routledge.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404880Links to an external site.

Williams, H. (2021). The meaning of “Phenomenology”: Qualitative and philosophical phenomenological research methods.  The Qualitative Report,  26(2), 366-385.

Zahavi, D. (2025).  Phenomenology: the basics. Routledge.