Qualitative Research : Research Methods

Power point slide Qualitative research is a difficult term to define…. Nevertheless, it is important to be familiar with some definitions in the field. The definition provided by Creswell 2009 is enlightening because it incorporates ……….. most important part of definition for me were reports detailed views of informants and natural setting.

One of the two articles reviews by me was a quantitative study to find out the incidence of sports injuries occurring in adolescents (6-18yrs) playing ball games: soccer, handball and basketball by Yde et al, where the number of sports injuries, their pattern and mechanism were quantified into numerical values to support a hypothesis. Other was to find the psychosocial status of injured players during their injury-rehabilitation phase: a qualitative research by Clement et al where the psychological state viz. cognitive appraisal, behavioral responses and emotional responses during the three main phases viz. injury, rehabilitation and returning to sports. The key difference between the researchers of the two studies was that the qualitative researchers wanted to

Qualitative research design is an evolving process that continues to expand as the research continues. Multiple types of study designs can be used when researching dependent on the information the researchers are trying to obtain. In the article, the researchers described the design as exploratory using semi-structured focus groups for data collection. Recordings were made of the interviews and then analyzed for similar themes. This type of design is called descriptive phenomenology which participants describe lived experiences through detailed interview or conversational process and then researchers bracket the opinions in their study (Polit & Beck, 2014). The method of design was appropriate for the research question and objectives as it allowed for the understanding of feelings and identity. The themes of questioning allowed for

This article defines qualitative research and what it is used for. After reading this article the reader will have a better understanding of what we have often thought the purpose of qualitative research answered ( “why” rather than “what”). This article also discusses how the method is used in different settings or scenarios.

How does having a car affect a student's social life? My hypothesis is that transportation and having a car highly affects social life for a student. I chose this because having a car or having transportation can highly increase your social life and the way you interact with people. A lot of social events happen off campus and require a car to get to. Also, a lot of events take place in other cities or college towns. I will be using qualitative methods since I am dealing with social interactions and looking into the detail of the research. I will collect my data through experiments and surveys of other students opinions. I will ask questions about their own personal experience about their social life and if they have cars and how

AIM To evaluate the current utilization of the Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI) examinations in nursing education. BACKGROUND HESI exam results are frequently predictive of NCLEX-RN results in nursing education. METHOD The integrative review method of Whittemore and Knafl was used to search and evaluate the existing evidence to answer the following research questions: a) What is the current utilization of the HESI examinations in baccalaureate nursing education? b) What is the evidence supporting or contraindicating their use in nursing education? c) What is known regarding outcomes related to their use? RESULTS There is a wide variation in the use and outcomes of HESI exams in baccalaureate nursing education. CONCLUSION Despite validity

The goal is to share the human experience and gather the required data needed without causing the informant to feel displaced and taken advantage off.

The difference between three similar products can be seen much more noticeably when the items are being presented in front of human eyes. For instance, take a blindfold and put it over the eyes of any individual, then ask them if the differences of the items stands out as well as they would’ve without the blindfold on. For this project I decided to try to find not only the differences of taste, but also smell, touch and quality. When purchasing the three different brands of gluten-free chocolate cupcakes consisting of similar ingredients, yet still divergent, this created a challenge being the brands I looked for mostly did not contain gluten free ingredients. The brands chosen were Pillsbury (costing around $6), Betty Crocker ($6) and Simple Mills ($8). With no biases being present, since I do not consume any of the brands on a daily basis, nor do I know much about the quality of the three products; it made for a fun educational assignment.

The number and nature of cases studied in a qualitative research design must be provisional (Gobo, 2007), so the suggested number of participants in this study will be 27, representing three sectors of SMEs in Thailand. This number (27) is an appropriate number for the beginning of the research which 24 participants are identified as key informant and who will be selected by their owner/manager (3 participants), and the number of cases can change during the research until the data analysis is quite advanced. Mario Luis Small (2009) suggested that in a case model, the number of cases is unknown until the study is completed; if the case is conducted properly, the very last case examined will provide very little new or surprising information, so the objective is saturation. Three SMEs will be selected, being the three case studies that were considered as critical cases. The criteria for selection will be that the companies are registered as Thai SMEs and received an SMEs National Award from OSMEP in Thailand. The three categories represented will be the National Award, Outstanding Award, and Rising Star Award, and three cases will also be representative of the Production Sector, Service Sector and Trading Sector, respectively. There will be 9 participants for each case; 1 participant will be the owner-manager, 4 participants will be manager/ supervisors who are considered to

In order to understand human experiences, qualitative researchers ask how and why as opposed to how much or how many. Inasmuch as there are so many diverse types of people, groups, and organizations to investigate, there are varied methods as to which a researcher might use to learn about them. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of five research designs and to compare and contrast the writing styles, data collection and analysis process, as well as the role of a researcher, of each research method.

Qualitative data is an open universe, as it includes virtually any non-numerical data that can be captured and revolves around collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data that are difficult to reduce utilizing numerical methods. Qualitative data permit the exploration of every possible scenario in a given situation which is highly suitable when assessing the contributory impact of the social environment within the business world. By pursuing a qualitative approach, the data collected can be measured based on a philosophical (Phenomenology) perspective, Ethnographic, Field Research, Grounded Theory or Case Study.

To analyse the objectives of this study further, interview questions were ready for opinion leaders, which include journalists, staffs of the management team and PR practitioners. Only key sentences or words of discussion were chosen due to the word limitation, the full-translated transcripts are attached at Appendix B. The findings of interview have three parts, which related to the three research questions.

The purpose of research is to add substance to a body of knowledge. The success of the research may be misleading at times or may only add a conclusion to some extent. Knowing the structure of the research will help the researcher as well as the reader discover meaning. The qualitative research sets itself in the midst of an individuals or groups of objects or “stuff” to capture an overview of logical or explicit rules by an understanding of isolated themes about the themes (Miles, & Huberman, 1994). Qualitative research and analysis are conducted by using completed verses comprised of descriptive words to depict patterns, analyze, compare, or even contrast behaviors and or actions. Qualitative analysis equates to data simplification, data display, and verification of the data for a proper conclusion (Miles, & Huberman, 1994). While there is many ways in which qualitative data may be presented, the readers evaluation of this research is important. The use of a qualitative summarization check sheet may assist the reader in determining the value of the research by quickly assessing data extent with a qualitative result as seen in attachment 1 (Clark, & Creswell, 2010). The use of explicit and vivid wording assists the reader in evaluating qualitative research.

Qualitative research methods usually involve in depth interviews to discover view points on an issue. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research does not involve statistical tests (Differences Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods). “Putting the ‘patient’ in patient safety: a qualitative study of consumer experiences” is a good qualitative research article for a nurse to critique. The research articles title clearly indicates the main objective of the study is to find out how consumers feel about safety regarding their experiences in the hospital. The abstract effectively summarizes the report giving information about the background, objectives, design, results, and conclusion. The analysis of the study followed an interpretive analytical approach.

This research is qualitative in its approach and it is grounded in phenomenology (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A phenomenological philosophy is founded on the belief that the personal, individual accounts of research participants are important primary research sources of knowledge (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The methods used in this research study are primarily those of grounded theory (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Grounded theory or naturalistic research is based on the assumptions that themes emerging from an exploration and analysis of the data will provide insight into the perceptions, beliefs, opinions, and experiences of the study participants (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The research is not based on a formulated hypothesis which will be tested, nor does the research begin with preconceived ideas about which themes are important (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The qualitative researcher does not look for particular themes so much as anticipate that themes will emerge (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A researcher using a grounded theory approach examines the rich, thick narrative accounts that are received from the study participants and, through an iterative process, observes that patterns emerge (Glasser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Expert knowledge is used by the researcher to explore the data and with an open mind