Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Education
Sher Bahadur
Senior Research Officer, RMC
Introduction
‘.....involves finding out what people think, and how they feel
- or what they say they think and how they say they feel.
This kind of information is subjective. It involves feelings
and impressions, rather than numbers’
A B C D E F G
Quantitative vs. qualitative methods
1. CINAHL
2. EMBASE
3. MEDLINE
4. PsycINFO
Theoretical
Ontology Epistemology Methodology Methods Source
perspective
What
What & how I What What tools
procedure What data
What is can know the approach ca can we use to
can we use to can we
reality? reality/ we use to get acquire
acquire collect ?
knowledge? knowledge? knowledge?
knowledge?
A. Philosophical Assumptions
Ontology is about the existence nature of things (Nature
Ontological of reality)…..What is existence? and What is the nature
of existence?
Positivism
A philosophical system recognizing only that which can be
scientifically verified or which is capable of logical or
scientific proof
Determination
Theory verification
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Research paradigms/ world views
Postpositivism
Understanding
Theory generation
32
Research paradigms/ world views
Advocacy/participatory
Post-positivist imposes structural laws and theories that do not fit
marginalized individuals or groups
Consequences of actions
Problem centered
Real-world practice oriented
Research should contain an action agenda for reform that may
change the lives of participants, the institutions in which they
live and work
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Research paradigms/ world views
Pragmatism
An approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the
success of their practical application.
Example:
• A construct associated with the concept of
anxiety.
4. Variables
3. To explain observations
Competency
Performance according to the
expectation
Health Outcome
Tool
In-depth Interviews with the key
informants
1. Case study
2. Grounded theory
3. Phenomenology
4. Ethnography
5. Historical
Case Study
Aim/purpose:
“To describe an entity that forms a single unit (case) such as
a person, organization or institution”
Purpose:
• To have“[an] analytical description of social scenes and
groups that recreate for the reader the shared beliefs,
practices, artifacts, folk knowledge, and behaviors of those
people.”
1. Great emphasis is given to the relationship between
culture and behavior.
2. Ethnography involves the study of an intact group,
logically defined, in its natural context for a sustained
time interval.
Ethnography
Process:
1. Ethnographic research is very labor and time intensive,
involving extensive fieldwork in a natural setting.
2. Usually a general research question(s) is (are) identified.
3. Once entry is gained and rapport (or trust) is established,
4. The research questions are continually refined becoming
more focused.
5. It is not uncommon for the larger research question(s) to
be segmented into more numerous, focused ones
3. Phenomenology:
Purpose:
“To describe/understand phenomena” (which may be events,
situations, or experiences).
Process:
• Once a phenomenon is selected, the researcher engages in
much the same process as used in ethnographic study.
4. Grounded Theory
Purpose:
“To generate a theory of explanation/description grounded in
a phenomenon under study”.
Process:
• Using the iterative processes of data collection and
analysis, relationships between concepts are continually
identified and refined so as to enable theory
development.
5. Historical Research
1. Historical research relies on records, diaries, oral histories,
photographs, and other artifacts to describe, analyze, and
explain past events, philosophies, etc.
Nonrandom (“nonprobability”)
1. Convenience sampling
2. Purposive sampling
3. Quota sampling
4. Snow ball
Tasks 1