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Learning objectives
1- Qualitative methods represent an approach to understanding that does not require, or does
not lend itself to, enumeration .They can be viewed as both an art and a science.
2- Qualitative methods have often been used in mental health services research to:
a- provide a depth of understanding to complement the breadth of understanding afforded
by quantitative methods,
b- aiding in the interpretation of results obtained from quantitative methods, and
c- contextualizing phenomena of interest.
3- Qualitative methods are ideal for eliciting the perspectives of those being studied. It “allow
people to speak in their own voice, rather than conforming to categories and terms imposed on
them by others” .
4- Qualitative methods serve to enhance the validity of data being collected because it enables
the investigator to compare their own perception of reality with the perception of those who are
being studied.
5- Qualitative methods are often found to be especially useful during initial
stages of research .it enable investigators to acquire some understanding of
issues, to obtain “pilot data”, or when there is too little previous research or
absence of theory to allow for identification of hypotheses to be tested.
When to Use Qualitative Methods?
Qualitative methods has been much used in psychiatry, in the reporting of clinical
observations from practice, often by means of : a case study or series qualitative
methodology.
1-Qualitative research methods are particularly suited to answering the question
“How does this come to happen?”.
2- In the exploratory stages of a research project, qualitative methodology is used to :
a- To clarify or set the research question,
b- To aid conceptualization and
c- To generate a hypothesis.
3- it can also be useful following quantitative work to interpret, qualify or illuminate
findings.
Characteristics of Qualitative Methods
1- Qualitative and quantitative methods are similar in that they both adhere to
certain principles of scientific inquiry and rigor.
2- The principles of validity, reliability, generalizability and objectivity that govern
sound quantitative research have their counterparts in the principles of credibility,
dependability, transferability, and reflexivity that govern sound qualitative research.
3- One of the techniques used to insure validity in qualitative methods is the concept
of “saturation, the point at which no additional data collection in needed, no new
codes are developed, and themes and subthemes have been fully fleshed out”.
4- Saturation refers to completeness or fullness necessary to insure that everything
related to the phenomenon of inquiry that can be collected and analyzed has been
done so within the limits of the forms of collection and analysis chosen.
Principles of
Quantitative research VS. Qualitative research
The role of the researcher while conducting an observation is important to the type of
data collected. Observers can participate to a greater or lesser extent in the activities
they are observing and record observations (field notes) at varying intervals. This form
of observation means that interactions are part of the process, which blurs the
distinction here between observations and interviews. Types of observations:
1- It can be covert, where the researcher hides his or her true purpose and identity
from the subjects, there are ethical problems with covert observation, particularly in
health service settings
2- it can be overt, where the researcher does not hide his or her true purpose and
identity from the subjects
3-Complete observation means that the researcher makes no attempt to interact with
events other than to record them.
2- Interviews Method
In-depth or ‘long’ interviews may have a preset theme, but the interviewer
and subject are free to respond and explore whatever issues they identify as
relevant. Interviews are recorded on video- or audiotape and later
transcribed.
3- Focus groups
Documentary analysis is not solely the realm of the medical historian. It can
be undertaken on either:
1- formal records such as case notes and death certificates, or
2- informal records such as diaries and letters.
In a qualitative study, a combination of documentary analysis, interviews and
observation is often used. Barret’s (1996) ethnography of a psychiatric unit is
a good example of such a study.
Features Of Qualitative
Research Design
Features Of Qualitative
Research Design
• Qualitative research design observed in mental health services research
emphasis on naturalistic inquiry, “a ‘discovery-oriented’ approach that
minimizes investigator manipulation of the study setting and places no prior
constraints on what the outcomes of the research will be .
• Qualitative designs are, for the most part, observational in nature. Data are
collected in situ, usually as events happen.
Features Of Qualitative
Research Design
• a new trend in qualitative research is the emergent and iterative nature of
qualitative research in mental health services
• The emergent design is based on the principle that circumstances often
dictate changes in focus or means of data collection and that the researcher
should be prepared to accommodate to those changes rather than adhere
to a plan to use potentially inappropriate or inadequate methods .
• Qualitative mental health services research are often iterative in nature in
which there is a constant back and forth between data collection and
analysis .
Data Collection and Fieldwork Strategies
1- The extended interview: [is the most frequently used method for data
collection in mental health services research and is intended to elicit
information on the participant's experience, opinions, and perceptions of
mental health services. This form of data collection can range from brief
responses to open-ended questions on more structured interviews or surveys
to a series of extended interviews with “key informants,” individuals
especially knowledgeable about the topic under examination.
A particular form of extended interviewing is the structured narrative, in
which the participant describes the experience of having an illness and
seeking services for that illness.
Data Collection Approaches
Cont.
2- Focus group. Focus groups are interviews that are designed to use group
interaction to generate data and insights less accessible in individual
interviews . Although this cannot always be achieved in service settings, the
ideal composition of a focus group is between 6 and 10 “homogeneous
strangers,” individuals who are similar by virtue of their experience with or
familiarity with the topic but who otherwise are not closely linked to one
another.
3- Ethnographic fieldwork often consists of several different modes of data
collections, but perhaps the most distinctive feature is the technique of
participant observation. Participant observation consists of spending time
and talking with people in their own settings.
4-Finally, some qualitative mental health services studies have relied upon
more quasi-statistical techniques for data collection. These techniques often
represent the iterative nature of qualitative methods in that the investigators
alternate between qualitative data collection, transformation of qualitative
data into quantitative data, and validation or elaboration using another round
of qualitative data collection
Issues Related to Design
For the most part, qualitative studies rely on a variety of methods for
inductive analysis and creative synthesis.
The analysis of qualitative data appears to be very different from quantitative
analysis. Instead of testing hypotheses in a sequential manner using a series
of statistics, analysis of qualitative data runs concurrently with data
collection.
The purpose of data collection is accurate representation of the phenomena
under study using detailed or ‘thick’ description (Geertz, 1993). As an
account emerges, categories and themes become apparent, and it is this
generation of theory from the data, rather than the testing of a prior
hypothesis, that is the purpose of qualitative analysis.
Data Analysis Strategies
In observational studies, data are recorded in the form of field notes made by
the observer at the time of the study.
These field notes are then reviewed when the researcher is no longer in the
‘field’ (the observational situation) and written up as an ethnography.
This combines a description of the setting with a theoretical framework for
understanding events through the personal experience of the researcher.
Documentary data analysis
Content analysis can be used for documents in much the same way as it is for
interview transcripts, although again an interpretative analysis that takes into
account meaning and context is preferable to the quantitative word-count
approach.
A third method of content analysis commonly applied to documents is
discourse analysis. Influenced by the critical theorists such as Foucault, the
emphasis is on the use of official documents by different social groups in
order to regulate the actions of another (Lupton & Chapman, 1995).
Interview data analysis
Interviews, both individual and group, are transcribed to produce texts that can be
used to generate coding categories and to test theories.
This process is often described as content analysis, and can involve enumerating
procedures such as counting word frequencies, sometimes aided by computer
software.
The transcripts can be a simple record of the words spoken or more complex
documents including annotations for pauses, intonation and other non-verbal
expressions.
Conversation analysis involves the combined use of both audio and visual recordings to
study interactional practices in particular settings (Atkinson & Heritage, 1984).
Narrative analysis centers on personal accounts of experience or events, either via an
oral history or written autobiographical documents.
• Thus, individual documents are interpreted in the light of their historical
context and the pre-existing social relationships at that time.
Data management
1- Qualitative studies produce large amounts of data the data are being
constantly reviewed and rearranged or recoded.
2- Computer packages are available to assist with data handling, but it may
take considerable time to input data from its raw field-note form.
3- Coding programs within such packages can be useful, especially in
facilitating team working on multi-site projects, but they may lead to an
overemphasis on text-based analysis (Weaver & Atkinson, 1994).
4- Problems include reliance on quantitative content analysis such as
counting word frequencies in texts, which pays no attention to the context or
meaning of words and can lead to false assumptions.
Acknowledgements