Define and explain the significance of qualitative research methodology.
Qualitative research is defined as an interpretive naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.
The goal when applying qualitative research methods, the emphasis is put on the natural setting and the points of views of the research participants.
Discuss the different types of qualitative research design.
The qualitative research design is a formal, objective, systematic process for obtaining information about the world. A method used to describe, test relationships, and examine cause and effect relationships.
To gain insight; explore the depth, richness, and complexity inherent in the phenomenon (Hansen, Draborg & Kristensen, 2011). There five different types of qualitative research design methods: ethnography, narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory, and case study.
In ethnography, the researcher immerses themselves in the target participants and the environment to understand the goals, cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes. The narrative approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or two individuals to form a cohesive story. The researcher will conduct in-depth interviews, read documents, and look for themes.
In a phenomenological study, you use a combination of methods, such as conducting interviews, reading documents, watching videos, or visiting places and events, to understand the meaning participants place on whatever's being examined.
The grounded theory looks to provide an explanation or theory behind the events. Finally, a case study involves a deep understanding through multiple types of data sources. Case studies can be explanatory, exploratory, or describing an event.
Identify and describe a minimum of two types of sampling techniques used in qualitative research.
Two different types of sampling techniques in qualitative research are Purposeful Sampling and Quota Sampling. The most common sampling strategy is Purposeful sampling.
In this type of sampling, participants are selected or sought after based on pre-selected criteria based on the research question. For example, the study may be attempting to collect data from lymphoma patients in a city or county.
The sample size may be predetermined or based on theoretical saturation, which is the point at which the newly collected no longer provides additional insights. Quota Sampling is a sampling technique whereby participant quotas are prior to sampling.
Typically, the researcher is attempting to gather data from a certain number of participants that meet certain characteristics that may include things such as age, sex, class, marital status, HIV status.
Describe methods for collecting data for qualitative research.
There many different methods for data collection in qualitative research. Data collection approaches for qualitative research usually involves direct interaction with individuals on a one to one basis or direct interaction with individuals in a group setting.
Qualitative research data collection methods are very time consuming and makes the research more expensive (Mccusker & Gunaydin, 2014).
The benefit for using qualitative research approach is that the information is more in depth and has deeper insight into the phenomenon of study. The four-main data collective methods are individual interviews, focus groups, observations and action research.