• Descriptive Qualitative studies

- Some Qualitative studies do not have a formal name or do not fit into the typology. We refer
to these as descripted qualitative studies .Sandelowski(2000) notes in doing such descriptive
qualitative studies, reseachers tend not to penetrate their data in any interpretative depth.

- Qualitative descriptive design tend to be elective and are based on the general
premises of naturalistic inquiry.
- It is the method of choice if what they want is straight description of an event or
phenomenon.
Example;
- Stubblefield and Murray (2001) interviewed 15 parents whose children had undergone
lung transplantation to study the effect of the procedure on the parents’ interpersonal
relationships. The authors wrote that they “conducted a content analysis to formulate a
narrative description of the parents’ relationships with others”
Research with ideological perspective
- inquiries within an ideological framework, typically to draw attention to certain social
problems or the needs of certain groups.
Critical theory

- Critical theory originated with a group of Marxistoriented German scholars in the 1920s, collectively
referred to as the Frankfurt School. a critical researcher is concerned with a critique of society and with
envisioning new possibilities

- An important feature of critical theory is that it calls for inquiries that foster enlightened self-knowledge
and sociopolitical action. The design of research in critical theory often begins with a thorough analysis of
certain aspects of the problem.

- Critical ethnography focuses on raising consciousness and aiding emancipatory goals

in the hope of effecting social change
- Herdman (2000) described a critical ethnography that focused
on institutional discrimination in a hospital regarding health care
to people with HIV/AIDS. The study sought to identify structures
in the hospital that contributed to discrimination,so that these
structures could be transformed. The publication of the research
report gave rise to heated debates, including objections by the
hospital’s institutional ethics committee and a defensive reaction
by some health care professionals.
 Feminist theory
- Feminist research approaches are similar to critical theory research, but the focus is sharply on
gender domination and discrimination within patriarchal societies.
- Gender is the organizing principle in feminist research, and investigators seek to understand how
gender and a gendered social order have shaped women’s lives and their consciousness. The aim is to
ameliorate the “invisibility and distortion of female experience in ways relevant to ending women’s
unequal social position” (Lather, 1991, p. 71).

Three broad models (within each of which there is diversity) have been identified:
(1) feminist empiricism, whose adherents usually work within fairly standard norms of
qualitative inquiry but who seek to portray more accurate pictures of the social
realities of women’s lives
(2) feminist standpoint research, which holds that inquiry ought to begin in and be
tested against the lived everyday sociopolitical experiences of women, and that
women’s views are particular and privileged.
(3) feminist postmodernism, which stresses that “truth” is a destructive illusion, and
views the world as endless stories, texts, and narratives.
 - The scope of feminist research ranges from studies of the particular and subjective
views of individual women, to studies of social movements, structures, and broad
policies that affect women

Example of feminist research:

Gustafson (2000) collaborated with 10 other nurses in a study of nurses’ job
displacement in Canadian hospitals during the 1990s. She adopted a method that
was “intended to be political in standpoint, gendered in focus, reflexive in process,
and transformative in outcome”(p. 717). Gustafson described in some detail the
benefits and limitations of using a feminist, collaborative research method, and
how her “best laid plans” regarding the research were not always easy to sustain.
Participatory action research

- One of several types of action research that originated in the 1940s with social psychologist Kurt Lewin, is
based on a recognition that the production of knowledge can be political and can be used to exert power.

- The aim of PAR is to produce not only knowledge, but action and consciousness-raising as well. Researchers
specifically seek to empower people through the process of constructing and using knowledge

- the “data-gathering” strategies used are not only the traditional methods of interview and observation, but
may include storytelling, sociodrama, drawing and painting, plays and skits, and other activities designed to
encourage people to find creative ways to explore their lives, tell their stories, and recognize their own
strengths.
RESEARCH EXAMPLE

Research example of a critical/ feminist ethnography

- Brown and Fiske (2001) conducted a critical ethnography, drawing on feminist

approaches, to explore First Nations (Aboriginal) women’s experiences with mainstream
health care services. The study addressed two central questions: How do First Nations
women describe their encounters with local mainstream health care services, and how are
these encounters shaped by social, political, and economic factors?

- The narratives revealed that the “women’s encounters were shaped by racism,
discrimination, and structural inequalities that continue to marginalize and
disadvantage First Nations women” (p. 126). Participants described situations in
which their health concerns or reported symptoms were not taken seriously or
were trivialized. Encounters that revealed health care workers’ discriminatory
attitudes and behaviors were found to be pervasive.
Research example of phenomenological study

- McInnis and White (2001) conducted a phenomenological study to explore the

meaning of loneliness for 20 older adults living in the community. Before data
collection, the researchers made every effort to bracket their presuppositions. For
example, one of the researchers bracketed her extensive experience as a
geropsychiatric nurse.

- The two main questions asked were, “Tell me about your loneliness” and
“Describe the circumstances around this experience”(p. 132). The interviews were
recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed using Giorgi’s phenomenological method.
- This method entailed
(1) reading and rereading the transcripts to dwell with the data
(2) identifying meaning units from each transcript
(3) expressing the psychological insight contained in each meaning unit
(4) synthesizing all the formulated meanings into the essence of the
experience.
- McInnis and White took great care to enhance and document the rigor of their study. For instance, a field
journal was kept throughout the study to help with bracketing. The researchers also provided a piece of the
documentation they maintained to give readers a concrete example of their research procedures.

Research example Grounded theory study

- Sayre (2000) conducted a grounded theory study of adults’ perceptions of being
psychiatric patients. She conducted biweekly interviews,from admission to discharge, with
35 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who had been hospitalized in psychiatric units of
an urban public facility.

- The central question of the inquiry was: How do individuals explain their
admission to a psychiatric facility? Subquestions included: What contextual
and intervening experiences influenced their explanation? What strategies
resulted? and What were the consequences of those strategies?
- The constant comparative method of data analysis revealed that managing self-worth
was the process inpatients used to cope with the stigma of being a psychiatric patient.

Factors that affected individual responses to psychiatric

hospitalization included;
• substance abuse
• Lack of social capital (especially lack of stable housing)
• and medication noncompliance.

Six attribution styles, rated on a continuum from acceptance to rejection of the

psychiatric treatment model, emerged from the analysis:
• problem
• Disease
• Crisis
• Punishment
• Ordination
• and violation