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Rigor in Qualitative Data

rigoor

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20 views27 pages

Rigor in Qualitative Data

rigoor

Uploaded by

creativejoburg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Rigor in qualitative research


Adugnaw Berhane(PhD)
SPH, AAU
2

Session objective
At the end of the session, trainees will be able to:
 Define rigor in qualitative research
 Identify approaches to ensure quality of
qualitative data
 List strategies to improve quality in qualitative
research
 Apply lessons to your research
3

Brainstorming

 How do we know if a piece of qualitative


research has generated quality evidence?

 What criteria do we use to judge the quality of


qualitative research?
4

Rigor …..

A more rigorous a research process is, a more


trustworthy the findings will be……

So, what is rigor or trustworthiness in QR?


5

Rigor …..
“Trustworthiness“ is a term used to
address "rigor" in qualitative studies –

does the study reflect the truth?


6

Without rigor,
research is worthless,
becomes fiction, and
loses its utility
QR is a diverse group of interpretative methods
which aim to explore, understand and explain
people’s experiences using non-numerical data

QR QR QR

typically involve leading to have often


interviewing the been
and/or likelihood of criticized for
observing subjectivity lacking rigor
people who are and bias
central to the
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research topic
8

Potential Bias in Qualitative Data


 Level and quality of interaction
 Using inappropriate interviewer (less qualified,
not sensitive…)
 Using interviewer that judges
respondents/interviewees
 Using interviewer providing own opinion
 Moderator does not involve all respondents
(FGD)- dominant participant
 Location of interview: lack of privacy
 Failure to ensure confidentiality
 Inappropriate sampling
9

Approaches to ensure quality of qualitative


data

Credibility:(internal validity)

 Are the qualitative findings believable?

 Do the findings appear truthful, capturing a holistic


representation of the phenomenon under
exploration?
10

Credibility …..
Have you succeeded in capturing the situation, idea, or
phenomenon of interest?
 Did you get the truth
 Do your interpretations and descriptions ring true?
Methods to facilitate credibility
 Prolonged engagement
 Triangulation
 Member checking
11

Transferability (external validity)


 Relates to applicability of knowledge derived
from qualitative studies to other situations
 Depends on the similarity between the study’s
context and the reader’s context
 Ultimately, judgment of transferability can be
made only by the reader
 facilitated by detailed (thick) description of time,
place, context, culture & participants
12

Dependability (reliability)

✓ Can the study findings be observed if the


study is replicated with the same or similar
respondents in the same (or a similar)
context.
13

Conformability (objectivity)

 Itis a part of “audit”: Are the “products”


(interpretations, conclusions, recommendations) of
the research supported by the data collected?

 Are they grounded in data?

 Could this same auditor “confirm” your findings by


tracing them back through your data?
14

The Trustworthiness Framework: Quantitative


to Qualitative Applications
Quantitative Qualitative Translation Essential Question

Validity Credibility Truth Are results believable? Do


they appear truthful?

Reliability Dependability Replicable Are results consistent over


time?

Generalizability Transferability Applicable Are the results applicable to


similar settings?

Objectivity Conformability Neutrality Corroborated through


triangulation
15

strategies to improve quality in


qualitative research
 Prolonged engagement
 “Rich” data/thick description
 Triangulation
 Participant validation (member checking)
 Negative cases analysis
 Peer debriefing/external audit
 Referential adequacy
 Prevention of premature closure of data
 Audit trial
 Maintain reflective journal/memo
 Subjectivity
16

Prolonged engagement: Spending


sufficiently long period in the field.

to build trust with the study participants

toacquire cultural competence and become


familiar with the context.

toget a deeper understanding of the


phenomenon under study.
17

“Rich” data/thick description:


 data that are detailed and varied enough that
they provide a full and revealing picture of
what is going on.

 by recording the circumstances, meanings,


intentions, strategies, motivations, and so on that
characterize a particular episode.

Allows others to determine transferability of


findings to their own situations
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Triangulation: Studying the phenomenon of


interest from different perspectives by combining
multiple:

 Sources of data - informant 1 and informant 2


 Methods - interviews and focus groups
 Investigators - investigator 1 and investigator 2
19

Participant validation (member checking): Taking


back the results to the study population through
seminars or FGDs.
 Check if the analysis/interpretation makes sense to
them
 Creates opportunity for clarification
 Select actual participants or other informants or
both for checking
20

Negative cases analysis: Once you have an


emerging understanding of a phenomenon, look
for “disconfirming” cases or data.

 Find explanations for a case, event…that is


different from the others?
 Outliers in qualitative research can provide
useful insight and may lead to a more
complex analysis.
21

Peer debriefing/external audit: Presentation of


preliminary findings to colleagues.
 Helps the researchers evaluate their role in the
research process:
Peer review: colleague throughout the process.
External audit: external person at the end of the
process.
 Raw data (field notes, transcripts), Process memos,
Data analysis products (codes, themes, matrices,
etc.) Requires an audit trail
23

Prevention of Premature Closure of the Data:


Continue data collection and analysis until
“theoretical saturation” is reached.

 Saturationis the point in data collection when no


new or relevant information emerges with respect
to the newly constructed theory.
Audit trail: Inquiry by an outside person to verify
decisions during the research.
Auditor checks:
 The process of research- verify the logic of your
chronology
 Record keeping
 Decision on emergent design
25

Maintain reflective journal/memo: Notes about


what the research team (fieldworker, data coder,
and/or analyst) learnt during the field work.
 Memos/notes record the process adapted in
identifying concepts/themes and their
relationships.
 No specific rules on how to write memos: a good
approach is to write a separate memo containing
one idea, dated and referenced.
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Subjectivity: Acknowledge your own biases,


“locate yourself in the data”: keep track of
your own ideas, responses, “biases” separate
from responses of the participants.
: 27

Good-quality research satisfies the following

 It thinks theoretically through and with data


 It develops empirically sound, reliable and valid
findings
 It uses methods which are demonstrably
appropriate to the research problem
 Where possible, it contributes to practice and
policy
28

Thank you!

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