The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of some of the principles of data analysis used in qualitative research such as coding, interrater reliability, and thematic analysis. I focused on the challenges that I experienced as a first-time qualitative researcher during the course of my dissertation, in the hope that how I addressed those difficulties will better prepare other investigators planning endeavors into this area of research. One of the first challenges I encountered was the dearth of information regarding the details of qualitative data analysis. While my text books explained the general philosophies of the interpretive tradition and its theoretical groundings, I found few published studies where authors actually explained the details pertaining to exactly how they arrived at their findings. Some authors even confirmed my own experience that few published studies described processes such as coding and methods to evaluate interrater reliability. Herein, I share the sources of information that I did find and the methods that I used to address these challenges. I also discuss issues of trustworthiness and how matters of objectivity and reliability can be addressed within the naturalistic paradigm.

/pdf/data-analysis-methods-for-qualitative-research-managing-the-1v58ja5m5c.pdf

Data Analysis Methods for Qualitative Research: Managing the Challenges of Coding, Interrater Reliability, and Thematic Analysis

Qualitative interviews offer rich and detailed information in understanding people’s experiences. However, qualitative inquiry might be difficult for inexperience researcher to adequately perform the interview. Piloting for interview is an integral aspect and useful in the process of conducting qualitative research as it highlights the improvisation to the major study. This article discusses the importance of pilot study, the methods undertaken and the lessons learnt throughout the process. The pilot interview was conducted with two offshore catering employees, as preparation for a dissertation in developing a job satisfaction instrument for offshore catering employees in Malaysia. The useful functions of pilot study are described and in highlighting the advantageous of pilot study, this paper describes the modification made for the major study as a result of the pilot work. These comprise (1) criteria for selecting potential participants, and (2) improving the interview guide, particularly the interview questions.

https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/2916/Piloting_for_Interviews_in_Qualitative_Research_Operationalization_and_Lessons_Learnt.pdf

Piloting for Interviews in Qualitative Research: Operationalization and Lessons Learnt

Individuals in the creative sector often pursue the idea of the location-independent style of living and working (Muller, A. 2016. The digital nomad: Buzzword or research category? Transnational So...

Coworking environments and digital nomadism: balancing work and leisure whilst on the move

Though a lot of studies have analysed the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry and several suggestions have been made to revive the sector, tourism education is largely overlooked. Touris...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15313220.2020.1850392

Impacts of COVID-19 on tourism education: analysis and perspectives

This research examined the skills and abilities required of officers to effectively manage situations where the use of force may be required. The research also considered the nature of training req...

Ensuring the validity of police use of force training

Some topics for qualitative research in psychology are unsuitable for or cannot be adapted to the traditional qualitative designs such as case study, ethnography, grounded theory, or phenomenology. This paper explores reasons for this, and proposes that psychological researchers can use a generic qualitative design in such situations. After discussing the types of topics most suitable for a generic qualitative design, the paper differentiates generic qualitative designs from the more traditional qualitative designs, with particular attention to how generic qualitative inquiry differs from phenomenological psychological research. Finally, appropriate procedures for data collection and for thematic data analysis in a generic model are discussed and described in detail. Keywords: Qualitative Research, Thematic Analysis, Generic Qualitative Research, Basic Qualitative Research, Data Analysis for Qualitative Research.Generic Qualitative InquiryDifferentiating Generic Qualitative InquiryMany studies report people's subjective opinions, attitudes, beliefs, or experiences of things in the outer world. Such psychological things cannot be measured in the statistical sense, and require qualitative methods (cf., Aronson, 1994). Sometimes, the other more focused approaches (e.g., ethnography, case study, grounded theory, or phenomenology) are not appropriate for one reason or another. In those cases, researchers should consider a more generic qualitative inquiry approach. Suppose a researcher were interested in investigating one of the following:1. People's attitudes, opinions, or beliefs about a particular issue or experience;2. Workers' feelings about their supervisors' performance;3. The reflections of women who left the convent on their "life journey";4. Senior managers' reflections on experiences that have had significant impacts on them during their careers;5. Clients' descriptions of their experiences of psychotherapy;6. Children's reports of their experiences being placed in special education classes.Each of these topics calls for qualitative inquiry, but several other, more common approaches would not be suitable. Why not?* Ethnography (see next section) focuses on the investigation of the network of social groupings, social customs, beliefs, behaviors, groupings, practices, etc., that define a "culture." None of these topics focuses on that unit of analysis (social-cultural).* Case studies are in-depth investigations of a "single case," using multiple methods and multiple sources of data. A single case is defined by having clearly recognizable boundaries that differentiate the case from any other collection of instances. None of the groups of people above constitute a "case" in that sense.* Grounded theory uses data from people to develop an explanation (theory) for the process in question developed over time. But none of the topics above, except perhaps the senior managers' reflections, would lend themselves to development of theory. They are descriptive, not explanatory. If the researcher investigating the managers' experiences in fact wanted to develop a theory of what experiences contribute to successful leadership style, that topic might qualify as grounded theory.* Phenomenology investigates the "lived experience" of various psychological phenomena. Many of the phenomena this approach tackles include attitudes, beliefs, opinions, feelings, and the like. However, the phenomenologist's interest is in the inner dimensions, textures, qualities, and structures ("essences") of those cognitive processes, not in the external content or referents that may trigger the cognitive processes.Differentiating Generic Qualitative Inquiry from Phenomenological InquiryThe most difficult distinction to make here is probably with phenomenology. Let's take a moment for a more careful review of the differences.Phenomenology studies the inner essence of cognitive processing - what structures (temporality, spatiality, etc. …

/pdf/generic-qualitative-research-in-psychology-55k43jmpx9.pdf

Kim Kostere

Papers

Generic Qualitative Research in Psychology