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Journal Article•DOI•

A reflective journal as learning process and contribution to quality and validity in interpretative phenomenological analysis

Sarah Vicary1, Alys Young1, Stephen Hicks1•
University of Manchester1
01 Jul 2017-Qualitative Social Work (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 16, Iss: 4, pp 1473325016635244
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between journaling as a learning process when undertaking computer-assisted qualitative data analysis and establishing quality and validity in interpretative phenomenological analysis, and argued that these constructs are intimately linked to the researcher-learning-process.
Abstract: Using selected, contemporaneous illustrations from the reflective journal of a doctoral student undertaking data analysis for the first time, this article examines the relationship between journaling as a learning process when undertaking computer-assisted qualitative data analysis and establishing quality and validity in interpretative phenomenological analysis. The writing of the journal is shown both to enact some potential validity criteria (e.g. in producing an audit trail) whilst also recording and reflectively prompting the process of learning, interpretation and bracketing, thus evidencing transparency. By using a journal inside the software package and alongside the stages of the interpretative phenomenological analysis, analysis within the software package, it is argued that quality and validity become dynamic, not static constructs. These constructs are intimately linked to the researcher-learning-process and permit a critical stance to be taken.

Summary (1 min read)

Jump to: [Introduction] – [The learning process] and [Conclusion]

Introduction

  • It examines the activity of journaling, (i.e. the use of a reflective researcher-created regular written log) as a learning process when undertaking data analysis.
  • The use of a software package instead can enable and in turn, be judged against, as being of quality and valid.

The learning process

  • The doctoral study from which the data are being analysed concerns the exploration of the role and experience of Approved Mental Health Professionals , a statutory role in which various approved non-medical professionals assess people for admission to mental health hospital in England and Wales.
  • At this stage in the process the student was beginning to use the journal to reflect upon the reading she was doing in relation to the use of the software package to manage the analysis.
  • In IPA the analyst is offering an interpretative account of what it means for the participant to have such concerns in a particular context 18/11/2014 10:06 what it means for the person in this particular situation (Larkin et al.
  • This, as it turns out, did not matter as she was becoming more aware that her use of the journal was allowing her to reflect upon the learning and in turn she could use journals linked to each source as a way of not just analysing each source but of adding layers.

Conclusion

  • This article discusses the relationship between such use and the process of data analysis when they are both housed inside a software package.
  • The journal that began about the process became within the process.
  • Using a journal inside the same software package housing the data is dynamic, simultaneously enabling the process of moving from description to interpretation and the development of the hermeneutic and later double hermeneutic, essential to IPA, and the assurance of its quality and validity.
  • The testimony upon which their argument is based relies on the experience of one student.
  • The student has also realised that analysis is an ongoing process.

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A reflective journal as learning process and
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phenomenological analysis
Journal Item
How to cite:
Vicary, Sarah; Young, Alys and Hicks, Stephen (2017). A reflective journal as learning process and contribution to
quality and validity in interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative Social Work, 16(4) pp. 550–565.
For guidance on citations see FAQs.
c
2016 The Authors
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Version: Accepted Manuscript
Link(s) to article on publisher’s website:
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1177/1473325016635244
Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright
owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies
page.
oro.open.ac.uk
Open Research Online
The Open University’s repository of research publications
and other research outputs
A reflective journal as learning process and
contribution to quality and validity in interpretative
phenomenological analysis
Journal Article
How to cite:
Vicary, Sarah; Young, Alys and Hicks, Stephen (2016). A reflective journal as learning process and
contribution to quality and validity in interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative Social Work
(early access).
For guidance on citations see FAQs.
c
2016 The Authors
Version: Accepted Manuscript
Link(s) to article on publisher’s website:
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1177/1473325016635244
Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other
copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please
consult the policies page.
oro.open.ac.uk
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References
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Journal Article•DOI•
Bracketing in Qualitative Research

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Lea Tufford1, Peter A. Newman1•
University of Toronto1
01 Jan 2012-Qualitative Social Work
TL;DR: This paper used bracketing to mitigate the potentially deleterious effects of preconceptions that may taint the research process, but the processes through which brackings are carried out are different from ours.
Abstract: Bracketing is a method used in qualitative research to mitigate the potentially deleterious effects of preconceptions that may taint the research process. However, the processes through which brack...

1,462 citations

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A critical evaluation of the use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) in health psychology

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Joanna M. Brocki1, Alison Wearden1•
University of Manchester1
01 Feb 2006-Psychology & Health
TL;DR: A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify published papers in the area of health psychology employing IPA and the lack of attention sometimes afforded to the interpretative facet of the approach is discussed.
Abstract: With the burgeoning use of qualitative methods in health research, criteria for judging their value become increasingly necessary. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a distinctive approach to conducting qualitative research being used with increasing frequency in published studies. A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify published papers in the area of health psychology employing IPA. A total of 52 articles are reviewed here in terms of the following: methods of data collection, sampling, assessing wider applicability of research and adherence to the theoretical foundations and procedures of IPA. IPA seems applicable and useful in a wide variety of research topics. The lack of attention sometimes afforded to the interpretative facet of the approach is discussed.

1,457 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Validity, trustworthiness and rigour: quality and the idea of qualitative research

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Gary Rolfe1•
Swansea University1
01 Feb 2006-Journal of Advanced Nursing
TL;DR: The widely-held assumption of a single, more or less unified paradigm of 'qualitative research' whose methodologies share certain epistemological and ontological characteristics is questioned, and the implications for judgements about the quality of research studies are explored.
Abstract: Aim. In this paper, I call into question the widely-held assumption of a single, more or less unified paradigm of ‘qualitative research’ whose methodologies share certain epistemological and ontological characteristics, and explore the implications of this position for judgements about the quality of research studies. Background. After a quarter of a century of debate in nursing about how best to judge the quality of qualitative research, we appear to be no closer to a consensus, or even to deciding whether it is appropriate to try to achieve a consensus. The literature on this issue can be broadly divided into three positions: those writers who wish qualitative research to be judged according to the same criteria as quantitative research; those who believe that a different set of criteria is required; and those who question the appropriateness of any predetermined criteria for judging qualitative research. Of the three positions, the second appears to have generated most debate, and a number of different frameworks and guidelines for judging the quality of qualitative research have been devised over recent years. Discussion. The second of the above positions is rejected in favour of the third. It argues that, if there is no unified qualitative research paradigm, then it makes little sense to attempt to establish a set of generic criteria for making quality judgements about qualitative research studies. We need either to acknowledge that the commonly perceived quantitative–qualitative dichotomy is in fact a continuum which requires a continuum of quality criteria, or to recognize that each study is individual and unique, and that the task of producing frameworks and predetermined criteria for assessing the quality of research studies is futile. Conclusion. Some of the implications of this latter position are explored, including the requirement that all published research reports should include a reflexive research diary.

1,374 citations

"A reflective journal as learning pr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...At issue is whether and how criteria might be developed particular to IPA or whether the debates that discuss quality and validity remain the same as for all qualitative research methodologies (Guba and Lincoln, 2005; Lincoln and Guba 1985; Seale and Silverman 1997; Robson, 2002; Rolfe 2006)....

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  • ...…in data analysis Numerous authors attempt to produce criteria for assessing the quality and validity of qualitative research both generically (Hammersley, 2008) and across a range of disciplines such as social work (Barusch et al. 2001), nursing (Rolfe, 2006) and psychology (Yardley, 2000)....

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  • ...2001), nursing (Rolfe, 2006) and psychology (Yardley, 2000)....

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Negotiating the swamp: the opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in research practice:

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01 Aug 2002-Qualitative Research
TL;DR: The authors examine how researcher-explorers from a range of research traditions have negotiated the swamp of interminable deconstructions, self analysis and self disclosure by drawing on examples of their reflexive experience.
Abstract: How should researchers reflexively evaluate ways in which intersubjective elements transform their research? The process of engaging in reflexivity is full of muddy ambiguity and multiple trails as researchers negotiate the swamp of interminable deconstructions, self analysis and self disclosure. This article examines how researcher-explorers from a range of research traditions have negotiated this swamp in practice, by drawing on examples of their reflexive experience. ‘Maps’ are offered on five variants of reflexivity, namely: (i) introspection; (ii) intersubjective reflection; (iii) mutual collaboration; (iv) social critique; and (v) discursive deconstruction. The diversity of practice suggests competing, though also overlapping, accounts of the rationale and practice of reflexivity. In a critical celebration of the richness of reflexivity, this article aims to demonstrate how each way of approaching reflexivity offers different opportunities and challenges. It is hoped that the maps provided will enab...

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"A reflective journal as learning pr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This process attracts much debate, especially among phenomenologists (Finlay 2002), and again refers to two things; the putting to one side of sensory experience to tune in with the others’ sense-making , or to ‘see’ directly, and the putting aside of preconceptions to engage in the sense-making…...

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Evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis

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01 Mar 2011-Health Psychology Review
TL;DR: A review of studies employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) obtained from three of the major databases: web of science, medline and psychinfo is presented in this article.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of a review of studies employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) obtained from three of the major databases: web of science, medline and psychinfo. Between 1996 and 2008, 293 papers presenting empirical IPA studies were published. Trends over time are presented. This is followed by a categorisation of the content area of that corpus. The biggest specific area of research within IPA is illness experience, it forming the subject of nearly a quarter of the corpus. The paper then describes a guide for evaluating IPA research which is used to assess the illness experience papers. Detailed summaries are provided of the papers rated as good. These summaries describe the substantive findings as well as the markers of high quality. The paper finishes with a summary of core features of high-quality IPA work.

1,295 citations

"A reflective journal as learning pr..." refers background or methods in this paper

  • ...Last a criterion of relevance concerning analysis is transparency, or as Smith states, ‘what steps were used in analysis’ (Smith et al. 2009 p. 182) and, later, ‘so [the] reader can see what was done’ (Smith 2011a p. 17)....

    [...]

  • ...IPA proponents contend that analysis of data in IPA should subscribe to its theoretical principles; phenomenological, hermeneutic and idiographic (Shaw in Forrester 2013; Smith 2011a and Smith and Osborne 2008)....

    [...]

  • ...…initiated and developed primarily in the field of health psychology (Smith, 1996; Smith et al., 2009), has attracted significant debate about what might constitute quality and validity within its methodological framework (Chamberlain, 2011; Shaw, 2011; Smith 2011a; Smith 2011b; Todorova, 2011)....

    [...]

  • ...As captured in the debate about the development of criteria for quality and validity in IPA, the researcher needs to be able to demonstrate that they have been true to this double hermeneutic, in both its incarnations (Chamberlain, 2011 Shaw 2011, Smith 2011a, Smith 2011b, Todorova 2011)....

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  • ...Analysis, Smith argues, should also subscribe to the individual and the experience and be judged by this (Smith 2011b)....

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Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as a coaching research methodology

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02 Jul 2020-Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice
Duminda Rajasinghe