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This table gives an encapsulated view of the differences between focus groups and interviews. I will be conducting interviews and focus groups for my study.

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Diag Differences between focus groups and interviews

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Reflective journals- data collection method

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Reflective journals- data collection method

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I am hoping to use reflective journals as a method of data collection from medical students. This article give a great snapshot of how this process could be done.

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This blog captures in a summary the research design and methods commonly employed in qualitative research. I will be carefully analyzing to choose my design and data collection methods.

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Before constructing a qualitative study, you must first know your approach. Second, you must know how you intend to gather the research. These are called research methods. Notably, qualitative research methods vary drastically from quantitative research methods.

Qualitative Research Design Approaches

To perform qualitative research, you must choose at least one research design approach that fits your topic. It is not uncommon for a researcher to employ more than one approach throughout their study. Here are five common design approaches:

1. Historical Study

A historical study is the ideal choice for studies that involve extensive examination of the past - including people, events and documents. The purpose of a historical study is to draw conclusions about the present and future, based off research conducted in the past. ¹

This model depends on adequate interview sources and historical documents. It is essential to validate the accuracy of the data and find primary sources. Depending on the goal of the researcher, this form of study may result in a biography, which is why the term "historical study" is sometimes used interchangeably with "biographical study."

2. Phenomenology

Phenomenology is a wide-ranging form of study. In this research model, the researcher looks to gather information that explains how individuals experience a phenomenon and how they feel about it. This model recognizes that there is no single objective reality; instead, everyone experiences things differently. ¹

The outcome is described from the point of view of the participants. However, the researcher is still able to derive a set of findings that can be used to identify themes surrounding the phenomena under study.

3. Grounded Theory

The purpose of grounded theory is to develop a theory surrounding a social issue. This theory seeks not only to identify problems in social scenes, but also to define how people deal with those problems. Grounded theory is unique among qualitative design approaches, because it depends solely on the data gleaned through the research process. ². Often, the initial research question is progressively reformed and refined as more information is gathered on the topic. In this sense, the participants help shape the study.

4. Ethnography

Ethnography is the study of a specific grouping within a culture. Researchers pursuing this study format will immerse themselves into the culture they are researching. The qualitative data is gathered through direct observation of - and interaction with - participants who belong to that culture. The information is then presented through their perspective. Ultimately, this study aims at understanding group culture. ¹

5. Case Study

Case studies, one of the most common qualitative designs, are used to examine a person, group, community or institution. Researchers often use a bounded theory approach that confines the case study in terms of time or space. To conduct the case study, the researcher may draw upon multiple sources of data, such as observation, interviews and documents. All participants chosen must share a unifying factor, which means they all must have a direct or indirect connection to the research question or subject being studied. After collecting the data, the researcher will analyze it to identify common or prominent themes.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative data can be collected using a variety of methods, and multiple methods may be used throughout the data collection phase of a single qualitative study. 2

Interview: Researchers can conduct in-depth, face-to-face interviews with participants. This allows them to gain insights from the participants to best understand their experience.

Focus Groups: Focus groups are similar to interviews, but involve multiple participants at once. They are another route to obtaining responses and making interview observations.

Observation: A less direct method than interviews or focus groups, this method requires careful attention to participants' activities and behaviors in order to gather data.

Document analysis: Researchers can gather useful data from print documents as well as electronic records. Careful analysis is needed to draw conclusions from the body of related documents.

Interested in starting your doctoral journey? Grand Canyon University has a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative programs and resources to help you. Click Request Info above to learn more about your first step

Retrieved from:

¹University of Missouri-St. Louis, Qualitative Research Designs in May 2021

²Research Rundowns, Qualitative Research Design in May 2021

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5 Qualitative Research Designs and Research Methods

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Before constructing a qualitative study, you must first know your approach. Second, you must know how you intend to gather the research.

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Overview of qualitative research methods

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Overview of qualitative research methods

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This overview captures the various methods by which qualitative research could be done. The method has to be carefully aligned with the research questions and inquiry.

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This schema helps me plan in detail how my methodological considerations need to be planned carefully for successful outcomes.

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This schema helped me to plan my methodological process and how to proceed planning for a sound methodological basis.

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Diag Methodological considerations in qual research

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I would consider the principles outlined in this diagram to plan and execute a methodology which has sound considerations for validity and reliability.

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Methodological views- challenges and standards

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Methodological views- challenges and standards

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This paper from Lancet gave me a great understanding of choosing methods and aligning them with the conceptual and tehoretical underpinnings of my study.

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This blog post on qualitative analysis and how validity and reliability could be built into the study was useful to me as a summary.

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What is Validity and Reliability in Qualitative research?

In Quantitative research, reliability refers to consistency of certain measurements, and validity - to whether these measurements "measure what they are supposed to measure". Things are slightly different, however, in Qualitative research.

Reliability in qualitative studies is mostly a matter of "being thorough, careful and honest in carrying out the research" (Robson, 2002: 176). In qualitative interviews, this issue relates to a number of practical aspects of the process of interviewing, including the wording of interview questions, establishing rapport with the interviewees and considering 'power relationship' between the interviewer and the participant (e.g. Breakwell, 2000; Cohen et al., 2007; Silverman, 1993).

What seems more relevant when discussing qualitative studies is their validity, which very often is being addressed with regard to three common threats to validity in qualitative studies, namely researcher bias, reactivity and respondent bias (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

Researcher bias refers to any kind of negative influence of the researcher's knowledge, or assumptions, of the study, including the influence of his or her assumptions of the design, analysis or, even, sampling strategy. Reactivity, in turn, refers to a possible influence of the researcher himself/herself on the studied situation and people. Respondent bias refers to a situation where respondents do not provide honest responses for any reason, which may include them perceiving a given topic as a threat, or them being willing to 'please' the researcher with responses they believe are desirable.

Robson (2002) suggested a number of strategies aimed at addressing these threats to validity, being prolonged involvement, triangulation, peer debriefing, member checking, negative case analysis and keeping an audit trail.

So, what exactly are these strategies and how can you apply them in your research?

Prolonged involvement refers to the length of time of the researcher's involvement in the study, including involvement with the environment and the studied participants. It may be granted, for example, by the duration of the study, or by the researcher belonging to the studied community (e.g. a student investigating other students' experiences). Being a member of this community, or even being a friend to your participants (see my blog post on the ethics of researching friends), may be a great advantage and a factor that both increases the level of trust between you, the researcher, and the participants and the possible threats of reactivity and respondent bias. It may, however, pose a threat in the form of researcher bias that stems from your, and the participants', possible assumptions of similarity and presuppositions about some shared experiences (thus, for example, they will not say something in the interview because they will assume that both of you know it anyway - this way, you may miss some valuable data for your study).

Triangulation may refer to triangulation of data through utilising different instruments of data collection, methodological triangulation through employing mixed methods approach and theory triangulation through comparing different theories and perspectives with your own developing "theory" or through drawing from a number of different fields of study.

Peer debriefing and support is really an element of your student experience at the university throughout the process of the study. Various opportunities to present and discuss your research at its different stages, either at internally organised events at your university (e.g. student presentations, workshops, etc.) or at external conferences (which I strongly suggest that you start attending) will provide you with valuable feedback, criticism and suggestions for improvement. These events are invaluable in helping you to asses the study from a more objective, and critical, perspective and to recognise and address its limitations. This input, thus, from other people helps to reduce the researcher bias.

Member checking, or testing the emerging findings with the research participants, in order to increase the validity of the findings, may take various forms in your study. It may involve, for example, regular contact with the participants throughout the period of the data collection and analysis and verifying certain interpretations and themes resulting from the analysis of the data (Curtin and Fossey, 2007). As a way of controlling the influence of your knowledge and assumptions on the emerging interpretations, if you are not clear about something a participant had said, or written, you may send him/her a request to verify either what he/she meant or the interpretation you made based on that. Secondly, it is common to have a follow-up, "validation interview" that is, in itself, a tool for validating your findings and verifying whether they could be applied to individual participants (Buchbinder, 2011), in order to determine outlying, or negative, cases and to re-evaluate your understanding of a given concept (see further below). Finally, member checking, in its most commonly adopted form, may be carried out by sending the interview transcripts to the participants and asking them to read them and provide any necessary comments or corrections (Carlson, 2010).

Negative case analysis is a process of analysing 'cases', or sets of data collected from a single participant, that do not match the patterns emerging from the rest of the data. Whenever an emerging explanation of a given phenomenon you are investigating does nto seem applicable to one, or a small number, of the participants, you should try to carry out a new line of analysis aimed at understanding the source of this discrepancy. Although you may be tempted to ignore these "cases" in fear of having to do extra work, it should become your habit to explore them in detail, as the strategy of negative case analysis, especially when combined with member checking, is a valuable way of reducing researcher bias.

Finally, the notion of keeping an audit trail refers to monitoring and keeping a record of all the research-related activities and data, including the raw interview and journal data, the audio-recordings, the researcher's diary (see this post about recommended software for researcher's diary) and the coding book.

If you adopt the above strategies skilfully, you are likely to minimize threats to validity of your study.
Don't forget to look at the resources in the reference list, if you would like to read more on this topic!

References

Breakwell, G. M. (2000). Interviewing. In Breakwell, G.M., Hammond, S. & Fife-Shaw, C. (eds.) Research Methods in Psychology. 2nd Ed. London: Sage.
Buchbinder, E. (2011). Beyond Checking: Experiences of the Validation Interview. Qualitative Social Work, 10 (1), 106-122.
Carlson, J.A. (2010). Avoiding Traps in Member Checking. The Qualitative Report, 15 (5), 1102-1113.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education. 6th Ed. London: Routledge.
Curtin, M., & Fossey, E. (2007). Appraising the trustworthiness of qualitative studies:
Guidelines for occupational therapists. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal,
54, 88-94.
Lincoln, Y. S. & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
Robson, C. (2002). Real world research: a resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage.

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Validity and Reliability in Qualitative research

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What is Validity and Reliability in Qualitative research? In Quantitative research, reliability refers to consistency of certain measurements, and validity - to whether these measurements "measure what they are supposed to measure". Things are slightly different, however, in Qualitative research.

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I could understand more of one of the theories in motivation- that of lateral participation theory. This theory is very application to medical students learning via an integrated model of curriculum where this is linked to the other theories in my study.

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This table succinctly drove home the message regarding validity and reliability.

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Validity reliability in qualitative research

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Validity reliability in qualitative research

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This simple diagram helped me understand how validity and reliability works in qualitative research. It was simple and effective

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Video that helped me understand validity reliability

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Video that helped me understand validity reliability

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This was a very useful idea to help cement my understanding of application of validity and reliability levels in my research.

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Validity and Reliability in Qualitative Research

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Article 3- Professional identity in medical students

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Article 3- Professional identity in medical students

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This is the third article that helped me formulate the third theory that forms part of my conceptual and theoretical framework. The theory of professional identity formation.

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Professional identity in medical students

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This is the second theory that underpins my research. This theory helped me explore how integration in basic and clinical sciences could utilize the motivation theory.

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This article helped me understand the learning theory of motivation and how this applied to my own research. This is one of the 3 main theories underpinning my research

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The following article, provides insight into biases that may arise in research. It would be useful for me to be aware of these in my own research.
R Brear M. (2022). Invited Commentary on "Combatting neo-Colonialism in Health Research: What can Aboriginal Health Research Ethics and Global Health Research Ethics Teach Each Other?". Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE, 17(4), 455–458. https://doi-org.ezproxylr.med.und.edu/10.1177/15562646221097226

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This article provided some context to how high quality peer feedback supports students. I realized that I need to be an agent of peer support as we go through the process of refining our research processes.

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This article provides information on how to do a literature search for effective gleaning of information
Martin, S., Hussain, Z., & Boyle, J. G. (2017). A beginner's guide to the literature search in medical education. Scottish medical journal, 62(2), 58–62. https://doi-org.ezproxylr.med.und.edu/10.1177/0036933017707163.

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Starting with a literature review was a good place for me

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Starting with a literature review was a good place for me

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As I engaged in the literature search in many core areas that I was interested in, I looked at the possibility and feasibility of an area of concern for medical students where students in the pre-clerkship phase always felt a gap in the elucidation of clinical sciences while study basic sciences. This seemed to me timely and useful.

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I started the process of reflecting and understanding what my goal is for going through the process of qualitative research.
I came to a realization that it needs to be something that provides more understanding to my area of work while benefiting the student community. I thus have shortlisted many areas of interest

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Intersectionality and stigma in illnesses

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Intersectionality and stigma in illnesses

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This article analyzes how intersectionality frameworks have been used in the systematic reviews of stigma related to illnesses.

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This article explores intersection between big data ethics, social science research and research ethics.

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This article provided a context for me into types of biases in bioethics in medical research.

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This paper gave clarity to how IRBs work and how to navigate around what seems complex sometimes

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I would like to focus my inquiry into the effective integration of basic and clinical sciences for medical students in a longitudinal manner. 

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Ethics in research, colonialism and racism and intersectionality are highly integrated with one another and seem to feed into one anotherproviding for biases.

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 "Ethics" in experimentation shaped by colonialism and racism and intersectionality add to the discussion around research ethics

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 "Ethics" in experimentation shaped by colonialism and racism and intersectionality add to the discussion around research ethics

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This qualitative research article explores the concept of integration of basic and clinical sciences for medical students and the appropriate timing when they should be delivered.

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Concept mapas an example for integration

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Concept mapas an example for integration

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This article was quite informative and educative as the authors used concept map as a way of integrating the basic sciences and clinical sciences showcasing a methodology that could be used effectively in medical schools.