Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodology Workshop

• Abraham (Rami) Rudnick BMedSc, MD, MPsych, PhD, CPRP, FRCPC

• Associate Professor Departments of Psychiatry and Philosophy

• Chair, Division of Social and Rural Psychiatry• Director, Extended Campus Program• Clinical Director, North of Superior Programs• University of Western Ontario• Email: arudnic2@uwo.ca

Learning Objectives

• Enhance awareness of relevance of qualitative research and evaluation methodology.

• Enhance knowledge of qualitative research and evaluation methodology.

• Enhance skill of determining suitable qualitative methodology for a research or evaluation idea.

Method

• Interactive presentation.

• Group exercise.

Outline• Introductions.• Fundamentals• Methodologies.• Data collection.• Data analysis.• Generic procedures.• Write up.• Mixed designs• Group exercise: Determining a suitable qualitative methodology for a research or evaluation

idea.• Opportunities to Train in Qualitative Research

Methodology

Introductions

Fundamentals

• Related to experience and conduct of human beings.

• Based on social sciences, humanities and arts.

• Declines numerical standardization and measurement (in most cases).

• Generalization and comparative approach (which are fundamental to quantitative research) are controversial.

Methodologies• Standard in health related research –

phenomenology; ethnography; grounded theory; narrative; case study (Creswell 2007).

• Others – discourse analysis; auto-ethnography; photovoice; art-based research; PAR; historical; other (Denzin and Lincoln 2005).

• Examples – Davidson 2003 (phenomenology); Somasundaram 2007 (ethnography); Roe et al 2004 (grounded theory); Rudnick et al In progress (case study).

Data Collection

• Semi-structured vs. unstructured interviews.

• Group interviews (focus groups or other).

• Direct vs. participant observations (with field notes).

• Documents.

Data Analysis

• Coding, categorizing, thematic analysis (and sometimes theory generation and even testing).

Generic Procedures

• Sample saturation.

• Transcribing and validating.

• Memos.

• Trustworthiness/credibility (triangulation of sources of information or of methods of data collection, peer debriefing, member checking).

Write Up

• Verbatim examples (and sometimes verbatim theme titles).

Mixed (Quantitative and Qualitative) Evaluation and Research

• Generating hypotheses, then testing them:

qualitative quantitative.

• Testing hypotheses, then explaining findings:

quantitative qualitative.

• Other (e.g., answer qualitative questions and test quantitative hypotheses in parallel).

Group exercise: Determining a Suitable

Qualitative Methodology for a Research or Evaluation Idea

• Small group discussion.

• Large group presentation.

• Q & A.

Opportunities to Train in Qualitative Research Methodology

• International Institute for Qualitative Methodology:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/

• Other

References• Creswell JW. Qualitative Inquiry and Research

Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 2007.

• Davidson L. Living Outside Mental Illness: Qualitative Studies of Recovery in Schizophrenia. New York: New York University Press, 2003.

• Denzin NK, Lincoln Y (Editors). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 2005.

• Roe D, Chopra M, Rudnick A. Persons with psychosis as active agents interacting with their disorder. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 2004, 28:122-128.

• Somasundaram D. Collective trauma in northern Sri Lanka: a qualitative psychosocial-ecological study. International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2007, 1:5.