Hi
I am writting a paper on patient experience in the MRI and I am going to conduct semi structured interviews.
Which data analysis methods are appropriate in this case and why?
I was thinking of using phenomenology with an inductive approach, is this appropriate?
Thanks in advance
Kind regards
Lavinia
We used constructive grounded theory for a qualitative study where participants were interviewed (regarding living with faecal incontinence). Grounded theory is inductive but later on, a deductive approach is used (inductive-deductive research cycle).
This paper might be of interest:
Chun Tie, Y., Birks, M., & Francis, K. (2019). Grounded theory research: A design framework for novice researchers. SAGE open medicine, 7, 2050312118822927.
Article Grounded theory research: A design framework for novice researchers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6318722/
(see Fig 1)
Grounded theory displays a cyclical pattern including both induction and deduction. Induction (a general inference from particular instances) takes place as data are collected and patterning and group formation become apparent through comparative analysis. This then leads to deduction (inference from general to particular), as the patterns are interpreted and an explanation is suggested. Theoretical sampling and detailed literature review follow, to test this explanation – continuing the cycle of induction and deduction as the explanation is substantiated and the emerging theory is refined (from my thesis; references available).
You would only use a deductive approach if you were trying to evaluate prior theory, so if you are doing exploratory research, that would fit an inductive approach.
For phenomenology, you are usually looking at a very meaningful aspect of a person's life, and you would interview only a few people in great depth and detail to find out about their "lived experience" around that part of their life. In contrast, grounded theory typically aims to build a better understanding of some process.
But you don't need to limit yourself to a choice between these two approaches. By far the most common way of doing qualitative research is to conduct semi-structured interviews, followed by thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006).
Thanks so much, thinking now of doing semi. structured interview and content analysis instead. As you mentioned phenomenology requires more depth and might not really be suitable for this kind of study.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Cognitive Science
- Thinking