Many qualitative research studies acknowledge the possibility of social desirability bias (a tendency to present reality to align with what is perceived to be socially acceptable) as a limitation ...that creates complexities in interpreting findings. Drawing on experiences conducting interviews and focus groups in rural Ethiopia, this article provides an empirical account of how one research team developed and employed strategies to detect and limit social desirability bias. Data collectors identified common cues for social desirability tendencies, relating to the nature of the responses given and word choice patterns. Strategies to avoid or limit bias included techniques for introducing the study, establishing rapport, and asking questions. Pre-fieldwork training with data collectors, regular debriefing sessions, and research team meetings provided opportunities to discuss social desirability tendencies and refine approaches to account for them throughout the research. Although social desirability bias in qualitative research may be intractable, it can be minimized.
The capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, was, in its era, one of the largest cities in the world. Built on an island in the middle of a shallow lake, its population numbered perhaps 150,000, ...with another 350,000 people in the urban network clustered around the lake shores. In 1521, at the height of Tenochtitlan's power, which extended over much of Central Mexico, Hernando Cortés and his followers conquered the city. Cortés boasted to King Charles V of Spain that Tenochtitlan was "destroyed and razed to the ground." But was it?Drawing on period representations of the city in sculptures, texts, and maps, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City builds a convincing case that this global capital remained, through the sixteenth century, very much an Amerindian city. Barbara E. Mundy foregrounds the role the city's indigenous peoples, the Nahua, played in shaping Mexico City through the construction of permanent architecture and engagement in ceremonial actions. She demonstrates that the Aztec ruling elites, who retained power even after the conquest, were instrumental in building and then rebuilding the city. Mundy shows how the Nahua entered into mutually advantageous alliances with the Franciscans to maintain the city's sacred nodes. She also focuses on the practical and symbolic role of the city's extraordinary waterworks—the product of a massive ecological manipulation begun in the fifteenth century—to reveal how the Nahua struggled to maintain control of water resources in early Mexico City.
Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies Malterud, Kirsti; Siersma, Volkert Dirk; Guassora, Ann Dorrit
Qualitative health research,
11/2016, Letnik:
26, Številka:
13
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Sample sizes must be ascertained in qualitative studies like in quantitative studies but not by the same means. The prevailing concept for sample size in qualitative studies is “saturation.” ...Saturation is closely tied to a specific methodology, and the term is inconsistently applied. We propose the concept “information power” to guide adequate sample size for qualitative studies. Information power indicates that the more information the sample holds, relevant for the actual study, the lower amount of participants is needed. We suggest that the size of a sample with sufficient information power depends on (a) the aim of the study, (b) sample specificity, (c) use of established theory, (d) quality of dialogue, and (e) analysis strategy. We present a model where these elements of information and their relevant dimensions are related to information power. Application of this model in the planning and during data collection of a qualitative study is discussed.
Saturation has attained widespread acceptance as a methodological principle in qualitative research. It is commonly taken to indicate that, on the basis of the data that have been collected or ...analysed hitherto, further data collection and/or analysis are unnecessary. However, there appears to be uncertainty as to how saturation should be conceptualized, and inconsistencies in its use. In this paper, we look to clarify the nature, purposes and uses of saturation, and in doing so add to theoretical debate on the role of saturation across different methodologies. We identify four distinct approaches to saturation, which differ in terms of the extent to which an inductive or a deductive logic is adopted, and the relative emphasis on data collection, data analysis, and theorizing. We explore the purposes saturation might serve in relation to these different approaches, and the implications for how and when saturation will be sought. In examining these issues, we highlight the uncertain logic underlying saturation—as essentially a predictive statement about the unobserved based on the observed, a judgement that, we argue, results in equivocation, and may in part explain the confusion surrounding its use. We conclude that saturation should be operationalized in a way that is consistent with the research question(s), and the theoretical position and analytic framework adopted, but also that there should be some limit to its scope, so as not to risk saturation losing its coherence and potency if its conceptualization and uses are stretched too widely.
Code Saturation Versus Meaning Saturation Hennink, Monique M.; Kaiser, Bonnie N.; Marconi, Vincent C.
Qualitative health research,
03/2017, Letnik:
27, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Saturation is a core guiding principle to determine sample sizes in qualitative research, yet little methodological research exists on parameters that influence saturation. Our study compared two ...approaches to assessing saturation: code saturation and meaning saturation. We examined sample sizes needed to reach saturation in each approach, what saturation meant, and how to assess saturation. Examining 25 in-depth interviews, we found that code saturation was reached at nine interviews, whereby the range of thematic issues was identified. However, 16 to 24 interviews were needed to reach meaning saturation where we developed a richly textured understanding of issues. Thus, code saturation may indicate when researchers have “heard it all,” but meaning saturation is needed to “understand it all.” We used our results to develop parameters that influence saturation, which may be used to estimate sample sizes for qualitative research proposals or to document in publications the grounds on which saturation was achieved.
Member Checking Birt, Linda; Scott, Suzanne; Cavers, Debbie ...
Qualitative health research,
11/2016, Letnik:
26, Številka:
13
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The trustworthiness of results is the bedrock of high quality qualitative research. Member checking, also known as participant or respondent validation, is a technique for exploring the credibility ...of results. Data or results are returned to participants to check for accuracy and resonance with their experiences. Member checking is often mentioned as one in a list of validation techniques. This simplistic reporting might not acknowledge the value of using the method, nor its juxtaposition with the interpretative stance of qualitative research. In this commentary, we critique how member checking has been used in published research, before describing and evaluating an innovative in-depth member checking technique, Synthesized Member Checking. The method was used in a study with patients diagnosed with melanoma. Synthesized Member Checking addresses the co-constructed nature of knowledge by providing participants with the opportunity to engage with, and add to, interview and interpreted data, several months after their semi-structured interview.
Protect, Serve, and Deport exposes the on-the-ground workings of local immigration enforcement in Nashville, Tennessee. Between 2007 and 2012, Nashville’s local jail participated in an immigration ...enforcement program called 287(g), which turned jail employees into immigration officers who identified over ten thousand removable immigrants for deportation. The vast majority of those identified for removal were not serious criminals but Latino residents arrested by local police for minor violations. Protect, Serve, and Deport explains how local politics, state laws, institutional policies, and police practices work together to deliver immigrants into an expanding federal deportation system, conveying powerful messages about race, citizenship, and belonging.
This paper is a tribute to researchers who have significantly contributed to improving and advancing structural equation modeling (SEM). It is, therefore, a brief overview of SEM and presents its ...beginnings, historical development, its usefulness in the social sciences and the statistical and philosophical (theoretical) controversies which have often appeared in the literature pertaining to SEM. Having described the essence of SEM in the context of causal analysis, the author discusses the years of the development of structural modeling as the consequence of many researchers’ systematically growing needs (in particular in the social sciences) who strove to effectively understand the structure and interactions of latent phenomena. The early beginnings of SEM models were related to the work of Spearman and Wright, and to that of other prominent researchers who contributed to SEM development. The importance and predominance of theoretical assumptions over technical issues for the successful construction of SEM models are also described. Then, controversies regarding the use of SEM in the social sciences are presented. Finally, the opportunities and threats of this type of analytical strategy as well as selected areas of SEM applications in the social sciences are discussed.
Generalizability in qualitative research has been a controversial topic given that interpretivist scholars have resisted the dominant role and mandate of the positivist tradition within social ...sciences. Aiming to find universal laws, the positivist paradigm has made generalizability a crucial criterion for evaluating the rigor of quantitative research. This positivist echo has led generalizability to acquire a quantitative meaning, inappropriate for describing qualitative studies. The purpose of qualitative research has, thus, been directed toward providing in-depth explanations and meanings rather than generalizing findings. Through a critical review of empirical and theoretical studies, this commentary seeks to show that in qualitative domains, generalizability is possible provided that, first, generalizability is the main objective of the study; second, due precautions concerning the philosophy and terminology selected are taken. Hence, this commentary contributes to the literature on qualitative research by making suggestions for more consistent and unanimous procedures to adopt in qualitative inquiries.
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