Boyd (2001, p. 68) defines qualitative research “as involving broadly stated questions about human experiences and realities, studied through sustained contact with persons in their natural environments, and producing rich, descriptive data that help us to understand those persons’ experiences”. She indicates that the purpose of qualitative research is fourfold, i.e. instrumentation, illustration, sensitisation and conceptualisation. To illustrate instrumentation she presents the example of in-depth, unstructured interviews with adults that are wheelchair-bound, in order to document their experiences of living with impaired mobility. This information may then be used to construct an instrument based on categories actually experienced, rather than imaginary categories.
In the motion picture ‘The Mighty’ (1998) Freak explains to Max that words are little parts of a picture, that sentences are the picture, and that the imagination combines the words to form the picture. Munhall (2001, p. 3) remarks to researchers who embark on qualitative research designs, that the “world is narrated and organised through language”. She further remarks that language is a means of communicating meaning, but in certain moments language cannot express feelings, emotions or a response. She also reminds her readers that an inherent component of language is listening — keeping silent and hearing. Munhall (2001, p. 41) takes this point further by arguing the importance of ‘unknowing’, i.e. “a condition of openness” that “seems essential to the understanding of intersubjectivity and perspectivity”. Boyd (2001) emphasises ‘verstehen’.
Boyd (2001, p. 72) emphasises that “people construct meanings in relation to the world in which they exist”. The qualitative researcher believes that human behaviour is best understood within the context or natural setting of occurrence and therefore the researcher strives to locate and collect descriptive data of the person-environment relation. In addition to words, in the form of interview transcripts and field observation notes, a plethora of qualitative data exists, e.g. photographs, videotapes, diaries, memos, letters, art, the researcher’s perceptions of sounds, tastes and smells, etc. Boyd cautions that the research process itself becomes part of the context, each stimulus or question directs the attention of participants and opens the possibility of new meanings. The research findings represents a best attempt, gained form as much information as possible, to present an accurate picture of the phenomenon in its natural settings. Boyd says this picture is a distillation of large amounts of data, an inductive process.
References:
Boyd, C.O. (2001). Philosophical Foundations of Qualitative Research. In: Munhall P.L. (Ed.) (2001). Nursing research: a qualitative perspective (pp. 65-89). 3rd edition.
The Mighty [Motion picture]. (1998). Based on Philbrick, W. R. (1993). Freak the mighty. New York, NY: Miramax.
Munhall P.L. (2001). Epistemology in nursing. In: Munhall P.L. (Ed.) (2001). Nursing research: a qualitative perspective (pp. 37-64). 3rd edition. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.
Munhall P.L. (2001). Language and nursing research. In: Munhall P.L. (Ed.) (2001). Nursing research: a qualitative perspective (pp. 3-35). 3rd edition. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.
Comments