Qualitative Data Analysis and Utilization in Therapy and Sports/Health - Research Paper Example

Qualitative analysis and utilization in therapy and sports/health research I. Overview on qualitative methods Qualitative research is “any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statististical procedures or other means of quantification” (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 10-11). Qualitative research “can refer to research about persons’ lives, lived experiences, behaviours, emotions, and feelings s well as about organizational functioning, social movements, cultural phenomena, and interactions between nations” (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). According to Corbin and Strauss (1998, p. 11), although some of the data may be quantified, the bulk of qualitative research is interpretative. Nevertheless, Strauss and Corbin (1998, p. 11) hastens to qualify that qualitative research can mean differently to people. For example, qualitative data can be coded quantitatively giving a data that can be statistically analyzed. The example, however, is not qualitative research but rather quantitative research (Strauss and Corbin, 1998, p. 11). Thus, qualitative research does not include research in which qualitative data are quantified or analyzed statistically (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). Qualitative research basically involves nonmathematical interpretation that is implemented for the purpose of discovering concepts and relationships and then organizing them into “theoretical explanatory scheme” (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). There may be several motives for using qualitative methods. Preference and experience of the research is a valid basis for using qualitative methods (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). Further, some people are more oriented to the method and some can come from disciplines that traditionally use the method (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). The nature of the research problem may also determine the appropriateness of qualitative research (Strauss and Corbin, 1998, p. 11). According to the two authors, research that attempts to understand meaning or the nature of experience of persons with “chronic illness, addition, divorce, and the act of ‘coming out’” are appropriate for qualitative methods (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 11). This writer believes that qualitative research is also highly appropriate for understanding how respondents, societies, groups, markets, communities, and distinct groups or societies people associate meanings with events, situations, and happenings. According to Strauss and Corbin (1998, p. 11-12), qualitative research has three main elements. Two of the three are extremely important. The first extremely important main element pertains to data. Data can come from various sources like interviews, observations, documents, records, and films (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 12). The second extremely important main element pertains to how data are organized and interpreted (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 12). The two authors point out that “conceptualizing, reducing, elaborating, and relating are often referred often are referred to as coding” from the perspective of qualitative research (Strauss and Corbin, 1998, p. 12). Other procedures are part of the analytic processes and can involve nonstatistical sampling, writing of memos, and diagramming (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 12). There is a third important main element that is written or verbal report but this need not be discussed. Strauss and Corbin (1998) correctly pointed out that there are so many different types or approaches to qualitative research. However, the book of Strauss and Corbin (1998) discusses only one approach or type of qualitative research: grounded theory and only one version of the several versions of ground theory. Strauss and Corbin (1998) covered that type of grounded theory or that version of grounded theory taught by Strauss (Strauss and Corbin 1998, p. 12). In contrast, Creswell (2007) covered five types of qualitative research: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. At the same time, Creswell acknowledged (2007, p. 7-8), that qualitative research covers a very long list of other approaches: ecological psychology, holistic ethnography, cognitive anthropology, ethnography of communication, symbolic interactions, historical research, anthropological perspectives, sociological perspectives, biological perspectives, case studies, personal accounts, cognitive studies, historical inquiries, life histories, conversational analysis, ethnoscience, hermeneutics, empirical phenomenological research, heuristic research, transcendental phenomenology, interpretative practices, ethnomethodology, biographical, historical, clinical research, studies of artifacts, participatory action research, and public ethnography. Belk (2006) covered the use of qualitative research methods in marketing. In this work, we discuss only three from the long list of several approaches in qualitative research: autoethnography, narrative analysis, and thematic analysis. Autoethnography was used by Stone 2009 for a study on a complication of anorexia, excessive exercising, and psychosis. Gilbertson 2006, however, utilized narrative analysis as a research method for a study on effect of music therapy on patients who suffered traumatic brain injury. Finally, Crawford 2008 utilized thematic analysis for concerns of community mental health nurses in the United Kingdom. II. Comparing the three qualitative methods A strong similarity among narrative analysis, ethnography, and thematic analysis is that all methods do not use statistical tools or analysis for organizing and interpreting data. Further, all three methods are highly interpretative with regard to the response or the situation of their respondents or subjects. Narrative analysis relies on narrations or narratives form the subject of study. Thematic analysis relies on identification of themes by the respondent themselves as well as by the researcher. In contrast, autoethnography utilizes observations on the self. According to Wall (2006) it is “an emerging qualititative research method that allows the author to write in highly personalized style, drawing on his or her experience to extend understanding about a societal phenomenon” (p. 1). Wall (2006) stressed that autoethnography is founded in postmodern philosophy and expresses a “growing debate” about reflexivity and voice in social research (p. 1). According to Wall (2006, p. 1), the “essence of postmodernism is that many ways of knowing and inquiring are legitimate and no one way should be privileged” (Wall 2006, p. 1). According to Wall (2006, p. 1), researchers will be nothing wrong if he or she shares his or her experience: there may be prejudices in interpretation and observation but one can construct consistency among the observations and interpretations. In a sense, autoethnography emphasizes on the right of individuals to examine the self from which insights on the validity of theory and the theorizing of reality can be derived. It emphasizes on providing a voice for individuals in society to make sense of their circumstance and situation and thereby provide researcher an accessible arena from which knowledge can be derived from and advanced. While autoethnography focuses on the self as a source of knowledge and insights, narrative analysis emphasizes on narrations from parties other than self. In contrast, thematic analysis focuses on the themes that respondents and researchers can identify from a situation. McIlveen defined autoethnography is “a reflexive means by which researcher-practioner cautiously embeds himself or herself amidst theory and practice, and by way of intimate autobiographic account explicates a phenomenon under investigation or intervention” (2008, p. 13). Narrative analysis assesses the narratives or stories shared by subjects or respondents. According to Frank (2002), it is “continuous with personal storytelling” (p. 1). Is there rigor in qualitative analysis? Fereday and Cochrane (2006) demonstrated that it is possible to use innovations on qualitative research design that can promote rigor. III. Application of autoethnography, narrative analysis, and thematic study A. Autoethnography on a sports and excessive exercises Stone 2009 explores the author’s bouts with anorexia, excessive exercising, and psychosis (p. 67-68). Through autoethnography, the author was able to interpret the bouts as “starvation of the body” that is associated with the need to repress traumatic memory (Stone 2009, p. 67). The method of autoethnography facilitated the author’s realization that “shaping of the body through self-denial or self-discipline is analogous to the processes whereby we shape identity through the narrative management of the memory” (Stone 2009, p. 67). Drawing from Judith Butler, Stone 2009 (p. 67) argued that unlike seamless and coherent autobiography, autoethnography is characterized by moments of interruption, stoppage, open-endedness, and cannot be easily translated into a narrative. Thus, ethnography can have a “stuttering tone” that contrast with the seamlessness of autobiography or traditional academic writing (Stone 2009, p. 68). For Stone, even speech is rarely unitary but has cadences and elisions, incoherencies and silences that reflect the “kaleidoscopic nature of identity” (Stone 2009, p. 68). According to Stone, “artistic creative modes” of discourse are particularly valuable in autoethnographic enquiry (Stone 2009, p. 68). Further, according to Stone, stepping outside the framework of rational enquiry and employing “creative forms” of speech produce insights and findings which a reasoned approach could not unearth (Stone 2009, p. 68). This is because “artistic endeavours” utilise intuition and feelings that make possible the discovery of aspects of identity that are “new and strange” (Stone 2009, p. 68). Ethnography allowed Stone to reached several findings. In exploring his bouts with anorexia, excessive exercising, and psychosis, Stone concerned himself with shaping of the self (2009, p. 68). Through ethnography, Stone found that anorexia is one way through which his self was shaped: “the body is shaped according to a desire which literally ‘consume’ all else, even life” (Stone 2009, p. 68). Ethnography allowed Stone to see that “different versions of the self collide” Stone 2009, p. 68). According to the author’s account, ethnography allowed him to see that the self is shaped by denial and repression of traumatic memory such that “when memory is too painful to bear, such repression is necessary to survival, but it also exacts a great cost” (Stone, 2009, p. 68). Stone works in a School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics but his research interest focuses on the relationship among the narrative, trauma, and human identity. His account of his bout with anorexia, excessive exercise, and psychosis do not appear to be clinically different from other cases but his interpretation seems different. B. Narrative analysis on effect of music therapy on traumatic brain injury Gilbertson 2006 used qualitative therapeutic narrative analysis complemented by musicological analysis in identifying clinical changes associated with “music improvisation as a part of early neurorehabilitation for people with severe traumatic brain injury” (Gilbertson 2006, p. 662). Through narrative analysis, Gilbertson was able to identify “a collection of significant events” (Gilbertson 2006, p. 662). The significant events or episodes were joined or distinguished through constructs that elicit the nature of phenomena (Gilbertson 2006, p. 662). The constructs were correlated leading to the identification of categories useful for music therapy in the neurorehabilitation (Gilbertson 2006, p. 662). Gilbertson 2006 is a presentation of Gilbertson’s 2005 doctoral research on the use of music therapy for the rehabilitation of people who have experienced traumatic brain injury or injuries to brain tissue by a mechanical force (Gilbertson 2006, p. 663). Traumatic brain injury is associated with changes in consciousness and behaviour, motor function disorder, memory problems, and problems related to speech/language, cognition, and perception (Gilbertson 2006, p. 664). For the therapy, Gilbertson has applied a music therapy known as “creative music therapy” that is a form of “improvised music therapy that stems from the pioneering work of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins” (Gilbertson 2006, p. 664). According to Gilbertson (2006, p. 669), therapeutic narrative analysis was developed by David Aldridge and is a form of qualitative research based on the case study design. Gilbertson, however, incorporated into his narrative analysis technique the clinical notes, transcription of sessions, video and audio recordings and analytic procedures associated with music therapy practice (Gilbertson 2006, p. 669). Therapeutic narrative analysis is based as well on the Personal Construct Theory of George Kelly and has five phases (Gilbertson 2006, p. 670). The first phase consists in identifying the narrative to be researched. The application of the first phase in Gilbertson’s study pertains to the identification of changes associated with music therapy among three individuals who had traumatic brain injury. The second phase consists in locating the narrative in the relevant or appropriate scientific or academic literature and settings. The third phase focuses on the subject(s) of interest or episodes and derives constructs that seem to illustrate similarities or differences between episodes or key set of events. The fourth phase is analysis using the appropriate or applicable framework(s) even as theory is generated from data (Gilbertson 2006, p. 687). Finally, the fifth phase interprets the meaning of the narrative from the standpoint of research questions and objectives. Based on the application of the narrative analysis technique, the author concluded that music therapy has facilitated a change in all of his three patients. The patients moved towards conventional-integrated behaviour from isolated and idiosyncratic behaviour (Gilbertson 2006, p. 683, 686). In particular, using narrative analysis, Gilbertson’s study “has identified clinically significant change in improvised music therapy in the areas of musical expression, communication, agency, emotionality, motility, and participation” (2006, p. 685). Using narrative analysis, Gilbertson “has shown that it has been possible to link clinically significant change to musical events occurring in music improvisation in therapy” (2006, p. 686). In particular, the study identified a reduction of isolation and idiosyncratic behaviour associated with neurorehabilitation among patients with severe traumatic brain injury (Gilbertson 2006, p. 686). The study made conclusions based on what have happened in episodes and argued that “it is possible to hypothesize about the nature of rehabilitation through music therapy” (Gilbertson 2006, p. 687). C. Crawford et al. 2008 Crawford et al. (2008) used thematic analysis to study how community mental health nurses in the UK look at their work. The study was seen to be relevant because the profession has benefited from innovation, training, and improvements in pay. Thus, it was seen that it was “important to investigate the reflexive account community mental health nurses have of their collective identity” (Crawford 2008, p. 1056). The research problem involved two related concerns. The first concern pertains to the nurses’ perception of their professional status versus society’s perception of their profession. The second concern pertains to the relationship between their aspirations and working life on one hand and their feelings on their work and self-image on the other. In addressing the research problem, the study used semi-structured interviews for gathering data and the method of thematic analysis for analyzing data. According to Crawford et al. (2008), the approach of Braun and Clark (2006) as well as the perspective of ground theory informed their work (p. 1057). In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to obtain respondents’ narratives on professional identity as well as explore their understanding and identify categories and themes that they believe to be valuable (p. 1057). The in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted among 34 community mental health nurses. Thematic analysis was used to identify categories and themes in the respondents’ accounts of their working lives. Data obtained from the respondents were classified into four major themes (Crawford 2008, p. 1058): 1) client focus as the public service identify of the profession; 2) uncertainties involved in the nursing profession; 3) professional development as exit strategy out of a role; and 4) search for recognition. With regard to client focus as the public service identity of the profession, respondents described the nursing profession in terms of “folk categories” and in terms of “identity rooted in the client’s well-being” (Crawford et al., 2008, p. 1058). With regard to uncertainties involved in the profession, the respondents expressed concerns over clout, society’s inability to recognize nursing as a real profession, and unwillingness of those in the profession to support each other. With regard to professional development as an exit strategy out of a role, respondents consider training as stepping stone to upgrade within the profession or move out from it. Finally, with regard to search for recognition, respondents expressed a need to be discovered or recognized for their talents and even “saw their role as inexorably intertwined with a need for recognition, appreciation and the sense that one’s efforts will lead to one being ‘discovered’” (Crawford 2008, p. 1060). The authors pointed out that the sample size of n=34 is small and acknowledged that, because of this, the sample represents only one facet of nursing. On the ethical side, the respondents were informed of their right to withdraw participation or data anytime (Crawford et al. 2008, p. 1058). According to the authors, the main contribution thematic analysis in Crawford et al. (2008, p. 1056) are in the following areas: 1) extension and reformulation of what professional identity means the community mental health workers; 2) provision of an account of practitioner talk; and 3) identification of a quest among community mental health workers. IV. Concluding remarks In conclusion, what should be highlighted is that there are several and very many types of qualitative research. Qualitative methods can be used not only for social science research for medicine, business, philosophy, psychology, marketing, biology, and the other natural sciences. In this work, however, we simply highlighted the use of qualitative research for therapy, mental health nursing applications, and sports and exercise research. References Belk, R. 2006. Handbook of qualitative research methods in marketing. Cheltenharn: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. 2006. Using thematic analysis psychology. Qualititative Research, 3, 77-101. Crawford, P., Brown, B., and Majomi, P. 2008. Professional identity in community mental health nursing: A thematic analysis. International journal of nursing studies, 45, 1055-1063. Creswell, J. 2007. Qualitative inquiry & research Design: Choosing among five approaches. 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Gilbertson, S. 2006. Music therapy in early neurorehabilitation with people who have traumatic experienced brain injury. Music therapy today, 7 (3), 662-696. Fereday, J. and Cochrane, E. 2006. Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International journal of qualitative methods, 5 (1). Retrieved 24 March 2010 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_1/pdf/fereday.pdf Frank, A. 2002. Why study people’s stories? The dialogical ethics of narrative analysis. International journal of qualitative methods, 1 (1). Retrieved 25 March 2010 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~ijqm/ McIlveen, P. 2008. Autoethnography as a method for reflexive research and practice in vocational psychology. Australian journal of career development, 17 (2), 13-20. Stone, B. 2009. Running man. Qualitative research in sports and exercise, 1 (1), 67-71. Straus, A. and Corbin, J. Basics of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Wall, S. 2006. An autoethnography on learnng about autoethnography. International journal of qualitative methods, 5 (2). Retrieved 24 March 2010 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_2/pdf/wall.pdf Read More