This assignment is based on research methods and how they are employed in health care settings. It also explains the reasons for research and examples of different ways people have used it. I will discuss different types of research and how they affect the research that they will collect. Qualitative and Quantitative Qualitative methods are increasingly being used in health services research. Qualitative research looks at how to study people and their organisations in their natural settings.
Qualitative researchers tend to look at problems and questions rather than produce and test hypotheses. Qualitative research describes in words rather than numbers and draws from a range of methods. It is particularly useful in areas where there is little pre-existing knowledge, where it is difficult or inappropriate to produce a hypothesis and where issues are complex and require in-depth exploration.
Quantitative research looks more towards the study of people and their organisations in their natural and social settings as they believe that there I no difference between the natural and social world. Quantative researchers tend to produce and test hypothesis rather than look at problems and questions. They tend to describe their work statistically in the representation of numbers. These researchers would tend to argue that their technique is more scientific, reliable and open to checking by other researchers.
(Lecturer notes 2002) Primary and secondary data The data used in a statistical survey, can be either primary data or secondary data. Primary data is data that has been found by you and so you know were it came from and that it has never been used. Primary data costs more to produce and conduct. It has to be collected from a source. The source can be (A) personal investigator (B) a team of investigators or (C) questionnaires. (A) Personal investigator is when you collect the information and data yourself and so you know it is reliable. You can do this by conducting interviews. The disadvantage of a personal investigator is that it takes time and money to produce the results.
(B) Team of investigators is mainly like the personal investigator but you work in a team. If you do this then it could be faster and easier and you may be able to collect more results in the same amount of time that you would conduct doing it on your own. (C) A questionnaire can be done by approaching people on the street or sending out questionnaires through post. This is called a pilot survey. A questionnaire is quick and cheap but can also have its disadvantages, as people may not complete the forms and return them if they are posted or the information that they may have written may be false or have the wrong idea.
In Erving Goffman’s study on “Asylums” (1964) he approaches it from the view of an interprativist that is he used a qualitative technique to gather data for his study. Having analysed his study there is no structure or method to his piece of writing, he actually does state this. Because of the nature of his project there were many ethical issues to be addressed mainly those of confidentiality and anonymity. This is due to the method that he employed, covert participant observation. It follows then that due to his operating method deception and deceipt was inevitable.
To quote Goffman “to be a student of recreation and community life” (Goffman 1964) He was acting as a patient in the asylum to try to see life in the institution from an inmate’s standpoint. He did this because if they knew what he was doing they may have changed the way that they acted around him and others. He tells us exactly were he is going and the date that he joined, which means that it would be easy for someone to find out who the manager was at that present time because he has enclosed this information he has broke anonymity and confidentiality. He used an ideographic approach to his writing in the form of a case study to present his findings.
It is clear when examining Goffman’s study that he employed an interprativist stance in the form of a qualitative research approach. He maintained a close relationship with the asylum inmates in order to gain a first hand experience of the inmate’s lives. Because of his approach he needed to become an insider, all the data that he recorded was emergent and by his own admission his work was unstructured. However, the data he did present was that of a rich, deep nature. This is typical of the qualitative form of research.
In L Mctighe’s study on “A Health and Lifestyle Survey for East Riding Health” (1995) he approaches it from the view of a positivist, as he used a quantitative technique to gather data for his study. Although, he did also use information from surveys that had been previously undertaken, so this is classed as secondary data. Having read and analysed his study there is a definite structure and method to his piece of writing. His structure consists of 1. Introduction 2. Aim and Objectives 3. Method 4. Piloted Questionnaires 5. Random Sampling Because of the information he needed for his project, he needed to address the ethical issues, Which Mctighe addressed thoroughly.
Mctighe was trying to gain information for a project on the relationship between demographic factors, lifestyle and health. To quote Mctighe “the postal questionnaire was piloted of a random sample of 200 adults during November 1993” (Mctighe 1995) It is clear when examining Mctighe’s study that he employed a positivist’s stance in the form of a qualitative research approach. He was an outsider and so he kept a distant relationship. All data that he recorded was confirmation and was efficiently structured. Although the data that he presented was that of a hard and reliable source. It is clear to investigate which researcher has used a qualitative or a quantitative approach by looking at Alan Bryman’s (1993) Quantity & Quality in Social Research.