Conducting Qualitative Research at the Micro-Level: Unique Challenges and Opportunities

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in Cross-Cultural Psychology

This article reviews the current and emerging status of qualitative research in psychology. The particular value of diverse philosophical paradigms and varied inquiry approaches to the advancement of psychology generally, and multicultural psychology specifically, is emphasized. Three specific qualitative inquiry approaches anchored in diverse philosophical research paradigms are highlighted: consensual qualitative research, grounded theory, and participatory action research. The article concludes by highlighting important ethical considerations in multicultural qualitative research.

The authors review some of the problems faced by qualitative research in psychology, focusing on the aspects that limit its use and its inclusion in indexed publications. In order to determine whether these problems exist, a case study on textual analysis was performed. The authors conducted a literature search of many databases from the Web of Science (Sciences Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index), with the keywords “textual analysis” and “text analysis”. Subsequently, the authors completed an in-depth analysis of a sample of the publications found, reviewing publication aspects, substantive aspects, methodological aspects and contextual aspects. The results showed that “textual analysis” cannot be considered a specific methodology and so the use of this term as a particular technique could be misleading. This highlights the need to create a common vocabulary to facilitate the systematization and dissemination of work done with qualitative methods.

Orientation: Qualitative research is marked by phenomenal growth and development over the years.Research purpose: This article aims to offer insight into the emerging qualitative methodologies used in the fields of Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management.Motivation for the study: The value of qualitative organisational research has been recognised since the 1970s. Regardless of its perceived value, national and international trends show a greater tendency for quantitative research.Research design, approach and method: This article investigates qualitative articles (n = 242) published over two decades in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP), South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP), and the South African Journal of Human Resource Management (SAJHRM). More specifically, a content analysis was conducted to highlight the trends of paradigms, designs and analysis methods employed in the studies.Main findings: Although there seems to be a slight increase in qualitative publications over the years, qualitative studies show a lower volume than its counterparts. The SAJIP published the least qualitative articles when compared to the SAJP and SAJHRM. There is a pattern of preference for specific paradigms and methods in all the journals. Overall, all the journals carry a large number of articles that do not specifically state their paradigmatic alignment or the designs they used, while some articles omits the methodology used in the studies altogether.Practical/managerial implications: The results indicate a clear need for increased exposure to qualitative methodology, both by publishing more qualitative studies in local journals and by providing formal training opportunities. A publication does not solely rely on authorship, but also on a review process. Therefore certain adjustments in this process may lead to more and better qualitative publications in future.Contribution/value-add: This article provides a critical analysis of the current trends and developments in qualitative research conducted in Industrial and Organisational Psychology(IOP) research in South Africa. The study identifies dominant methodologies in use, and thereby identifies possible opportunities to expand the ‘methodological menu’ of IOP research.

The aim of this article is to explore the future of qualitative research as seen from a students' perspective. This exploration will initially be incited through a discussion of the use of the term 'qualitative research', and the risks associated with the use of such an umbrella term. It is discussed that the use of an overarching umbrella term can lead to an overhomogenized understanding of qualitative research, that fails to represent the diversity and variety of methodological and epistemological approaches that exist within this research paradigm. It is also discussed that this overhomogenization reinforces the idea of qualitative research as an anti-doctrine to quantitative research, which is argued to discourage interparadigmatic integration. Lastly, it is considered how these (mis)conceptions of qualitative research influence how psychology students are taught about research methodology and how this education could affect these (mis)conceptions. We advocate that the future for qualitative research in psychology should be ensured through a restructure and a refocus on an educational level. This change should overall be centered around teaching students how to be reflective research practitioners based on an in-depth understanding of the variety of epistemologies within both meta-research-paradigms.

<h3>Background</h3> Story completion asks the participant to produce a story, in response to an open, sometimes ambiguous, scenario. As a method for <i>qualitative</i> research, it is relatively unknown. Yet the method has deep roots, with origins in psychotherapy <i>practice</i> (projective techniques, such as Rorschach) and (quantitative) developmental psychology research (such as the doll play story completion test); in those domains, it offers a method to access information inaccessible through self-report. As a qualitative method, story completion has usually been used to research the meaning-worlds people occupy, exploring everyday sense-making in relation to topics such as infidelity¹ and health and weight loss.² <h3>Aims/Objectives</h3> This paper provides an overview and introduction to story completion as a qualitative technique for health research, including a brief signal of key design concerns. It demonstrates the exciting potential this method has for tapping collective sense-making, making git potentially very use for health researchers. <h3>Discussion/Conclusions</h3> We believe story completion has untapped, exciting potential for qualitative <i>health</i> research, offering something <i>quite different</i> to many of the more popular methods used (e.g. interviews, focus groups). Through highlighting conceptual and design considerations for story completion, this paper both introduces the method <i>and</i> sets the scene for the three empirical symposium papers that follow – each of which demonstrates the application of story completion within a different area of health (healthy eating; disability and physical activity; mental health in the workplace). <h3>References</h3> Clarke V, Braun V, Wooles K. Thou shalt not covet another man? Exploring constructions of same-sex and different-sex infidelity using story completion. Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology, 2015;25:153–166. Tischner I. (in press). Tomorrow is the start of the rest of their life – so who cares about health? Exploring constructions of weight-loss motivations and health using story completion. Qualitative Research in Psychology.

Principles and applications of open science (also referred to as open research or open scholarship) in psychology have emerged in response to growing concerns about the replicability, transparency, reproducibility, and robustness of psychological research alongside global moves to open science in many fields. Our objective in this paper is to inform ways of collectively constructing open science practices and systems that are appropriate to, and get the best out of, the full range of qualitative and mixed‐method approaches used in psychology. We achieve this by describing three areas of open research practice (contributorship, pre‐registration, and open data) and explore how and why qualitative researchers might consider engaging with these in ways that are compatible with a qualitative research paradigm. We argue it is crucial that open research practices do not (even inadvertently) exclude qualitative research, and that qualitative researchers reflect on how we can meaningfully engage with open science in psychology.

Innovating qualitative research methods: Proposals and possibilities

Purpose This study explored service providers’ and help-seeking intimate partner violence (IPV) victims’ and IPV perpetrators’ experiences with mandatory reporting of intimate partner violence (MR-IPV) in Norway. We examined the following research questions: How do service providers experience work within the context of MR-IPV? How do help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators experience MR-IPV? Methods This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to identify, analyze and report themes and patterns uncovered in semi-structured interviews with 42 service providers and 6 help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators, following Braun and Clark’s Qualitative Research in Psychology six phases of reflexive thematic analysis. Results The service providers in this study aimed to establish collaboration with help-seeking IPV victims and IPV perpetrators to avert IPV rather than immediately reporting IPV to the police, thus working within the discretionary space allowed in the Norwegian legislation. Stories concerning breaches of trust related to MR-IPV were prominent in the interviews with both groups of help-seekers. The IPV perpetrators expressed having experienced a breach of trust when the IPV was reported to the police, while most of the IPV victims expressed a breach of trust due to a lack of MR-IPV. Conclusions IPV victims expressed ambivalence linked to a desire for interventions and a fear of not receiving adequate help. These findings highlight the challenges of certain requirements placed on service providers when working within the MR-IPV context; distinguishing between situations in which collaboration is appropriate and situations in which immediate reporting to the police is required.

Some topics for qualitative research in psychology are unsuitable for or cannot be adapted to the traditional qualitative designs such as case study, ethnography, grounded theory, or phenomenology. This paper explores reasons for this, and proposes that psychological researchers can use a generic qualitative design in such situations. After discussing the types of topics most suitable for a generic qualitative design, the paper differentiates generic qualitative designs from the more traditional qualitative designs, with particular attention to how generic qualitative inquiry differs from phenomenological psychological research. Finally, appropriate procedures for data collection and for thematic data analysis in a generic model are discussed and described in detail.

This is the first issue of a new journal, entitled Qualitative Studies. We hope that this new journal will become a central forum for discussions of qualitative research in psychology, education, communication, cultural studies, health sciences and social sciences in general. Qualitative Studies is peer-reviewed and publishes papers in English and the Scandinavian languages in any of these areas. We are interested in papers that discuss qualitative methods, their promises, problems and philosophies, and also papers that apply such methods in concrete qualitative studies. We aim to publish two issues a year, but since Qualitative Studies is an open access and web-based journal, we can allow ourselves some flexibility in this regard, and for example choose to publish additional special issues, if such options arise.&#x0D; &#x0D; Qualitative Studies is associated with the Center for Qualitative Studies at Aalborg University in Denmark (www.cqs.aau.dk). But we hope that potential authors from other universities in Denmark and the rest of the world will take an interest in Qualitative Studies as an outlet for their work. In preparing this first issue, we have received a fair amount of manuscripts, many of which are still under review, but in order to show that Qualitative Studies is alive as a journal, we have chosen to publish this first issue with four articles, two of which are in English and two of which are in Danish.&#x0D; &#x0D; Together, these articles show the scope of themes and approaches that we hope will flourish in Qualitative Studies. Abbey and Zittoun offer a semiotic analysis of interview processes, Kristensen analyses power dynamics as reflected in people’s everyday lives, in casu modern traffic, Klausen reports a study of parkour, an art of urban movement, and Frimann &amp; Jantzen present a cultural-poetic analysis of a short interaction sequence at a gas station. All articles integrate theory and empirical material in fruitful, albeit very different, ways. We hope that this will inspire future contributors to Qualitative Studies. As a journal its mission is on the one hand to discuss qualitative methods, but equally important to be a forum for the publication of qualitative studies that contribute to our knowledge about the human, social and cultural world.&#x0D; &#x0D; We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers, whose generous comments have helped improve the quality of the manuscripts and also our editorial board.&#x0D; &#x0D; We look forward to seeing how Qualitative Studies will develop!&#x0D; &#x0D; The Editors,&#x0D; Svend Brinkmann, email: svendb@hum.aau.dk&#x0D; Lene Tanggaard, email: lenet@hum.aau.dk

Spatiality has often been neglected in qualitative psychological research. This article explores the methodological implications of engaging spatiality when exploring subjectivities, proposing ethical-political reflexivity about the ‘where’ and ‘how’ of research. Drawing on concepts such as body-territory, sentipensar, critical spatiality, and more-than-human relations, we advocate for an understanding of space as embodied, affective, and socioecological. We illustrate this through a case study of the 2008 Chaitén volcanic eruption in Chile, which disrupted territorial attachments and livelihoods. Using walking interviews, we show how attention to spatiality enriched the research process in three key areas: the data produced, the conditions of listening, and the conditions of production. Our findings highlight the performative and political dimensions of space, underscoring the value of co-occupying research spaces. By approaching spatiality as a relational and dynamic network, this study illuminates marginalised experiences and challenges dominant narratives, offering deeper insights into subjectivities and their socio-spatial entanglements.

The purpose of this focused issue is to advance understanding of qualitative research methods in the international business context. Debates on qualitative research methods in the key international business (IB) journals have been rare. There has been no focused issue on this topic previously, either in mir or in other journals in the field, making this a 'special' issue. During the process of editing a recent handbook on qualitative research methods (Marschan-Piekkari/Welch 2004), we realized that while this collection covered many topics, often for the first time in the IB field, there were many others still outstanding. There was thus scope for continuing a dialogue about qualitative methods in the IB research community. The challenge of making qualitative research count in the quantitative world of IB remains. Qualitative research is difficult to define, since the term encompasses many different research traditions, research strategies and methods for data collection and analysis (Prasad 2005). A typical definition is that everything non-numerical is qualitative research (Marschan-Piekkari/Welch 2004, p. 19). However, even this very simplistic definition soon breaks down, since research strategies which are typically considered to be qualitative, such as case studies, can combine numerical with non-numerical data (Hurmerinta-Peltomaki/Nummela 2004). There is also no clear divide between qualitative and quantitative research in terms of research traditions, with much qualitative research in management and IB sharing the positivist assumptions of quantitative research (Prasad/Prasad 2002). This focused issue is not about reporting the empirical findings of IB studies applying qualitative methods; rather it is about the process of undertaking qualitative research in the IB field. Of course, there is a large volume of literature on qualitative research methods already. However, we would argue that the IB context warrants special treatment. As the authors of this focused issue discuss, the distinctiveness of the field stems from its multiple linguistic and cultural settings; organizational complexity; and its intellectual roots in post-War academic institutions in the USA. These issues receive little treatment in general texts on qualitative methodology. There has been some methodological debate in previous issues of mir. Earlier articles in mircan be grouped into three categories: first, reviews of existing methodological practices in IB publications (e.g., Cavusgil/Das 1997, Nasif et al. 1991); second, proposals for new quantitative techniques (e.g., the use of key informants in cross-cultural studies, as proposed by Lenartowicz and Roth 2004 and a linguistic-based measure of cultural distance as developed by West and Graham 2004); and third, calls for new methodological approaches (Boddewyn/Iyer 1999). The absence of qualitative research methods in this debate perhaps reflects the limited amount of empirical qualitative research published in this journal. A recent analysis of mir issues between 1990 and 1999 revealed that only 5 percent of articles published in this period used qualitative methods (Welch/Welch 2004). This focused issue is therefore a response to those, such as Boddewyn and Iyer (1999) in this journal, who have called for alternatives to surveys and secondary data analysis. This focused issue attracted 39 submissions from more than 15 countries. Given that there have been limited outlets for methodological articles in IB, this is a considerable number. It perhaps suggests a level of interest to which IB journals have not responded to date. Of the total number of submissions, 11 were selected for review. On the basis of reviewers' comments, six of these papers were ultimately rejected. The final five papers underwent two and, in some cases, up to four rounds of revisions. In selecting the articles, we used the following criteria: appropriateness of the topic for the focused issue; demonstrated knowledge of IB and methodological literature; quality of argument; originality and innovativeness of the contribution to IB methodology; organization and clarity of the paper; and potential application to research practice in IB. …

PurposeThe central purpose of the research presented in this paper is to synthesize the current state of the field in qualitative methods in international organizational change research and to provide a call to researchers to use this type of methodology more frequently. The intent is to provide readers with an overview of how and when qualitative research methods should be used for investigating important theoretical and empirical questions in management research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed several working hypotheses based on their own experiences in using an extensive array of qualitative methods in organizational change research. They coupled this with an extensive literature search to understand how these methodologies have been used to date. The findings from the literature search were analysed to uncover where there are gaps in the work and how organizational change and other management scholars can effectively use qualitative methods to advance their understanding of international change phenomena, given the unique questions and situations confronted in various contexts. The authors include an array of examples to show how qualitative research has been used to successfully test theories, uncover new phenomena, find connections between various situations, and provide a deep understanding of contextual influences on organizational change.FindingsThe authors' findings include several examples and ideas of how and when scholars can use qualitative methods to advance understanding of international change phenomena. This provides a much richer, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of many of the phenomena and issues under investigation by employing the more observational and human‐centric techniques available through the use of qualitative methods. Several of the implications of context are only observable through some of the qualitative methods discussed, such as ethnography, case studies, interviews, observations, and their respective analysis methods. Qualitative research can be employed successfully and fruitfully in organization studies' contexts to: help uncover new organizational phenomena; build and test theories of change; and create new methods that researchers can use specifically in international change studies.Originality/valueThe paper is the only one of its kind, bringing a cohesive and focused review of qualitative methods studies in international organizational change research. It provides readers and the field with a menu of ways to effectively use qualitative methods and a description of where and how to bring in these methods to answer questions and uncover new themes that are not effectively dealt with through the use of more commonly employed quantitative methods and analyses.

"No Brasil, ainda hoje são pouco comuns os trabalhos que utilizam o computador e a Internet para coletar dados na pesquisa qualitativa em psicologia. Poucos são os estudos, por exemplo, que trabalham com grupos focais realizados via Internet, ao invés de utilizarem o clássico formato presencial. A técnica dos grupos focais on-line síncronos, contudo, não consiste na mera transposição dos tradicionais grupos focais para o ambiente virtual. Essa nova ferramenta, ao ser introduzida no conjunto dos procedimentos de pesquisa, carrega consigo suas especificidades, modificando o método qualitativo. Cabe, então, divulgar o uso de tal técnica mostrando suas particularidades para, assim, contribuir para o avanço da pesquisa qualitativa em psicologia. Neste trabalho, descreve-se o uso que foi feito dos grupos focais on-line síncronos em uma pesquisa qualitativa, para recuperar as etapas realizadas e relatar as especificidades encontradas."