The rejection of reliability and validity in qualitative inquiry in the 1980s has resulted in an interesting shift for “ensuring rigor” from the investigator's actions during the course of the research, to the reader or consumer of qualitative inquiry. The emphasis on strategies that are implemented during the research process has been replaced by strategies for evaluating trustworthiness and utility that are implemented once a study is completed. In this article, we argue that reliability and validity remain appropriate concepts for attaining rigor in qualitative research. We argue that qualitative researchers should reclaim responsibility for reliability and validity by implementing verification strategies integral and self-correcting during the conduct of inquiry itself. This ensures the attainment of rigor using strategies inherent within each qualitative design, and moves the responsibility for incorporating and maintaining reliability and validity from external reviewers' judgements to the investigators themselves. Finally, we make a plea for a return to terminology for ensuring rigor that is used by mainstream science.
New perspectives on vulnerability using emic and etic approaches The concept of vulnerability has not been developed theoretically from a nursing perspective. It has been viewed epidemiologically as population-based relative risk with little consideration of its experiential qualities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse critically the use of the term vulnerability using elements of concept clarification and a critical literature review. A new perspective of vulnerability is offered based on differentiating between the concepts of risk and experience. Risk consists of assumptions from etic or external evaluation of relative danger while lived experience informs an emic or personal interpretation. Assumptions related to the etic view include normative social values, objective harm and endangerment, and social sanction for intervention. An emic view of vulnerability is based on experiential perception of challenge to personal integrity and the universal and mutual nature of the phenomenon. Questions about the evaluation of harm, potential for growth, subjectivity and objectivity, social sanction and capacity for action, can help clarify the range between these two dimensions.
Children with autism might display unpredictable and volatile behavior that places them in considerable physical danger and creates stress for the family. Families of autistic children often have limited freedom and experience difficulty with everyday activities. In this qualitative ethology study, we examined the effect of integrating service dogs into ten families with an autistic child. Data included participant observation, video recordings of family-parent-dog interaction, and semistructured interviews with the parents. The themes were (a) the dog as a sentinel of safety, (b) gaining freedom through enhanced safety, facilitating public outings and family activities, and (c) improving social recognition and status, in which the presence of the dog promoted awareness of autism and affected social interaction. The triadic relationship between parent, autistic child, and service dog constantly evolves. This research provides valuable information for parents interested in having a service dog for their autistic child, and has implications for long-term human-animal companionship for children with special needs and their caregivers.
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