Exploratory Designs

Creating Paths: Living With a Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infant

“…Brink, 1989;Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A formal interview and participant observation were the methods of data collection.…”

rôle du soutien social dans la capacité d'autonomisation des femmes âgées de 55 ans et plus atteintes de multimorbidité /

“…Puisque la finalité de cette étude est de rendre intelligible un phénomène social peu exploré (Brink, 1998), la présente étude s'insère au coeur de la recherche qualitative utilisant un devis descriptif (Sandelowski, 2000) (Mucchielli, 1996). À l'inverse des recherches de type quantitatif, la recherche qualitative tend à entretenir une proximité beaucoup plus grande avec les individus, les événements qui les influencent et aussi les rapports sociaux qu'ils entretiennent entre eux (Deslauriers, 1991).…”

Variables affecting the reporting of pain following an acute myocardial infarction

“…Theoretical sampling involves selecting subjects who can illuminate the phenomena under study by critically examining the experience and communicating detailed information about it (Morse, 1989). Theoretical sampling is an ongoing process that is based upon the needs of the study at that particular time (Brink, 1989;Chenitz & Swanson, 1986;Morse, 1989 One makes gradual sense of a social phenomenon, and does it in large part by contrasting, comparing, replicating, cataloguing, and classifying the object of one's study. Basically, these are all sampling activitiesfinding the variabilities and commonalities of a social universe-and they are conducted progressively and iteratively by the qualitative field researcher.…”

“…Flexibility allows the data to control the researcher, fostering the discovery of new phenomena or enabling the researcher to gain insight into existing phenomena. Insight encourages the development of new ideas, concepts, and theories, and intuition enables one to organize perceived reality in a manner that makes sense (Brink, 1989). The inductive approach was particularly fitting to this exploration of the reporting of the pain experience from the point of view of the experiencing person (emic point of view) because phenomena "take their meaning as much from their contexts as they do from themselves" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p…”

“…86-88) and the researcher's expression of ignorance about the subject, were used to establish rapport and help the researcher get a "feel" for the subject (Spradley, 1979). Grand tour questions set the tone for the interview and let the subject know what the interview is about (Brink, 1989). Effective communication techniques such as paraphrasing, probing, clarifying, minimal verbal responses, and summarizing were used to facilitate the interview process (Okun, 1987).…”