The role of theory in qualitative research is often underplayed but it is relevant to the quality of such research in three main ways. Theory influences research design, including decisions about what to research and the development of research questions. Theory underpins methodology and has implications for how data are analyzed and interpreted. Finally, theory about a particular health issue ...

As the evidence base for the study of mental health problems develops, there is a need for increasingly rigorous and systematic research methodologies. Complex questions require complex methodological approaches. Recognising this, the MRC guidelines for developing and testing complex interventions place qualitative methods as integral to each stage of intervention development and implementation...

Qualitative research has become more accepted as a legitimate mode of inquiry in the social and behavioral sciences for many years but not without controversy and confusion even now in the 21st century. The procedures for conducting a qualitative research study evolve from a philosophical, paradigmatic, and interpretive frameworks. These are the aspects of a naturalistic inquiry where inconsist...

This paper is an overview of qualitative research and its application to psychiatry. It is introductory and attempts to describe both the aims of qualitative research and its underlying philosophical basis. We describe the practice and process of qualitative research and follow this with an overview of the 3 main methods of inquiry: interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. Through...

When games are designed to impact their users’ thinking beyond the created playful environment itself – learning is aimed at. Thereby the question arises, if games are constructive tools to foster transformative learning by challenging players’ perspectives. The following paper outlines the case study of a game design experiment that combines state of the art learning research with game design ...

In this paper, we discuss qualitative research for public health professionals. Quality matters in qualitative research, but the principles by which it is judged are critically different from those used to judge epidemiology. Compared to quantitative research, good quality qualitative studies serve different aims, answer distinct research questions and have their own logic for sampling, data co...

This article examines concepts of the trustworthiness, or credibility, of qualitative research. Following a “researcher-as-instrument,” or self-reflective, statement, the paradigmatic underpinnings of various criteria for judging the quality of qualitative research are explored, setting the stage for a discussion of more transcendent standards (those not associated with specific paradigms) for ...

A qualitative research wave has swept through the social sciences during the last decades. Interviews, textual analyses and natural observations have come into widespread use as modes of inquiry. The qualitative research movement is interdisciplinary, and an opening of the social sciences to the humanities has taken place, drawing on hermeneutics, as well as narrative, discursive, conversationa...

Achieving 'universal access' to antiretroviral HIV treatment (ART) in lower income and transitional settings is a global target. Yet, access to ART is shaped by local social condition and is by no means universal. Qualitative studies are ideally suited to describing how access to ART is socially situated. We explored systemic barriers to accessing ART among people who inject drugs (PWID) in a R...

BACKGROUND Feldenkrais Method balance classes have been found to be effective in improving balance in recent studies, but there has been little research into possible mechanisms behind the effectiveness of these classes. Indeed, there has been little research into the content of any balance training classes. OBJECTIVES To analyse the content of a series of Feldenkrais Method balance classes t...