In qualitative studies, if you are talking to people and not
using archival data, you will design most of your instruments. You need to identify each data collection
instrument and provide the source of it, if you did not design it (some
examples: observation sheet, interview protocol, focus group protocol) There
are also archival data which would need to be identified and the source (e.g.,
video-tape, audio-tape, artifacts, archived data).
If you are using historical or legal documents are used as a
source of data (unusual to use), demonstrate the reputability of the sources
and justify why they represent the best source of data. Then you want to clearly
demonstrate the link between the data collection instruments and your research
questions.
For published data collection
instruments.
Explain who developed the instrument and provide the date of
publication. Detail where and with which participant group it been used
previously. You then need to justify its use in the current study (that is,
context and cultural specificity of protocols/instrumentation) and whether
modifications will be or were needed.
Describe how content validity will be or was established
(how do you know it is looking at what you think it is?) A common way to do
this is to use an expert panel. Discuss any context- and culture-specific
issues specific to the population while developing the instrument. An example
might be that if you are using an interview protocol that was designed for
adults, and you want to use it with adolescents, you would need to change some
of the language.
For researcher-developed instruments
What did you use as the basis for instrument development
(some examples might be from the literature or from doing a pilot study)? Again
you need to describe how content validity will be or was established (how do
you know it is looking at what you think it is?). Finally, you want to describe
how your instruments will answer the research questions.
Next time I will look at instrumentation in quantitative
studies. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss
in a future post? Would you like to be a
guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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