Research methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research methods - Essay Example 114). A grounded theory approach is used when little is known about the topic or area of interest to be studied or when the theoretical perspective does not satisfactorily explain the phenomena. In this case, grounded theory was used because little is known about the processes involved when midwives engage in facilitating the making of informed choices for women in the United Kingdom during pregnancy and childbirth. The article considerably used grounded theory because of the following key elements, namely: use of an inductive approach to generate theory from data, use of constant comparative coding scheme, relying on theoretical sampling and saturation, and omission of a literature review prior to data collection (Lichtman, 2011, p. 48). The article generated theory from data that protective steering was the core category that underlies all activities and issues involved with facilitating informed choice, reduced data into codes and reassembled into categories by axial coding, gathe red additional data to widen the variability of the approaches to midwifery practice studied, and omitted literature review. Theoretical Sampling The term â€Å"theoretical sampling† refers to a type of grounded theory sampling in which the researcher’s main purpose is to elaborate and refine categories of developing categories and theories and not to sample randomly selected populations or representative distributions of a particular population (Rubin and Babbie, 2010, p. 150). In a theoretical sampling, the researcher begins selecting similar new cases that generated previously detected concepts and hypothesis until no new insights are being generated. Often, researchers determined the sample and sample size prior to the beginning of the study but in the conduct of a study where further categories emerged, samples are chosen because of theoretical relevance. This type of sampling is known as theoretical sampling and aims to discover categories, properties, and new in terrelationships in a substantive theory. In addition, theoretical sampling involves decision of what data to collect next and where to find data to elaborate and refine a theory. Theoretical sampling is like combination of deviant and homogenous sampling. Deviant sampling selects unusual samples from both ends of category (e.g. managers’ with extremely high caseloads or extremely low caseloads) while homogenous sampling selects and restricts samples based on one category (e.g. all managers’ with extremely high caseloads). Transferability of the Results of the Study According to Levy (2006), the generalizability or transferability of findings to a wider sample of midwives was not an aim of the study as the article used grounded theory; however, some degree of generalizability can be justified and tentatively claimed (p. 122). In light with this, Bryant and Charmaz (2007) stated that generalizability of grounded theory extends across all kinds of non-probability sample studies with cases similar to the researcher’s study (p. 162). Therefore, the result of the study is transferable to outside study sample, provided that samples were selected on a