Conceptual Model in a Qualitative Research Project

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

There are major differences between the elaboration of a conceptual model in quantitative and qualitative research projects. These differences concern both the process of operationalization, which is the specification of core concepts into indicators or topics, and the selection of the methods of data collection and data analysis. In a qualitative research project, the set of decisions that a researcher needs to make in the process of operationalization will lead to a set of recordable but not necessarily measurable topics.

For example, in a practice-oriented research project the researcher aims at clarifying the effects of two topics, Career Perspective and Sense of Responsibility, of the independent variable Personal [Page 206]Characteristics on two topics, Illness Awareness and Perceived Impact on Personal Well-Being of the dependent variable People's Illness. The researcher formulates a set of expectations about the relationship between the two sets of topics. For example, in regard to the relationship between Career Perspective and Illness Awareness the researcher expects to find support for the following hypothesis: “People who have a high career perspective possess a lower illness awareness than those with a low career perspective.”

Note that none of the topics are directly measurable. The information required in a qualitative research project often concerns complex research topics that are composed of a number of simple and complex, abstract and concrete characteristics. In this case, by reducing the information to numerical scores, as required in a quantitative research project, the quality of the information is also reduced. The researcher needs to gather so-called thick data.

The researchers will seek appropriate methods for data collection, such as a face-to-face open interview, participatory observation, or the narrative approach. Whereas a questionnaire is used in quantitative research, in qualitative research the researcher develops a research topic list with data collection guidelines, to be used during the actual data collection activity. These data collection guidelines include an appropriate set of data elicitors to evoke the thick data and information needed. In qualitative research, a data elicitor consists of a set of questions concerning the research topics. In contrast with the data collection method used in quantitative research, the researcher also develops data elicitors pertaining to the relationship between the different topics. Data elicitors in qualitative research indicate the topic label, and the question that needs to be answered. They also include examples of clues or probes (e.g., facts, events, and statements) that indicate the occurrence and intensity of a particular topic.

For example, in order to investigate the expectation that “People who have a high career perspective possess a lower illness awareness than those with a low career perspective,” the researcher chooses to interview the respondents and develops three sets of data collection guidelines in regard to Career Perspective, Illness Awareness, and the relationship between these two variables.

...