Critical evaluation of qualitative research methodology.

This critical review is of the journal article entitled “Foot orthoses for the management of low back pain: a qualitative approach capturing the patient’s perspective” written by Williams, Hill and Nester (2013). This essay is an attempt to critically evaluate the methodology of the article. This essay will also focus three features and underlying principle behind each feature. Throughout the essay, I will also assess how the authors has successfully implemented the features into his research and how they can affect the result.
Qualitative research is regarded as an umbrella term which cover an array of interpretative technique that attempts to describe, translate and event occurring in the social world (AL-Busaidi, 2005; Van Manen, 1990). This study is an example of qualitative research which address some key features. I will be discussing the three features and underlying principle that can be found in this research study.
The first feature of qualitative research is the depth of perspective. The authors use the strategies of observing, questioning and listening by immersing into the real world of participants (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995). Thus, it helps to seek the in-depth examination of the phenomena. Such as: how they cope with the situation, their feeling and perception towards the intervention. In this article, the authors claims that there is lack of evidence on holistic approach in assessing the patient’s psychological and emotional impact on LBP which may provide a wider meaning on the prospective outcomes of using othoses for an intervention.
The principle of ethnography approach is noted, in this feature of depth of perspective. This will enable researcher to learn the culture to understand the state of the individual However the culture doesn’t limit to ethnic group and can be the culture of an organization or group of people with sharing common problems. The sample use in the study will enable the researcher to immerse into a setting to identify the meaning, beliefs and social pattern of the participants. Researchers has attempted to identify the participants' perception of the physical, psychological and social factors towards low back pain after using for orthosis. If the researcher fails to explore the in-depth of the participant's perspective, associated factors of the problems will not be identified and understood. Therefore the intervention will not be effective for low back pain.
The second feature is the existence of multiple reality (Streubert and Carpenter, 1996). Participants see things in different ways, multiple meaning involve and realities differs from one individual to another while othoses was used. This is an important factor while discussing trustworthiness of the findings and are of concern to the researcher. In this study, participants were found to have different expectations, understanding which may affect their experience after the use of orthosis. Researchers develop five themes in participant’s description of their experiences from the data analysis.
Multiple realities is an important feature. This approach will open up the possibility that participant’s view vary individually depending upon situation to situation. This approach examined the everyday reality of the participants with the use of othosis. Open ended question was carried out which has allowed participants to talk about their experience in their own words. Omitting this feature will not be able to discover the true meaning of their feeling. Therefore, data analysis will not be possible in qualitative research.
The last feature is purposeful sample. Such sampling aim to select appropriate people, situation to explore the meaning and build theory (Rice and Ezzy, 1999).Therefore, sampling methods need to consider two things: appropriateness and adequacy (Morse and Field, 1994). This research has identified appropriate participants who shared history of back pain