¶ … easily reduced to a single data point. This allows researchers to find the answers to their questions quickly and in direct relation to the research question. However, one of the key drawbacks to quantitative research is that it often does not allow for a detailed exploration or to explore the "human" side of the equation. Quantitative research gives quick and simple answers, but it does not always provide the best solution to the research problem. Qualitative research provides greater depth and insight into the problem at hand.
According to Creswell (2007), "we conduct qualitative research because a problem or issue needs to be explored" (pg. 39). Researchers embark on the exploration of a phenomenon because of a "need to study a group or population, identify variables that can be measured, or hear silenced voices" (2007, pg. 40). Researchers ask open-ended questions to allow the participants to tell their stories, and to gain a deeper understanding of the problem (Creswell, 2007). The questions may change during the process, as the researcher gains clarity through the interviews (Creswell, 2007). These are come that some of the key attributes of qualitative research that make it suitable for projects where the variables are not so easily defined. Qualitative research is a toll that is well-suited for the exploration of a subject that is not easily definable in empirical terms.
The purpose of the research being conducted in this study is to explore the dynamics of mothers in African-American Communities that have lost children to suicide. This is a complex issue due to the social issues involved in the spirituality surrounding suicide. The study participants will include African-American mothers who have lost e-mail child to suicide. The data collection method will consist of face-to-face interviews with these mothers. The study design will take place in churches or in their homes. This setting will allow the researcher to view the women within their own context, which is an important part of ethnobiographic qualitative studies (Creswell,...
The primary interview method will be to allow study participants to tell their own stories. Data collection will use a combination of focus group interviews, observations, and confidential surveys needed to answer the research questions. Using these multiple sources of data collection will allow the researcher to uncover patterns and trends that might not otherwise be apparent.
Triangulation and combination data will be gathered from several different sources to confirm the findings of the initial study. The data will be analyzed in categories to order to identify trends, themes, and differences among the women's cases. The data will be used to uncover physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual barriers to helping these women to heal from their trauma.
The proposed study will be a phenomenological study that will explore the lived experiences of the identified group of African women. The research approach used in this study is driven by the research problem, which is to explore the factors in women's lives that affect their ability to heal from the suicide of a male child. This study will use and ethnobiographic approach to explore the phenomenon experienced by these women. Ethnobiography is a challenging nothing because the researcher needs to understand the cultural and socio-cultural mechanisms within the group of participants (Garson, 2008).
Garson (1997) require several decisions to be made prior to the research design. The first is to decide whether it will be a macro ethnography or whether it will be a micro ethnography. A macroethnobiographic study involves a larger group of people, such as the people in one state or region of a country. The mictoethnobiographic study uses a more narrowly defined research group. The research for the study will be a microethnobiographic study, as it involves a clearly defined…
