IPA Methodology for Rural Africa COVID-19 Coping Study

Introduction and Research Paradigm

The research question guiding this study is: How do individuals living in rural Africa use informal institutions to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic? A qualitative research approach using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) research design will be employed. Using IPA, the researcher will explore the lived experience of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of informal institutions among individuals living in rural Africa. This chapter begins with a description of the research paradigm, approach, and tradition. Next, the participant recruitment procedures and data collection methods are described, followed by the data analysis plan and strategies to enhance trustworthiness.

Creswell and Creswell (2018) define a paradigm as a basic set of interrelated assumptions that guide a researcher's inquiries. A paradigm is also a representation and reflection of the beliefs and values of the researcher regarding the world (Kamal, 2019). This implies that a paradigm is a philosophical way of thinking that shapes how researchers conduct their inquiries (Kivunja & Kuyini, 2017). Therefore, the research paradigm influences the way researchers think about issues and how they frame their research topics. The research paradigm is an essential part of the determination of a research issue and its exploration, as it shapes the researcher's worldview.

The proposed study will follow the constructivist-interpretivist research paradigm, based on the idea that reality is developed and subjective to each person (Ponterotto, 2005). The researcher believes that every individual creates their own reality rather than there being a single objective reality. The creation and subjectivity of reality based on each individual is critical, as it shapes the lived experience of people concerning a particular phenomenon. Because this study seeks to explore individuals' lived experiences coping with COVID-19, the researcher needs to understand reality as it is constructed by the participants. A constructivist-interpretivist paradigm provides a suitable framework for the researcher to examine and understand the individual realities of the study participants. Additionally, the constructivist-interpretivist paradigm is appropriate for the proposed research because individuals create adaptable and multiple subjective meanings of their lived experiences (Ponterotto, 2005).

The adoption of a constructivist-interpretivist paradigm implies that the research embraces a hermeneutical approach, which involves reappraisal and reinterpretation concerning cultural contexts (McCaffrey et al., 2012). This approach incorporates various factors such as intuition, subjectivity, creativity, and corporeality in theoretical reflection. The use of a hermeneutical approach as part of the research paradigm provides a framework for the interpretive and reciprocal procedure of understanding the experiences of each individual. Based on this approach, the researcher will engage with the participants to explore, interpret, and understand their lived experiences through dialogue using semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews will be used as the means to elicit in-depth descriptions regarding personal experiences on the issue and to highlight emerging patterns across individual cases. The researcher will then reflect upon insights obtained from the participants as part of his interpretive role in understanding their lived experiences.

Research Approach and Tradition

A qualitative research approach will be used in the proposed study, as the researcher seeks to explore and understand the lived experience of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic using informal institutions at the individual level. This approach is deemed suitable for the study, as it will enable the researcher to make sense of and ascribe meaning to the lived experiences of individuals living in rural Africa in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Creswell and Creswell (2018), qualitative research approaches are appropriate for studies that are exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory. Using a qualitative research approach, the researcher explores the phenomenon in a manner that enhances the understanding of relationships, individual experiences, and variations in observations (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). As a flexible, emergent research design, the qualitative approach will enable the researcher to develop a detailed description of the phenomenon under investigation.

IPA is an approach to qualitative inquiry that was developed from the field of psychology (Smith et al., 2009). It focuses on evaluating how individuals "make sense of their major life experiences" (Smith et al., 2009, p. 1). The development of this approach was influenced by the need to bridge discourse analysis and social cognition, which are two conflicting perspectives within social psychology's core methods of inquiry (Smith, 1996). IPA emerged as an approach that unifies these conflicting perspectives and provides a more in-depth way for researchers to explore and interpret human experiences (Smith, 1996).

Larkin and colleagues (2011) contend that IPA seeks to understand how people ascribe meanings to relationships, processes, and events according to their specific life worlds. Regardless of the phenomenon under investigation, the objective of embracing IPA in a study is to explore and understand what the individual experiences in his or her context. Therefore, lived experience is one of the core components of IPA and is designed to encapsulate the interpreted and meaningfully lived aspect of life in our respective contexts. Since the focus of IPA is the lived experience, the researcher approaches the phenomenon under investigation from the participant's perspective. Consequently, the researcher collects detailed and rich data from a small sample to adequately situate, describe, and interpret it. IPA's stated interest is cognition, through which it has positioned itself as a distinctive and experiential approach to qualitative inquiry, especially in the field of psychology (Smith et al., 2017). For the proposed study, exploring the lived experiences of individuals living in rural Africa will provide insights into their beliefs, feelings, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of informal institutions.

Theoretical Underpinnings of IPA

IPA has theoretical roots in idiography, phenomenology, and hermeneutics (Smith, 2011). The IPA approach is significantly shaped by the intersection of these influences and provides a more in-depth framework for studying the human experience. This section includes an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of IPA: phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography.

Phenomenology is one of the theoretical underpinnings of IPA that has become the dominant means in the pursuit of knowledge development in various fields of research, including health-related disciplines (Dowling, 2007). Smith (2011) defines phenomenology as the philosophical movement that focuses on lived experience. It is therefore concerned with carrying out an in-depth evaluation of specific human experiences depending on the phenomenon under investigation. Phenomenology is based on the assumption that reality is individual and subjective, as opposed to being objective and rational. Accordingly, phenomenology aligns with the constructivist-interpretivist research paradigm, as it supports the idea that people create flexible and different subjective meanings of their lived experiences (Ponterotto, 2005). Phenomenology has evolved through the contributions of various philosophers — including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre — to enhance exploration and understanding of the individual human experience.

Husserl initiated the concept of phenomenology as a philosophy and research technique in his quest to understand the human experience and consciousness. Husserl was inspired by Franz Brentano, who utilized the phrase "descriptive psychology or descriptive phenomenology" (Dowling, 2007). Husserl borrowed from Brentano to study the specifics in an attempt to understand the core of the human experience. Consequently, he developed a phenomenological reduction, which seeks to explore or understand something without imposing interpretation or judgment. Heidegger influenced the evolution of phenomenology by proposing an alternative view that emphasizes the critical role of interpretation in understanding the human experience (Smith et al., 2009). Merleau-Ponty expanded upon the ideas of Husserl and Heidegger by emphasizing the crucial role of the physical self in communicating with the world and its impact on perceptions (Dowling, 2007). Sartre expanded Heidegger's approach but deviated from Husserl by introducing the presence or absence of relationships with others.

Hermeneutics is a theory of interpretation and was initiated by Heidegger as an alternative view of phenomenology to Husserl's philosophy (Dowling, 2007). IPA engages in a double hermeneutic because the researcher tries to make sense of the individual who is trying to make sense of his or her own life experiences (Smith, 2011). Heidegger introduced the concept of the hermeneutic circle based on the idea that understanding is a reciprocal activity. In essence, based on this concept, an individual exists between preunderstanding and understanding. When examining a phenomenon, the researcher suspends his or her own experience to explore and understand how participants ascribe meaning to life events and processes. Hermeneutics plays an essential role in IPA as it forms the basis on which the researcher engages with and interprets participants' descriptions while reflecting on their meanings. Smith (2009) contends that hermeneutics is essential in IPA as it promotes the researcher's ability to evaluate both the parts and the whole of the phenomenon being studied.

Smith (2011) states that IPA is idiographic in its commitment to assessing each case in a corpus in a comprehensive manner. This commitment is sometimes manifested through the writing of single case studies that represent or reflect in-depth assessments of an individual's lived experience. Idiography is a concept that signifies an approach to knowledge that focuses on particular processes that are unique to individuals (Smith et al., 2009). IPA entails a comprehensive analytic treatment of every case followed by evaluation and identification of patterns across the cases. Given the significance of each case, a purposeful approach to participant sampling is employed, since participants must be known to have experience with the phenomenon being investigated. As the researcher carries out a comprehensive analysis of each case, he or she becomes immersed in the lived experiences of participants before establishing general statements that reflect all cases included in the study.

According to Smith et al. (2009), IPA is an approach to qualitative inquiry that requires rich data. This implies that study participants should tell their stories, develop their ideas, express their concerns, and speak freely and reflectively in detail. Therefore, the researcher should recruit participants who are best suited to provide a rich, comprehensive, first-person account of their experiences. In alignment with IPA, participants will be selected based on their experience of the phenomenon being studied (Smith et al., 2009). Thus, only participants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will be recruited.