Quality control in qualitative research

Abstract

Qualitative investigations of human experience typically report linguistic rather than exclusively numeric results, use empathy with participants as an observation strategy, interpret observations contextually and polydimensionally, accommodate nonlinear (technically chaotic) causal processes, and may seek to empower participants. Their interpretations are often tentative rather than lawlike statements, amenable to expression in narrative and hermeneutic forms rather than exclusively in didactic discourse. By revealing rather than avoiding the investigator's orientation and personal involvement in the research and by evaluating interpretations according to their impact on readers, investigators, and participants, qualitative research shifts the goal of quality control from the objective truth of statements to understanding by people.