Methodological Approaches



Methodological Approaches

This paper compares the methodological approaches undertaken by the two authors from two peer reviewed tourism journal articles. It considers the research paradigms and the underlying principles of these articles. It also discusses the different epistemological and ontological worldviews underpinning each perspective.

The first article is by Devine, Adrian and Devine, Frances “Planning and Developing Tourism within a Public Sector Quagmire: Lessons from and for Small Countries” published in 2011. Devine, Adrian and Devine, Frances studied public sector tourism in Northern Ireland. They discovered that its multifaceted network of public sector tourism bodies produced duplication and confusion within the tourism industry.

Devine, Adrian and Devine, Frances adopted a qualitative approach which was the most suitable for this study because it centred on an exclusive number of public sector agencies from which thorough information was needed. Qualitative assessment has long made a central contribution not only to psychological approaches to health and illness but also to traditional medical practice itself. In taking a case history a medical practitioner is engaged in a process of interviewing a patient to find out about their experiences. During this process the questioning is flexible and is influenced by the patient's previous answers. The practitioner must listen to and interpret what the patient tells them. The practitioner then uses their own explanatory framework to try to understand the patient's experience and determine an appropriate course of action. These processes of adaptable questioning and interpretation are central to qualitative assessment. In qualitative assessment, the researcher (or practitioner) begins with a question about experience or process, flexibly seeks out the information to answer that question and then uses interpretative skills to provide an explanation and understanding of the phenomena of interest. The development of explanations often highlights changes or interventions which can be implemented to enhance health care provision. Also central to traditional medicine is the use of the concept of cases, for example in everyday clinical practice and as exemplars in teaching. The study of cases in health psychology has been reinvigorated by Radley and Chamberlain (2001) and is well suited to qualitative, rather then quantitative, approaches to assessment. (Yolles, 2008)

A wide variety of qualitative methods has been applied to the study of health and illness. In comparison with quantitative methods, qualitative methods focus on providing in-depth analyses of individual perspectives and interpersonal processes. The value of qualitative methods lies in their ability to provide insights into the lived experience of healthcare. Qualitative methods are well suited to questions about patients' experiences of health and illness and the processes involved in health-related behaviours, including healthcare delivery. In an era of patient-centred care, qualitative techniques provide a means to assess patients' concerns and suggest ways in which care can become more patient-centred. Returning to the example of the consultation, qualitative methods can provide answers to such questions as: What do patients want from consultations?, What interpersonal processes are involved in consultations? Qualitative approaches can also improve understandings of the experiences and needs of health care ...