• Corpus ID: 10879397

Chapter 11 Descriptive and interpretive approaches to qualitative research

@inproceedings{Elliott2005Chapter1D,
  title={Chapter 11 Descriptive and interpretive approaches to qualitative research},
  author={Robert Elliott and Ladislav Timulak},
  year={2005}
}

• R. Elliott, L. Timulak
• Published 2005
• Psychology

ing the main findings The generation of categories usually ends with a taxonomy that describes and interprets the whole phenomenon as it was contained in the gathered data. As qualitative analysis is a very complex endeavour and deals with many details, the taxonomies that result from it are often overwhelming and do not convey directly the essence of the phenomenon. The essence of the phenomenon is, however, the aim of the analysis, so it is very important for the researcher avoid the temptation to stop with a set of categories and not take the next step of abstracting the main findings from the category structure. This abstracting follows the rule of essential sufficiency, which means that we are looking for the simplest way to fully depict the phenomenon. We are looking for what constitutes the main findings contained in the categorisation or taxonomy, so that we can communicate them clearly to the reader. Thus, we may also ask of our results, What categories are required to communicate the essence of the phenomenon? This part of the analysis usually employs graphs, diagrams, figures, tables, and narratives (e.g., the typical story of recovering from an eating disorder). It is a step aiming at grasping the essence of the phenomenon. This step, too, is carefully documented so that it can be tracked back to the data. DESCRIPTIVE AND INTERPRETIVE APPROACHES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 155 HRMC-11.qxd 01.07.2005 03:36 PM Page 155