Page 237 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

204 n GROUNDeD THeORY

those early colleagues mentored several schema provides an outline for integrating
nurse researchers. and then reporting the grounded theory
G Grounded theories are focused on what discovered.
may be unarticulated phenomena discov- The outcome of analysis is a dense, par-
ered through observation and interview simonious, integrative schema that explains
data. The researcher does not begin with most of the variation in a social psychological
a preconceived theory and experimentally situation. Properties, dimensions, categories,
prove it. Rather, the researcher begins by strategies, and phases of the theory are inex-
studying an area under natural conditions. tricably related to the basic social process.
Data are usually derived from qualitative Grounded theory may be context bound to
data sources—interviews, participant obser- a specific substantive area (substantive the-
vation (fieldwork), and document analysis— ory) or may be at a more conceptual level and
although quantitative data can also inform applicable to diverse settings and experi-
the emerging analysis. Sensitizing questions ences (formal theory; Glaser, 1978).
are asked to learn what is relevant in the situ- The grounded theory approach has reso-
ation under study. Sampling is not conducted nated with a wide variety of social scientists
according to conventions of probability, nor and professional practitioners interested in
is sample size predetermined. Instead, pur- human experiences with health and illness.
posive, theoretical sampling is used so that In their book, Discovery of Grounded Theory,
concepts emerging from the data guide addi- Glaser and Strauss (1967) acknowledged that
tional data collection. it was a “beginning venture” and did not offer
Doing grounded theory research departs “clearcut procedures and definitions” (p. 1).
from the typically linear sequence of theory Over time, grounded theory, as an approach
verifying research because data collection to the generation of theory from data, has
and analysis go on simultaneously. As soon undergone some major transformations.
as data are available, an orderly, rigorous, Some of the changes that were designed to
constant comparative method of data analy- promote rigor in the method have been crit-
sis is initiated. Analysis proceeds through icized as diverting the research from gener-
stages of in vivo (or substantive) coding in ating theory directly from data, for risking
which themes and patterns are identified in theoretical sensitivity in the investigator,
the words of participants themselves, coding and for eroding the method. Others are of
for categories in which in vivo codes are clus- the opinion that assuming that grounded
tered together in conceptual categories, and theory was taught and conducted from a sin-
theoretical coding in which relationships gle unified perspective is erroneous and that
among concepts are developed. Memos are the ongoing discourse among qualitative
written detailing each of the codes and cat- researchers is part of an intellectual move-
egories and linking them to exemplars from ment essential to grounded theory’s refine-
the data. Concepts and propositions that ment and evolution. The hallmarks, however,
emerge from the data direct subsequent data continue to be data–theory interplay, making
collection. constant comparisons, asking theoretically
The sample is considered complete when oriented questions, conceptual and theoret-
saturation is achieved. Saturation refers to the ical coding, and developing a theory.
point at which no new themes, patterns, or
concepts appear in the data. Sorting memos Holly Skodol Wilson
(conceptual notes about codes and categories Sally A. Hutchinson
and their data exemplars) into an integrative Updated by Deborah F. Lindell