In view of the increasing ubiquity of qualitative research, particularly mixed method designs, it is important to examine whether qualitative and quantitative models of research can be integrated and how this integration should take place. The recent adoption of best practices for mixed methods research by the NIH seems an opportune starting point for discussion of these questions. This article explores the notion that qualitative and quantitative research, while stemming from fundamentally different "approaches," might yet find an appropriate complementary relationship. We argue, however, that such a complementary relationship depends on an understanding of the notion of approach and an insight into the fundamentally different guiding questions and domains of these 2 research models. Holding that "good fences make good neighbors," this article explores the frontier between quantitative and qualitative research and the challenges attendant to designing and conducting mixed methods research.
Following in the theoretical and methodological roots of the 'Duquesne school,' this work presents a procedure for the phenomenological analysis of narrative data. After describing its 'approach,' this work lays out the procedure for 'thematic moment analysis' using the work of Giorgi as a point of reference. Idiographic results of single datum of being afraid are presented along with the steps through which this 'idiographic thematic narrative' was developed. Procedures for arriving at 'comparative analysis' of more than one piece of data are presented and distinguished from claims of generality sought by works drawing on larger data pools. Finally, this work discusses issues of internal and external validity both specifically in regards to the 'thematic moments' procedure and in terms of phenomenological research in general.
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