FUTURO EN EL TRATAMIENTO DEL DOLOR IRRUPTIVO

Making a decision between quantitative and qualitative research before conducting my field work was an overarching decision to make; on the choice of research method I intended to use in the field during the process of data collection. However, before making decision on the choice, it became very necessary for me to understand the debates between quantitative and qualitative research.

Most researchers like Bryman, (2008), Silverman (2001), Franekel and Wallen (2008), Bogden and Bilken, (1992), Denzin and Lincoln (2008), and Kvale and Brinkmann, (2009) have maintained that quantitative research as a research strategy affirms to quantification of numbers and or generalization of statistical data, it takes the world as an objective reality, it is based on the positivist and deductive schools of thought, it is value free and structured. Whereas qualitative research is a research strategy that affirms to a tradition of words rather than numbers and that the world is subjective reality; and in order to understand the world you have to explore peoples‟ life, experiences and everyday behaviour. It is value laden and it is flexible and it allows the researcher to be innovative as the researcher tries to understand the world of the subjects in study. Berger and Luckmann, (1966) argue that:

The theoretical formulations of reality, whether they be scientific or philosophical or even mythological, do not exhaust what is “real” for members of society. Since this is so, the sociology of knowledge must first of all concern itself with what people “know” as “reality” in their everyday, non- or pre-theoretical lives. In other words, commonsense “knowledge” rather than “ideas” must be the central focus for the sociology of knowledge. It is precisely this “knowledge” that constitutes the fabric of meanings without which no society could exist. (p. 15)

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This view in other words means that reality is subjective and it is constructed through the daily life and experiences of the people.

Bryman, (2008) and Bryman, (2001) observes that qualitative research is a research strategy that emphasis words rather than quantification as it explores the phenomena of the study, and that as a research strategy it is inductivist, constuctionist, and interpretivist; unlike quantitative research which is deductive and emphasis quantification and or statistical data collection approach. To Franekel and Wallen, (2008) qualitative research is a research strategy that investigates the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials with greater emphasis on obtaining holistic and quality information that describes details of what goes on in a particular activity or situation in the world of the object in study and in the view point of the informant. Whereas there are many definitions of qualitative research (Cohen et al., 2007; Denzin & Lincoln, 2008; Grbich, 1999; Bogden & Biklen, 1992); this study will take the definition that qualitative research is a research strategy that emphasis words rather than statistical figures in obtaining holistic and quality information from the informants point of view (Franekel & Wallen, 2008) as knowledge is a product of social interactions.

Research according to Franekel and Wallen, (2008) is a “careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge” (p. 7) this means research is a planned study and it is evident based; and research methods such as interviews, participants observation and document analysis are the tools used for data collection (see Bogden & Biklen, 1992; Maykut & Morehouse, 1995; Bryman, 2008; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). Methods are “specific research techniques” and techniques are neither true nor false (Silverman, 2000, p. 79) while Elster, (1980) cited in Kvale & Brinkmann (2009) defines a method as “a set of rules, which can be used in a mechanical way to realize a given aim. The mechanical element is important: a method shall not presuppose judgement, artistic or other creative abilities” (p. 82). Kvale and Brinkmann, (2009) argue that qualitative research goes beyond mechanical rules and it rests upon the interviewers‟ personality and skills of judgement for the quality of data produce depends on the quality of the interviewers‟ skills and knowledge of the subject (p. 82). It is further, argued that

“knowledge in humanities cannot be reduced to a method, for we can only know the social and historical world through understanding and interpretation, which ultimately rest on pre-understandings and pre-judges that cannot be codified into methodological rules” (Gadamer, 1975 cited in Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 83)

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The argument here is that, in qualitative research, there are no specific rules or what is called mechanical rules like for the survey research where you have a set up theory to test and to prove whether it is right or wrong. In qualitative research the researcher is placed among the people and the researcher has no specific theory to be answered but rather to generate theory. For in qualitative research there is no wrong and right as Silverman (2000) states “techniques are not true or false” (p. 79) it is on this argument that this study is based on qualitative research methods.

In other words the fact that my research inquiry focuses on exploring peoples‟ life, and everyday behaviour, and secondly since my research inquiry is not focusing on social survey which concerns statistics, thus the reasons for my choice of the qualitative research method/approach on the bases that qualitative research is value laden and it seeks answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning. it is flexible and it allows the researcher to be innovative, it is inductive as theory is generated from the findings and it places the researcher into the social setting to experience the daily life of the world of the subjects in study, and the researcher observes what is happening and explores the meaning of the lived world, and it enables the researcher to interpret the informants view point from the subjective point of view. Having made a decision on my choice of qualitative research for my study the next thing I did in the field was to gain access to the research sites in order to be able to explore the informants experience in their daily social setting.