3. DIMENSIONES DEL HÁBITAT
3.1. Introducción
3.1.1. El hábitat como una relación de esferas
7.1.1.1 Protocol Justification
Social research is founded on the use of many single research methods and, as such, may suffer from limitations associated with that method or from the specific application of it. Triangulation offers the prospect of enhanced confidence. Webb et al. noted the importance of cross-validating results by using multiple methods and suggested, once a proposition has been confirmed by two or more independent measurement processes, that the uncertainty of its interpretation is greatly reduced.359 As such, triangulation has been used in this study to
enhance the credibility and persuasiveness of this research account.
7.1.2 Methodological Triangulation
Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this study primarily to determine different aspects of the overarching research question that examines: What are PCPs knowledge of, attitudes towards and practices with middle aged and older patients with sexual health needs accessing primary care services? As mentioned in earlier sections, semi- structured interviews were conducted with a 35 PCPs to explore their views on sexual health care with middle and old-aged patients. Subsequently, a survey was designed and administered to all PCPs nationwide to measure overall knowledge, attitudes, and sexual health care practices. Data for each component were collected and analysed separately to produce two sets of findings as presented in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. Chapter 7 presents an integration of these findings analysed via methodological triangulation.
Methodological Triangulation proposes that a combination of the two approaches can yield higher-quality results without unreasonable additional effort and can be a more efficient encompassing way to create understanding.360 Some researchers refer to this integration method as the “third effort” because it occurs after analysis of the qualitative and the quantitative components; it also requires a lot of time and energy.361 Notably, the term
triangulation can be confusing because it has more than one meaning.362 It can be used to
describe corroboration between two sets of findings or to describe a process of studying a problem using different methods to gain a more complete picture primarily because the underlying assumption of methodological triangulation is that no single research method is free of errors and the research question or phenomenon should be examined from different
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methodological perspectives as possible.362,363 This latter meaning is commonly used inmixed-methods research including this one.
7.1.2.1 Triangulation Protocol Theory
Triangulation in this study has provided opportunities to observe: (a) convergence and corroboration of some findings using two different methods regarding certain aspects of the same research question. This form of validity indicates that research results were enhanced with the two different methodological approaches producing convergent findings about the
same empirical domain; 364 (b) complementarity which assumes that neither methodological
tradition qualitative or quantitative can answer the research questions on its own. Complementarity conveys elaboration, enhancement, illustration, and clarification of the
results from one method with findings from the other method.365 Complementarity is
congruence of findings that can only be expected if relationships are found between findings where the convergence of the research results is not possible as the different methods did not ‘measure’ the same attributes of some concepts.
The actual process of triangulating findings from different methods took place at the interpretation stage of this study when both data sets had been analysed separately (as shown in Chapter 3: Mixed-methods – Figure 10 adapted from O’Cathain et al.). Prior to conducting triangulation analysis, a matrix must be prepared for comparing and analysing both datasets. The foundation of this matrix was established by the meta themes selected from the qualitative phase of the study when the topic guide was designed. The meta themes are those key headings that were used as the backbone of the framework analysis and is fitting to be
utilised here for congruence and standardisation of the methods.366 Several techniques have
been described for triangulating findings and, for this research, the findings from the qualitative and quantitative components have been outlined by the meta themes on the same page, and much consideration as to where findings from each method agrees (convergence), offer complementary information on the same issue (complementarity), or appear to contradict each other (discrepancy or divergence) have been reviewed.362,366,367 Explicitly
looking for disagreements between findings from different methods is an important part of this process.368 Disagreement is not a sign that something is wrong with a study.362
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Exploration of any apparent “inter-method discrepancy” may lead to a better understanding of the research question.369,370 The guidelines for this process were also adapted from thedescription of how to carry out triangulation in the triangulation protocol established by Farmer et al’s developed for multiple qualitative methods.366 Farmer et al. technique involved
producing a “convergence coding matrix” to display findings emerging from each component
of a study on the same page.366 The technique required moving away from just thinking about
the findings related to each method, to what Farmer and colleagues called meta-themes that cut across the findings from different methods.366 Once these were established, it allowed for
deep consideration of where there is true agreement, partial agreement, silence, or divergence between findings from qualitative themes and quantitative survey results. ‘Silence’ is where
a theme or finding arose from one data set and not another.362 ‘Silence’ was expected in this
study’s analysis because during the qualitative data collection, in-depth interview techniques were employed to examine different aspects of sexual health care practices and some of these findings were not quantifiable to be assessed in the survey.
Kelle also described a somewhat similar triangulation process as described above, but he capitalised analytically on divergences and tensions in findings from different sets of data
and reinforced why mixed-method analysis was important.371 Kelle used examples to fully
explain how a finding from a quantitative panel study – a statistically significant correlation and a linked set of qualitative data – enabled further exploration of processes he was analysing. Kelle emphasised the opportunities afforded by multiple methods, as in his study, understanding the investigated phenomenon could not be fully explained only on the basis of statistical information. Both qualitative and quantitative data had to be analysed and results combined in order to produce an adequate explanation for the research question to which the phenomenon was being applied. Without both sets of data, the interplay between the macro- level and the micro-level findings would remain unobserved.371 Thus, whilst the data are
separate, they are integrated via analysis and then given equal weight in their contribution to theorising the relationship between macro-, meso-, and micro-level findings.371,370 This
interplay approach was also adopted in interpreting the combined findings in this study. For convergent validity, the researcher examined the degree to which the pair of findings from the two different research methods is comparable (converges on) with the other that it
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divergent validity, the researcher examined the degree to which the pair of findings of interest were not similar where possible (diverges from) and was different from the other that they theoretically should not be alike.
7.1.2.2 Adapted Triangulation Matrix
Having reviewed these different theories of techniques, the following triangulation matrix was designed and employed (Table 15 below).
Table 15: Matrix of Triangulated Results
Meta Themes
Qualitative Quantitative Statistical findings
Findings show: Triangulated Interpretation Findings Excerpt/ Data (convergence/ divergence/ silence/ complementarity)
The following stepwise approach was employed to triangulate the findings of this study and explain how the matrix had been compiled. The completed matrix can be found in Appendix 6.