Qualitative Research Methodology in Health

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Qualitative Research Methodology in Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Article 1......................................................................................................................................2
Article 2:.....................................................................................................................................4
Article 3:.....................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

2CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Introduction:
Suicidal ideations, commonly referred to as suicidal thoughts refer to the planning or
thinking about suicides (Testa et al., 2017). Some of the frequent causes that lead to suicidal
ideations are anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse and eating disorders like
anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, individuals with a family history of mental disorders are at an
increased likelihood of facing such ideations. People who experience suicidal thoughts report
feelings of being trapped and a persistent sense of hopelessness, emotional pain, mood
swings, guilt feelings, and changes in personality (Kleiman et al., 2017). Qualitative research
is exploratory in design and are primarily conducted for gaining a deeper insight into the
opinions, motivations and reasons behind a phenomenon. This assignment will critique the
research design and methodology of three qualitative articles that focus on different aspects
of suicidal ideations.
Article 1
Player, M. J., Proudfoot, J., Fogarty, A., Whittle, E., Spurrier, M., Shand, F., ... & Wilhelm,
K. (2015). What interrupts suicide attempts in men: a qualitative study. PLoS One, 10(6),
e0128180. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0128180
The article by Player et al., (2015) was aimed at investigating the underlying factors
that either assist, complicate or inhibit different interventions for males, who are at an
increased risk for suicidal acts. The authors were correct in identifying the fact that suicide
rates, although quite high among females, are significantly larger among their male
counterparts. This was directly attributed to the fact that males have been found to cope with
their distress and depression in a different manner, than females (Rotenstein et al., 2016). The
authors recruited participants from all territory and state of Australia using the purposive
sampling method. This is a form of non-probability sampling that depends on the

3CRITICAL ANALYSIS
characteristics of the entire population being investigated. Also referred to as selective
sampling, some of the advantages of this technique employed by the researchers are that this
is one of the most time-effective and cost-effective sample recruitment methods (Palinkas et
al., 2015). Furthermore, this might be considered as the only accurate method in presence of
limited sources of primary data. However, some of the drawbacks of the way by which the
participants were recruited are related to the inability of purposive sampling to generalize the
findings of the research to a larger population, reduced levels of reliability, increased level of
bias, and vulnerability to researcher judgment errors (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Data
collection was conducted via questionnaires namely, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9
(PHQ-9), Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-
item (GAD-7). This was followed by development of an interview schedule. The authors
clearly indicated the process of data collection and provided a justification for the same
(Player et al., 2015).
In the next step, the authors conducted an interview for which the scheduling was
based on a literature review and it was then piloted and adjusted based on the feedback that is
collected from the participants (Player et al., 2015). The final schedule of the interview
explored different factors that contribute to making a suicide attempt, along with the factors
that prevent or interrupt from making any such attempt including the supportive factors of
family and friends that help in preventing future attempt. Klonsky, May and Saffer, (2016)
have opined that suicide or the tendency to commit suicide is stemmed from a complex mind-
set, no two people suffering from such self-harming mental instability will have similar mind-
set or triggers facilitating or accelerating the tendencies. Hence, it is very important for the
research studies to focus on capturing the unique perspective of the different target groups
and be able to address those issues adequately. The authors in this case have utilized the
technique of qualitative interviews which is extremely helpful and advantageous to achieve