Findings

Findings in Naturalist Qualitative Research

Findings conceived as data-based in naturalist qualitative research may be classified as topical or thematic surveys, conceptual-thematic descriptions, or as interpretive explanations. Topical survey findings feature inventories and quasi-qualitative and quasi-statistical (e.g., illustrative quotations and frequency counts) summaries of data derived from manifest content analyses. Thematic survey findings convey a latent pattern or repetition researchers discerned in their data. Findings in the form of conceptual or thematic descriptions appear as abstract renderings either derived directly from the data collected within a study or imported from theoretical or empirical literature outside the study. Analogous to each other in degree of data transformation, conceptual descriptions are [Page 351]theoretical renderings of phenomena, experiences, events, or cases, while thematic descriptions are narrative, phenomenological, or discursive renderings of them. The most transformed of qualitative findings are interpretive explanations, or the grounded theories, ethnographies, or otherwise fully integrated explanations of phenomena, events, or cases considered the quintessence of qualitative research. Interpretive explanations offer a coherent model or single thesis or line of argument. Accordingly, whereas a topical or thematic survey might consist of a list or more detailed description of a set of actions a group of participants reported using after receiving a diagnosis of cancer and a conceptual description, a reframing of these actions as coping strategies, an interpretive explanation might consist of a theoretical model linking these strategies to different conditions for selection and different outcomes.