The Narratives Which Connect…

Research Flowchart

In Grounded Theory research, the sampling of material and the analytic process are closely linked. However, to help the reader to get hold of the process I have made two different diagrams to illustrate the research process. The first diagram illustrates the sampling process (The Research Flow Chart) and the second diagram illustrates the analyzing process (The Analyzing Flow Chart).

First, I will present the research flow chart that shows how the sampling process actually took place:

The Research Flow Chart: The process of theoretical sampling in Grounded Theory

Prepare interview, find 1^st participant.	↓
	Second interview, Adam. Reflections from participant after interview. Find 4^th participant.
↓	↓
Elisabeth, first interview. Reflections from participant after interview (Pilot)	Karen, first interview. Reflections from participant after interview
↓	↓
GT analysis of interview from Elisabeth	Theme analysis of a video of a first session of FT from Karen. Prepare 2^nd interview
↓	↓
Elisabeth, second interview. Reflections from participant after interview	Second interview, Karen. Reflections from participant after interview.
↓	↓
Theme analysis of a video of a first session of FT from Elisabeth.	Find participants with parallel connections to therapy.
↓	↓
Third interview, Elisabeth. GT analysis and reflections from participant after interview.	Interviewing Evelyn about being divorced when working with couples that consider divorce
↓	↓
Find 2^nd participant, prepare interview	GT analysis of interview from Evelyn
↓	↓
Erik, first interview.	Interviewing Anne about working with people in crises when she was losing her husband in cancer.
↓	↓
Theme analysis of a video of a first session of FT from Erik. Prepare 2^nd interview.	GT analysis of interview from Anne
↓	↓
Second interview, Erik. Find 3^rd participant,	Interviewing Janne about working with families with problematic children while having serious problems with her own children
↓	↓
	GT analysis of interviews with Janne
Adam, first interview. Reflections from participant after interview	↓ Questions about their thoughts today (E-mail, fall 2006) Putting together the whole material
↓
Theme analysis of a video of a first session of FT from Adam. Prepare 2^nd interview

Table 4. The research flow chart

Summary

First the design of the study and the methodology were clarified. Then I described the research process in this project. First the different elements in my research plan were presented. That included the design of the study, the material, the Grounded Theory procedures including the Thematic Analysis of the videos and the idea about making paradigm cases.

Then the Grounded Theory research process in this project was presented. The actual ideas behind recruitment and the actual research flow chart are presented. Examples of how I ask questions during the semi structured interviews and the transcribing procedures are documented.

4. Process of Analysis of the Material

Introduction

This chapter will describe the process of analysis of this research project. The analysing process is an ongoing process throughout an entire Grounded Theory project. I will here seek to give a complete overview of the analysis of the material that is the basis for the thesis. The process is divided into two main periods. The first period runs from the beginning of the theoretical sampling until the last interview is coded and analysed for the first time. This was the period of constant comparison where comparing the open coding and 1^st level of categorisation of participant one’s two interviews. On this basis the second participant is selected. The third participant is selected on basis of comparison between the first and the second participant, and so on.

The second period runs from the beginning of the analysis of all interviews in relation to each other and until writing the thesis. In this presentation, I will use this division. The second analytic phase started when all interviews were transcribed and the videos analysed for the second time.