research method of collecting datat

1. Meta-synthesis
Prepared by : Raluto, Randel Roy

2. What is a meta-synthesis?
• According to Screiber et al. (1997, p.314), a meta-
synthesis “is bringing together and breaking down of
findings, examining them, discovering essential features
and, in some way , combining phenomena into a
transformed whole” In basic terms, a meta-synthesis is
the ‘bringing together’ of Qualitative data to form a new
interpretation of the research field.

3. Meta-Synthesis VS. Meta-
analysis:

4. What's the difference?
• a meta-analysis which is used to aggregate findings to
establish ‘truths’, for example, if an intervention has a
true effect on a variable, a meta-synthesis can lead to new
interpretations of research. This can result in new theories
being developed.
• In summary, a meta-analysis is a way of testing a
hypothesis whereas a meta-synthesis is a way of
developing a new theory.

5. THREE MAIN TYPES OF META-
SYNTHESIS

6. 1. Theory Building
• This form of meta-synthesis brings together findings on a
theoretical level to build a tentative theory.

7. 2. Theory Explication
• This form of meta-synthesis is a way of reconceptualising
the original phenomenon.

8. 3. Descriptive
• This form of meta-synthesis provides a broad description
of the research phenomenon.

9. Note:
• These forms of meta-synthesis are not discrete, they are
complimentary. The aim of Meta-synthesis usually
overlap as you will see in the example later on.

10. Why use a meta-synthesis?
• Qualitative data is useful for providing a snapshot at one
person’s interpretation of an event or phenomenon. By
bringing together many different interpretations you are
strengthening the evidence for an interpretation by
discovering common themes and differences & building
new interpretations of the topic of interest.

11. Should you use a meta-
synthesis?
• This depends on your stance as a researcher
• Do some research into this before conducting a meta-
synthesis, a good place to start is Sandelowski et al.,
1997..
• The basic argument here is that qualitative data is about
an individual interpretation of an event because of this is
it even possible to combine multiple opinions to lose the
individuality of an interpretation to gain an understanding
of common features.

12. How to conduct a meta-synthesis:
A research example
• started by building up a series of search terms to conduct
a thorough literature search looking for any qualitative
research studies looking at this topic. This can be seen in
this table:

13. Research
Question
What are the changes to a person’s family identity following a diagnosis of multiple
sclerosis?
Concept Multiple
sclerosis
Identity Family Time since diagnosis
Synonyms MS Self
Social
Identity
Significant
Other, Next
of Kin
Duration,
Onset,
Advanced
Broader Inflammator
y,
Neurological
Self Concept,
Identity
Family
Group
Psychosocial Adjustment
Narrower Relapsing
Remitting,
Secondary
Progressive,
Primary
Progressive,
Benign
Self Husband,
Wife,
Partner,
Parent,
Mum, Dad,
Mother,
Father,
Child,
Sibling,
Spouse
Related
Terms
Chronic
Conditions,
Self
Categorisatio
n
Alternative
Spelling

14. • with 218 publications, which was then filtered down to
16 after removing duplicates & studies not looking at the
topic of interest.
• then conducted a thorough review of all 16 articles taking
notes on the research findings.
• have reviewed a number of articles, you will begin to
notice some common themes and recurring ideas – it is a
good idea to make a note of what these are, what papers
they are in and how often they occur. This is part of the
analytic approach used by Noblit & Hare (1988),

15. there are 3 stages to conducting a
meta-synthesis:
• 1) The reciprocal stage – recognising recurring themes
and ideas (What you’ve already done).
• 2) The refutational stage – recognising themes and ideas
that go against the common themes and ideas.
• 3)The line of arguement – Constructing a statement that
can summarise and express what you have found.

16. • This was found in themes such as coping together as a
couple, social support from the family and bringing
families closer together.
• the articles were re-read to see if the discovery of new
themes and ideas had affected my interpretation of
previous studies.
• This represents both the reciprocal and refutational
stages.

17. In Summary
• A meta-synthesis can be a useful tool to extend
knowledge and you should now know how to do one.
• However, there are a number of different arguments about
how to go about doing a meta-synthesis and whether you
really should do a meta-synthesis.
• You can rank your studies based on your opinion of the
research strengths and weaknesses so that you pay more
attention to stronger studies when writing your line of
argument.

18. Note:
• If you feel it is important to rank studies- check out
Downe et al. 2007 who does this quite well using an
alphabetised system.

19. References:
• Downe, S., Simpson, L., & Trafford, K. (2007). Expert intrapartum
maternity care: a meta-synthesis. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, 57(2): 127-40.
• Noblit, G.W., Hare, R.D. (1988) MetaEthnography: synthesising
qualitative studies. Sage: Newbury Park.
• Sandelowski, M., Docherty, S., & Emden, C. (1997).
Qualitative metasynthesis: Issues and techniques. Research in
Nursing and Health, 20: 365-371
• Schreiber, R., Crooks, D., & Stern, P.N. (1997). Qualitative meta-
synthesis; Issues and techniques. In Morse, J.M. Ed. Completing a
qualitative project; details and dialogue. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
• Link: https://abbarker.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/meta-synthesis/

20. Reflection:
• Systematic reviews are, in essence, literature reviews that
are undertaken in a specific way according to strict
guidelines that aim to minimise subjectivity, maximise
transparency and repeatability, and provide a highly
reliable review of evidence pertaining to a specific topic.

21. Reflection:
• systematic reviews are now widely used in a plethora of
topics, including construction, psychology, economics
and marketing to name a few. In brief, systematic review
methods use peer-reviewed and published protocols to lay
out the methods for a review, and then searches for
studies, articles screening for relevance and quality, and
data extraction and synthesis are undertaken according to
a predetermined strategy

22. Reflection:
• . Where possible, meta-analysis provides a powerful
means of statistically combining studies to look for
patterns across studies and to examine reasons for
contradiction in results where they occur. Systematic
reviews are widely accepted as a ‘gold standard’ in
evidence synthesis, but other methods, such as civil
service rapid evidence assessments, have been developed
that aim to offer a faster review

23. Reflection:
• In order to be able to accurately assess the reliability and
applicability of individual primary research, reviewers must be
able to extract information relating to study design,
experimental procedure and the studies’ findings. In order to
be able to include study findings in a meta-analysis, data must
be reported either as a standard effect size or as means, and
both must be accompanied by sample sizes and measures of
variability. In my experience of systematic reviews in
conservation and environmental management, a shocking
proportion of published research fails to provide details on
experimental design or fails to report means, variability and
sample size

24. Reflection:
• As decision-making moves towards Meta synthesis of
existing evidence, researchers in all disciplines should be
thinking about how to maximise the impact of their
research. Thinking carefully about legacy and future use
of data is not only sensible, but should be an obligation.