Overall approach to the study

3.2.1 Ontological and epistemological position

From an ontological perspective, the ‘social reality’ (to use Mason’s term116) that is the object of enquiry of this study is professional identity in pharmacy. Section 2.6 explained that this has three dimensions: how pharmacists see themselves, how they think others see them, and how others do see them. Identity is an abstract concept that cannot itself be observed, or measured in its entirety, although it is regularly used and understood in everyday life. Therefore, to research identity, it is first of all necessary to find ways to operationalise the concept – to transform it into something concrete that can be studied empirically.

The concept of identity is usually accessed through spoken accounts of thoughts and feelings. Therefore, epistemologically, this study uses people’s spoken accounts as evidence, which allow us to know and to investigate the concept of professional identity.

3.2.2 Grounded theory

Grounded theory was developed by Glaser and Strauss during the 1960s.117 The authors originally proposed grounded theory approach as an alternative to what they saw as a tendency for academic social research at the time to focus mostly on theory, and to use research data to either verify or critique existing theories. Grounded theory studies are concerned with

generating new theory, that is grounded in empirical data. Instead of concentrating on theory ‘testing’, following the grounded theory approach involves focussing on the prior step of discovering what concepts and hypotheses are relevant for the area that one wishes to research. Grounded theory is therefore an inductive approach, meaning that concepts,

hypotheses and generalisations are derived from the data, as opposed to a deductive approach, which would start with a predetermined theory or ‘hypothesis’ and use the data to test (prove or disprove) this.

Grounded theory is an approach; therefore it does not specify one single research technique. However, grounded theory does advocate certain principles which should be followed in terms

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of sampling, data collection and data analysis. Firstly, grounded theory studies use theoretical sampling. This is based on the saturation of categories and is utilised to discover categories and their properties, and to suggest the interrelationships into a theory, (as opposed to statistical sampling, which aims to obtain accurate evidence on distributions of people among categories to be used in descriptions or verifications).117 Theoretical sampling is defined as:

the process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst jointly collects codes and analyzes his data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it emerges.117

In designing the research, and ensuring its credibility, I was looking for the ‘adequate theoretical sample’. 117Theoretical sampling is designed to generate different kinds of data and therefore give the analyst different views or vantage points from which to understand a category. In grounded theory studies, data collection and analysis may overlap with one another. Previous researchers have proposed that theory generation should be an ‘iterative process’ or a process of progressive focussing, whereby questions and methods are modified in light of the emergent data, and that the researcher should alternate data collection periods with preliminary analysis of the data.118

In terms of data analysis, grounded theory is part of a more general research method called ‘comparative analysis’, which refers to a way of understanding data and explaining ideas about it, by assigning the data to categories and looking for ‘patterns’. Comparative analyses are used to generate concepts, from accurate evidence, and also to specify concepts. Specifying a concept involves specifying the unit of analysis for a study - and identifying the distinctive empirical elements distinguishing the units of comparison. Explicating concepts and their elements should allow the reader of a study to understand what is being written about.117

3.2.3 Grounded theory and this study

Glaser and Strauss asserted that by categorising data and understanding what the categories are, so social life can come to be known, and understood.117 Professional identity in pharmacy is the ‘social reality’ with which this study is concerned. In order to know what professional identity in pharmacy is, and to understand it, this study sought to generate data which could then be categorised. The interpretation in the thesis then seeks to explain these categories, with the aim of allowing professional identity in pharmacy to be better articulated, defined and understood.

Grounded theory was deemed to be a suitable approach for this study because professional identity is a complex area, there were many gaps in the evidence base, and because existing research tools were not considered suitable for being reapplied. As section 2.7.5 explained, I

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had not identified one particular existing theory that lent itself sufficiently well to being applied and tested for this study, or one ready-made research tool that could be administered. If this had been the case, particularly if an existing quantitative tool had been used, the precise nature of the elements or constructs of identity that were being measured would have been known at the point that the tool was administered to the respondents (and the tool could have measured for example their agreement with statements). However, because I wanted to find out how professional identity was understood, the investigation was exploratory in nature, and at the point that the interview schedule was ‘administered’, I did not know what constructs or elements the participants were going to provide. Accordingly, an initial study was undertaken, with the aim of it being something akin to a pilot study, in that the sample size was relatively small, and that more data collection would follow it, This study was undertaken to provide some insight into how the issue of professional identity was viewed by pharmacists, and to allow me to analyse the data to see what themes emerged and let these inform the study in terms of where the investigation should go next.

To gain an understanding of how people experience professional identity in pharmacy, a qualitative approach was deemed appropriate. The following sections describe the two stages of the study.