Qualitative methods can enrich quantitative research on occupational stress: An example from one occupational group

2010/01/01 by Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Edwin Farrell · 1 citation
Health Professions · Psychology · #Health, psychology, and well-being #Cultural Differences and Values #Community Health and Development

paper · doi:10.1108/s1479-3555(2010)0000008007

openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The chapter examines the ways in which qualitative and quantitative methods support each other in research on occupational stress. Qualitative methods include eliciting from workers unconstrained descriptions of work experiences, careful first-hand observations of the workplace, and participant-observers describing “from the inside” a particular work experience. The chapter shows how qualitative research plays a role in (a) stimulating theory development, (b) generating hypotheses, (c) identifying heretofore researcher-neglected job stressors and coping responses, (d) explaining difficult-to-interpret quantitative findings, and (e) providing rich descriptions of stressful transactions. Extensive examples from research on job stress in teachers are used. The limitations of qualitative research, particularly in the area of verification, are also described.

Citations

• Linking Stress and Injury in the Farming Environment: A Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data
• Staffroom grumblings as expressed teachers' vocation
• Occupational stress: Its causes and consequences for job performance.
• A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales
• A note about paramedics' strategies for dealing with death and dying
• Coping with work‐related stress: A critique of existing measures and proposal for an alternative methodology
• Examining the Nature of Work Stress: Individual Evaluations of Stressful Experiences and Coping
• An Action Research Approach to Workplace Health: Integrating Methods
• Stressful events, stressors and psychological strains in young professional engineers
• The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.

Cited by

• Qualitative research [wikipedia]