Women Re-entering the Sexual Arene

The author explains why she used qualitative research by first justifying it on the grounds that, in an area where there has been little or no prior research, qualitative methodology can help the researcher from committing a type II error, but does not explain for those who are not familiar with qualitative methodology what a type II error is (27). She explains that qualitative methodology is used to describe and explain human activity in a ôholistic and realisticö manner. Her subject matter, according to Rich, has not been well explored in the literature to date, and she believed that qualitative methodology was well-suited to examining the complexity of the sexual reentry experience of these women.

Rich decided to use a phenomenological approach in studying the question of how women reentering the sexual arena after a long absence in a monogamous relationship handled negotiating preventive practices against HIV and STD infection (27). She states th

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ntent, but since it is an amalgamation of what everyone said, there is nothing specific in it, and therefore nothing for anyone to object to. Although Rich notes that the study was approved by the institutional review boards of two sponsoring institutions, she does not name them, and she gives no information of how confidentiality was assured, or on whether or not informed consent was obtained from the subjects (27). She does not address whether or not they were compensated for their participation - an important factor in assessing the reliability of the results. Data Analysis The data is analyzed according to the Colaizzi seven-step methodology described by the author (28). Apart from a few direct quotes, and three examples of her formulated meanings of subjectsÆ statements, no data is presented, so it is impossible to tell how closely the author adhered to the analytical protocol. Since all the data is derived from personal interviews regarding the subjectsÆ personal experiences, it is impossible to assess the credibility of what they reported. This is why it would have been much more meaningful if this study had interviewed couples rather than individual women. There is no way of verifying the statements made to the resea
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2547
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)