Concepts and evaluation of saturation in qualitative research

Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2021-10-24

杨莉萍 亓立东 张博

Abstract： In qualitative research, saturation is usually used to assess the adequacy of research data. However, in research practice, there are various forms of saturation, and the relationships between them are complicated and ambiguous. Previous studies lack operational description and practical guidance for the evaluation of saturation and its reports. Considering its importance to qualitative research, this study clarifies the concepts of saturation. As a sign that the sample size of a qualitative study has met the research needs, based on the time sequence of their occurrence during the research process, saturation can be distinguished into four types: data saturation, code or thematic saturation, meaning saturation, and theoretical saturation. Each of them has its specific connotations, evaluation methods and judgment criteria. Some problems are discussed in this study. 1) The sample size to reach saturation should not be set uniformly, and it must be embedded in the specific research process; 2) Due to the logical uncertainty of saturation, a little oversampling would be helpful; 3) As an important index to evaluate the quality of a qualitative research, saturation test cannot be applicable to all forms of qualitative research. "

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