Botes A
Department of Nursing, Rand Afrikaans University.
Curationis. 2002 Aug;25(3):23-7. doi: 10.4102/curationis.v25i3.779.
Concepts are the basic building blocks of scientific knowledge or theoretical frameworks for any discipline. The strength of the theories that guide a discipline is dependent on the quality of the concept analysis. Thus, the utilisation of poorly understood concepts in research and theory development will result in questionable reliability and validity. Concept analysis is associated with the research design of philosophical inquiry. The purpose of philosophical inquiry is to perform research using intellectual analysis to clarify meaning. Traditionally, no empirical (qualitative or quantitative) investigations were used to clarify the meaning of concepts. The lack of empirical investigation to clarify concepts, results in certain limitations in the methodology of concept analysis. It seems that methodological innovations for enhancing concept analysis is urgently required. The purpose of this article is to describe the utilisation of qualitative and quantitative strategies with literature review in concept analysis as a possible solution to limitations. This article will firstly, describe the limitations in the traditional Wilsonian methods of concept analysis and will secondly demonstrate how the introduction of qualitative and quantitative methods with literature review can overcome some of the limitations. An example a research study on quality of life (Ferrans, 1997:110) will be used to demonstrate how qualitative and quantitative empirical methods with literature review can enhance the quality of concept analysis.
概念是任何学科科学知识或理论框架的基本构建要素。指导一门学科的理论的优势取决于概念分析的质量。因此，在研究和理论发展中使用理解不充分的概念将导致可靠性和有效性存疑。概念分析与哲学探究的研究设计相关。哲学探究的目的是运用智力分析进行研究以阐明意义。传统上，不使用实证（定性或定量）研究来阐明概念的意义。缺乏用于阐明概念的实证研究导致概念分析方法存在一定局限性。似乎迫切需要增强概念分析的方法创新。本文的目的是描述在概念分析中结合文献综述运用定性和定量策略，作为解决局限性的一种可能办法。本文首先将描述传统威尔逊概念分析方法的局限性，其次将展示引入结合文献综述的定性和定量方法如何能够克服一些局限性。将以一项关于生活质量的研究为例（费兰斯，1997：110），来说明结合文献综述的定性和定量实证方法如何能够提高概念分析的质量。
