Confused About Theoretical Sampling? Engaging Theoretical Sampling in Diverse Grounded Theory Studies.

Theoretical sampling is a key procedure for theory building in the grounded theory method. Confusion about how to employ theoretical sampling in grounded theory can exist among researchers who use or who want to use the grounded theory method. We illustrate how we employed theoretical sampling in diverse grounded theory studies and answer key questions about theoretical sampling in grounded theory. We show how theoretical sampling functions in grounded theory and how it differs from sampling for data generation alone. We demonstrate how induction, retroduction, and abduction operate in grounded theory and how memoing drives theoretical sampling in the pursuit of theory. We explicate how theoretical sampling can contextualize data to build concepts and theory. Finally, we show how theoretical sampling in grounded theory operates in secondary analysis to derive theory that goes beyond the original purpose of data collection.

Escaping 'the old fogey': Doing old age through intergenerational friendship.

BACKGROUND: Intergenerational friendship is a friendship which occurs between differing generations of older and younger adults. Intergenerational friendship as a research topic has received little attention from sociologists of ageing, despite the cultural turn. This study set out to explore and understand intergenerational friendships from the perspective of the older friend. METHOD: This research took a qualitative approach using Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology. Twenty-three people aged 65 and over were interviewed in Ireland to attain rich narrative accounts and observational memos were generated. FINDINGS: Intergenerational friendship formed part of the process that shaped the older friends' approach to ageing in their everyday lives (micro level), being influenced by stereotyping and commonly held understandings of ageing and older people in contemporary society (macro level). Engaging with intergenerational friends was congruent with the meaning these participants attached to 'being old' or 'being young' and how adults 'should' be in older and in younger age. DISCUSSION: For the older adults in this study, ageing is about performance - how they perform as older adults in their pursuits or interests - and not about chronological age. Intergenerational friendship is an integral part of this strategy for doing ageing in a meaningful yet mundane (everyday, taken for granted), way.