QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

METHODS
Chapter Three
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Qualitative Research
Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
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Qualitative research
Research conducted in a natural setting that seeks to understand
a complex human behavior by developing a complete narrative
description of that behavior.
is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or
human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture,
formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and
conducted in a natural setting. (Creswell, 1984)
Qualitative Research
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Characteristics of Qualitative Research
1. An inquiry that seeks to understand human problems and that
deals extensively with human interactions.
2. Seeks to develop a holistic portrayal of the problem.
3. Forms its report with words rather than statistics.
4. Uses the views of informants in the society as the basis for
the report.
5. Conducted in a natural setting and relies on fieldwork
Qualitative Research
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Data Analysis - How do researchers evaluate the
quality of qualitative results?
1. Confirmability
2. Dependability
3. Credibility
4. Transferability (Generalizability)
Qualitative Research Methods
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Naturalistic Observation
Involves seeking answers to research questions by observing
behavior in the real world.
Goal is to capture natural activity in natural settings
(Featherstone,2008).
Ethnographic Inquiry
Goal is learning about a culture from the perspective of the
members of that culture.
Uses participant observation in which the researcher becomes
part of the group.
Focus Groups
7 to 10 participants meet with moderator (researcher) to discuss
topic of interest.
Effective in determining how people feel or why certain beliefs are
held.


Qualitative Research Methods
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Interview Studies
While frequently used in conjunction with another method,
interviews can also be used as the primary data-collection
technique.
May be conducted one-on-one or in a group.
Structured or unstructured interviews may be used; advantages
and disadvantages with each method.
Narrative Studies
Goal of the researcher is to gather and interpret stories that
individuals in the target group use to describe their life.
Life histories, biographies, personal experiences, or oral histories
may be used.
Case Studies
Single participant observed over an extended time period.
Researcher should not generalize beyond individual studied.
Qualitative Research Methods
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Artifact Analysis
Involves the examination and analysis of extant artifacts.
Text-based items such as books, magazines, newspapers, Web
sites, and annual reports most commonly studied.
Historiographies
Information and data collected and analyzed in order to
reconstruct past events.
Primary sources (first-hand accounts, etc.) most highly valued but
secondary sources used as well.
Symbolic Interaction
Study of common symbols that give meaning to social interaction
in a group context, such as sports logos, gang-related graffiti, and
religious iconography.
Involves two parts: identifying symbols used by group studied,
and determining the relations between and among these
symbols.
Qualitative Research Methods
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Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990)
The ultimate goal of this approach is to derive theories that are
grounded in (based on) data from the real world.
Grounded theory is not advocated for all types of research
questions.
Knowing the literature too well can hamper the creativity
necessary to doing grounded theory research.
The heart of the grounded theory approach occurs in its use of
coding, which is analogous to data analysis in quantitative
approaches.
Qualitative Research Methods
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Types of coding in grounded theory research (Strauss &
Corbin, 1990):
Open coding:
The researcher labels and categorizes the phenomena being studied.
Axial coding:
Involves finding links between categories and subcategories from
open coding.
Selective coding:
Entails identifying a core category and relating the subsidiary
categories to this core.
Qualitative Research Methods
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Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990)
From the process of selective coding, the grounded theory
researcher moves toward developing a model of process and a
transactional system, which essentially tells the story of the
outcome of the research.
Process refers to a linking of actions and interactions that result in
some outcome .
A transactional system is grounded theorys analytical method that
allows an examination of the interactions of different events. The
transactional system is depicted in a conditional matrix such as that
shown in figure 3.2.
Grounded Theory
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A Process
Diagram
from
Grounded
Theory
Showing the
Occurrence
of Actions
and
Interactions
in a
Sequence
Grounded Theory
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A
Transaction
al System
Conditional
Matrix from
Grounded
Theory
Qualitative Research Methods
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Participatory Action Research (Fine et al,2003)
Goal of a PAR project is usually to evaluate and understand the
impact of some social program on the community.
Typically involves the participants as equal researchers in the study.
PAR approach can use one or more specific methods to gather
information. These may be both quantitative and qualitative.