Chapter 1: The basics of qualitative research

 Qualitative research has a couple of characteristics. It aims are directed at

providing an in-depth and interpreted understanding of the social world of research
participants, small samples, close contact between the researcher and participants,
detailed and rich data.

 Empiricism is all knowledge about the world that originates in our experiences and
is derived through our senses (science).

 The difference between science and nature is that the aim of science is to
understand meaningful experiences and the aim of nature is to produce law-like
propositions.

 Ontology is the philosophy that tries to categorize all existing things, debates
about whether there is a captive social reality. A distinction is made between
realism, materialism and idealism.

 Realism states there is a distinction between the way the world is and the
meaning and interpretation of that world held by individuals. Materialism states
there is a real world but only material features of that world hold reality. Thus,
values, beliefs or experiences do not shape the material world.

 Idealism states reality is only knowable through the human mind and through
socially constructed meanings.

 Epistemology is the way of knowing and learning about the social world. There are
two forms: positivism (social world can be studied in terms of invariant laws, nature,
and statistics can be used and interpretivism (facts and values are not distinct, no
law-like regularities and no methods of natural sciences.

 According to pragmatism, qualitative and quantitative research should be seen as

complementary strategies.

Chapter 2: Social research and qualitative methods

 There are different functions of qualitative research: contextual (describing the
nature of what exists), explanatory (examining the reasons for what
exists), evaluative (appraising the effectiveness of what exists)
and generative (aiding the development of theories, strategies or actions).

 Formative evaluation is designed to provide information that will help to change or

improve a program or policy.

 Summative evaluation is the impact of an intervention or policy in terms of

effectiveness and the different outcomes that have resulted.

 Qualitative research is useful when the factors are ill-defined/not-well understood,

deeply rooted, complex and sensitive.

 There are two approaches for collective qualitative data: naturally occurring data
(observation, documentary analysis, discourse/conversation analysis) and generated
data through interventions of the research (biographical methods, interviews). It is
useful to mix the two approaches.

 Three ways of using qualitative and quantitative research together are preceding
statistical research, alongside statistical research and as a follow-up to statistical
research.
⇧

Chapter 3: Problems concerning design

 A good qualitative research design has a clearly defined purpose and generates
data which is valid and reliable.

 There are five key aspects of the research design: (1) the development of
research question, (2) building design around research settings and populations
(building comparison & building case studies and structural linkage), (3) selecting
the time frame for data collection (single research episodes versus longitudinal
qualitative research studies), (4) choice of data collection and (5) negotiation of
research relationships.

 It might come in handy to think about the rewards a participant can get by
participating in the research (candy bar, money). That way, more participants may
be willing to participate.

 It is important to give consideration to ways in which taking part may be harmful

to sample members, and to take aversive action. This may be relevant in studies on
sensitive topics.

 In doing research one should consider the amount of information provided to the
participants. This must be balanced since giving too much information may deter the
potential participants and giving too less leads to inadequately prepared participants.

Chapter 4: Sample issues

 One key distinction between samples is probability (random) versus non-
probability samples

 The main sampling approaches are criterion sampling, theoretical sampling and
opportunistic sampling.

 Criterion based or purposive sampling means that sample units are chosen
because they have particular features which will enable detailed exploration and
understanding of central themes the researcher wishes to study. There are different
types: homogeneous (give a detailed picture of a particular
phenomenon), heterogeneous (include phenomena which vary widely from each
other in order to identify the central themes this cut across the variety of cases)

 Extreme case/deviant (cases are chosen because they are unusual or special and
therefore potentially enlightening), intensity (extreme cases of specific phenomena
of interest) and typical case (cases which characterize positions that are normal or
average are selected to provide detailed profiling), stratified purposive(to select
groups that display variation on particular phenomena but each of which is fairly
homogeneous, so that subgroups can be compared) and critical case
sampling (cases are chosen on the basis that they demonstrate a phenomenon,
dramatic position or are central in the delivery of a process)

 Theoretical sampling is a type of purposive sampling in which the researcher

samples incidents, people or units on the basis of their potential contribution to the
development and testing of theoretical constructs. Useful for exploratory studies in
unfamiliar areas.

 Opportunistic sampling means that the researcher takes advantage of unforeseen

opportunities (as events arise). Convenience sampling lacks any clear sampling
strategy, researcher chooses the sample according to the ease of access.
 The different approaches have a couple of things in common: (1) the use of
prescribed section criteria, (2) sample size: qualitative samples are usually small and
(3) additional and supplementary samples.

 There are two key types of sample frames: (1) existing sources (types:
administrative records, published lists, survey samples) and (2) generated sampling
frames (time-consuming) (types: a household screen, through an organisation,
snowballing or chain sampling, flow populations)

Chapter 5: Fieldwork
 There are three main types of qualitative data collection: unstructured (more
probing, focus group data collection, exploratory study), semi-structured (less
probing, interviewing, evaluative or investigative study) and structured (no probing,
give questions).

 A topic guide provides documentation of subjects to investigate. It serves as an

interview agenda and will provide flexible direction to the field-work process.

 Designing the topic guide consists of several processes: (1) establishing subject
coverage, (2) the structure and length of the guide, (3) language and terminology,
(4) specification of follow-up questions and probes and (5) making the guide easy to
use

 In the early stage of the topic guide structure you must consider adding additional
research instruments: collecting structured data, using case illustrations and
examples, enabling and projective techniques and field notes

 It is important to review whether the topic guide allows participants to give a full
and coherent account of the central issue and incorporate issues.

Chapter 6: Interviews
 In-depth interviews can be regarded as being conversations with a purpose

 There are six features of in-depth interviewing: (1) combination of structure with
flexibility, (2) the interview is interactive in nature, (3) the researcher uses a range
of techniques to acquire depth (follow-up/probing questions), (4) the interview is
generative (new knowledge is created), (5) interview data must be captured in its
natural form and (6) qualitative interviews are generally conducted face-to-face

 The stages of an interview are arrival, introducing the research, beginning the
interview, during the interview, ending the interview and after the interview.

 Arrival is the stage of establishing a relationship and making a comfortable

atmosphere. Introducing the research is telling what the research topic is about.

 At the beginning of the interview, start neutrally to distil contextual information.

Guide the participant through key themes during the interview.

 At the end of the interview, introduce the end and make sure everything has been
said. After the interview, it’s important to thank the participant and reassure
confidentiality issues.

 It is highly desirable to audiotape the interview so the interviewer does not have
to take notes.
⇧

Chapter 7: Focus groups

 A focus group is not just a collection of individual interviews. It is better described
as ‘group interview’ and lacks depth of individual interviews and the richness that
comes with using the group process.

 The group interaction is explicitly used to generate data and insights. Spontaneity
is another feature that arises: participants reveal more of their own frame of
reference on the subject of a study (emerges from discussion).

 Focus groups usually consist of 6 to 8 people. The focus group is particularly

useful in more unfamiliar, technical or complex areas where information provision is
more important.

 The focus group is not always physically coming together (e.g. Delphi technique:
a panel of experts is asked individually to provide forecasts in a technical field).

 Tuckman and Jenson identified 5 stages in small group development: (1) forming,
(2) storming, (3) norming, (4) performing and (5) adjourning.

 There are also five stages of a focus group: (1) scene setting and ground rules,
(2) individual introductions, (3) the opening topic, (4) discussion and (5) ending the
discussion.

 The researcher’s aim is to allow as much relevant discussion as possible.

Individual contributions can be controlled by creating space for everyone to
contribute (reduce the influence of the dominant participant and try to actively let
the silent participants join the discussion).

 The size and composition of a group will be critical in shaping the group dynamic
and determining how and how well the group process works. Some diversity in the
composition aids discussion but too much can inhibit it.

 The optimum group size will depend on: (1) the amount of participants that are
likely to have a say on the research topic, (2) the sensitivity/complexity of the issue,
(3) the extent to which the researcher requires breadth or depth of data, (4) the
population group involved and (5) the structure and tasks involved in the session.

 In too large groups (>8), not everyone will be able to have their say. In small
groups (<6) the researcher may need to be more active in the sense of energizing or
challenging the group and if the group is very small (4), it can lose some of the
qualities of being a group.

Chapter 8: Focus on investigation

 Ethnocentric observation is conducted in the field of natural settings. According to
Gold, there are four roles adopted by the ethnographer (observer): complete
observer role, observer-as-participant, participant-as-observer and complete
participant.

 The roles of an ethnographer can also be discussed in terms of

membership: peripheral membership (researcher observes and interacts closely with
the people under study and thereby establish identities as insiders but do not
participate in those activities constituting the core of group membership), active
membership (researcher engages in core activities although they try to refrain from
committing themselves to the group’s values, goals and attitudes) and complete
 membership (study settings in which researchers are active and engaged members.
They are often advocates for the positions adopted by the group).

 Reliability is the measure of the degree to which any given observation is

consistent with a general pattern and not the result of random change. Validity is the
measure of the degree to which an observation actually demonstrates what it
appears to demonstrate.

 The observer bias means there are observer effect. That is the tendency of people
to change behaviour because they know they are being observed.

 Observation in public spaces may be unethical. A researcher may be guilty by

entering into places that can be construed as private even though they have a public
characteristic.

 Five categories to judge the quality of research are objectivity (degree to which

conclusions flow from the information that has been collected), reliability (degree to
which the process of research has been consistent and reasonably stable over
time), internal validity (degree to which the conclusions of a study make sense),
external validity (degree to which the conclusions of a study have relevance to
matters beyond the study itself) and utilization (degree to which programs or actions
result from a study’s findings and/or the degree to which ethical issues are
forthrightly dealt with).

Chapter 9: The concept of analysis

 Miles categorized 5 types of computer assisted qualitative data analysis software
(CAQDAS): text retrievers (searches large amounts of data for words or phrases),
text base managers (provide a structure to the data and are searchable like text
retrievers), code and retrieve programs (allow you to label or tag passages to make
them easier to find), code based theory builders (allow one to create links between
different aspects of the data) and conceptual network builders (facilitate graphic
display of the data set concepts).

 Researchers need certain tools to carry out their analysis as the data collected is
likely to be very raw and difficult to interpret at first. These tools make the task of
managing the evidence in a proper way easier for the investigators.

 At the start of the analytic process is data management. Here, the researcher
sorts the data to make it more manageable.

 Secondly, the researcher makes use of this ordered data to identify key
dimensions. Two features of qualitative data are essential to the analysis, namely
the language participants use (which shows how strongly they feel about a
phenomenon) and the substantive content of people’s accounts (the importance of
the content of each case).

 Finally, explanatory accounts are developed. The analyst must try to find patterns
of associations within the data to move from descriptive to explanatory accounts.
This means that, after finding the main concepts described in the data, the
researcher will investigate the patterns and relationships among concepts and try to
explain why these patterns occurs.

Chapter 10: Grounded theory approach

 Grounded theory: the discovery of theory in social research. The focus of
Grounded theory is at contextual values (preconceived data should not be taken into
account).

 Researchers must pay attention to theoretical sensitivity of the data

 The process of Grounded theory research consists of (1) initiating research, (2)
data selection, (3) initiation and data collection, (4) data analysis and (5) concluding
the research.

 During the data analysis part, coding occurs. Coding involves the process
of naming (attempts to conceptualize and develop abstract meaning for the
observations in data), comparing (development of a common category for multiple
observations) and memoing (act of taking notes for elaboration).

 Memoing has two forms: notes that capture insights gained in the field and
recording of ideas generated later in the research process.

 The challenges of Grounded theory research are that only a small percentage of
research articles that claim to have used this approach, truly have used this
approach. Also, often these articles did not account for social structural influences of
respondents and the Grounded theory approach is often confused with other
research methods such as phenomenology.

Chapter 11: Doing qualitative analysis

 Analysis is a continuous and iterative process. Key characteristics are managing
the data and making sense of the evidence through description or explanatory
accounts.

 Making sense of the data relies partly on the method used to order and categorise
data but mainly dependent on the analyst and his way of conceptual thinking.

 The steps in managing the data are developing the thematic framework, devising
a conceptual framework drawing upon the themes and issues, ordering data in a way
so that materials with similar content or properties are located together and
summarising or synthesising the original data (not only reducing the data to a
manageable level, but also beginning the process of distilling the essence of
evidence).

 It is often important in qualitative research to investigate whether there are any

patterns occurring in the data within particular subgroups of the study population.

 Short overview of ‘developing explanations’: (1) using explicit reasons and

accounts, (2) inferring and underlying logic, (3) using common sense to search for
explanations, (4) developing explanatory concepts and (5) drawing from empirical
studies and using theoretical frameworks.

Chapter 12: Generalization

 One issue of qualitative research is generalisation. That concerns, whether the
findings from a study based on a sample can be said to be of relevance beyond the
sample and context of the research itself.

 There are two types of generalisation: empirical (concerns the application of

findings from qualitative research studies to populations or settings beyond the
 particular sample of the study) and theoretical (involves the generation of theoretical
concepts or propositions which are deemed to be of wider, or even universal,
application).

 There are three concepts of generalisation: representational, inferential and

theoretical generalisation.

 Theoretical generalisation implies ‘nomic’ generalisation: must be truly

universal/unrestricted

 Inferential is referred to as naturalistic: knowledge is created by recognising

similarities (researcher has to provide think description of the research context)

 Representational generalisation is a matter of inclusivity: whether the sample

provides symbolic representation by containing the diversity of dimensions (concept
of reliability and validity)

 There are four important principles for generalising: (1) full and appropriate use
of the evidential base, (2) display of analytical routes and interpretation, (3) check
on research design and conduct and (4) validation.

Chapter 13: Representation

 Reporting means not only recording the outcomes but also the active construction
of the form and nature of the explored phenomena. It provides opportunity for
further thoughts.

 The aim of a report is to present a finding in an accessible form that will satisfy
the research objectives and enable the audience to understand them.

 There are four types of research output: (1) comprehensive outputs, (2) summary
(condensed information), (3) developmental outputs (providing early indications of
emergent findings or to offer theories or ideas for debate) and (4) selective outputs
(focus on selected areas of research findings for specific audience).

 There are four factors influencing the form of output: (1) the origin, purpose and
strategy of the research determine the length, (2) the condition and contractual
obligations that should be met, (3) the target audience identified and (4) the
resources available (can limit output by financial, time and access limits).

 In a report, the following things are important: descriptive accounts, typologies,

explanatory accounts, displaying and explaining recurrence, use of illustrative
material, the use of diagrammatic and visual representation

 An oral presentation should only represent the top line findings and
methodological issues cannot be addressed in too much detail

Chapter 14: Case studies

 There are different components of a research design: (1) the study’s questions,
(2) its propositions, (3) its unit(s) of analysis, (4) logically linking the data to the
propositions and (5) the criteria for interpreting the findings.

 The role of theory in design work is that covering the 5 components above will
effectively force us to begin constructing a preliminary theory that is related to our
topic (is essential).
 Theory development does not facilitate data collection but might facilitate
generalisation.

 There are two types of generalisation: analytic (in which previous developed
theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case
study) and statistical generalisation (it concerns making inference about a population
on the basis of empirical data from a sample).

 Criteria for judging quality of a research design are construct validity (identifying

correct operational measures), internal validity (seeking to establish a causal
relationships, whereby certain conditions are believed to lead to other
conditions), external validity (defining the domain to which a study’s findings can be
generalised) and reliability (same results when repeating the study).

 Two major dimensions of case studies are single case analyses and multiple case
analyses (should have a replication design).

Chapter 15: Case study preparation

 A good preparation for a case study requires: desired skills of the investigator
(asking good questions, being a good listener), training for a specific case study,
developing a protocol, screening candidates and conducting a pilot case study.

 Most case studies are about human affairs. This means that these affairs require
specific care and a researcher therefore needs to gain informed consent from all the
participants, protect participants from harm, protect privacy and confidentiality and
take special precautions that might be needed to protect especially vulnerable
groups (e.g. children).

 A case study protocol is not just a questionnaire, but it also contains general rules
to be followed. A protocol increases the reliability of a case study and guides the
investigator in carrying out data collection. It also keeps you targeted on the topic of
the case and it prepares to anticipate several problems.

 The case study protocol always must include an overview of the case study
project, field procedures and case study questions.

Chapter 16: Evidence collection

 Case study evidence can come from many sources. Six sources of evidence are
documentation, archival records, overall interviews, direct observation, participant-
observation and physical artefacts.

 Interviews are one of the most important sources of case study information:
Throughout the interview process, the interviewer has two jobs: to follow his own
line of inquiry as reflected in your case study protocol and to ask his actual questions
in an unbiased manner that also serves the need of your inquiry.

 There are three principles of data collection: (1) use multiple sources of evidence,
(2) create a case study database (organising and documenting the data collected)
and (3) maintain a chain of evidence (this principle increases the reliability of the
information in a case study).

 Any case study finding or conclusion is likely to be more convincing and accurate
if it is based on several different sources of information, following a corroboratory
mode.
 Patton discusses four types of triangulation in doing evaluations – The
triangulation of data sources, among different evaluators, of perspectives to the
same data set and of methods.

Chapter 17: Data analysis

 The analysis of case study evidence is one of the least developed and most
difficult aspects of doing case studies. Too many times, investigators start case
studies without having the foggiest notion about how the evidence is to be analysed.

 The analytical strategy is the guide to crafting a story. It will help to treat the
evidence fairly, produce compelling analytic conclusions and rule out alternative
interpretations.

 Four strategies described by the book are (1) relying on theoretical propositions
(follow the theoretical propositions that led to your case study, these help you to
focus attention on certain data and to ignore other data), (2) developing a case
description, (3) using both quantitative and qualitative data and (4) examining rival
explanations.

 The quantitative data may be relevant to your case study for at least two reasons:
the data may cover the behaviour or events that your case study is trying to explain
and the data may be related to an embedded unit of analysis within your broader
case study.

 There can be different types of rival explanations. Two types of rival explanations
are craft rivals (underlie all of our social science research) and real-rivals (have
received virtually no attention by other textbooks).

 These real-life rivals are the ones that you should carefully identify prior to your
data.

 There are different analytic techniques: pattern matching, explanation building,

time-series analysis, logic models and cross-case synthesis.

 Pattern matching means that such logic compares an empirically based pattern
with a predicted one. The results can help the strengthening of the internal validity.

 Explanation building is used to explain a phenomenon is to stipulate a presumed

set of causal links about it or how or why something happened (causal links may be
complex/difficult to measure).

 Time-series analysis is an analysis that can follow many intricate patterns which
have been the subject of several major textbooks in experimental and clinical
psychology with single subjects.

 Logic models stipulate a complex chain of events over an extended period of time.
Cross-case synthesis are used specifically to the analysis of multiple cases. These
are especially relevant if a case study consists of at least two cases.