Qualitative Research Methods

Autumn 2008
Lecturer: Jukka Peltokoski

Structure of the lectures:

1. What Qualitative Research?
2. Different Research Strategies
3. Research Strategies Step by Step
4. Collecting Data
5. Analysing Data
6. The Critique of Qualitative Research
7. Qualitative Research in Action
 DEVS104 Research Methods 10.11.-25.11
 Mondays 14-16 hrs. in MaB 102
 Tuesdays 12-14 hrs. in MaB 133
 Exam: Tue 2.12. & 9.12., 12-16 hrs. in MaB 133
 I What Qualitative Research?

1.1 Some basic lines

Quantitative: numbers, calculations

Qualitative: words, interpretations

Usually only pragmatic or personal choice but can also be

connected to ontological convictions

Historical starting point: so called ”linguistic turn” challenged the

hegemony of quantitative research which followed natural scientific
model
 I What Qualitative Research?

Qualitative methodology emerged as criticism of quantitative

methodology
==> Human beings should be studied as agents capable of self-
reflection and giving meanings to theirs action

Linguistic accounts as an access point to the cultural meanings

constructed by humans
==> Emphasis on interviews, observations and other meaningful
materials (writings, biographies, drawings)

All the more challenged distinction today

 I What Qualitative Research?

1.1 "Ethos" of quantitative research

1. Measurement
2. Causality
3. (Statistical) generalization
4. Objectivity (vs. researcher's subjectivity)

1.2 "Ethos" of qualitative research: "Interpretivism"

1. Seeing through the eyes of the people being studied

2. Emphasis on content (”thick description”)
3. Emphasis on process
4. Flexibility and limited structure
5. Concepts and theory grounded in data
 II Different Research Strategies

2.1 Quantitative research strategy

- Emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data

- Entails a deductive approach to the relationship between theory
and research, in which the accent is placed on the testing of theories
- Has incorporated the practices and norms of the natural scientific
model (today, however, connected to critical realism)
- Embodies a view of social reality as an external, objective reality
 II Different Research Strategies

2.2 Qualitative research strategy

- Usually emphasizes words rather than quantification in the

collection and analysis of data
- Predominantly emphasizes an inductive approach to the
relationship between theory and research, in which the emphasis is
placed on the generation of theories
- Has rejected the practices and norms of the natural scientific model
in preference for an emphasis on the ways in which individuals
interpret their social world
- Embodies a view of social reality as a constantly shifting emergent
property of individuals creation (processes)

In quantitative research you are looking for generalizations, in

qualitative you generate “deep cultural understanding” about the
phenomenon in question ==> theoretical generalizations
 III Research Strategies Step by Step

3.1 Main steps in quantitative research

1. Theory
2. Hypothesis
3. Research design
4. Devise measures of concepts (operationalization)
5. Select research site(s)
6. Select research subjects/respondents
7. Administer research instruments/collect data
8. Process data
9. Analyse data
10 Findings/conclusions
11 Write up findings/conclusions
 III Research Strategies Step by Step

3.2 Quantitative research strategy:

1. Indicators
2. Reliability (the consistency of a measure of a concept)
3. Validity (the correspondence between an indicator and the
concept they are planned to measure)

3.3 Qualitative research strategy

1. Focus on words
2. Inductive relationship between theory and research
3. Interpretivism (epistemology)
4. Constructionism (ontology)
 III Research Strategies Step by Step

3.4 Qualitative research process

General model hard to define

1. General research questions
2. Selecting relevant site(s) and subjects
3. Collection of relevant data
4. Interpretation of data
5. Conceptual and theoretical work
5.a. Tighter specification of the research question(s)
5.b. Collection of further data
6. Write up findings and conclusions
Major difference: relationship between theory and data.
==> Theory extracted from data
 IV Collecting Data: Observation
4.1 Participant observation
Closely linked to ethnography, but also used independently

”Participant observer immerses him-/herself in a group for an

extended period of time, observing behaviour, listening to what is said
in conversations both between others and with the fieldworker, and
asking questions.” (Alan Bryman: Social Reseach Methods, 2004)

Researcher makes:
- regular observations of the behaviour of members of that setting
- listens to and engages in conversations
- interviews informants on issues that are not directly amenable to
observation or that the researcher is unclear about
- collects documents about the group
- develops an understanding of the culture of the group
- writes up a detailed account, 'thick description'
 IV Collecting Data: Observation

Field diary as a central method of data collection

Research is concentrated on one group or phenomenon, develops
holistic cultural understanding about the case in question
Is sometimes used as a general research strategy which is made
more specific using more specific methods like discourse analysis
(flexible to mix with other methods, 'triangulation')
Micro-ethnography = particular aspect, short period of time
recommended in student works
Difference to everyday observations:
- Researcher works in an unfamiliar setting
- Observing and field notes are done systematically
- Researcher is trained professional
Risk of 'going native'
 IV Collecting Data: Observation

4.2 Practice of observation

General importance of the technique: the same kinds of critical

points easy to identify in all empirical research as in all empirical
research the researcher has to go to the field, contact informants
and collect data

How to access the setting?

The setting may be open or closed. Access may be done openly or

secretly.

Covert participation – Open setting

Covert participation – Closed setting
Overt participation – Closed setting
Overt participation – Open setting
 IV Collecting Data: Observation

Covert role:

- No need for permissions

- People do not react to the researcher
- Problem of doing notes
- Problem of not being able of using other methods than observation
- Creates anxiety
- May raise ethical questions

Overt role:

- Necessitates trustful relationships to the people studied

 IV Collecting Data: Observation

How to access the people in the setting (relationships in the field)?

In other words, how to develop ongoing access?

Which role for the researcher?

- Complete participant (covert observer, fully functioning member)

- Participant-as-observer (overt observer, engaged in regular
practices)
- Observer-as-participant (the researcher mainly as an interviewer,
only following the practices)
- Complete observer (no interaction with the people, unobtrusive
observation)

==> Typically the role changes during the research and the
researcher has to be able to do reasonable decisions
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

4.3 Qualitative Interviewing

Differences to quantitative interviewing:

- Much less structured

- Interest in interviewee's point of view
- ’Rambling' or going off at tangents is encouraged
- Interviewer can depart from schedule
- The researcher wants rich and detailed answers
- Interviewee may be interviewed more than once
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Two major types

Unstructured interview

The researcher uses at most the short list of key words or central
issues that should be discussed about. Interviewee is allowed to
answer freely and the researcher only responds to the points that
seem to be worthy of being followed. Almost like a conversation.

Semi-structured interview

The researcher has a list of questions or topics to be covered and

also an interview guide how to proceed with them. In the intervew
situation the questions may not follow the planned guide, new
questions may emerge, and some may be left outside.
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

In addition: Narrative interview

The interviewee is asked to tell a story about something (quite

normally about him-/herself). The researcher may ask interviewee to
focus on some aspects and ask more detailed questions during or
after the story telling. The story telling may also be directly based on
the questions presented in chronological-logical order.

Furthermore, there is a possibility to decide exact questions

beforehand and to stick on them and them only, denying all
flexibility, but this is rather rarely used alternative.

Flexibility means that the researcher has to be capable to

understand and sense what the interviewee sees as important, how
s/he frames the issue
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Unstructured (US) or semi-structured (SS)?

Are you concerned that the use of even the most rudimentary
interview guide will not allow genuine access to the world views of
members of a social setting? ==> US

Do you have fairly clear focus on a topic? ==> SS

Is there more than one person carrying out the field work? ==> SS

Planning to do comparisons between different cases? ==> SS

 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Group interview

Not all interviews have to be organised between interviewer and

interviewee, also groups can be interviewed, normally from 6-10
people but the size varies considerably in different studies

Group interviews are used especially when analysed how certain

persons form a common opinion about something (maybe even
something actual about which there is not yet popular opinions)

Used also to gather information about subcultures and other

relatively clearly limited and homogeneous social settings (but this is
not a rule...)
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing
Children talk more freely in groups than alone with scary adult
interviewer

May simply save researcher's money and time

Has to be planned carefully: depending on the sensitivity of a topic

may both reveal or hide contradictions and hierarchies

The interviewer's role varies between silent observer and a

fascilitator who takes care that interesting points are discussed in
detail, all the relevant themes come under discussion, and also
passive participants participate

Sometimes two interviewers

Can be very hard to transcribe and analyse; videotaping is

encouraged but may cause other troubles
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Focus group interview

A specific group interview method:

- Background in marketing studies: testing new products

- Specific theme that is explored in depth
- Is not just a money or time saving technique but conscious strategy
- The aim of the discussion is told to the group
- Typically the interest lies in how an individual dicusses as a
member of a group, so. how a meaning is constructed in interaction
- In critical studies used to raise consciousness among a group
- Some have also claimed that group interview is less artificial
situation than “normal” interview and that group situation reduces
the leading role of interviewer
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Making questions

(see also the photocopy)

- Introduce yourself to the setting in which interviewees engage in

order to understand theirs point of view
- Create a certain amount of order on the topic areas so that your
questions will cover the whole area and they follow each other in
reasonable order
-- All the time remember focus on your research question and

formulate such interview questions that are concretely oriented to

answer to it (but avoid too specific questions)
- Use language that is relevant and understandable to the people
interviewed
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing
Think what aspects of social life you need to get information about,
in general these may include:
values
beliefs
emotions
behaviour
formal and informal roles
relationships
contradictions
places and locales
stories, rumours, etc.
 IV Collecting Data: Interviewing

Useful tips
- Try not to ask leading questions
-- Remember to write down or record background information

concerning interviewee (name, age, gender, position...)

-- Use recording machine!

- Keep the recorder going!

-Make general notes about the interview right after it (general

feelings, how did it went, how the interviewee was, where the
interview was done, what kind of setting it was for the interview, did
the interview open new perspectives to the topic...). This helps you
to remember the situation and to stay sensitive to the context when
analysing transcriptions.
 IV Collecting Data: Documents

4.4 Existing documents

- Personal documents (written diaries, letters; visual photographs,

drawings)
- Official documents deriving from the state
- Official documents deriving from private sources
- Media outputs
- Net resources
 V Analysing Data

In some qualitative research no specific method is used and the

researcher only looks for interesting themes found in the data and
classifies by types the material (basically only data is gathered
“qualitatively”)

Some lists contain nearly 50 methods...

Different methods are based on different philosophical traditions like

hermeneutics, phenomenology, structuralism, post-structuralism,
analytic philosophy, linguistics...

All the qualitative methods are more or less general in nature and
many times they can be used together

In all qualitative research you are studying cases

 V Analysing Data: GT

5.1 Grounded Theory

"Theory arises from the data"

Founded philosophically on realism, was first introduced by Glaser

and Strauss in The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1973)

Emphasizes systematic analysis of data:

- Theoretical sampling
- Coding
- Theoretical saturation
- Constant comparison

Coding = naming fragments of the data, producing an index

 V Analysing Data: GT

Coding as a process:

1. Read the data

2. Read the data again and start the coding (marginal notes)
3. Read the data again and finish the coding
4. Read the coding again and try to formulate general categories out
of codes
5. Do experimental coding
6. Test everything with the data

The basic idea is to proceed from the mess of minor codes to the
major categories that give systematic structure to the data in general
 V Analysing Data: GT

Important to notice:

- Coding as such is only a means to organize the data, to reduce a

vast amount of material into organized categories
- Interpreting the categorized material still needs to be made
- On the other hand interpretations develop during the coding
process
- ’Theory' means that you are capable of organizing the data
systematically and meaningfully

It is recommended to start coding as soon as possible (remember

'theoretical sampling')

A possibility to use Atlas/ti computer program

 V Analysing Data: DA

5.2 Discourse Analysis

Philosophically based on social constructivism

- John Austin: descriptive and performative speech acts (How to do
things with words, 1962)
- Michel Foucault: discourses, power-knowledge relationships
(Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969)
- Studies social reality as constructed in language (or in 'text')
- Language as a constitutive part of social reality, not only as its
mirror (factory vs. theatre)
- How meaning is constructed in language? ('truth')
-- What is done with the words? (effects)
-- Social reality as competition over meanings/'truths'

- Contextualized analysis (materialism)

 V Analysing Data: DA

The point of view of the researcher is strictly in the text and its
effects in the reality
- The researcher does not study if the text represents something
correct or incorrect but is honestly interested how something is
presented and is open to the fact that it may be presented in multiple
ways – even by the one and the same person
- The text is seen not as a personal product but as a discoursive
field in which the subject takes different articulative positions
there is no subject behind the text (even if it can be legitimately
asked what kind discource f. ex. police produces about criminals)
- Interest lies in the differences
- Utilizes often pretty small scale and ready made materials like
news paper articles and official documents which are produced in
“natural” settings
 V Analysing Data: DA

- Very precise transcriptions (the level depends on the question)

- Requires sensitive linguistic understanding

- Some sort of coding is done, but not necessarily systematically but

only looking for the ’evidence’ to support researcher's constructive
discourse building; finding discourses is actually creative work
 V Analysing Data: DA

Not a single method but a heterogeneous methodological field

- Many ways to do, much depends on the researcher

- Overlapping with conversation analysis, study of rhetoric, narrative
analysis, content analysis etc.
- Linguistic vs. cultural orientation
- Flexible but indefinite...
- Often used to study only differing attitudes even if the interest
should lie in how the 'ontology' of things is produced in language
(how the essence of things is constructed)
- Common criticism: leads to relativism, studies only language
- On the other hand criticises realism effectively about assuming
naively the coherence of the subject
 V Analysing Data
5.3 Ethnography (participant observation)

No particular philosophical commitment, historical background in

social anthropology

Researcher participates in certain social setting and develops

understanding about the culture of the setting
- Does always observation and usually also interviewing
- Keeps field diary (writes notes all the time)

Research report gives detailed descriptions how things work in their

contexts (”thick descriptions”)

Particular focus depends on central research concepts which may

develop only during the process
 V Analysing Data

5.4 Conversation Analysis

Based on ethnomethodology

Focus on the practical common sense reasoning in everyday life

situations in which people make sense of reality in face to face
interaction ==> Intersubjectivity produced in micro-level interaction

Interprets formal characters of conversation

Detailed transcriptions, sophisticated coding system

 V Analysing Data

5.5 Narrative Analysis

Philosophical backgrounds in hermeneutics and structuralism

Analyses stories and storied nature of human recounting of lives and

events

Focus on plot line

- May be analysed as a chronological-logical construction, or
is cut into structural elements using f.ex. Greimas’ actant
model
 V Analysing Data

5.6 Semiotical reading

Based on structuralism, especially on Saussure's theory about the

denotative and connotative levels of linguistic marks

All the social reality is read as ’text’

’Text’ here refers to anything that carries meanings from behaviour

to pictures and architectural buildings

Gives the researcher pretty open hands how to do analysis in

practice

Reading concentrates in stuctural pairs or dualisms

VI The Critique of Qualitative Research

1. Qualitative research is too subjective

2. Difficult to replicate

3. Problems of generalization

4. Lack of transparency
VI The Critique of Qualitative Research

Some responses to critics

If research does not simply reflect the reality and if there can be
many accounts to social reality, how truth claims are possible?

Focus on trustworthiness:

1. Credibility
2. Transferability
3. Dependability
4. Confirmability

Also the social impact of the research is emphasized as a criterion

of evaluation
 VII Qualitative Research in Action

7.1 Formulating a research question

General and intuitive in the beginning.

However, should be as definite as possible!!!

Research question will

- Guide your literature search
- Guide your decisions about the research design to employ
- Guide your decision what data to collect and from whom
- Guide your analysis of data
- Guide your writing up of your data
- Stop you from going off in unnecessary directions and tangents
 VII Qualitative Research in Action

7.2 Research Plan

Questions that should be answered:

- Why your research topic is interesting and relevant?
- What issues is it connected to?
- What has been already written about the topic and how is it
approached?
- How are you planning to approach the topic, what is your point of
view, what is your context?
- What is your research question and how do you analyze it?
- What will be your data? Why this particular data? Why is it restricted
to a certain social settings?
- What is your method(ology)? Why is it better than some other
possible method(ologie)s?
- How are you planning to proceed in your research?
 7 Qualitative Research in Action

7.3 Writing up Social Research

An essential part of doing qualitative analysis

Conceptualizations develop and deepen during the writing process

Basic structure of qualitative presentation:

1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Theory (sometimes not presented until the empirical analysis)
4. Research design/methodology (including the research question!)
5. Empirical presentation of the case
6. Results and theoretical discussion about them
8. Conclusion