Discourse Analysis and Constructivist Grounded Theory

Discourse Analysis - is a qualitative method of analysis, which explores the meanings

produced by language use and communication, the contexts and processes of these
meanings and practices caused by these meanings.

Constructivist Grounded Theory - is a research method that focuses on generating new

theories through inductive analysis of the data gathered from participants rather than
from pre-existing theoretical frameworks. In this qualitative research approach, the
researcher seeks to understand a social phenomenon and construct theories through
participants’ experiences, using iterative data collection and analysis. 

SIMILARITIES:

 Both methods emphasize action, but researchers can use grounded theory
methods from varied starting points for varied purposes.

 Constructivist grounded theorists attempt to explicate research participants’

meanings and to scrutinize our own. We look for how our meanings enter the
analysis and assess whether their inclusion is justified,which discourse analysts
also do.

 Both approaches take talk as a focus of inquiry and view it as a form of

meaningful social action.

 Constructivist grounded theory attends to the frame of discourse as well as the

content and assumes that the frame influences content.

 Both discourse analysis and constructivist grounded theory see discourses as

positional and situational and may locate them in culture, history, and
immediate situations as well as examine the positions taken within the
discourse (Charmaz, 2009; Clarke, 2005, 2006, 2009).
 Narrative Research and Constructivist Grounded Theory

 Narrative Analysis/ Research - is a form of qualitative research in which the

researcher focuses on a topic and analyzes the data collected from case studies,
surveys, observations or other similar methods. The researchers write their
findings, then review and analyze them.

 Ruthellen Josselson explains narrative analysis as an interpretive approach that

involves the subjectivities of both the researcher and participants and uses a
conceptual framework to analyze texts.

SIMILARITIES:

 Both constructivist grounded theory and narrative analysis are explicitly

interpretive methods.

 Narrative analysts have adopted grounded theory strategies to analyze narrative

content more than narrative structure (see, e.g., Hansen, Walter, & Baker, 2007;
Mathieson& Stam, 1995; Salander, 2002).

 Both narrative analysis and constructivist grounded theory focus on meaning

and context

Intuitive Inquiry and Constructivist Grounded Theory

Intuitive inquiry - is a hermeneutical research method that joins intuition to

intellectual precision. Intuitive researchers explore topics that claim their
enthusiasm and invite the inquiry to transform both their understanding of the
topic and their lives.

- Intuitive inquiry broadens conceptions of knowledge

apprehended by the senses.
SIMILARITIES:

 Both intuitive inquiry and grounded theory are inductive methods that provide
tools for theory construction

 Intuitive inquiry focuses on psychological experience, and its cycles support

exploring it. Grounded theory is a general method that researchers adopt for
multiple forms and levels of inquiry.

The Lens of Discourse Analysis: Linda McMullen

Phenomenological Psychology and Discourse Analysis

Main difference - The goal in phenomenology is to study how people make meaning of
their lived experience; discourse analysis examines how language is used to
accomplish personal, social, and political projects; and grounded theory develops
explanatory theories of basic social processes studied in context. 

 Context is important for both phenomenological psychological analysisand

discourse analysis, but how it is understood—that is, what is focused on and
how it is focused on—differs.

Phenomenological Psychology and Narrative Research

 Narrative research makes extensive use of phenomenological reading of the text
to try to discover the meanings of the lived experience to the narrator.

 Phenomenology and narrative research share a philosophical heritage and an

assumptive world about subjectivity and experience.