Qualitative

Research and
Its Importance
in Daily Life

UNIT II

Prepared by: Michelle Razzelle N. Ybanez, LPT

a. Discuss the importance of
qualitative research;

b. Differentiate the types of

qualitative research and its Intended
corresponding characteristics
and uses; and
Learning
c. Evaluate the strengths and
Outcomes:
weaknesses of qualitative
research

Jens
Martensson
How do you become
a knowledgeable
person?

Jens
Martensson
Qualitative Research
► Research type that puts
premium or high value on
people’s thinking or point of
view conditioned by their
personal traits.
► It usually takes place in soft
sciences like social
sciences, politics,
economics, humanities,
education, psychology,
nursing and all business-
related subjects. Jens
Martensson
Qualitative Research
Coghan, 2014

►“Subjectivity in
qualitative research is
true not only for an
individual or a group
under study but also for
you, the researcher,
because of your personal
involvement in every
stage of your research.” Jens
Martensson
 Qualitative Research
Silverman, 2013; Litchman, 2013; Walliman, 2014; Suter, 2012

► “In a qualitative research, the

reality is conditioned by society
and people’s intentions are
involved in explaining cause-
effect relationships.
► Things are studied in a natural
setting enough for you to
conclude that qualitative
research is an act of inquiry or
investigation of real-life events.”
Jens
Martensson
 Characteristics:
► Human Understanding and Interpretation
► Active, Powerful, and Forceful
► Multiple Research Approaches and
Methods
► Specificity to Generalization
► Contextualization
► Diversified Data in Real-life Situations
► Abounds with Words and Visuals
Characteristics of Qualitative
Research
► Internal Analysis

Jens
Martensson
 Data analysis results show
an individual’s mental,
social, and spiritual
Human
understanding of the world. Understanding
 Through their worldviews, and
you come to know what kind
of human being he or she is, Interpretation
including his or her values,
beliefs, likes, and dislikes.

Jens
Martensson
 As you go through the research
process, you find the need to
amend or rephrase interview
questions and consider varied
ways of getting answers. Active,
 You are not fixated to a certain
plan. Rather, you are inclined to
Powerful, and
discover your research design Forceful
as you gradually unfolds or
reveals itself in accordance with
your research objectives.
Jens
Martensson
 You are free to combine this
with quantitative research
and use all gathered data
and analysis techniques. Multiple
 Being a multi-method Research
research, a qualitative study
applies to all research types: Approaches
descriptive, exploratory,
explanatory, case study, and
and
so on. Methods
Jens
Martensson
 Specific ideas in a
qualitative research
are directed to a
general
understanding of
something.
Specificity to
Generalization
 It follows an inductive
or scientific method
Jens
Martensson
 A quantitative research involves Example:
all variables, factors, or Lived Experiences of Foreign
conditions affecting the study. CPU SHS Students with both
parents working abroad: A
 Your goal in qualitative research Phenomenological Study
is to understand human
behavior. Thus, it is crucial for
you to examine the context or
situation of an individual’s life— Contextualization
the who, what, why, how, and
other circumstances—affecting
his/her way of life.
Jens
Martensson
 It prefers collecting data in a
natural setting like observing
people as they live and work.

 observing people as
they live and work,
 analyzing photographs or
Diversified Data in
videos as they genuinely Real-life
appear to people, and
 looking at classrooms Situations
unchanged or adjusted to
people’s intentional
observations.
Jens
Martensson
 Data gathering through interviews
or library reading, as well as the
presentation of data analysis
results, is done verbally. Abounds with
 In some cases, it resorts to
quoting some respondents’ Words and
answers.
 Likewise, presenting people’s
Visuals
world views through visual
presentation, e.g., pictures,
videos, drawings, and graphs, are
significantly used in a qualitative
research. Jens
Martensson
 You examine the data
yielded by the internal traits
of the subject individuals like
their emotional, mental, and
spiritual characteristics.

 You study people’s

perception or views about
your topic and not the Internal Analysis
effects of their physical
existence on your study

Jens
Martensson
 Types of
Qualitative
Research
Case Study

► Itusually takes place in the field of

social care, nursing, psychology,
rehabilitation centers, education.
► Involves a long-time study of a
person, group, organization, or
situation.
► Seeks to answer the “why”
► Interviews, questionnaires,
observations, and documentary
analysis are used.
Jens
Martensson
Case Study
► In a case study, nearly every
aspect of the subject's life and
history is analyzed to seek
patterns and causes of
behavior
► Most importantly: case
studies are stories. In
particular, business
management case studies tell
the story of how your product
or service helped a person or
a company achieve its goals. Jens
Martensson
Case Study - Samples
► Anna O: Anna O. was a pseudonym of
a woman named Bertha Pappenheim,
a patient of a physician named Josef
Breuer. While she was never a patient
of Freud's, Freud and Breuer
discussed her case extensively. The
woman was experiencing symptoms
of a condition that was then known
as hysteria and found that talking
about her problems helped relieve her
symptoms. Her case played an
important part in the development of
talk therapy as an approach to mental
health treatment. Jens
Martensson
Case Study - Samples
►Phineas Gage: Phineas Gage
was a railroad employee who
experienced a terrible
accident in which an
explosion sent a metal rod
through his skull, damaging
important portions of his
brain. Gage recovered from
his accident but was left with
serious changes in both
personality and behavior. Jens
Martensson
Case Study - Samples
► Genie: Genie was a young girl
subjected to horrific abuse and
isolation. The case study of
Genie allowed researchers to
study whether language could be
taught even after critical periods
for language development had
been missed. Her case also
served as an example of how
scientific research may interfere
with treatment and lead to
further abuse of vulnerable
Jens
individuals. Martensson
Case Study - Samples
► Such cases demonstrate how case
research can be used to study things
that researchers could not replicate in
experimental settings. In Genie's
case, her horrific abuse had denied
her the opportunity to learn language
at critical points in her development.
► This is clearly not something that
researchers could ethically replicate,
but conducting a case study on Genie
allowed researchers the chance to
study phenomena that are otherwise
impossible to reproduce.
Jens
Martensson
Ethnography

► Derivedfrom the Greek terms

“ethnos” which means
people/folk/nation and “grapho”
which means to write.

► Falling under the field of anthropology,

ethnography is a study of a certain
cultural group to get a clear
understanding of its organizational
setup, internal operations, and
lifestyles.
Jens
Martensson
 Ethnography
Lodico, Sapulding, & Voegtle, 2006; Mai, 2009

► Ethnographic studies observe people

situated in a natural or normal setting.
► The best way to conduct this study is
not to ask people of their culture but to
spend some time living with them and
experience the way they live their life
in their community.
► Immersing yourself in their lifestyles
entails an orderly manner.

Jens
Martensson
 Ethnography
Lodico, Sapulding, & Voegtle, 2006; Mai, 2009

Nowadays more and more people in the field of

business love to conduct this study to determine
the marketability of a product.

► A study of the Most Liked Coffee Aroma

Among Manila Residents
► The Lucrativeness of a Coffee Shop at Muñoz
LRT Station
► The Preferred Sizes of Hand Bags Among
Urban Office Girls.
► The Salability of Dreamy Diapers Among Care
Givers
Jens
Martensson
Phenomenology
► “Phenomenon” means something
known through sensory
experience.
► Phenomenology is the study of
the subjects’ lived-experiences.
► Study of how people understand
their experiences about death of
loved ones, care for handicapped
persons, friendliness of people,
etc.
Jens
Martensson
Content and Discourse
Analysis
► Content analysis is a method that
requires analysis or examination
of the content of books, journals,
photos, video recordings, SMS,
online messages, emails, audio-
visual materials used by people in
communicating.
► Discourse analysis aims to
discover the effects of
sociological, cultural, institutional,
and ideological factors on the
content.
Jens
Martensson
Content and Discourse Analysis
Therefore, you may consider discourse analysis
if you are researching:
► Some form of power or inequality (for
example, how affluent individuals interact
with those who are less wealthy
► How people communicate in a specific
context (such as in a social situation with
colleagues versus a board meeting)
► Ideology and how ideas (such as values and
beliefs) are shared using language (like in
political speeches)
► How communication is used to achieve
social goals (such as maintaining a
friendship or navigating conflict)
. Jens
Martensson
 Content and Discourse Analysis
a. Historical Analysis
 Central to this qualitative research
method is the examination of varied
sources of data to make you understand
the connection of past events to the
present time.
 The results of your analysis enable you to
form conclusions, predict the future, and
specify phenomenological changes in
unchanged aspects of society.
 Historiography is a term pertaining to a
study of historical methods of research
and of the different ways of writing a Jens
historical research. Martensson
Grounded Theory (GT)
► Takes place when you discover a
new theory to underlie your study
at the time of data-collection and
analysis.
► Interview, observation, and
documentary analysis are the data-
gathering techniques for this type
of research.
► Applicable to both quantitative and
qualitative research types.
► Considered a general method Jens
Martensson
Grounded Theory (GT)
b. Grounded Theory (GT)
Research methods that are commonly used in
Grounded Theory according to Gibson are:
1. Observation, like ethnographic studies,
living with the subjects in a considerable
number of days.
2. Interview or talking with the informants in a
structured, semi-structured or unstructured
(informal) way.
3. Collecting and analyzing of artifacts or
materials used by the informants in their
everyday living such as graphs, codes,
written rules, and handouts among others.

Jens
Martensson
• Naturalistic approach-
participants are involved in real
settings.

• Promotes a full understanding

of human behavior in their
natural setting

• Instrumental for positive

societal changes

• Engenders respect for people’s

individuality

Jens
Martensson
•A way of understanding and
interpreting social
interactions

•Increases the researcher’s

interest in the study as it
includes the researcher’s
experience in interpreting the
verbal and visual data

•Offers multiple ways of

acquiring and examining
knowledge about something.

Jens
Martensson
•Involves a lot of researchers;
subjectivity in data analysis

•Hard to know the

validity/reliability of the data

•Open-ended questions yield

“data-overload” that requires
long-time analysis

•Time-consuming

•Involves several processes which

results greatly depends on
researcher’s
views/interpretations
Jens
Martensson
 Lesson 4

Qualitative research
in Different Areas of
BOOK knowledge
REVIEW
Jens
Martensson
 Research in different areas of
knowledge
Subject area research Approaches

► Scientific Approach gives stress

to
measureable and observable facts
instead of personal views,
feelings, or attitudes.
► It can be used in the Hard
Sciences or STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering,
Medicine) and natural sciences
(Biology, Physics, Chemistry).

Jens
Martensson
 Research in different areas of
knowledge
Subject area research Approaches

► Naturalistic approach is people-oriented.

► Data collected represent personal views,
attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and other
subjective traits of people in natural
setting.
► Soft Sciences: Anthropology, Business,
Education, Economics, Law, Politics.
► Subjects aligned with business and al
those focused on helping professions
such as Nursing, Counseling, Physical
Therapy, and the like (Babbie, 2013)
Jens
Martensson
Hard Sciences vs. Soft Sciences
► There is actually no categorical or explicit difference between these two fields because both can go
together in a research called TRIANGULATION.

HARD SCIENCES are Chemisry, pHysics, Biology, Astronomy, and Geology, among others.
 The hardness of these subjects lies not in the nature of their contents but in the ways research
studies happen in these areas of knowledge – what is used here is Quantitative Research.
Statistical Analysis like: Spearman’s rho, T-test, Chi-square, Pearson’s for determining correlation
coefficient.

SOFT SCIENCES are subjects under Social Sciences such as Psychology, Sociology, Political Science,
and Anthropology.
 Do not strictly require exact statistical methods or mathematical formulas, but go for the personal
methods or observations, interview or survey questionnaire.

Jens
Martensson
Thank
You
Michelle Razzelle Ybanez
mrybanez@cpu.edu.ph