INTL 5100 RESEARCH METHODS AND

PERSPECTIVES
INGO 5200 RESEARCH METHODS AND
PERSPECTIVES IN INGO’S

Doing qualitative research

12 November, 2015
Leiden campus

By Antony Otieno Ong’ayo

Clarifications of concepts
•  Paradigms
•  Theories
•  Mixed methods
•  Selection (bias)
•  Comparison
•  Reliability
•  Validity
•  Variables
Variables
• Can take on a number of values
• Examples: Individual characteristics, age,
income, or education, religion
• Categorical: Age
•  18-24 years, 25-34

• Nominal: Religion
•  Catholic, protestant, evangelical, Muslim, Jew,
Hindu
•  order-a scale: 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree
• Different people have different values or scores
on these characteristics
  
Relationships between variables
• Example: education and voter turnout
• how is education related to voter turnout

• independent variable = the "cause" and

• dependent variable = the "effect."

• Steps:
• start with dependent variable then identify
independent variables that are strongly
related to the dependent variable
Starting a thesis
•  What is your concept (theme) of your thesis?
•  What is your research question?
•  What is your dependent variable in this research
question?
•  What is the definition of your dependent
variable (specify how you would measure your
dependent variable (s)
•  What are potential explanatory variables?
•  What is the relation between your dependent
and explanatory variables?

Split in TEAMS of 3 persons, use exercise sheet to start.

Doing qualitative research
•  Design
•  Formulating a Research Question
•  Using Theories
•  Choosing a Methodology
•  Number Cases
•  Ethics
•  Research Proposal
 Types of research designs
•  Surveys
•  Experiments
•  Fieldwork
•  Longitudinal
•  Cross-sectional
•  Case study
•  Comparative
•  Secondary analysis
•  Action research
•  Evaluation research
•  Impact assessment
Design
•  Title
•  The problem/introduction
•  Aims/Goals/objectives
•  Research questions
•  Literature review
•  Research strategy (inductive/deductive/abductive)
Concepts/models/framework/theoretical framework
•  Methodology
–  Data sources, types and forms
–  Selection of data sources
–  Data collection and timing
–  Data reduction and analysis
•  Problems and limitations
 Formulating a Research Question
•  Defines the scope of the study
•  Determines what is to be studied
•  Types Examples
–  What questions: what are the characteristics of a dictator?
–  Why questions: why people think and act in a certain way?
–  How questions: how can corporate corruption be stopped?

•  Corresponding purposes
–  Description
–  Explanation/understanding
–  change
Using Theories
•  Derives from different fields
•  Examples of theoretical perspectives
–  Realism, idealism, feminism (Herding),
Marxism, interpretivism,

•  Other categories
functionalism, structuration (Giddens);
phenomenology (Berg, Luckman);
structuralism (Foucault, Levi Strausse),
critical theory (Habermas); conflict
(Weber), RCT (Weber)
Choosing a Methodology
•  Qualitative
•  Quantitative
•  Mixed methods - Triangulation

•  Strategy
–  Case study
–  Within case study
–  Comparison
Case selection
•  Number of Cases (n/N)
•  Selection criteria
–  Similarities or differences between groups
–  Random process
–  Purposive
–  Snowball
–  Systematic- from fixed intervals

•  Selection bias
–  In the choices - of group/variables/subject
–  Baseline characteristics of the groups that are
compared
Research Proposal - Content
•  Aims
•  Significance
•  Background - research problem
•  Budget and justification
•  Timeframe for each stage
•  Expected outcome ad benefits
•  Ethical issues and how to deal with them
•  How the findings will be communicated/
disseminated
•  Bibliography
Use of research proposals
•  Public presentations and feedback
•  Obtaining approval from authorities
•  Applying for grants
•  Preparation of a study/fieldwork

Note: The purpose/use determines the design

MAJOR STEPS
•  Formulating a Research Question
•  Using Theories
•  Choosing a Methodology
•  How Many Cases Do You Need?
•  Ethical Research
•  Writing a Research Proposal
Main tools/techniques
•  Interviews
•  Ethnographies
•  Content analysis/texts
•  Audio data
•  Visual data
•  Participant observations
•  Focus group discussions
•  Surveys
Interviewing in Qualitative Research
•  Structured /standardized: self-completion
questionnaire- closed or close ended
(Supervised, postal, internet)
•  Semi-structured: Open questions
•  Unstructured: list of topics
•  Ethnographic/intensive
•  In-depth: structured and semi structured
•  Focus group: discuss issue in specific group(s)
•  Life history
•  Oral historical
Differences between structured and
qualitative interviews

•  Qualitative interviews…
–  are less structured/standardized
–  take the participant’s viewpoint
–  encourage ‘rambling’ off the
topic
–  are more flexible
–  seek rich, detailed answers
–  aim to understand rather than to
generalize
Types of qualitative interview

•  Unstructured interview
–  few, loosely defined topics
–  open-ended questions to allow free response
–  conversational style

•  Semi-structured interview
–  list of specific topics to cover (interview guide)
–  flexible question order and phrasing
•  Life history interview
–  subject looks back across their entire life
–  reveals how they interpret, understand and
define the social world (Faraday & Plummer,
1979)
–  shows how life events have unfolded
–  naturalistic, researched or reflexive (Plummer,
2001)

•  Oral history interview

–  subject reflects on specific events in the past
–  testimonies of ‘unexceptional’ social groups
 Preparing an interview guide
•  memory prompts of topics to be covered
•  focus on research questions: ‘what do I need
to know about?’
•  logical but flexible order of topics
•  record ‘face sheet’ information (name, age,
gender, position etc.)
•  quiet and private setting
•  good quality recording machine
What makes a good interviewer?
•  Kvale (1996) •  Bryman (2004)
–  knowledgeable –  balanced
–  structures the •  talks neither
interview too much nor
–  clear too little
–  gentle
–  sensitive/empathic –  ethically sensitive
–  open
•  informed
–  steers the
consent
conversation
–  critical/challenging
•  confidentiality
–  remembers what •  privacy
has been said
–  interprets meaning
 Kinds of questions
•  Kvale (1996)
–  introducing (“Tell me about…”)
–  follow-up
–  probing
–  specifying (“What happened next?”)
–  direct
–  indirect (“What do most people think about…?”)
–  structuring (“Let’s move on to…”)
–  silence
–  interpreting (“Do you mean that…?”)
•  vignettes
–  ground questions in a concrete and realistic situation
 Feminist approaches to interviewing

•  the in-depth, face-to-face interview has

become the paradigmatic ‘feminist
method’ (Kelly et al, 1994)

•  unstructured or semi-structured rather than

structured interviews (Oakley, 1981):
–  indefensible for women to ‘use’ other women
–  non-hierarchical research relationship
–  rapport and reciprocity

•  possible tension between researcher’s

interpretation and women’s own
perspective
 Qualitative interviewing versus
participant observation

•  Advantages of participant observation

–  seeing through others’ eyes
–  learning the native language
–  taken for granted ideas more likely to
be revealed
–  access to deviant or hidden activities
–  sensitivity to context of action
–  flexibility in encountering the
unexpected
–  naturalistic emphasis
 Qualitative interviewing versus
participant observation
•  Advantages of qualitative interviewing
–  finding out about issues resistant to observation
–  interviewees reflect on past events / life course
–  more ethically defensible
–  fewer reactive effects
–  less intrusive
–  longitudinal research (follow-up interviews)
–  greater breadth of coverage
–  specific focus