on studying its subject in a natural
Practical Research One
Pre-Finals Reviewer
Introduction to Research
Cresswell (1994) as cited in Carey,
Naval, & Prieto (2017) defined this as “an
inquiry process of understanding a
social or human problem based in
building a complex holistic picture
formed with words, reporting detailed
views of informants and conducted in a
natural setting.”
● Locke, Spirduso and Silverman
(1987) as cited in Carey, Naval, &
Prieto (2017) emphasized that the
intent of this research is “to
understand a particular social
situation, event, role, group, or
interaction.”
● Franenkel and Wallen (1990) as
cited in Carey, Naval, & Prieto (2017)
stressed that qualitative
researchers are interested in
“understanding how things occur.”
● It is essentially a descriptive
analysis and follows the
inductive process of reasoning,
that is, from specific situations.
● It utilizes “soft data” (i.e. data in
forms of impressions, words,
sentences, photos, and symbols). It
is interpretive and it follows a non-
linear research path and speaks
language of “cases and contexts”.
Cases that arise from daily life are
closely examined (Neuman, 2007
as cited in Carey, Naval, & Prieto,
2017).
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
• It is important for researchers to
understand the nature of
qualitative research and consider
its characteristics in
constructing research design,
data collection, and data
analysis.
• Qualitative research is a form of
natural inquiry because it focuses
setting.
• This enables the researcher to be
immersed in the actual
experiences of the research
participants and to get as much
detailed data as s/he needs.
• It is like documenting people in
real-life.
• The focus of qualitative research
is on the participants’ perceptions
and experiences and the way they
make sense of their lives
(Franenkel and Wallen, 1988 as
cited in Carey, Naval, & Prieto,
2017).
Utilize Inductive Analysis
Inductive analysis is a qualitative
approach that allows primary research
findings to be derived from the most
dominant and significant themes being
observed in society.
Utilize Holistic Approach
• Holistic approach focuses on the
the entirety of the system. It
assumes that the whole system is
better compared to the the sum of
its parts.
Requires Personal Immersion
• The researcher is required to
become part of the observed
group in order to acquire more in-
depth data for the research.
Objective
• The results of the research must
not be affected by the perception
or personal experiences of the
researcher.

Empathic Neutrality
• The researcher must be keen in
observing neutrality in compiling
findings from the study.
Flexible Research Design
• Researchers may continue to
conduct research on new
objectives or questions that
emerged during the research
process.
Qualitative Data
• Qualitative data refers to the
detailed documentation and
description of certain events or
phenomenon being observed
● The methods are interactive and
humanistic, call for active
participation of research
participants, and on the part of the
researcher, sensitivity to the needs
of the participants.
● It uses various ways of collecting
data: observation, structured or
semi-structured interviews,
documents, e-mails, blogs, videos,
stills, etc.
● Its results being emergent, new
discoveries during the data
gathering procedure can lead to a
total revision of research
questions, among others.
● The theory or general pattern of
understanding will emerge as it
begins with initial codes,
develops into broad themes, and
coalesces into a ground theory or
broad interpretation (Cresswell,
2003 as in Carey, Naval, & Prieto,
2017)
● It is fundamentally interpretative.
This includes a description of an
individual or setting, analyzing
data for themes or categories, and
finally, making an interpretation or
drawing conclusions about its
meaning, personally and
theoretically, stating the lessons
learned and offering further
questions to be asked (Wolcott,
1994 as cited in Carey, Naval, &
Prieto, 2017).
The researcher is the primary
instrument in data collection. S/he views
social phenomena holistically. The more
complex, interactive and encompassing
the narrative, the better is the qualitative
study.
Strenghts of Qualitative Research
➢ It can offer the best light on or bets
answers to certain phenomena---
social, economic, political or
psychological.
➢ Its results are exhaustive, even
underlying meanings surface.
➢ It offers several avenues to
understand phenomena, behavior,
human conditions and the like.
➢ It can build on, or even develop
theories through consistent
themes, categories, relationships,
interrelationships that are
crystallized during the data
gathering and data analysis
processes.
Weaknesses of Qualitative Research
➢ Total immersion in the natural
setting of the research can be time
consuming and tedious, and
resource-draining as well.
➢ There comes a point when the
personal-self and the researcher-
self are inseparable, so,
subjectivity, on the part of the
researcher, can happen. To
prevent this, Locke et al. (1987) as
cited in Carey, Naval, & Prieto (2017)
stress that from the beginning of
the study, the researcher must
identify his/her personal values,
assumptions, and biases.
Qualitative Analysis
• The non-numerical nature of
qualitative data (e.g. interviews
and observations, documents,
books, films, or videos) calls for
non-numerical methods or
procedures of organization,
analysis, and interpretation.
• These usually consist of reducing
data to understandable form,
conceptualizing or elaborating
categories in terms of desired
properties and dimensions taking
into considerations the objectives
of the study
• Coding means not merely
attaching numbers to identify a
term but it is a process of
reviewing notes and discovering
common patterns out of the
textual notes,.
• In the library, books are arranged
according to certain classifications
(Filipiniana Section, and Journals,
Theses, and Dissertation Section)
• As we modernize, audios and
videos are being used in data
collection but these are
transcribed first into text before
coding cam proceed to analyze
the data.
Qualitative research has some
distinct characteristics that set it
apart from quantitative research
Unit 2: Introduction to Qualitative
Research
Lesson 2 Types of Qualitative Research
Types of Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research is being
used in different fields of study.
• It commonly focuses on human
behaviors, perception, and
interpretations. There are six
common types of qualitative
research.
Phenomenology
• Phenomenology is a type of
qualitative research that deals
with the description of
participants' real-life experiences
of a specific event.
Ethnography
• The primary purpose of this
research type is to understand the
culture and experiences of a group
of people in their natural
environment.
Grounded Theory
● Grounded theory aims to explain a
phenomenon and the evolution
of its course of action.
Case Study
• In a case study, the subject can be
a specific person of interest. It
can also be in the form of an entire
business, organization, town, or a
city.

Historical Review
• Historical review is a type of
qualitative research that aims to
describe past events to fully
understand the current patterns
needed for making future
decisions.

Narrative Review
• Narrative review is usually being
used to document changes in
human perspective or behavior.
Choosing one of the qualitative research
types is still dependent on the research
questions that the researcher wants to
answer.

Qualitative research commonly focuses

on human behaviors, perception, and
interpretations.

Choosing one of the qualitative

research types entails checking the
research questions and the purpose of
the researcher.

All of the types of qualitative research

can be used in any field of inquiry.