CHAPTER 2

Qualitative Research
and its Importance in
z
Daily Life
 Lesson 1

KINDS OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH, CHARACTERISTICS,
USES, STRENGHTS AND
z WEAKNESSES
 z
What is a Qualitative Research?
 Cresswell (1994) – an inquiry process of
understanding a social or human problem based
on building a complex holistic picture formed with
words reporting detailed views of informants and
conducted in natural setting
 Locke, Spirduso & Silverman (1987) to understand
a particular social situation, event, role, group or
interaction.
 Franekel & Wallen (1990) interested in
understanding how things occur
 z Cont.
 Qualitative Research by its nature is essentially a descriptive
analysis and follows the inductive process of reasoning, i.e., from
specific situation to a generalization of what caused such behavior
based on interviews or self-disclosures in written form

 Soft data comes in the form of impressions, words, sentences,

photos, symbols and so forth, whereas Hard data is in the form of
numbers (Neuman, 2007)

 Qualitative Research is interpretive, follows a non-linear research

path and speaks a language of cause and context cases that arise
from daily life are examined (Neuman, 2007)
 z
Characteristics of Qualitative
Research Marshall & Rossman (1995)
 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION - demands immersion in the
natural setting, in this way, the researcher is able to hear, see,
and experience reality as they perform their activites and deal
with one another during a period of time

 OBSERVATION - entails systematic noting or recording of

events, behaviors and artifacts in the social setting chosen to
study, with this, the researcher leans about behaviors and the
meanings attached to those behaviors. The researcher is able
to discover the recurring patterns of behavior and relationship
and able to note body language and effect aside from words.
 Cont.
z
 IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING - resembles conversation but with
pre-determined response categories, systematic questioning is
important to gather large amount of information and follow up
and clarification is done immediately. The researcher must have
an excellent listening skills, personal interaction, question
framing and gentle probing for elaboration

 FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING – involves 7-10 or 6-8 people

who are unfamiliar with one another and selected to share
certain characteristics that are relevant to the problem. The
researcher creates a non-judgmental environment, asks focused
questions and encourage discussion and expression of different
feelings and point of view.
 z
Cont.
 NARRATOLOGY - can be applied to spoken or written story
and requires a great deal of sensitivity between the participant
and the researcher. Ideally friendly atmosphere pervades during
the story telling, retelling and reliving of personal experiences.
The researcher must be an active listener and adept reader,
attentive to recurring patterns as well as narrator’s feelings,
views and values as reflected in both oral and written stories

 FILMS, VIDEOS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS – this provides visual

records of events, especially films and videos which capture the
perspective of the filmmaker or videographer, pictures on the
other hand, manifest the intent, interest and values of the
photographer
 z
Characteristics and Uses of
Qualitative Research
 the research takes place in a natural setting – at home,
an office, an institution or a community where human
behavior takes place
 the focus is on the participant’s perceptions and
experiences and the way they make sense of their lives
 the methods are interactive and humanistic, call for
active participation of research participants
 z
Cont.
 it uses various ways of collecting data: observations, structured
or semi structured interviews, documents, and social media and
others

 it is interpretative, which includes description of an individual or

setting, analyzing data for themes or categories and finally,
making an interpretation or drawing of conclusion about its
meaning

 the researcher is the primary instrument in data collection where

he views social phenomena holistically
Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Research
z

 qualitative research goes on very deep of human behavior or

experiences, that is, it cannot be explained with mere numbers
or statistical treatment

 Qualitative research can offer strengths such as:

 Offer the best light on or best answers to certain phenomenon, social,
economic and psychological
 Results are exhaustive
 Offers several avenues to understand phenomena, behavior and
condition
 It can develop theories through consistent themes, categories,
relationships, interrelationships that become clear during the data
gathering and data analysis
z
CONT.

 Its weaknesses are:

 Time consuming especially when total immersion

 Researcher and participants become sympathetic

to each other and cannot be separate, the
researcher must identify his personal values,
assumptions and biases
 Lesson 2

IMPORTANCE OF
z QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
ACROSS
DIFFERENT
FIELDS
 z
Importance of Research
 In Education

 Ethnographic studies of learning and knowledge in education

ask the question what counts as knowledge and learning in the
classrooms to teachers and students. Topic of teaching styles
and students behavior

 In Technical Communication

 It seeks to determine the effective use of technology in the work

place to ensure smooth flow of communication
 z
Cont.
 In Psychology

 It strongly shaped by the behavioral and cognitive traditions,

within which psychology should seek to understand and
determine observable, objective psychological reality

 In Advertising

 Researcher begin with larger point of view analysis then swing

back to deductive analyses through observation, in depth
interview, documents and record analysis
 z
Cont.

 In Social Work

 Researcher attempts to capture data through a process of deep

attentiveness, emphatic understanding and of suspending
preconceptions about a topic and subjectively understand
peoples’ behavior

 In Marketing

 It uses grounded theory approach where they study costumers

in different levels trough in depth interviews
 z
Cont.

 In International Business

 It uses observations, context analysis focus groups,

narrative interviews and archival research or hidden
methods
z
THANK YOU….

END OF CHAPTER 2 OF 7
CHAPTERS