Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research methods are designed to help

researchers understand people and the social and
cultural contexts within which they live. The goal of
understanding a phenomenon from the point of view
of the participants and its particular social and
institutional context is largely lost when textual data
are quantified. “
(Meyers – 1997)
Qualitative Research

 Early forms of research originated in the natural sciences:

biology, chemistry, physics, geology and wanted to observe
and measure in some way in order to gain understanding.
 Quantitative research refers to observations and
measurements that can be made objectively and repeated
by other researchers.
 Along with the development of social sciences: psychology,
sociology, anthropology, etc, they were interested in
studying human behavior and the social world.
• The social sciences found it difficult to measure
human behaviour in the simpler quantitative
methods, therefore qualitative research methods
were developed in order to look beyond how, how
often and how many...it looks at why and attempts to
further and deepen our understanding of the social
world.
Qualitative research methods:
• Concerned with opinions, feelings and experiences
• describes social phenomena as they occur naturally - no
attempt is made to manipulate the situation - just understand
and describe
• holistic perspective
• help us to develop concepts and theories that help us to
understand the social world -.
• data is collected through direct encounters i.e. through
interview or observation and is rather time consuming
Qualitative approach to research include:
• Phenomenology
• Grounded Theory
• Symbolic Interactionists
• Interpretivists
• Ethnographic research
Phenomenology

• The purpose of the phenomenological approach to identify

phenomena through how they are perceived by the actors in
a situation.

• In the human sphere this normally translates into gathering

‘deep’ information and perceptions through inductive,
qualitative methods such as interviews, discussions and
participant observation, and representing it from the
perspective of the research participant(s).

• Phenomenology is concerned with the study of experience

from the perspective of the individual
Phenomenology

• The ‘problem’ for many researchers with phenomenological

research is that it generates a large quantity of interview
notes, tape recordings, jottings or other records all of which
have to be analyzed.
• Analysis is also necessarily messy, as data doesn’t tend to fall
into neat categories and there can be many ways of linking
between different parts of discussions or observations.
Symbolic interactionism
• Symbolic interactionism accepts symbols as culturally
derived social objects having shared meanings.
According to symbolic interactionism symbols provide
the means by which reality is constructed
• Semiotics (Advertising, logos, literature)
 10

What & how can I

How do you go What techniques do
Paradigm What is reality? know reality or about finding out you use to find out
knowledge?

There is a single reality or Reality can be measured Experimental research Quantitative

truth and hence the focus is on and survey research Sampling, Questionnaire,
reliable and valid tools to Measurement & Scaling
Positivism obtain that

There is no single reality Therefore, reality needs Ethnography, Qualitative

or truth. Reality is created to be interpreted. It is Phenomenology, Action Interview, Observation,
by individuals in groups used to discover Research Case-study, Projective
Interpretivist underlying meanings of
events and activities
Techniques

Reality is constantly
renegotiated, debated,
interpreted in light of its
Pragmatism usefulness in new
unpredictable situations
The best method is one Mixed method Combination of any of the
that solves problems. above
Finding out is the means,
change is the underlying
aim

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH
Interpretivists
• The interpretivist approach views reality as something subjective and
based on meanings and understanding.
• The goal of the research is understanding, rather than making predictions.
• Interpretivist researchers don't consider the knowledge generated from
the research to be permanent but accept it as relative to the time, context
or culture in which the study was conducted.
• Researchers are more interactive and participatory in their research
studies.
• The primary data collection methods used in the interpretivist approach
include interviews and observations of the subjects.
Ethnographic research
• Ethnography is the branch of anthropology that involves trying to
understand how people live their lives.
• Unlike traditional market researchers, who ask specific, highly practical
questions, anthropological researchers visit consumers in their homes or
offices to observe and listen in a non directed way.
• The intent is to provide a detailed, in-depth description of everyday life and
practice. 
• it enlightens us about the context in which customers would use a new
product and the meaning that product might hold in their lives.
Netnography
• Netnography is an online research method originating
in ethnography which is applied to understanding social interaction in
contemporary digital communications contexts.
• It is defined as a specific set of research practices related to data
collection, analysis and representation, rooted in participant
observation.
• In netnography, a significant amount of the data originates in and
manifests through the digital traces of naturally occurring public
conversations recorded by contemporary communications networks.
• Netnography uses these conversations as data. 
Grounded Theory
• Grounded theory is a research methodology which operates
inductively,
• A study using grounded theory is likely to begin with a
question, or even just with the collection of qualitative data.
• As researchers review the data collected, repeated ideas,
concepts or elements become apparent, and are tagged
with codes, which have been extracted from the data.
• As more data are collected, and as data are re-reviewed,
codes can be grouped into concepts, and then into
categories.
• These categories may become the basis for new theory.
Grounded Theory
• Thus, grounded theory is quite different from the traditional model
of research, where the researcher chooses an existing theoretical
framework, and only then collects data to show how the theory
does or does not apply to the phenomenon under study.
Qualitative research usually involves:
• Direct interaction with individuals on a one to one basis
• Direct interaction with individuals in a group setting
• Data is usually collected from a smaller sample than would be
the case for quantitative approaches
• The benefits of the qualitative approach is that the
information is richer and has a deeper insight into the
phenomenon under study
• The main methods for collecting qualitative data are:
▫ Individual interviews
▫ Focus groups
▫ Observations
▫ Action Research
Observation
• Written descriptions
▫ The researcher makes written descriptions of the people, situations or environment
▫ Limitations include
 Researcher might miss out on an observation as they are taking notes
 The researcher may be focused on a particular event or situation
 There is room for subjective interpretation of what is happening
• Video recording
▫ Allows the researcher to also record notes
▫ Limitations may include people acting unnaturally towards the camera or others
avoiding the camera
▫ The camera may not always see everything
• Photographs and artifacts
▫ Useful when there is a need to collect observable information or phenomena such
as buildings, neighborhoods, dress and appearance
▫ Artifacts include objects of significance - memorabilia, instruments, tools etc
Action Research
• Gerald Susman distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each
research cycle
•   Initially, a problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed
diagnosis. 
•  This is followed by a collective postulation of several possible solutions,
from which a single plan of action emerges and is implemented. 
•  Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analyzed, and
the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has
been. 
•  At this point, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another
cycle. 
•  This process continues until the problem is resolved.
Content Analysis
• Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the
presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of
texts.
• Researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and
relationships of such words and concepts, then make inferences
about the messages within the texts, the writer(s), the audience,
and even the culture and time of which these are a part.
• Texts can be defined broadly as
▫ books, book chapters, essays, interviews, discussions, newspaper
headlines and articles, historical documents, speeches,
conversations, advertising, theater, informal conversation,
Content Analysis
• Palmquist's study of two composition classes, in which he
analyzed
▫ student and teacher interviews, writing journals, classroom discussions
and lectures, and out-of-class interaction sheets.
• To conduct a content analysis on any such text, the text is
coded, or broken down,into manageable categories on a
variety of levels--word, word sense, phrase, sentence, or
theme—and then examined using one of content analysis'
basic methods: conceptual analysis or relational analysis.