3.

1 Foundations of Qualitative Research

• Qualitative research allows researchers to

study topics that are difficult to quantify
• These methods have recently become
more popular in social science research
3.2 The Context for Qualitative
Research
• Qualitative
– The descriptive nonnumerical characteristics
of some object
• Quantitative
– The numerical representation of some object
• Qualitative Measures
– Data not recorded in numerical form
• What are the contexts in which qualitative
research takes place?
3.2a Generating New Theories or
Hypotheses
• Qualitative research allows us to first
describe a phenomenon or human
experience, from which new theories or
hypotheses can be drawn
• Whereas in quantitative research the
approach is deductive, the qualitative
approach is inductive
• Qualitative data give us the ability to build
new ideas
3.2b Developing Detailed Stories to
Describe a Phenomenon
• Often, numerical data can be powerful, but
it is by nature depersonalized, and less
detailed than a qualitative report on the
same topic
• When researchers are able to combine
both approaches, our understanding of a
topic becomes even deeper
3.2c Achieving Deeper Understanding
of the Phenomenon
• Through the use of in-depth interviewing
and observation, a researcher is able to
gain a much greater understanding for
how people experience a phenomenon
– While polling and other quantitative
approaches are useful for examining how
large numbers of people view a certain issue,
only qualitative methodology can allow us to
understand why they view things the way they
do
3.2d Improving the Quality of Quantitative
Measures
• Qualitative and quantitative approaches
are not an either/or proposition
• The two approaches complement one
another
• Qualitative methods can be used to create
or improve upon existing quantitative
measurements, like surveys
3.3 Qualitative Traditions

• There are four main qualitative traditions

• Each has its own approach to data
collection and analysis
• Each asks the researcher to play a
specific role in the research process
3.3a Ethnography

• Ethnography
– Study of a culture using qualitative field
research
– A culture can be a large group, such as a
country, or it can be a smaller group, such as
a school
• Participant observation
– A method of qualitative observation where the
researcher becomes a participant in the
culture or context being observed
3.3b Phenomenology

• A philosophical perspective as well as an

approach to qualitative methodology
• Focuses on people’s subjective
experiences/interpretations of the world
• Meaning units
– In qualitative data analysis, a small segment
of a transcript or other text that captures a
concept that the analyst considers to be
important
3.3c Field Research

• Field research
– A research method in which the researcher
goes into the field to observe the
phenomenon in its natural state
• Qualitative data
– Data in which the variables are not in a
numerical form, but are in the form of text,
photographs, sound bites, and so on
3.3d Grounded Theory

• A theory rooted in observation about

phenomena of interest
• A method for achieving such a theory
• Grounded theory is inductive
– Builds a theory from “the ground up”
– Based on data
3.4 Qualitative Methods

• Qualitative traditions all have certain

methods that are employed to both:
– Collect data
– Analyze data
• Don’t confuse the tradition with the
method!
3.4a Participant Observation

• A method of qualitative observation where

the researcher becomes a participant in
the culture or context being observed
• This method often involves a time
commitment
– Months or years
– Researcher must work to establish his or her
relationship with the group being studied
3.4b Direct Observation

• The process of observing a phenomenon

to gather information about it
• This process is distinguished from
participant observation:
– The direct observer doesn’t typically try to
become a participant in the context
– The direct observer strives to be as
unobtrusive as possible so as not to bias the
observations
3.4c Unstructured Interviewing

• An interviewing method that uses no

predetermined interview protocol or survey
and where the interview questions emerge
and evolve as the interview proceeds
• Much like a natural conversation
• It may be more difficult to analyze
unstructured interview data, especially
when synthesizing across respondents
3.4d Case Studies

• An intensive study of a specific individual

or specific context
• Data may include observations, clinical
notes, medical history, life history
3.4e Focus Groups

• The researcher gathers information about

attitudes, opinions, and preferences of
selected groups of participants
• Can be used to generate as many ideas
on a topic as possible and to achieve
consensus in a group
• Useful in marketing, survey development
3.4f Unobtrusive Methods in Qualitative
Research
• Methods of collecting data that do not
interfere in the lives of the respondents
– Indirect measure: An unobtrusive measure
that occurs naturally in a research context.
Informed consent is an important
consideration, here
– Content Analysis-The analysis of text
documents. The analysis can be quantitative,
qualitative, or both. Typically, the major
purpose of content analysis is to identify
patterns in text.
Types of Content Analysis

• Thematic analysis of text: The identification of themes

or major ideas in a document or set of documents. The
documents can be any kind of text including field notes,
newspaper articles, technical papers, or organizational
memos.
• Indexing: A variety of automated methods for rapidly
indexing text documents exists. For instance, Key Words
in Context (KWIC) analysis is a computer
• analysis of text data. A computer program scans the
text and indexes all key words. A key word is any term in
the text that is not included in an exception dictionary.
Typically an exception dictionary would exclude
nonessential words like “is,” “and,” and “of.”
Types of Content Analysis

• Unit of analysis: The entity that you are analyzing in

your analysis: for example, individuals, groups, or social
interactions.
• Unitizing: In content analysis, the process of dividing a
continuous text into smaller units that can then be
analyzed.
• Coding: The process of categorizing qualitative data.
• The content analyst needs to be especially careful with
sampling to avoid bias.
3.5 Qualitative Data

• Qualitative data are any data that are in

nonnumerical form
• Examples:
– Interviews
– Observations
– Newspapers, magazines
– Drawings, pictures, photos
– Social media (tweets, etc.)
3.5a How Different Are Quantitative and
Qualitative Data?
• All qualitative data can be coded
quantitatively
• All quantitative data are based on
qualitative judgment
• Mixed methods research
All Qualitative Data Can Be Coded Quantitatively
All Quantitative Data Are Based on Qualitative Judgment
3.6 Assessing Qualitative
Research
• Credibility
• Transferability
• Dependability
• Confirmability
Discuss and Debate

• What are some research topics that would

best be addressed using a qualitative
approach?
• How are qualitative and quantitative
approaches to research different, and how
do they complement one another?
• What are some examples of when a case
study would be an appropriate method to
use in research?