Qualitative Research:

General Principles
Overview
▪ Topics Appropriate for Qualitative Research

▪ Prominent Qualitative Research Paradigms

▪ Qualitative Sampling Methods

▪ Strengths and Weaknesses

▪ Standards for Evaluating Qualitative Studies

▪ Research Ethics in Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research Methods
▪ Qualitative research methods attempt to tap
the deeper meanings of particular human
experiences, generating theoretically richer
observations that are not easily reduced to
numbers

▪ By going directly to the phenomenon under

study, and observing it as completely as
possible, researchers can develop a deeper
understanding of it
Topics Appropriate for Qualitative
Research
▪ Qualitative research is especially appropriate
to the study of topics for which attitudes and
behaviors can best be understood within their
natural setting

▪ Qualitative research is especially appropriate

for the study of social processes over time
(e.g., rumblings and final explosion of a riot
as events actually occur)
Topics Appropriate for Qualitative
Research
Appropriate topics for field research include:
▪ Practices
▪ Episodes
▪ Encounters
▪ Roles
▪ Relationships
▪ Groups
▪ Organizations
▪ Settlements
▪ Social worlds
▪ Lifestyles or subcultures
Prominent Qualitative Research
Paradigms
▪ Naturalism
– An old tradition that emphasizes observing
people in their everyday settings
– E.g., Ethnography involves naturalistic
observations and holistic understandings of
cultures or subcultures
▪ Grounded Theory
– Attempts to derive theories from an analysis of
the patterns, themes, and common categories
discovered among observational data
Prominent Qualitative Research
Paradigms
▪ Participatory Action Research
– Implicit belief that research functions not only
as means of knowledge production, but also
as a tool for education and development of
consciousness as well as mobilization for
action
▪ Case Studies
– Idiographic examinations of a single
individual, family, group, organization,
community or society
Qualitative Sampling Methods
▪ Probability sampling is sometimes used in
qualitative research, however nonprobability
techniques are much more common

▪ Nonprobability samples used in qualitative

research are called purposive samples
Qualitative Sampling Methods
Purposive samples include:
▪ Quota sample
▪ Snowball sample
▪ Deviant case sample
▪ Intensity sample
▪ Critical incidents sample
▪ Maximum variation sample
Strengths and Weaknesses
▪ Depth of understanding

▪ Flexibility

▪ Cost

▪ Subjectivity

▪ Generalizibility
Standards for Evaluating
Qualitative Studies
▪ Given the variety of research methods and
paradigms, a general agreement exists that
one key issue in evaluating the rigor of
qualitative research is trustworthiness
Standards for Evaluating
Qualitative Studies
Contemporary Positivist Standards

Three key threats to trustworthiness:

▪ Reactivity
▪ Researcher bias
▪ Respondent bias
Standards for Evaluating
Qualitative Studies
Contemporary Positivist Standards

Strategies to minimize threats:

▪ Prolonged engagement
▪ Triangulation
▪ Peer debriefing and support
▪ Negative case analysis
▪ Member checking
▪ Auditing
Standards for Evaluating
Qualitative Studies
Social Constructivist Standards
▪ This paradigm views trustworthiness and
strategies to enhance rigor more in terms of
capturing multiple subjective realities than of
ensuring the portrayal of an objective social
reality, the objective of contemporary
positivists.
Standards for Evaluating
Qualitative Studies
Empowerment Standards
▪ Those who take a critical social science or
participatory action research approach to
qualitative research include empowerment
standards in critically appraising qualitative
research

▪ Research must evoke action by participants

to effect desired change and a redistribution
of power
Research Ethics in Qualitative
Research
Conducting qualitative research responsibly
involves confronting ethical issues that arise
from the researcher’s direct contact with
participants:
– Is it ethical to talk to people when they don’t know you
will be recording their words?
– Is it ethical to see a severe need for help and not
respond to it directly?
– Is it ethical to “pay” people with trade-offs for access
to their lives and minds?