2. The epistemology of qualitative research Flashcards
What is the ontological assumption?
realities are subjective, multiple and socially
constructed
What is the epistemological assumption?
In the process of gaining knowledge, researcher and informant are inseparable because they interact and influence each other.
What is the axiological assumption?
As research is influenced by values, pre-understanding, expectations, and biases must be exposed to the reader.
What is the methodological assumption?
The research process of qualitative research is mainly
inductive. It is bounded to the context and follows an emerging design.
What is the aim of qualitative analysis?
The aim is to conceptualise the meaning of phenomena and human actions. For idiots: You have people who behave in some way, and this has a certain meaning, and you make a concept out of this meaning.
What Chicago School influences are present in the Grounded Theory approach?
- the social construction of reality,
- the ability to generalise
- the practical applicability of the findings.
What is a similarity between Hermeneutics and phenomenology?
Both deal with the problem of
understanding.
What is the issue of pre-understanding?
Is it possible to understand human behavior if you are not the one who did this behavior yourself?
&
Is it neccessary to not experienced the behavior to be naive in order to actually understand a behavior?
What is bracketing (Epoché) and when do you use it??
If one has too much pre-understanding. You put prejudices or preconceived ideas within brackets, which means you disregard them for data collections and the first steps of interpretation.
Is pre-understanding necessary for hermeneutic interpretation?
YES! For example, it is used to identify follow-up questions during the interview.
What happens in the hermeneutic circle or spiral of
interpretation?
The researcher’s understanding increases from grasping the intentions of the informant to
understanding the whole context.
Hammer this in your head: the aim is either to reach a phenomenological description or a hermeneutic interpretation. What is what?
In a phenomenological description, the researcher and informant interpret the data together. In a hermeneutic interpretation, the interpretation is in the hands of the researcher.
Do phenomenological descriptions and hermeneutic interpretations belong to wither Qualitative Content
Analysis or Grounded Theory, or nothing, or both?
Phenomenological descriptions and hermeneutic interpretations are quite open both for Qualitative Content Analysis and Grounded Theory.
What is the Naturalistic inquiry in the context of grounded theory and qualitative content analysis?
The point of departure is empirically grounded (i.e. grounded in data)
What is “knowledge of the first order” and “knowledge of the second order” and how are they related?
“Knowledge of the first order” is common sense
knowledge. “Knowledge of the second
order” is scientific knowledge, acquired in a
research process, thus, knowledge gained in a systematic way.
Knowledge of the second order relies on knowledge of the first order. Knowledge just gained can be used directly (then it is knowledge of the first order), or it can be refined in a scientific process to knowledge of the second order.
