Exam 1 Flashcards
Grounded Theory
a. The discovery of theory happens or is “grounded” through the analysis of the gathered data.
b. Type of qualitative research.
c. In terms of data analysis grounded theory refers to coding incidents from the data and identifying analytical categories as they emerge from the data, rather than defining them a priori
Seeks understanding but also general theory about what is being observed
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Ethnography
a. Type of qualitative research.
b. Most familiar to researchers
c. The scientific description of the customs of peoples and cultures.
d. The result of ethnographic inquiry is cultural description
Emic perspective (insider to the culture) Etic (perspective of the researcher or outside)
Generalizability
Research limitation
Lack of representativeness
Internal Validity or credibility
Positivism
a. Assumes that reality exists and that it is observable, stable and measurable.
b. Experimental research assumed a positivist stance.
c. Purpose: Predict, Control and generalize
Post-positivism
a. Recognizes that knowledge is “relative rather than absolute: but it is possible, using empirical evidence, to distinguish between more and less plausible claims.
Constructivism
Philosophical root
Purpose: Describe, understand and interpret
Mental (vs constructionism—physical)
Based on interpretivism—reality is socially constructed, there is no single, observable reality.
There are multiple interpretations or single event
Pragmatism
Consequences of actions Problem-centered True if it works well/doing what works Pluralistic Logical/practical experiences rather than theory
Phenomenology
a. Philosophical root
b. Type of qualitative research.
c. A focus on the experience itself and how experiencing something is transformed into consciousness.
d. Interested in our “lived experience.”
e. Seeks to describe or explains phenomena – the task of the researcher is to depict the basic structure of experience such as love, anger, and betrayal.
Coding
a. Making notations next to bits of data that strike you as potentially relevant for answering your research questions.
b. Finding specific categories in data material.
i. Open coding – Identifying ANYTHING that might be useful because you are just beginning.
ii. Axial coding – the process of relating categories and properties to each other, refining the category scheme
iii. Selective coding – a core category, propositions, or hypotheses are developed.
iv. Category coding -
Reflexivity
a. The process of reflecting critically on the self as researcher, “the human instrument.”
b. The open acknowledgement by the researcher of the central role they play in the research process. A reflexive approach considers and makes explicit the effect the researcher may have had on the research findings.
Thick description
a. Complete, literal description of the incident or entity being investigated.
b. “Culture is not a power, something to which social events, behaviors, institutions, or processes can be causally attributed; it is a context, something within which they can be intelligibly aka thickly described.”
c. At the heart of ethnography
Critical qualitative study
a. Type of qualitative research.
b. Raises questions about how power relations advance the interests of one group while oppressing those of other groups and the nature of truth and the construction of knowledge.
c. Purpose: to change, emancipate or empower
d. Engages in social critique that raises consciousness and empowers people for social change.
Inductive Methods
a. Researchers gather data to build concepts, hypotheses, or theories rather than deductively testing hypotheses as in positivist research.
b. The researcher uses observations to build an abstraction or to describe a picture of the phenomenon that is being studied
Deductive Methods
a. A deductive approach is concerned with developing a hypothesis (or hypotheses) based on existing theory, and then designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis
Symbolic interactionism
a. Philosophical root
b. Focuses on meaning and interpretation that people create and share through their interactions.
c. Emphasis on the importance of symbols and the interpretative processes that undergird interactions as fundamental to understanding human behavior
Phenomenological study
composite description that presents the ‘essence’ of phenomenon called the essential, invariant structure
the structure of the experience being studied
Bounded system case study
a. A single entity or unit in which there are boundaries. A program, group, community. The unit NOT the topic characterizes the case study.
b. If the phenomena you are interested in are not bounded, then it is not a case.
Participatory case study
a. Characterization of a case study.
b. involves the participants, local groups, or the community in all phases of the research process, from conceptualizing the study to writing up and disseminating the findings.
Descriptive case study
a. Characterization of a case study.
b. The end product of a case study is a rich and thick description of the phenomenon under study.
Heuristic case study
a. Characterization of a case study.
b. Case studies illuminate the readers understanding of the phenomenon under study. They can bring about the discovery of new meaning, extend the readers experience or confirm what is known.
Postmodernism
one where the rationality, scientific method, and certainties of the modern world no longer hold.
The way things are is nothing but myths or grand narratives
a. Postmodernism is influencing our thinking about interpretive qualitative research and also critical research. In a postmodern world is one where the rationality, scientific method and certainties of the modern world no longer hold.
b. Explanations for the ways things are in the world are nothing but myths or grand narratives. There is no single truth but multiple truths.
c. Diversity is celebrated.
d. Purpose: deconstruct, problematize, questions and interrupt.
Critical race theory
a. A broad constellation of historical and contemporary theories that have actively engaged the prevailing racial theories of particular times and/or social contexts.
b. investigates and/or explains how race and racism are organized and operate, critical race theory also aims to redress social inequalities
Feminist theory
a. aims to understand the nature of gender inequality
Queer theory
a. We should not be defined by which sexual acts we perform, just like our gender is not defined by the things we do. According to Queer Theory, the current labels we have for people don’t work. That’s especially important because we have only one label for sexual behavior between opposite sexes heterosexual, while there are lots of labels for non-heterosexuals: gay, lesbian, and trans-gender, queer, bisexual.
