Lecture 9

Question 1

Blue sky or black-box topics

Answer 1

phenomena we haven’t studied before or we don’t quite understand yet.

Question 2

Aim of grounded theory

Answer 2

construct new theory

Question 3

Origins of grounded theory (GT)

Answer 3

• 1960s: Sociology in the US
  
  • Rich tradition in qualitative ethnographic and case studies but losing ground during positivist turn to quantitative research in sociology
  • “The discovery of grounded theory”: strategies for qualitative research (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)
• Glaser & Strauss’s contribution:
  
  • Revolutionary message: systematic qualitative research can construct abstract theoretical explanations of social processes
  • Moving qualitative inquiry beyond descriptive studies into the realm of explanatory theoretical frameworks

Question 4

Positivism (Glaser)

Answer 4

• Empiricism
• Rigorous codified methods

⇒Systematic coding of data in GT

Question 5

Pragmatism & field research (Strauss)

Answer 5

• Humans are active agents
• Social and subjective meanings are created via language and action

⇒ Symbolic Interactionism: theoretical foundation of GT

Question 6

Symbolic interactionism

Answer 6

• Human action depends on meaning (our interpretation of things)
• Different people assign different meanings to things
• The meaning of something can change: via interaction and events
  = dynamic relationship between action, meaning and events
• Social processes, language and symbols play a crucial role in forming and sharing our meanings and actions

⇒ Grounded Theory studies human action and social processes via language and symbols (qualitatively)

Question 7

What is Grounded Theory? Definition

Answer 7

• systematic (yet flexible) guidelines
• for collecting and analysing qualitative data
• to construct theories from the data themselves
• on human actions and social processes
• inductively (theory-building): ‘grounded in data’ (not based on existing knowledge or theory)

Question 8

Different approaches to Grounded Theory

Answer 8

• classic grounded theory
• reformulated grounded theory
• constructivist grounded theory

Question 9

Classic Grounded Theory (Glaser)

Answer 9

• Neutral researcher & emerging theories
• Positivist

Question 10

Reformulated Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin)

Answer 10

• Generated theory is verified in the data. Researcher is not neutral but follows systematic coding phases to ensure rigorous data-analysis
• Post-positivist

Question 11

Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz)

Answer 11

• Theory is constructed in interaction between researcher and participant
• Interpretivist

Question 12

Sampling & data-collection

Answer 12

• Simultaneous data-collection and data-analysis
• Theoretical sampling: continued sampling is based on the emergent theory
• Often larger samples (theory building requires some iterations), but quantity is not a criterion in itself
• Rich data: revealing participants’ view, feelings, intention and actions as well as the contexts and structures of their lives
• Sampling until theoretical saturation

Question 13

Thematic/descriptive saturation

Answer 13

data are collected until no more patterns or themes are emerging from the data.

Question 14

Theoretical saturation

Answer 14

the point at which gathering more data about a theoretical category reveals no new properties nor yield any further theoretical insights about the emerging grounded theory.

Question 15

Coding:

Answer 15

= bridge between collecting data and developing an emergent theory to explain these data
= the process of defining what data are about (what’s happening; what does it mean)
= categorizing segments of data with a short name
(more on notes)

Question 16

Open coding:

Answer 16

• ‘Line-by-line coding’ – staying close to the data
• ‘Grounded’ in the data, not based on what you already know
• Break the raw data (e.g., transcript) up into snippets
• Codes connect snippets together; capture concisely what they are about

Question 17

Axial coding:

Answer 17

• Look for connections between codes: creating (higher-order) categories and subcategories (or ‘axes’)
• Purpose: sort, synthesize and organize large amount of data and reassemble codes of the previous open coding phase in new ways (around ‘axes’)

Question 18

Selective coding:

Answer 18

• Looking for connections between (sub)categories
• Connecting different categories ⇒patterns ⇒ theory
• ‘Core category’ captures the essence of the theory; other categories are organized around it

Question 19

Method of constant comparison

Answer 19

Coding phases (open, axial and selective) follow an iterative (back-and-forth) process:

1. comparing data from different individuals,
2. comparing data from individuals to their own data at different points in their narratives,
3. comparing incidents with other incidents,
4. comparing categories with other categories.

Question 20

Memo-writing

Answer 20

Bridge between coding and writing down the results

• Intermediate step between data-collection and writing the research paper (a good antidote for a writer’s block
• Memos help to develop theory
• Reflect the researcher’s thinking process
• Can involve diagramming ⇒ visual model of the GT

Question 21

Aim/result: A grounded theory

Answer 21

• A (tentative) conceptual model grounded in data
• Often a visual representation (diagram) of the new theory is provided

(more on notes)