qualitative approach Flashcards
what is qualitative research methods?
- process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social/ human problem
what does the researcher build from qualitative methods?
- complex, holistic picture, analyses words, reports detailed views of informants and conducts the study in a natural setting
what is the qualitative approach?
- research that doesn’t involve numerical data
- use words, pictures, photos, videos, audio recordings
- peoples’ own words
what does qualitative approach tend to start with?
- a broad question rather than a specific hypothesis
what does qualitative data develop? what is it known as more?
- develop theory rather than start with one
- inductive rather than deductive
what are the types of qualitative data?
- interview (structured, semi- structured or unstructured)
- focus groups
- questionnaire or surveys
- diaries, field notes
how would we chose from qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods?
- consider what the research issue that you are addressing is
- what is the research method?
- what are you trying to answer and how?
what are the four systems to methods?
- epistemology
- theoretical perspective
- methodology
- method
what is theoretical perspective?
- how you, the researcher, view the world and assumptions that you make about the nature of the world and reality
- high level of understanding
what are the three questions for theoretical perspective?
- what is out there?
- what is reality?
- how can we understand existence?
what is epistemology?
- assumptions that you make about the best way of investigating the world and about reality
what are the three main questions in epistemology?
- how we know what we know?
- what is valid knowledge?
- how can we obtain it?
how do we see the world?
- 2 main approaches
- realist and relativist
what is the world view of realist ontology?
- world is real
- science proceeds by examining and observed it
how many truths are there in realist oncology? how do we find facts?
- single truth
- facts exist, and can be revealed through experiments
what is the world view of relativist ontology?
- whole truth is constructed
- everyone has a different experience
what is created in relativist ontology?
- scientific laws are basically created by people to fit their views of reality
how many truths are there in relativist ontology? what do facts depend on?
- many truths
- facts depend on the viewpoint of the observer
- fact is a reflection of you
what are the two main schools of epistemology?
- positivists
- social constructionists
what are positivists?
- believe that the best way to investigate the world is through objective methods such as observations
what does positivists fit with?
- fits within a realist ontology
what data do realists tend to gather?
- quantitative sources of data
what are social constructionists?
- believe that reality does not exist by itself
- it is constructed and given meaning by people
what is social constructionists main focus?
- feelings, beliefs and thoughts, and how people communicate these
what does social constructionists fit with?
- fits better with relativist ontology
what data do relativists tend to gather?
- gather qualitative sources of data
what is methodology?
- strategies of enquire
- involves the strategy, plan of action, the way that you group together your research techniques to make a coherent picture
what influences methodology?
- ontology
- epistemology
what are methods?
- what you actually do
- techniques and procedures you use to gather and analyse data/ evidence related to a specific research question or hypothesis
what are the different methodologies on? and why?
- on a continuum
- because there is no good or bad methodology
what do quantitative approaches collect and tell you?
- collect and analyse numerical data
- tells you if there is a difference but doesn’t necessarily explain why
when are quantitative approaches used? what does it explain?
- used when researches lend themselves to quantitative
- explains phenomena by numerical data analysed using statistical methods
what is controlled in quantitative approaches? what is used?
- variables are controlled as much as possible (randomised controlled trials are the gold standards) to eliminate interference and measure the effect of any change
- randomisation to reduce subjective bias
how do you know if the qualitative approach is appropriate for your study?
do you want to :
- understand a new/ not so well understood area
- understand complex situations, and changing and shifting phenomena?
- understand phenomena deeply and in detail?
- understand how people experience certain phenomena, how they define certain concepts, what is their intepretation ?
what is the focus of qualitative data collection?
- focus on collection of rich data to explore how and why things happened
what approach requires a larger sample size?
- quantitative research needs a larger sample size compared to qualitative
what should you be careful of in qualitative data collection?
- do respondents give accurate information or do they say what they believe that researcher wants to hear
- can the researcher be objective/ what are ways to ensure data is trustworthy
what shows the approach required?
- research question
what can qualitative and quantitative be?
- complementary or incompatible
- can combine methods and try to minimise limitations
what do we need to be aware of ?
- strengths and limitations of both approaches
what is the purpose of quantitative data?
- explain social life
what is the purpose of qualitative data?
- understand social life
what is the relationship between researcher- subject in quantitative data?
- distant
what is the relationship between researcher- subject in qualitative data?
- close
what is the theory- research in quantitative data?
- confirmation
what is the theory- research in qualitative data?
- emergent
what is the research strategy in quantitative data?
- structured
what is the research strategy in qualitative data?
- unstructured
what are the findings described as in quantitative data ?
- nomothetic
what are the findings described as in qualitative data?
- ideographic
what is the social reality of quantitative data?
- objective
- simple
- single
- seeking one truth
what is the social reality of qualitative data?
- subjective
- holistic
- multiple realities
what is the nature of data in the quantitative approach?
- hard
- reliable
what is the nature of data in the qualitative approach?
- rich
- deep
