Qualitative Research Design Flashcards
What is a tight design?
Good when working with well-delineated constructs.
What is a loose design?
the conceptual framework will tend to emerge from the field during the study, and the RQ will only become clear gradually, setting and participants will first be selected after initial orientation to the field site.
Good to use when experienced researchers have plenty of time and are exploring unfamiliar cultures, understudied phenomena, or complex social processes.
what is a conceptual framework?
A conceptual framework explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied – the key factors, variables, or constructs – and the presumed interrelationships among them.
A conceptual framework forces you to be selective about what information to be collected and analyzed.
What are the key Features of Qualitative Sampling?
Qualitative research usually works with small samples of people, nested in their context and studied in-depth.
Qualitative samples tend to be purposive rather than random.
Conceptually driven sequential sampling: when the whole sample is not chosen at once, but it gets chosen through the process.
Qualitative sampling is often theory driven.
What are the eight Qualitative Quality criteria?
o (a) worthy topic,
o (b) rich rigor,
o (c) sincerity,
o (d) credibility,
o (e) resonance,
o (f) significant contribution,
o (g) ethics,
o (h) meaningful coherence.
How can one achieve ‘worthy topic’?
The topic of the research is:
- Relevant
- timely
- significant
- interesting
How can one achieve ‘rich rigor’?
The study uses sufficient, abundant, appropriate, and complex:
- theorethical construction
- data and time in the field
- samples(s)
- context(s)
- data collection and analysis processes
How can one achieve ‘sincerity’?
The study is charaterized by:
- self-reflxivity about subjective values, biases, and inclinations of the researcher
- transparency about the methods and challenges
How can one achieve ‘credibility’?
the research is marked by
- thick description, concrete detail, explication of tacit knowledge, and showing rather than telling
- triangulation or crystalization
- multivocality
- member reflections
How can one achieve ‘resonance’?
The reseacrh influence, affects, or moves readers through
- evocative representations
- naturalistic generalization
- transferable findings
How can one achieve ‘significant contribution’?
the researcher provides a significant contribution
- conceptually/theorethically
- Pratically
- morally
- methodologically
- Heuristic
How can one achieve ‘ethics’?
The researcher considers
- procedural ethics
- situational and culturally specific ethics
- relational ethics
- exiting ethics
How can one achieve ‘meaningful coherence’?
the study
- achieves what it is meant to
uses methods and procedures that fits stated goals
- meaningfully interconnects literature, RQ, findings, and interpretations
Define Epistemology
EPISTEMOLOGY -> What is the nature of knowledge?
Epistemology is usually understood as being concerned with knowledge about knowledge.
- what do we mean by the concept ‘truth’ and how do we know whether some claim is true or false?
Is it possible to objectively observe and describe the world? (Objectivism - realism)
The researcher plays an active part in the knowledge construction (Subjectivism - relativism)
Define Ontology
ONTOLOGY -> What is the nature of existence?
Ontology deals with the essence of phenomena and the nature of their existence.
Differentiate between realist and subjectivist assumptions:
- Realist assumptions entail the view that the social world exists, ‘out there’, independent of our perceptual or cognitive structures.
- subjectivist assumptions entail the view that what we take to be social reality is a creation, or projection, of our consciousness and cognition.
Describe Positivism
A key aspect of positivism entails ignoring the subjective dimensions of human action.
The approach usually investigates human behavior through the use of hypothetico-deductive method.
o the aim is to produce generalizable knowledge through the testing of hypothetical predictions deduced from a priori theory.
Describe Qualitative Neo-positivism
Believes it is possible to neutrally apprehend the facts ‘out there’.
the belief that science can produce objective knowledge rests on two assumptions:
o the assumption of ontological realism – that there is a reality ‘out there’ to be known
o that it is possible to remove subjective bias in the assessment of that reality.
- Thus, what is ‘out there’ is presumed to be independent of the knower and is accessible to the trained observer following the correct procedures.
Describe Interpretivism
it takes human interpretation as the starting point for developing knowledge about the social world’.
Actors subjectively attribute to phenomena to describe and explain their behavior through investigating how they experience, sustain, articulate, and share with others these socially constructed everyday realities.
Describe Critical Theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures.
The researcher is no longer the neutral observer.
Describe Postmodernism
subjectivist ontology is combined with a subjectivist epistemology -> relativist view of science and knowledge.
there is a focus on language and discourse.
for postmodernists reality can have an infinite number of attributes, since there are as many realities as there are ways of perceiving and explaining.
What is meant be theoretical sampling?
Theoretical sampling simply means that cases are selected because they are particularly suitable for illuminating and extending relationships and logic among constructs.
What are the strengthens of qual. research?
Depth and richness of data
The participant perspective: understanding the meaning for participants in the study of events, situations, experiences they are involved with or engaged in
The role of context: understanding the particular contexts within which participants act and the influence these contexts have on their actions
Grasping processes: understanding the process by which events and actions take place.
Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences: openness and flexibility in the design
What are the weaknesses of qual. research?
- Labor intensiveness and extensiveness
- Time demanding
- Frequent data overload
- Too subjective? –> Researcher (self)reflexivity and integrity
- Access and adequacy of sampling
- Generalizability of findings
- Credibility and quality of conclusions and their utility in the world
What is a case study?
A case study is
o A research strategy that involves using one of more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions and or theory from case-based empirical evidence
Why do a case study?
- Accuracy (Context): Faithful to everyday realities – what is actually going on
- Comprehensiveness: Allows the researcher to maintain holistic and meaningful characteristics
- Richness and Depth: Relationships, Complexity
- Dynamics/Process: Follow developments over time
When to do a case study?
- At the beginning of an inquiry into a phenomenon –> Requires little delimitation, flexible
- When new perspectives are needed
- To understand processes
- When context is important
What is meant by Analytic generalization?
Generalize to theory and not populations
