Qualitative Research Methods Flashcards
What is qualitative research interested in?
Qualitative research is interested in the social worlds of individuals rather than measurement unlike quantitative)
When are qualitative research methods used?
When not much is known about the subject
Emic perspective
Is the perspective on the research in qualitative studies. It means that the researcher is interested in the experiences and feelings of the person they are interviewing or observing. The researcher needs to interpret these experiences/ feeling.
Once the researcher has interpreted the thoughts/feelings of the person they are interviewing/observing they will need to:
Interpret the thoughts and feelings. These interpretations will NOT be fixed.
What are the 3 strengths of qualitative research?
1) Good at exploring issues/subjects which can not be measured in a meaningful way.
2) Collects rich, in-depth data (however - may only collect a small amount of data due to the small sample - normally only 30 people)
3) Holistic
What are the 2 main concepts in qualitative research
1) Constructivism
2) Interpretation
What is constructivism?
Is the belief that individuals construct their own social worlds.
Reality only exists because it is constructed through social interactions. Prior to social interactions, reality did not exist.
Due to this belief, people will create MEANINGS of their social interactions with eachother and their environment
What is interpretation?
(similar to constructivism) It is the belief that people wi interpret the meanings of their social interactions with eachother and their environment differently.
The 2 methods of collecting data in qualitative research?
1) Interviews (group or individual)
2) Participant observation
Why is participant observation carried out?
Because it is normally unethical to observe people without taking part in some way. The observer can still take part in even if sitting in the corner of a room
What are the 3 different types of study in qualitative research?
1) Ethnography
2) Phenomenology
3) Grounded theory
What is the ethnography methodology?
The study of culture - originating from anthropology
What is phenomenology methodology?
The study of lived experiences.
Results in in-depth data and normally there is only less than 10 participants.
What is grounded theory?
Came about as there were criticisms that qualitative data did not describe things well.
Grounded theory is a set of methods with the idea to generate a theory
Theory
A set of ideas about how something works
