Qualitative Research Methods

Question 1

What is research?

Answer 1

A creative systematic activity undertaken in order to increase the stock knowledge

Question 2

What type of research is it if numbers can be used to answer the question?

Answer 2

Quantitative

Question 3

What type of research is it if numbers can’t be used to answer the question?

Answer 3

Qualitative

Question 4

What is qualitative research?

Answer 4

strategy for systematic collection, organisation and interpretation of textual information

Question 5

What is the aim of qualitative research>

Answer 5

To generate novel sights into phenomena that are difficult to measure quantitatively

Question 6

What is the positivist paradigm?

Answer 6

AKA quantitaive paradigm

Numbers are important
Data is collected and reduced to numbers and statistics
Phenomena that are ‘out there’ to be discovered, measured and analysed
Objectivity – no apparent intrusion of the researcher into the researched
Knowledge is cumulative
Phenomena are fixed realities that cross cultures
Replicability

Question 7

What is the interpretist paradigm?

Answer 7

AKA qualitative paradigm

Knowledge derives from human perceptions
Illumination (not measurement or proof)
Acceptance of complexity (reality is not the same everywhere)
Reliance on words that reflect the complexity of a phenomenon, and their interpretation
Awareness of the influence of context, and of the researcher on the ‘researched’
Non-replicability
Internal validity but not necessarily generalizable

Question 8

What are the challenges of qualitative research?

Answer 8

Researcher’s presence and bias
‘Emerging’ questions
Lack of generalizability
Poor replication and validity

Question 9

What are some typical qualitative methods?

Answer 9

Interviews (structured and semi-structured)
Participant observations
Focus groups
Textual analysis (diaries, documents, pictures etc.)