Qualitative Research ONE Flashcards
What is Qualitative Research?
The aim of qualitative research is to understand the social reality of individuals, groups and cultures.
“Qualitative research is interested in understanding how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their experiences.”
Asking & witnessing = data collection
Interpreting & Knowing = Analysis
What is the historic development of qualitative research?
Freud used interviews & case studies to develop his psychodynamic model of personality.
Piaget used naturalistic observation to develop his model of childhood cognitive development.
Rise of “behaviorism” and quantitative methods post 1950s lead to decline in qualitative research.
The 1970s saw a resurgence of qualitative research, partly within the rise of feminism.
Who is interested in qualitative research?
❖Health * Lived experiences of a specific disease, disorder or disability
❖Psychology * Exploration of impact of Covid on young adults ambitions
❖Organizational studies * Experience of bullying in the workplace
❖Sociology * Women’s experiences of promotional opportunities following pregnancy
❖Anthropology * Recreational drug use
❖Education * Engagement in online learning
❖Marketing, management, economics, IT * Consumer perceptions of products
What are the 8 general characteristics of qualitative research?
- Natural setting.
- Non-numerical
- Non-interventionist
- Based on subjective experience
- Engages in individual sense-making
- Uses an inductive process
- Considered “holistic”
- Exploratory or descriptive
General characteristic 1&2?
General characteristic #1
NATURAL SETTING
Qualitative research is carried out in natural settings (versus experimental settings), hence the term “naturalistic inquiry”.
Qualitative research has no need to “control” the settings or experiences
General characteristic #2
NON-NUMERICAL
Data are usually non-numeric
Predominantly verbal (or written) data (not numbers or stats)
But also other human products, such as
pictures, music, sounds visual images, objects
General characteristic 3&4?
General characteristic #3
NON-INTERVENTIONALIST
-no using experimental intervention in the phenomena being studied
-interested in the process as much as the product
General characteristic #4
SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
- interested in the views of the people and their perceptions interpretations
- knowledge sought is a subjective understanding of people
General characteristic 5&6?
General characteristic #5
INDIVIDUAL SENSE MAKING
How people make sense of their lives - participants perspectives (individual sense-making)
The participants studied are often viewed as collaborators in the research process (co-production).
General characteristic #6
INDUCTIVE
Qualitative researchers tend to analyze their data using induction: The inductive paradigm
(using data to help formulate theories)
DATA –> THEORY
General characteristic 7&8?
General characteristic #7
HOLISITC
-person centred
-Study phenomena in their entirety, rather than isolating portions for separate study.
General characteristic #8
EXPLORATORY/DESCRIPTIVE
-dealing with singular and unique events and don’t attempt to generalise from research studies.
-because the formulation of general propositions is not the goal, representative sampling techniques are not an issue
Four common methodologies?
-Pneumonology
-Grounded Theory
-Discourse analysis
-Ethnography
-Pneumonology
describes lived experiences of an event, object or phenomenon
-Grounded Theory
Using qualitative data to generate a theory. Data –> theory
-Discourse analysis
Production of meaning through talk and text (use of language)
-Ethnography
Studying people, culture and customs.
What are the different ways of knowing in qual research?
Positivism vs neutralism & Subjectivity
Positivism:
“The quantitative inquiry approach is rooted in a realist ontology, that is the belief that there exists a reality out there, driven by immutable natural laws.”
Naturalism:
”Realities exist in the form multiple mental constructions, socially and experimentally based, local and specific, dependent for their form and content on the persons who hold them.”
Subjectivity:
❖ Each observer has their own world view
❖ Individual’s view is formed by the context, their culture, and position within society
❖ Researcher needs to interact with individual to explore and interpret their reality
❖ Shared patterns of meaning making
What is the process / steps to qual research?
Methodology (Qualitative)
-Inductive – generates theory (inside / subjective)
-Aim to examine and interpret reality from the mind’s eye of the observed
Methods – examples
-Observation – non-verbal and verbal behavior by notes, audio, video
-Interviews – semi- or unstructured
-Text – diaries, case notes, letters, qual surveys
-Focus groups – semi- or unstructured
Answers sought - examples
-Why do people choose to smoke?
-What are people vaccine-hesitant?
-How do people react when faced with a diagnosis of cancer?
What is the process / steps to qual research (2)?
Research question –> select relevant informants –> collect data –> interpret data –> conceptual framework –> release findings
What are the strengths of qual research?
Requires a much smaller number of study participants than quantitative research – more textured/detailed/closer
Can take a deeper dive into understanding an issue
Context is taken into account
Addresses a framing of questions which does not fit a positivist research approach
What are the weaknesses of qual research?
Findings cannot be generalised outside of study context (cannot be replicated or applied in the manner of experimental research)
Some say there is a lack of validity (due to researcher’s biases)
People do not always tell all – truly reporting or Illuminating?
Researcher can be overwhelmed by volume of data
What are mixed method designs?
What are some examples?
Mixed-methods design use both qual and quant methods:
❖ Triangulation design: both simultaneously
❖ Explanatory design: QUANT/qual
❖ Exploratory design: QUAL/quant
