WEEK 2 - QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Question 1

WHAT IS QUALITATIVE USED TO DO?

Answer 1

• Used to understand people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviours and interactions through the perspective of the individuals

Question 2

WHAT DOES QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AIM TO DO?

Answer 2

UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON

Question 3

WHAT DOES QUALITATIVE RESEARCH EXPLORE?

Answer 3

• Explores words/textual data rather than statistics/numbers

Question 4

WHAT SORT OF APPROACH DOES QUALITATIVE RESEARCH USUALLY FOLLOW?

Answer 4

INTERPRETIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY

Question 5

WHAT CAN QUALITATIVE METHODS DO/ANSWER?

Answer 5

• Qualitative methods can; Identify and unpick the mechanisms which link certain variables. How/why do these relationship(s) exist?

Question 6

WHAT CAN’T QUALITATIVE METHODS DO/ANSWER?

Answer 6

• Qualitative methods can’t answer questions such as; How many? What are the causes? What is the strength of the relationship between…?

Question 7

CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Answer 7

• Highly contextual - collected in real world settings
• Analysis of words/images rather than numbers (more subjective experience; analyses feelings, emotions and opinions)
• Used when little is known about a phenomena
• Preference for meaning rather than behaviour (explains ‘why’ rather than ‘what’ or ‘how many’)
• Goes beyond a snapshot/cross-section of events
• Preference for inductive/hypothesis-generating, rather than hypothesis testing

Question 8

GENERALISABILITY

Answer 8

GENERALISABILITY - the extent to which we can generalise the findings of a study to the entire population.

Question 9

TRANSFERABILITY

Answer 9

TRANSFERABILITY - the extent to which we can transfer the findings in a specific context to another, very similar context.

Question 10

HOW IS TRANSFERABILITY USED IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

Answer 10

• Qualitative studies normally recruit smaller samples of participants (findings cannot be generalised to wider populations, but qualitative research does not aim to generalise)
• Qualitative researchers aim to explain understanding of a phenomenon and this information can be ‘transferred’ to similar populations/contexts

Question 11

WHAT ARE EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE METHODS?

Answer 11

• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Diary entries
• Case study research
• Documents
• Observations

Question 12

WHY/WHEN SHOULD WE USE QUALITATIVE METHODS?

Answer 12

• They are exploratory
• Used when we don’t know what to expect (typically no hypothesis)
• Used to enhance our understanding of a relationship found in quantitative research