Qualitative Research Methods

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Qualitative Research Methods

• Sung Seek Moon, Ph D

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Some Terminology of Qualitative Inquiry

• Phenomenology It refers to a consideration of
  all perceived phenomena, both the objective and
  subjective
• To discover the subjects experiences and how
  they make sense of those experiences
• Interpretivism It seeks to discover how the
  subject interprets his or her experience of life
• More focusing on understanding by means of
  conversations with the human beings to be
  understood
• More idiographic than nomothetic approach

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• Hermeneutics The interpretation of religious
  texts
• Interested in the interpretivists process of
  discovery
• Overall understanding of a text gives us a place
  from which to examine and interpret the meaning
  of its parts
• The examination of the parts may lead us to
  reframe our overall assessment

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• Participant Observation a specific form of field
  research in which the researcher participates as
  an actor in the events under study
• In-depth Interview less structured and gives the
  subject of the interview more freedom to direct
  the flow of conversation

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• Case study an idiographic examination of a
  single individual, family, group, organization,
  community, or society
• Description is a chief purpose
• Ethnography naturalistic observations and
  holistic understandings of cultures or subcultures

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• Generic Propositions Interested in the patterns
  of human social life
• Unfettered Inquiry field researchers basically
  side with the view that anything is fair game
• Deep Familiarity Place yourself in the position
  of those you wish to understand

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• Emergent Analysis theory emerges in the course
  of analyzing observations rather than preceding
  observation in the form of hypotheses
• True Content Interested in what is really
  going on
• New Content not replicating findings, but
  creating new observations, or new analyses, or
  both with each research effort

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• Developed Treatment Interested in balance
  between the presentation of data from
  observations and the elaboration of theoretical
  concepts that can represent and make sense of
  those data

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Grounded Theory
Coined by Glauser Strauss in 1967

• Inductive approach to understanding
• It begins with observations and looks for
  patterns, themes, or common categories
• The selection of new cases is guided by
  theoretical sampling concepts
• Theoretical sampling begins by selecting new
  cases that seem to be similar to those that
  generated previously detected concepts and
  hypotheses

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• To better ground your hypothesis in the empirical
  world, you might interview several additional
  practitioners with good clinical reputations to
  see if the same patterns are generated
• The process of using notes and memos in ground
  theory resembles the social workers use of
  process recording and problem-oriented case
  record keeping

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Topics Appropriate to Field Research (Lofland
Lofland, 1995)

• Practices
• Episodes
• Encounters
• Roles
• Relationships
• Groups
• Organizations
• Settlements
• Social Worlds
• Lifestyles or subcultures

See p. 430
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The Various Roles of the Observer

• Complete participant
• Participant-as-observer
• Observer-as-participant
• Complete observer

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Relations to Subjects

• How you may relate to the subjects of your study
  and to their points of view?
• Really jointing or pretending joining
• Insider understanding adopt their points of view
  as true temporarily
• Symbolic realism to treat the beliefs they study
  as worthy of respect rather than as object of
  ridicule

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Preparing for the Field

• Begin with a search of the relevant literature,
  filling in your knowledge of the subject and
  learning what others have said about it
• Make use of informants
• Be wary about the information
• Establish a certain rapport with them

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Sampling in Field Research
Select cases that are more or less intense than
usual, but not so unusual that they could be
called deviant

• Quota sampling
• Snowball sampling
• Deviant case sampling
• Intensity sampling
• Critical incidents sampling
• Maximum variation sampling
• Homogeneous sampling
• Theoretical sampling
• Purposive sampling

See p. 445
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Qualitative Interviewing

• Informal Conversational Interviews
• General interview guide approach
• Standardized open-ended interview

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Life History

• Researchers ask open-ended questions to discover
  how the participants in a study understand the
  significant events and meanings in their own
  lives
• Oral history interviews

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Client Log

• Qualitative logs are journals that clients keep
  of events that are relevant to their problems
• The logs can be utilized to record quantitative
  data about target behaviors as well as
  qualitative information about critical incidents

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Focus Groups

• Group interviewing
• To assess whether a new social program or social
  service being considered is really needed in a
  community
• 12 to 15 people were recommended
• Discussion of a specific topic

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Recording Observations

• Tape recording
• Taking notes
• Dont trust your memory any more than you have
  to its untrustworthy
• Its usually a good idea to take notes in stages
• Need to take sketchy notes (words and phrases) to
  keep abreast of whats happening
• Remove yourself and rewrite your notes in more
  detail
• To write out all of the details you can recall
  right after the observation session

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Qualitative Data Processing

• Rewriting your notes
• Creating files
• Using computers

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Qualitative Data Analysis

• Similarities and dissimilarities
• Norms of behavior
• Universals
• Six different ways of looking for patterns
• Frequencies
• Magnitudes
• Structures
• Processes
• Cases
• Consequences

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The Strengths and Weaknesses of Field Research

• Depth of understanding
• Subjectivity
• Generalizability

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Standards for Evaluating Qualitative Studies

• Threats to Trustworthiness
• Reactivity
• Research biases
• Respondent biases

Researchers perceptions
Social desirability