Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research

• Involved with
• Meaning
• Understanding
• Interpretation
• Does not involve statistics

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Skills required to carry out Qualitative research

• Theoretical and critical skills
• Social sensitivity and empathy
• Good Social and interactive skills
• Good powers of observation

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• Quantitative comes from the positivist tradition
• Qualitative comes from an alternative philosophy
  involving social construction and phenomenology
• Qualitative is becoming more popular within the
  social/behavioural sciences

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Sources of Data

• Interviews unstructured, semi-structured
• Diaries
• Visual data such as art works graffiti
  adverts TV programmes, photographs
• Written data books, comics, newspapers, adverts,
  essays etc. Can be modern or old!

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Comparison between Qualitative and Quantitative
research
Qualitative Quantitative Soft Hard Flexible
Fixed Subjective Objective Political Val
ue free Exploratory Confirmatory Grounded Ab
stract
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The 3 broad strands of qualitative research
Epistemology Methodology Methods
Strand 1 Reliability validity
Epistemology Empiricism
Discovery of valid Representations using induction
Content analysis Protocol analysis
Strand 2 Generativity and grounding
Contextualism understanding the context of
ideas
How do people interpret their world?
Grounded theory
Interpretive analysis and deconstructing texts
Strand 3 Discursive and reflexive
Thematic analysis and Discourse analysis
Constructionism we make our world
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Semiotics

• The study of signs encompasses all forms of
  communication
• What underlies the ability of signs to carry
  certain meanings in society
• 2 components of a sign signifier and signified

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Signs

• Linguisitic signs
• Explaining meaning
• Visual signs

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The 3 levels of meaning in semiotics

• 1. The sign itself and the way it conveys meaning
• 2. The referential system in which the sign is
  organised, and the context within which the
  process of signification takes place
• 3. Cultural system or systems of knowledge within
  which the codes and signs operate

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Roland Barthes

• Signs denote and connote extra associations
• E.g. Rolls Royce car
• Barthes refers to this as convergence of signs
  and their connotations to shape a particular
  message.
• Myth

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Six procedures for creating connotation in
photographs

• 1. Trick effects to create myth
• 2. Poses and positioning
• 3. Objects included in the photograph
• 4. Photogenic technique
• 5. Aestheticism
• 6. Syntax

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Semiotic analysis of adverts

• Adverts make use of signs and myths
• They have multiple connotations
• Social myths are transferred to the adverts
  product

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Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis or IPA

• IPA is a qualitative method advanced by Jonathon
  Smith.
• It has its roots in phenomenological psychology
  and symbolic interactionism
• It stresses the life world of the participants
• Role for both context and language.
• Explores participants views of the world

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Problems with IPA??

• Findings in IPA are the product of and
  complicated by the researchers perspective -
  subjectivity.
• But, the researchers own conceptions are
  necessary to make sense of those personal worlds
  through their interpretations.
• This is accounted for by the REFLEXIVE section in
  any qualitative report.

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Thematic analysis

• Looks at verbal data usually transcribed from
  tapes made during interview sessions.
• The researcher reads and re-reads the transcripts
  until they are thoroughly immersed in the data.
• The researcher begins to pick out sections of
  data, and relate them to themes.

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Thematic analysis

• Themes are then merged and deleted to come up
  with more overall categories.
• The researcher should then look for the main
  points emerging from the data. And, also any
  gaps that they can see.
• Finally, the researcher should develop an
  explanatory framework to account for the various
  themes.

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Thematic analysis

• This is part of an interview with a mother, about
  the murder of her son in a pub.
• my daughter was out at the time. Having a drink
  with her husband. Not knowing that (S her son)
  was in the same pub. It was Fathers day. I was
  minding the children.

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Thematic interpretation

• Focus on personal feelings and resonances of the
  language.
• The fact that her son was murdered on Fathers
  day has increased resonance. Her son was a
  father, and she was his mother.
• What other themes did you come up with?

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Discourse analysis DA

• Language is not neutral
• Discourse constructs social life. It is not
  always the words used that convey the meaning,
  but other factors such as pauses.
• Discourse is manufactured out of pre-existing
  linguistic practices.

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Discourse analysis.

• DA is concerned with action orientation or
  function orientation of discourse
• Functions of discourse include blame, making
  excuses.
• All discourse is occasioned.
• Discourse analysis looks at the words
  themselves, and their function.

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Discourse analysis

• Difficult to teach people how to do discourse
  analysis, it is better to learn by doing.
• It involves abstracting yourself from the words
  themselves, and coming at them from a different
  slant completely.
• It is a move from seeing language as
  representative of psychological realities, to a
  focus on the ways in which accounts are
  constructed and to the functions they perform.

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Discourse analysis

• This is the transcript again try to think about
  the function that the language is serving
• my daughter was out at the time. Having a drink
  with her husband. Not knowing that (her son) was
  in the same bar. It was Fathers day. I was
  minding the children.

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Discourse analysis interpretation

• The son was in the bar on the day he was killed.
  However, he was not always in the bar i.e. he
  didnt have a problem with alcohol, he did not
  habitually drink a lot. He was in the bar only
  because it was fathers day.
• So the mother is trying to protect her sons
  image through her use of language.

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Focus groups

• Popular and widely used method in qualitative
  research.
• Involves an informal small group discussion on a
  particular topic, or set of issues.
• Based around a set of questions the focus group
  schedule.
• Researcher acts as a moderator, and poses the
  questions.

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Focus Groups

• Data is taped and transcribed.
• The data is then analysed, most commonly by
  thematic analysis.
• Can involve single groups, or several groups, or
  one group on several occasions.
• May also involve some kind of video clip or
  activity, like a rating exercise for a product.

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When not to use Focus Groups

• If the researcher wants to categorise or compare
  types of individuals.
• If the researcher is looking for a specific
  answer
• Not really appropriate to use content analysis
• Small unrepresentative groups, so generalisation
  is not advised.

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Practical Problems with Focus Groups

• Can be difficult to recruit and organise
  appropriate people.
• Moderating the group is a difficult skill.
• The large amount of data is time consuming and
  difficult to analyse e.g. ideally, interactions
  between group members should also be analysed.

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Running Focus Group Research

• Prepare materials e.g. the focus group schedule.
• Recruit your participants.
• Select a venue.
• Run the session.
• Transcribe the data.
• Data analysis.

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Writing up a Qualitative Report.

• Abstract summary of what was found.
• Introduction background and overview of
  methodology.
• Method number of participants, ages, gender,
  ethical issues and any other relevant
  information.

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• Analysis NOT a results section.
• Account of how quotes were selected e.g.
  generation of themes through repeated reading of
  key sections and discussion with colleagues.
• Include embedded quotes and interpretation and
  justification to summarise a theme.

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• Discussion findings should be related to
  material in the introduction.
• Reflexive section this is where the researcher
  states their position in relation to the
  analysis. They can say why they put a particular
  interpretation on something, or why they left
  certain things out. It is where the hidden is
  made visible.

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• References as usual
• Appendices as usual