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• Eighth Edition

Qualitative Research

Methods for the

Social Sciences

Bruce L

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California State University Long each

Howard Lune \

Hunter College CUNY

1

P RSON

Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River

Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris

Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney

Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo



DesigningQualitativeResearch 19

Theory and Concepts 19

Ideas and Theory 22

Reviewing the Literature 26

Evaluating Web Sites 28 • Content versus Use31

Trying It Out 36

Theory, Reality, and the SocialWorld 36

Framing Research Problems 38

Operationalization and Conceptualization 38

Designing Projects 41

Concept Mapping

43 •

Creating a Concept Map

46 •

Setting and Population Appropriateness

47 •

Sampling

Strategies 50

iii

Contents

Preface xiii

Introduction 1

Quantitative versus Qualitative Schools of Thought 3

Use of Triangulation in ResearchMethodology 5

Qualitative Strategies: Defining an Orientation 8

From a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective 9

Why Use Qualitative Methods? 14

A Plan of Presentation 15

References 17




you must decide whether to use a single data-collection strategy or to combine

several strategies data triangulation). Will you undertake the study alone or

with the assistance of others multiple investigator triangulation)? You must

consider whether the study will be framed by a single overarching theory or by

several related theories theoretical triangulation). How much will the proj-

ect cost in terms of time and money, and how much can you actually afford?

Are the data-collection strategies appropriate for the research questions being

addressed? What will the data physically) look like once they have been

collected? How will the data be organized and analyzed?

In effect, during the design stage, you, the investigator, sketch out the

entire research project in an effort to foresee any possible glitches that might

arise. If you locate a problem now, while the project is still on the drafting

board, there is no harm done. After the project has begun, if you find that

concepts have been poorly conceived, that the wrong research questions have

been asked, or that the data collected are inappropriate or from the wrong

group of people, the project may be ruined.

In addition, the researcher must consider what Morse and Richards

2002) call the pacing of the project. By

pacing

Morse and Richards 2002,

p. 66) mean planning the sequence of various components of the study and the

movement between data gathering and data analysis. This planning requires

considerable decision making during the design stage and the flexibility to

make additional changes during the course of the research: Once you select

a data-collection strategy, say field observations, when do you start? Once you

have begun, when do you stop? Should you include interviews along with your

field observations, even though you did not originally plan to do so? All of

these decisions affect the pace, duration, and design of your research.

Researchers in the social sciences typically conduct research on human

subjects. The design stage is a time when you, the researcher, must consider

whether ethical standards and safeguards for subjects protection are ade-

quate. You must make certain that subjects will be protected from any harm.

Chapter 3 discusses issues of research ethics in detail. For now, regard the

design stage as the time when ethical proprieties such as honesty; openness

of intent; respect for subjects; issues of privacy, anonymity, and confidential-

ity; the intent of the research; and the willingness of subjects to participate

voluntarily in the study are appraised.

Concept Mapping

For many inexperienced researchers, the development of a research design, cre-

ation of a theoretical framework, or even development or use of existing theo-

ries can be a very daunting task. At this juncture, therefore, I want to introduce



hapter 2 / Designing Qualitative Research

a tool that can assist you in this process and that can also clarify confusions

about a particular research design plan or theoretical framework you may want

to use. This tool is referred to as concept mapping or occasionally mind map

ping (Kane Trochim, 2006; Maxwell, 2005; Novak, 1990). A concept map

is a technique that allows you to better understand the relationships between

ideas, concepts, plans of action, and the like by creating a pictorial representa-

tion of these ideas, or plans, and their connections. Concept maps allow you

to visualize specific connections between ideas or activities you are thinking

about, or to connect new ideas to knowledge that you already possess about

a theory or concept. In effect, a concept map permits you to better organize

your ideas and plans as you develop your research design or theoretical frame.

It is quite literally your drawing board for working through research and

theoretical plans.

Most sources suggest that the original idea of concept maps can be traced

to the work of Ioseph Novak (Novak, 1990; Novak Gowin, 1995) and his

colleagues at Cornell University during the 1970s-first to explore the way

students learned science and then as a tool for teaching science (Maxwell,

2005; Walker King, 2002). To the casual observer, a concept map looks like

a pretty standard flowchart; it is drawn with boxes or circles called nodes con-

nections between various nodes represented by

lines

and sometimes arrows,

and

labels

that identify what each node is and what the relationships are as

represented by the lines. Together, these nodes, lines, and labels represent

propositions or elements of meaning. Figure 2.2 shows a simple concept map

for considering a theoretical framework t a study on health professionals

perceptions of obese patients.

Concept maps have been used in educational settings as a learning

strategy, an instructional strategy, a strategy for curriculum planning, and

a means of student assessments. In recent years, concept maps have also

been integrated into many nursing programs and assist in the development

of patient care programs (Carpenito-Moyet, 2007); in evaluation research,

concept maps are frequently used to assist in developing plans (designs) for

evaluating programs and organizations (Kane Trochim, 2006). Similar

schematic diagramming strategies have been offered in the social sciences by

Miles and Huberman under the general rubric of conceptual frameworks

(Huberman Miles, 1994, pp. 18-22), by Anselem Strauss as an integra-

tive diagram (Strauss, 1987, p. 170), and by Maxwell as literal cognitive

maps (Maxwell, 2005, pp. 46-48).

As Figure 2.2 illustrates, a concept map provides a means for orga-

nizing and thinking about the researcher s notions about some subject or

theoretical premise in a graphic or pictorial manner. This tool is particularly

useful for social scientists in developing and detailing ideas and plans for



Designing Projects

Fig u re 2 2 Concept Map of Concepts Pertaining to Social and Health

Professional Perceptions of Obese Teens

Health Professional Perceptions of Obesity

• Obese and normal weight people should be concerned about their

weight

• Concerned with media s effect on obese patients sense of setf

• Obesity has serious ramifications for heart disease, diabetes,

__ re_spiratoryilln esses an d asthm a, an d m usc ulo n ske letal d iso rd ers.

Social Perceptions of Obesity

/ • Fixation on thinness

• The obese have lower self-

esteem

• Parental attitudes reflect this

self-esteem concept

• The media has a strong negative

effect on obese teen s sense of

\. self

\ Health Prctesslonal

Interactions with Obese Teen\ as Active Interactions

Perceptions

Social Perceptions as Active Interact ns

• Recommend weight reduction of obese teens

• Recommend regular exercise regiments

• Seek to make teens heart smart

• Discuss self-image

• Teenage teasing of obese kids---especiaUy girl

on girl

• Obese child avoids public/social settings

• Parental sarcastic comments

• Parental refusal to purchase clothes

P aren ts le ave d iet m aterials aro und

Potential Policy

Recommendations

• Possible changes in social perceptions via media

• Educational efforts in schools both health issues and

teasing/bullying discussions)

• Sensitivity training

• Health routine training in schools

research. It is especially valuable when researchers want to involve relevant

stakeholder groups in the act of creating the research project, as when con-

ducting participatory research efforts (see

Action Research

in Chapter 7).

It should be noted that typically one does not draft and complete a con-

cept map all in one setting. Even the draft of the concept model shown

in Figure 2.2 is largely a first draft that could be refined as the researcher



C ha p

e r 2 / Designing Qualitative Research

developed additional information or narrowed his or her focus on specific

issues. How then, you may be asking, do you go about creating a concept map?

Creating a Concept Map

To create a concept map, you should first read widely on your subject, in

short, begin examining the literature and amassing relevant documents on

the topic. As you read through these documents, you should also begin

to keep a record of about 10 or 12 key concepts or ideas. Once you have

identified these concepts, you may follow these several steps to create a

concept map:

Step 1: List out the concepts on one page. I use my laptop for this, but some

people are more tactile and prefer to use post-it notes or small pad

pages, writing a separate concept on each pad sheet or post-it page.

The medium isn t important, but it is important to be able to look at

and move all of the concepts at once. This step should yield a good-

sized bunch of individual concepts.

Step 2: Rearrange the concepts on the page so you move from the most

abstract ideas to the most specific ones.

Step 3: Now, move the concepts on the page under separate columns, or

create separate piles of notes so that ideas go directly below other

related ideas. This stage gives you a physical layout that represents

your conceptual arrangement of the parts. At this juncture, you also

want to add additional concepts or labels that help to explain, connect,

or expand the columns or piles of ideas you are creating.

Step 4: At this point, you can move the columns into clusters of ideas located

at some distance from each other, such that you can draw lines from

the larger or broader concepts to the more specific and focused

concepts and ideas. This allows you to view where your tight clusters

of ideas separate from the looser, more distant interrelations.

Step 5: You are now ready to begin the process of making sense of the

clustered ideas and connections you have created in the previous steps.

In doing this, you should again review your literature and then begin

to assign descriptive labels to the connections among the clusters of

concepts or ideas. These terms and labels should explain or identify

the relationships you see between these clusters of concepts or ideas.

Step 6: You may want to separately describe examples, or even illustrations

(pictures, cartoons) of actions that belong with and may illuminate

the concepts and concept clusters.




Step 7: Now, you should reorganize the concepts so that the relationships

among them are visually apparent. You may want to create a flowchart

using various shapes circles, squares, rectangles, ete.) to depict the

arrangement of the concept and/or idea clusters and connective lines,

as in Figure 2.2.

Step 8: The final step is really a refining stage. You may want to show your

cognitive plan to others knowledgeable about the general subject area

or others working on your research team. From their comments, you

may make changes and/or additions to your overall concept map.

One of the great benefits of concept mapping is that it distinguishes between

concepts that depend on one another and ones which areJfistinct but relate .

For example, if you were to work out a concept map for socioeconomic status

SES), you would certainly need to work in qualitative and quantitative factors

that indicate social status and those that indicate economic status. Income is part

of SES, so you would need some measure for that. But you wouldn t say that

income

relates to

SES, because they are part of the same concept. Many of my

students, recognizing that racial categories relate to SES in the United States,

also try to fit race into their conceptualization. But race is a separate variable, one

which can only be compared to SES because the two are different things.

The final concept map, as suggested previously, may go through a series

of further refinements as others review the draft or as you review additional

pieces of literature. In addition to the overall design of the research, you will

also need to consider other elements, including, for example, the nature of the

research setting and the appropriateness of your subjects.

Setting and Population Appropriateness

During the research phase of a project, the investigator must consider a rationale

for identifying and using a particular setting as a data-collection site Marshall

Rossman, 2006). Decisions must also be made regarding who will collect the

data and who will comprise the research study population. While choices may be

numerous, some advice is in order. First, it is best to be practical. Select a site or

setting that is reasonable in size and complexity so the study can be completed

within the time and budget you have available. It is also wise to consider your own

level of skill,which as a novice researcher islikelyto be limited and your confidence

somewhat uncertain. The study site or setting should be a location where:

1. Entry or access is possible.

2. The appropriate people target population) are likely to be available.

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Berg and Lune-Chap02