QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Professor Dr Rosmimah Mohd RoslinFaculty of Business ManagementUniversiti Teknologi MARA40450 Shah Alam

E-mail: rosmimah@salam.uitm.edu.myTel: 03-55444704

Qualitative Methods for you? What is your research about? Are you looking at something new?

Are you addressing a new area? Are you studying human behaviour in an in-depth

manner? Are you addressing or answering questions

pertaining to WHY? And HOW?

Are you just confirming what others have done? Testing hypotheses? Describing quantitatively a situation?

When to use qualitative research…………? When there is not enough

information/literature to allow you to develop frameworks,

When you are in the process of correctly identifying problems or opportunities,

When you want to establish new theories, When assessing behavioral issues,

emotional, attitudinal and personality factors

Is qualitative method appropriate for you? Exploratory phase of your Ph.D research

Refining existing variables Possibility of adding new variables to existing

framework

Seeking new theory Non-existent of complete variables in existing

literature Completely new knowledge that has yet to be

studied extensively

Let’s define qualitative research… “ …interpretive techniques which seek to

describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the social world.”

Van, Maanen, J. (1979). Preface, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24, pp. 520-526

How different is this from quantitative research?

Qualitative QuantitativeThe aim is a complete, detailed description.

The aim is to classify features, count them, and construct statistical models in an attempt to explain what is observed.

Researcher may only know roughly in advance what he/she is looking for.

Researcher knows clearly in advance

what he/she is looking for.

Data is in the form of words, pictures or objects.

Data is in the form of numbers and statistics

Qualitative data is more 'rich', time consuming, and less able to be generalized

Quantitative data is more efficient, able to test hypotheses, but may miss contextual detail.

Assumptions of Qualitative Designs Qualitative researchers are concerned

primarily with process, rather than outcomes or products.

Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning how people make sense of their lives, experiences, and their structures of the world.

Cont.

The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories, questionnaires, or machines

Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people, setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting.

Cont.

Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures.

The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.

Adequacy of Qualitative Methods Lincoln & Guba (1985) identify four criteria for

adequacy or rigor in scientific research Truth value Applicability Consistency Neutrality

Criteria for Adequacy

CRITERIA QUANTITATIVE

RESEARCH QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH

Truth-value Internal validity Credibility

Applicability External validity Fittingness

Consistency Reliability Auditability

Neutrality Objectivity Confirmability

In Quantitative Research….. Internal validity: In quantitative research, the

elimination of alternative hypotheses such as history, maturation, testing effects, regression, instrumentation, subject selection, and mortality. Also relates to validity of instruments such as content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity.

External validity: In quantitative research, the generalizability of findings and the representativeness of subjects, tests, and testing situation.

Cont..

Reliability: In quantitative research, the consistency, stability, and dependability of a test or testing procedure.

Objectivity: In quantitative research, the outcome of establishing internal and external validity and reliability. Based on distance between researcher and subjects; relationship is mediated by protocol, theory, and instrumentation.

In Qualitative Research…

Credibility: When others can recognize the experience by reading about it.

Fittingness: When findings "fit" into contexts outside the study situation and when the audience views the findings as meaningful and applicable in terms of their own experience.

Cont.

Auditability: When another researcher can clearly follow the "decision trail" used by the investigator. In addition, another researcher could arrive at the same or comparable but not contradictory conclusions given the researcher's data, perspective, and situation.

Confirmability: When auditability, fittingness, and credibility have been established. Based on engagement between researcher and subjects.

:

Qualitative researcher values subjectivity in two ways…

the subjective involvement of investigators with their subjects and

the emphasis on subjective reality or the meanings subjects give to and derive from their life experiences.

Dealing with Qualitative Data Transforming qualitative data into quantifiable

data,

OR

Internalizing the meaning of the qualitative data Thick description Emerging themes

Commencing a qualitative enquiry… Starts with research question/s

Not hypotheses! Develop a conceptualization of

constructs Not a theoretical framework!

A qualitative enquirer will ask…

1. What do my informants know about their culture that I can discover?

2. What concepts do my informants use to classify their experiences?

3. How do my informants define these concepts

4. What theory do my informants use to explain their experience?

5. How can I translate the cultural knowledge of my informants into a cultural description my colleagues will understand?

Compared to a quantitative enquirer…

1. What do I know about a problem that will allow me to formulate and test a hypothesis?

2. What concepts can I use to test this hypothesis?

3. How can I operationally define these concepts?

4. What scientific theory can explain the data?

5. How can I interpret the results and report them so that my colleagues will understand?

How to carry out qualitative research….?

Document/Archival Analysis Texts, graphics, videos, movies, art works etc

In-depth interviews Face-to-face

Focus group interviews Observation

Participant Observation Full observation

Main Methods of Data Collection

Sampling Method…

Sampling is Open and Purposive Convenient Chain Snowball Judgmental

Analysis

Methods of analysis are interpretive leading to induction rather than deduction of research findings

Transcribing of responses is crucial for analysis

Analyses leading to the development of hypotheses

Interpretive Analysis

Interpreting how people construct and give meaning to their actions in concrete social situations

The observer deals with how social objects are made meaningful

No specific method of analysis or tool used apart from researcher’s interpretive ability

Outcome of a Qualitative Research

Propositions or Hypotheses Model or Theoretical Framework Emerging Theory

Methods of Dealing with Qualitative Data

Different Approaches…..

TYPOLOGY

A classification system, taken from patterns, themes, or other kinds of groups of data (Lofland and Lofland, 1995)

Categories should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive if possible

TAXONOMY

Similar to Domain Analysis A sophisticated typology with multiple levels

of concepts Superordinate and subordinate categories E.g. Bloom’s Taxonomy

CONSTANT COMPARISON (GROUNDED THEORY) Look for indicators of categories in events and

behaviours – name them and code them Compare codes to find consistencies and

differences Memo on the comparisons and emerging categories Eventually category saturates when no new codes

are formed Will develop Axial categories or Core Category – the

emerging theory

ANALYTIC INDUCTION

Look at event and develop a hypothetical statement of what happened

Then look at similar event and see if this fits into the hypothesis

Revise hypothesis if it does not fit Eventually, will develop hypotheses that

accounts for all observed cases

LOGICAL ANALYSIS/MATRIX ANALYSIS

An outline of generalized causation, logical reasoning process

Use flow charts, diagrams, etc. to pictorially represent these as well as written descriptions

Use of Dendograms

QUASI STATISTICS

Count the number of times something is mentioned in field notes as estimates of frequency

Create categories based on frequency

EVENT ANALYSIS/MICROANALYSIS Finding precise beginnings and endings of

events by finding specific boundaries and things that mark boundaries or events.

Commonly used for films, videos, graphic data etc.

METAPHORICAL ANALYSIS Use various metaphors and see how they fit

what is observed Can also ask participants for metaphors and

listen for spontaneous metaphors E.g. “As black as the night” – describe

frustration, bottomless pit, the feeling of helplessness

It would be best to check metaphor with participants – Member check

DOMAIN ANALYSIS

Analysis of language of people in a cultural context

Describe social situations and cultural patterns within it.

Look at semantic relationships Emphasize the meanings of the social

situation to participants Interrelate the social situation and cultural

meanings

HERMENEUTICAL ANALYSIS

Hermeneutics – making sense of a written text (Van Manen,1990)

Not looking for objective meaning of text but meaning of text for people in particular situation.

Tell their story (not the researcher’s) Use context – time and place of writing, to

understand

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Linguistic analysis of ongoing flow of communication

Find patterns of questions, who dominates time and how

Look at patterns of interaction

SEMIOTICS

Science of signs and symbols such as body language

Determine how the meanings of signs and symbols is constructed

Assume meaning is not inherent in those, meanings come from relationships with other things

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Somewhat similar to typological analysis Look at documents, text or speech to see

what themes emerge What do people talk about most? See how themes relate to each other Find latent emphases Theory driven – theory determines what to

look for

PHENOMENOLOGY/HEURISTIC ANALYSIS

How individuals experience the world Emphasizes idiosyncratic meaning to

individuals, not shared constructions Enter the other person’s perspective and

experience Also look at the effects of research

experience on the researcher-personal experience of the research

NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

More individual in the narration The story that is contextual, focuses on core

plot and basic actions Mostly used in study of literature or diaries or

folklores

Qualitative Research Approaches

Case Study Ethnography Phenomenology Grounded Theory

Case Study Approach – When to use? According to Yin (2003) a case study design

should be considered when: (a) the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why”

questions;

(b) you cannot manipulate the behaviour of those involved in the study;

(c) you want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they are relevant to the phenomenon under study; or

(d) the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context.

Types of Case Study

Type Definition

Explanatory Seek to explain causal link in real life interventions that are too complex for surveys

Exploratory To explore situations where the interventions have no clear outcomes

Descriptive Used to describe an intervention and the real life context in which it occurred

Multiple case studies

Used to explore differences between and within cases

Intrinsic Seek to better understand the case

Instrumental Helps to refine a theory

Collective Similar to multiple case studies

Ethnography

“……observation of people, in situ: finding them where they are, staying with them in some role which will allow both intimate observation of certain parts of their behaviour, and reporting it in ways useful to social sciences but not harmful to those observed.”

Ethnographic methods rely substantially on participant observation.

Participant observation may range from……

Participant

a. as observer b. Complete Participant

Overt Research Covert Research c. Observer d. Complete Observer as participant

Spectator

Features of Ethnography

a focus on exploring the essence and the nature of social phenomena;

the investigation of a small number of cases and possibly only one case in depth;

a tendency to work with unstructured data i.e. data that is not easily quantifiable or organisable in strict analytical categories;

Phenomenology

A study that is concerned with reality-constituting interpretive practices.

This approach examine how human beings construct and give meaning to their actions in concrete social situations.

It is a study of a phenomena appearances of things

Cont.

A study of things as they appear in our experience

A method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness.

Grounded Theory

This is a general methodology of developing theory that is grounded in data which are systematically gathered and analyzed.

Grounded theory methodology is designed to guide researchers in producing theory that is “conceptually dense” – that is, with many conceptual relationships.

Analyzing Qualitative Data – The Process

Data Collection

Transcribing Data - Verbatim

Draw meanings from the responses

Seek patterns

Develop categories

Construct themes

Propositions/HypothesesDevelopment

QUALProcess

Analyzing Qualitative Data

Constant Comparative Method Content Analysis

is the process of: Identifying primary patterns in the data Coding data Categorizing

Looking for similarities and differences in the responses Naming or categorizing all similarities identified Describing the meaning behind these categories

Interpretive Analysis Interpreting how people construct and give

meaning to their actions in concrete social situations

The observer deals with how social objects are made meaningful

No specific method of analysis or tool used apart from researcher’s interpretive ability

Subjectivity is paramount

Analysis can be done…..

Line-by-line analysis This involves close examination, phrase by phrase and

even sometimes of single words. Analyzing sentence or paragraph You will be looking at the whole sentence and asking

yourself what is/are the major idea/s brought out in the sentence.

Analyzing an entire document, observation or interview

Assessing the whole document and asking yourself what exactly is going on.

Look for similarities and differences of the documents, observation or interviews with that of others.

Coding of responses – Open, Axial and Selective coding

An observation, a sentence, or a paragraph is taken apart and scrutinized and is then given a name or label that represent the phenomenon.

Open Coding

- Is the part of the analysis that focuses specifically to the naming and categorizing of phenomena through close examination of the data.

- In this process, data is broken down into discrete parts, closely examined, compared for similarities and differences, and questions are asked about the phenomena as indicated by the data.

Axial Coding

The process of axial coding involves a set of procedures where data from open coding are put back in new ways by making connections between categories

Involves putting back the open codes by making connections between categories.

Researcher looks at causes and consequences, conditions and interactions, strategies and process

Look for categories or concepts that cluster together.

Selective Coding

This is the last level of analyzing data in grounded theory. At this point, you are integrating all the data that you have accumulated through axial coding.

The process involves selecting core category, systematically relating this to other categories, validating those relationships, and filling in categories that need further refinement and development.

This process is not much different from axial coding except that it is done at a higher more abstract level of analysis.

The researcher integrates all the data that have been accumulated through axial coding.

The researcher looks selectively for evidence that illustrates or justifies themes.

Make comparison and identifies contrasts between sub-themes and between themes.

Mapping allows researcher to investigate relationships across categories

Integrating findings….

Findings from open, axial and selective coding procedures are grounded to develop propositions (or hypotheses)

These are then written as a narrative providing thick descriptions of findings

All the categorical relationships identified in the selective coding process are put together into well structured narrative.

This is an iterative process where researcher is constantly going back to transcripts to cite evidence whilst presenting the story in a logical manner.

Evaluating Qualitative Research Validity

Does the study reflect construction of the actors? Trustworthiness ‘Thick Description’

Reliability Dependability Reflexivity Can be verified - triangulation

Objectivity Authenticity – report in the voice of the source

Triangulation Issue

Denzin (1978) has identified several types of triangulation. One type involves the convergence of

multiple data sources. Another type is methodological triangulation,

which involves the convergence of data from multiple data collection sources.

Cont.

A third triangulation procedure is investigator triangulation, in which multiple researchers are involved in an investigation.

Related to investigator triangulation is researcher-participant corroboration, which has also been referred to as cross-examination

Triangulation? Data triangulation - the use of variety of data

sources and data sets in a study. Data may be both qualitative and quantitative, gathered by different methods or by the same method from different sources or at different times.

Investigator triangulation - the use of several different researchers. Here the importance of partnership and teamwork is underlined as the way of bringing in different perspectives.

Cont.

Theory triangulation - the use of different theoretical viewpoints for determining competing hypotheses as well as for interpreting the single set of data.

Methodological triangulation - the use of multiple methods to study a single problem or phenomenon. It may also include the use of the same method on different occasions and situations.

Sources of Reference

Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559.

Cresswell, J.W. (2009). Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches, (3rd edition),Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.

Denzin, N. K. (1978). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). The landscape of qualitative research: Theories and issues. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A., (1967), The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, Ill: Aldine Pub. Co.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E., G. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions and emerging confluences. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd ed., pp. 163-188). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Cont. Lofland , J. and Lofland, Lyn (1995). Analyzing social settings, (3rd.

edition), Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods ( 2nd

edition). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Rossman, R. B., & Ralllis, S. F. (1998). Learning in the field: An introduction

to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Schwandt, T. A. (2000). Three epistemological stances for qualitative

inquiry: Interpretivism, hermenutics, and social construction. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln, (Eds). Handbook of qualitative research, p. 189- 213. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J., (1990), Basics of qualitative research. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Van Manen, J. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

All the best…

Thank you

Professor Dr Rosmimah Mohd RoslinFaculty of Business ManagementUniversiti Teknologi MARA40450 Shah Alam