1. Social Research Methods
Chapter 17: The nature of qualitative research

2. Features of qualitative research
Inductive view of relationship between theory and research
theories and concepts emerge from the data
Interpretivist epistemology (knowledge)
Constructionist ontology (being)
Emphasis on words/text rather than numbers
Diversity of approaches
Qualitative research is a research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather than quantification in the collection and analysis of data.
As a research strategy it is inductivist, constructionist, and interpretivist, but qualitative researchers do not always subscribe to all three of these features.
Look at the main features of qualitative research, which has become an increasingly popular approach to social research.
Qualitative research tends to be a more open-ended research strategy than is typically the case with quantitative research.
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3. Grounded theory
Not actually a theory in itself, it is rather an approach to generating theory from data
Data collection and analysis are done hand-in-hand, with constant checking back and forth
Useful in producing concepts
Key concept 17.2
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4. Research methods used in qualitative research
Ethnography / participation observation
prolonged immersion in the field
Qualitative interviewing
in-depth, semi- or un-structured
Focus groups
Discourse / conversation analysis
Documentary analysis
Focus groups and qualitative interviewing have become very attractive tools in qualitative research.
They allow us to get closer to the precise perceptions that people have about issues of social concern.
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5. The main steps of qualitative research
Qualitative research does not lend itself to the delineation of a clear set of linear steps.
Figure 17.1
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6. Concepts in qualitative research
Blumer (1954) argued against the use of definitive concepts in qualitative research:
because the indicators ‘fix’ the concept,
because what phenomena have in common becomes more important than their variety.
…and in favour of sensitizing concepts:
giving a general sense of reference and guidance,
allowing discovery of varied forms of phenomena,
capable of being gradually narrowed down
Theories and concepts emerge as outcomes of the research process, rather than operating as starting points.
You can look at the text on page 388 to examine Blumer’s (1954) distinction between definitive and sensitizing concepts. You may also wish to show how a self-completion questionnaire could be utilized to produce qualitative data.
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7. Approaches to reliability and validity
1. Adapting concepts from quantitative research
little change of meaning
quality, rigour and wider potential
external reliability (replication)
internal reliability (inter-observer consistency)
internal validity (good fit between data and theory) better?
external validity (generalization)
raise the similarity between internal reliability and inter-observer consistency
How relatively problematic are the forms of reliability and validity are for qualitative researchers?
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8. 2. Alternative criteria (Guba & Lincoln, 1994)
Trustworthiness
Credibility (a parallel for internal validity)
Dependability (a parallel for reliability)
Transferability (a parallel for external validity)
Confirmability (a parallel for objectivity)
Authenticity
Ontological (better understanding of the social situation)
Educative (better appreciation of others’ perspectives)
Catalytic (impetus for change)
Tactical (empowerment of participants)
Does the research fairly represent different viewpoints?
There is considerable unease about the simple application of the reliability and validity criteria associated with quantitative research to qualitative research.
Indeed, some writers prefer to use alternative criteria that have parallels with reliability and validity.
With regard to Credibility you should refer to respondent or member validation and triangulation.
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9. What is action research?
An authentic research method dealing with real problems within an organization
Designed to assist in their solution
Involving an iterative process of problem identification, planning, action and evaluation
Researcher plays an active role throughout
More common in business and management research than in other fields
Key concept 17.6
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10. The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 1
Seeing through the eyes of those studied
Taking the role of the other
Understanding the meanings people attribute to their world
Unexpected findings
Description and emphasis on context
Detailed account of the social setting
‘Thick descriptions’ of what is going on
though respondent validation can confirm the validity of individual accounts and help to redress the power imbalance between researcher and the researched,
these effects may be compromised when seeking validation from organizations rather than individuals.
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11. The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 2
Emphasis on social process
How patterns of events unfold over time
Social worlds characterized by change and flux
Flexibility and limited structure
No ‘prior contamination’ by rigid schedules
Sensitizing concepts
Concepts and theory grounded in the data
Most qualitative researchers reveal a preference for seeing through the eyes of research participants.
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12. Criticisms of qualitative research
Too subjective
Researcher decides what to focus on
Difficult to replicate
Unstructured format
Problems of generalization
Samples not ‘representative’ of all cases
Lack of transparency
Often unclear what researcher actually did
suggestions of possible criticisms before revealing the points on the slide ?
You may also wish to raise related issues such as that of anecdotalism.
What qualitative researchers choose to focus upon while in the field is a product of what strikes them as significant, whereas other researchers are likely to empathize with other issues.
The responses of participants to qualitative researchers are likely to be affected by the characteristics of the researcher.
Interpretation will be profoundly influenced by the subjective leanings of a researcher.
In terms of ‘lack of transparency’ – is it always like this? How can this be addressed? CAQDAS?
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13. Is it always like this?
Some qualitative research departs from these conventions:
Focused on a specific research problem (rather than sensitizing concepts / grounded theory)
More structured data collection (codified conversation analysis)
More structured data analysis (CAQDAS)
Greater transparency
Many accounts of qualitative research can be less prescriptive and more descriptive in tone than those of quantitative research
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14. Contrasting qualitative and quantitative research
This is a useful side-by-side checklist of the main focus or preoccupation of each strategy.
Table 17.1
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15. Similarities between quantitative and qualitative research
The concern with data reduction
The concern with answering research questions
The concern with relating data analysis to the research literature
The concern with variation
The significance of frequency as
a springboard for analysis
The control of deliberate distortion
The importance of transparency
The question of error
The appropriateness of research methods to questions
There are a surprisingly large number of similarities, leading to a more contemporary emphasis on integrated approaches to research.
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16. The feminist critique of quantitative research
It suppresses the voices of women;
Women are turned into research objects;
Controlling variables is viewed as a masculine approach;
The use of predetermined categories in quantitative research results in …‘the silencing of women's own voices’ (Maynard 1998);
Women are researched in a value-neutral way.
Aspects of quantitative research are offensive to some feminist researchers.
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17. The feminist preference for qualitative research
Women's voices can be heard
Exploitation is reduced by giving as well as receiving in the course of fieldwork
Women not treated as objects to be controlled by the researcher's technical procedures
The emancipatory goals of feminism can be realized.
Several writers have depicted qualitative research as having a far greater affinity with a feminist standpoint than quantitative research can exhibit.
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18. However…
Many of the worst excesses of discrimination against women might not have come to light were it not for the collection and analysis of statistics revealing discrimination (Maynard 1994; Oakley 1998).
It is difficult to see why feminist research that combines quantitative and qualitative research would be incompatible with the feminist cause (Jayaratne and Stewart, 1991 & Maynard, 1994, 1998).
Qualitative research is not ipso facto feminist in orientation and some writers have preferred to write about feminist research practice rather than about feminist methods (Maynard 1998).
Discussion point: the discussion on feminist research practice vs. feminist methods could be extended further to ask whether the relation of feminism to research is in actuality mainly as a critique of mainstream methods and methodology and that the relationships between women and qualitative research proposed in the previous slide could be equally applied to any group suffering from unequal power relations in social or organizational settings.
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19. And finally …Mixed Methods Research
Mixed methods research has become one of the major areas of growth in social research methodology
The divisions between quantitative and qualitative research have increasingly given way to imaginative ways of combining the two approaches and a growing acceptance of adopting a multi-method approach 19

20. A Practical Definition of Mixed Methods Research
Greene, Caracelli and Graham (1989) developed a conceptual framework that supported mixed-method evaluative inquiry and provided a definition for the approach:
“…we defined mixed-method designs as those that include at least one quantitative method (designed to collect numbers) and one qualitative method (designed to collect words), where neither type of method is inherently linked to any particular inquiry paradigm.” (ibid, p. 256)
Think: how could you make such an approach work for your research proposal? 20