Title: Qualitative Research Methods
1Qualitative Research Methods
- Communication Research
- Week 12
2Who uses qualitative methods?
- Philosophers
- Psychologists
- Sociologists
- Anthropologists
- Students of literature
- Historians
- anyone who finds the methods of the physical
sciences inappropriate for understanding human
realities
3Why qualitative methods?
- Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein
4Varieties of Qualitative Methods
- Sources of data can include
- Ones own immediate experience
- Others experiences that can be sought to be
understood via - their speaking or writing
- their other behaviours
- their other products technology, artwork,
footprints etc
5Qualitative Methods
- provide in-depth descriptions
- study things in natural settings
- from the individuals perspective
- complexity
- in-depth examination of a number of issues
- contextual
- situational and environmental concerns specific
to people
6Myths and Realities of Qualitative Research
- Qualitative research
- is not as reliable as
- takes more time than
- does not involve numbers like
- is generalisable unlike
- is subjective unlike
- is not as systematic as
- quantitative research
7Why do some researchers prefer qualitative
methods?
- Ethical concerns about manipulation
- Reliance on measurement a concern
- Issue of control in quantitative methods
- Concern on quantitative tendency to reductionism
- Concern that experimental methods are
deterministic
8Some types of qualitative research methods
- Historical
- Survey
- Case Study
- Participant Observation
- Ethnography
- Phenomenological
- Interviews
9Historical Research
- Studies available data to study, understand, and
interpret past events - Uses primary, secondary and tertiary data sources
- Art or science?
- Interpretation can change over time and
according to political, social and philosophical
perspectives ie historical revisionism - was Australia discovered or invaded?
- C19th Colonialism and the White Mans Burden
10Views of history
- History is the record of progress
- History is the study of class conflict Marx
- History is bunk Henry Ford
- History is the story of great figures
- History is the study of everyday life
11What is history?
- These so-called facts which are the the same for
all historians, commonly belong to the category
of raw materials of the historian rather than of
history itself The necessity to establish these
basic facts rests not with any quality in the
facts themselves, but on an a priori decision
of the historian
12What is history? continued
- It used to be said that facts speak for
themselves. This is, of course untrue. The facts
speak only when the historian calls on them it
is he who decides to which facts to give the
floor, and in what order or context. E.H. Carr
(1961,5) What is history?
13Potential problems of historical research
- Limited to data already available
- Excessive reliance on secondary sources
- Uncertainty about authenticity and/or accuracy of
sources - Lack of objectivity
- Need to find patterns/weave a narrative
14Case Studies
- Pioneered by Sigmund Freud case of Anna O
- Examine the characteristics of a particular
entity, phenomenon, or person - Focus is on a single subject or unit (could be
multiple individuals) - A rich account of a phenomenon not available by
other means
15Problems with case studies
- Limited generalisability
- Deep but not broad
- What you see is not always what you get
- Researchers notes may only reflect one reality
- Observer (researcher) bias
- Cause-effect links difficult to validate
- Need for extensive data collection
16Ethnographic Research
- studies cultural patterns and perspectives of
participants in their natural settings - describes and analyses practices and beliefs of
cultures and communities - guided by theory anthropology, education,
psychology - understand the culture from insider and outsider
perspective - focus on behaviors, ideas, beliefs, knowledge,
etc
17Phenomenological Research
- considers how the experience of particular
participants exhibits a unique perspective - aims to understand and describe an event from the
point of view of the participant - subjective experience is the centre of the
inquiry - researcher does not make assumptions about
reality that is outside of the individual
18Unstructured Interviews
- Interaction between researcher and person(s) of
interest - Guiding questions but no formal structured
instrument or protocol - Interviewer moves conversation in direction of
responses - Need to tape record the interviews
- Consent forms for tape recording
19Focus Groups
- group interviews that rely on the interaction
within the group - designed to elicit more of the participants
points of view - interested in how individuals perceive a problem
20Focus Groups
- exchange of ideas of how to interpret key terms
or differences are resolved and consensus is
built - systematic variation across groups
- variations in
- ordering of questions
- background traits of participants
- homogenous groups vs heterogeneous groups
- compare responses of individuals who meet several
times
21Grounded Theory Glaser Strauss 1960s
- method for developing grounded theory is based on
data that are systematically gathered and
analysed - theoretical propositions are not stated at the
beginning - generalisations (theory) comes from the data and
not before data collection
22Grounded Theory
- emerging theory is grounded in the current
project - constant comparative method
- researcher interprets the data and uses it to
generate theory - must verify the hypotheses that emerge from the
study
23Key Features of Grounded Theory
- constant interaction with data to identify
possible theories relate to the study - select incidents that seems to reflect the
emerging theory ask more questions that will
fill in the gaps - coding techniques to help organize the
information
24Finally general characteristics of qualitative
research...
- Data sources are real-world situations
- Data are descriptive
- Emphasizes a holistic approach (processes and
outcomes) - Data analysis is inductive
- Describes the meaning(s) of research finding(s)
from the perspective of the research participants
25The general characteristics of qualitative
research...
- Involves developing generalisations from a
limited number of observations or experiences - Highly dependant upon the representativeness of
the specific observations used to make the
generalisation
26The last word on qualitative methods from a
famous researcher
- Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will
learn nothing from experimental psychology. He
would be better advised to abandon exact science,
put away his scholars gown, bid farewell to his
study, and wander with human heart through the
world. There in the horror of prisons, lunatic
asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in
brothels and gambling hells in the salons of the
elegant
27Last word continued
- the Stock Exchange, socialist meetings,
churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic
sects, through love and hate, through the
experience of passion in every form of his own
body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge
than text books a foot thick could give him, and
he will know how to doctor the sick with the real
knowledge of the human soul. Carl Jung