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Summary Qualitative Research Methods
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Summary of the book Qualitative Research Practice (second edition) of Ritchie, Lewis, McNaughton and Ormston.
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Summary Qualitative research methodsChapter 1: The foundations of qualitative research
Qualitative research methods is often described as a naturalistic, interpretive approach, concerned with
exploring phenomena ‘from the interior’ and taking the perspectives and accounts of research
participants as a starting point.
Common characteristics of qualitative research
Aims and objectives that are directed at providing an in-depth and interpreted understanding of
the social world of research participants.
The use of non-standardized, adaptable methods of data generation that are sensitive to the
social context of the study.
Data that are detailed, rich and complex.
Key philosophical issues in social research
Ontology: Concerned with the nature of reality and what there is to know about the world. Key
questions: Whether or not there is a social reality that exists independently of human conception and
interpretations and whether there is a shared social reality or only multiple, context specific ones.
Realism: An external reality exists independent of our beliefs or understanding.
Naïve realism: Reality can be observed directly and accurately.
Cautious realism: Reality can be known approximately or imperfectly rather than accurately.
Depth / critical / transcendental realism: Reality consists of different levels:
- The empirical domain that is made of up what we experience through our senses.
- The actual domain that exists regardless of whether or not it is observed.
- The real domain that refers to underlying processes and mechanisms.
Subtle realism: An external reality exists but is only known through the human mind and socially
constructed meanings.
Materialism: A variant which only recognizes material features or physical features of the world
as holding reality.
Idealism: No external reality exists independent of our beliefs and understandings.
Subtle / contextual / collective idealism: The social world is made up of representations
constructed and shared by people in particular contexts.
Relativism / radical idealism: There is no shared social reality, only a series of different
(individual) constructions.
Epistemological positions: How we can know or find out about the social world and the limits to that
knowledge.
Inductive logic: Involves building knowledge from the bottom up through observations of the world,
which In turn provide the basis for developing theories or laws.
Deductive logic: A top-down approach to knowledge. Starts with a theory from which a hypothesis is
derived and applied to observations about the world. The hypothesis will then be confirmed or rejected.
,Retroductive logic: Involves the researcher identifying the structures or mechanisms that may have
produced patterns in the data, trying different models for ‘fit’.
Abductive logic: Involves ‘abducting’ a technical account, using the researchers’ categories, from
participants’ own accounts of everyday activities, ideas or beliefs.
Foundational model: Assumes it is possible to mirror ‘reality’ accurately.
Fallibilistic model: Treats all knowledge claims as provisional.
Knowledge as ‘value-mediated’: Holds knowledge is affected by the values of the person who
produces/receives it.
Correspondence theory of truth: A statement is true if it matches independent reality.
Coherence theory of truth: An account is true as a representation of the world if it is supported by
several other accounts.
Pragmatic theory of truth: Beliefs are true if they have practical utility.
Positivism (empiricism)
Knowledge is produced through the senses based on careful observation.
Regularities and ‘constant conjunctions’ are identified.
Inductive reasoning is used after data have been collected to generalize from empirical
instances to general laws.
Reality is unaffected by the research process, facts and values are separate.
The methods used in the natural sciences are appropriate for studying the social world.
Reality can be known accurately.
Post-positivism (post-empiricism)
Knowledge of the world is produced through testing propositions: hypotheses about causal
relationships are derived from scientific theories and then evaluated empirically against
observations.
Deductive reasoning is used.
Reality is unaffected by the research process, facts and values are separate. Objective value-free
research is possible.
The methods used in the natural sciences are appropriate for studying the social world.
Reality can be known approximately, hypotheses can be rejected or provisionally confirmed, but
not definitively proved to be true.
Different schools of thought that derived from those perspectives:
Interpretivism:
Knowledge is produced by exploring and understanding the social world of the people being
studied, focusing on their meanings and interpretations.
Researchers construct meanings and interpretations based on those of participants.
The research process is largely inductive in the sense that interpretation is grounded in the data.
Observations are ‘theory-laden’ because they are mediated by ideas and assumptions.
Reality is affected by the research process, facts and values are not separate. Objective value-
free research is impossible.
, The methods used in the natural sciences are not appropriate for studying the social world
because social world is not governed by law-like regularities. Rather; It is mediated through
meaning and human agency.
Traditions and approaches in qualitative in qualitative research
Ethnography: Understanding the social world of people being studied through immersion in their
community to produce detailed descriptions of their culture and beliefs.
Phenomenology/ethnomethodology: Understanding the ‘constructs’, concepts or ideas people use in
everyday life to make sense of their world.
Leading to
Conversation analysis: Analyzing the way in which talk is structurally organized, focusing on the way
people give meaning to situations.
Discourse analysis: Examining the way knowledge is produced within different discourses and the
performances used in particular accounts.
Protocol analysis: Examining and drawing inference about the cognitive processes that underlie the
performance of tasks.
Interpretive phenomenological analysis: Exploring the meaning and significance of a relevant
experience to given participant – what it is like for them – in order to gain insights into psychosocial
processes.
Symbolic interactionism: Exploring behavior and social roles to understand how people interpret and
react to their environment.
Leading to
Grounded theory: Developing ‘emergent’ theories of social action through the identification of
analytical categories from the data and the relationship between them.
Ethogenics: Exploring the underlying structure of behavioral acts by investigating the meaning people
attach to them.
Hermeneutics: Exploring the conditions under which a human product (ex. a text) was produced or act
took place in order to interpret its meanings.
Narrative analysis: Analyzing what a narrative reveals about the person and their world. Studying the
way people tell stories and the structure of narratives.
Constructionism: Displaying ‘constructed realities of people in a particular setting, exploring their
meanings and explanations.
Critical theory: Identifying ways in which material conditions influence beliefs, behavior and experiences.
Leading to
Participatory action research, user-led research: Based on a collaborative approach with participants
and aimed at enacting positive change for those involved.
Pragmatism: Choosing an approach that best fits the specific research question.
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