Research methods part 2: qualitative research
Alex Voicu
Lecture 1
The foundations of qualitative research
Qualitative research: a definition
“Qualitative research includes various strategies for the systematic collection, organisation,
and interpretation of textual material obtained by talking with people or through
observation, in order to investigate the meaning of social phenomena as experienced by the
people themselves.”
(Adapted from: Malterud, K. (2001). The art and science of clinical knowledge: Evidence
beyond measures and numbers. The Lancet.)
General features of qualitative research
- Inductive view of relationship between research and theory
o Theories and concepts emerge from the data
- Interpretivist epistemology (vs. empiricism)
- Constructivist ontology (vs. objectivism)
- Emphasis on words/text rather than numbers
- Diversity of approaches & strategies of inquiry
Key principles of qualitative research
Seeing through the eyes of those studied
- Taking the role of the other & understanding the meanings that people
(‘participants’) attribute to their world
- A possible outcome: unexpected findings
- Some possible problems:
o ‘Going native’
o (not) knowing where to stop
o Seeing through only some people’s eyes
Key principles of qualitative research
Description and emphasis on context
- Detailed account of the social setting
o ‘Thick descriptions’ of what is going on
- Possible problem: ‘descriptive excess’
Emphasis on social process
- Interest in how patterns of events unfold over time within social worlds characterized
by change and flux
- Process-tracing
Flexibility and limited initial structure
- Emergent research design (at least to some extent)
Concepts & theory emerge from the data
- Letting yourself be led by what you find in the field
Purposive sampling
- Strategic (vs. random)
- Saturation (theoretical & empirical)
, Contrasting qualitative and quantitative research
Qualitative Quantitative
Theory-generating Theory-testing
Affinity: better suited Contextual understanding (depth) Generalization (breadth)
for… Micro level Macro level
Causal mechanisms; process Causal effects
Words Numbers
Nature of data Rich, deep data Hard, reliable data
Qualitative research questions
Generated in response to:
- A knowledge gap in the existing body of literature
- A practical problem
- Observed particularities in social surroundings (or statistics)
- Intended policy development or implementation
Types of questions
- Descriptive (What is happening in…? How do people organize themselves when…?
What meanings do people attach to…?)
- Explanatory (Why is it that…? What are people’s motivations for…? How could
intervention X be improved? Under what conditions does Y occur?)
Methods of qualitative research
- Ethnography / participant observation
o Prolonged immersion in the field
- Qualitative interviewing
o In-depth; semi- or unstructured
- Focus groups
- Rapid appraisal techniques
- Study of documents (incl. archival research)
- Discourse analysis
- QCA
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