Qualitative methods

Qualitative Research Methods
Introduction:
This website presents a tutorial on qualitative research methods. It is
designed to help readers with little or no knowledge on the
subject. There are several types and classifications of qualitative
research methods, but here only five of them are discussed
(Creswell, 1998).
A qualitative research may be generally defined as a study, which is
conducted in a natural setting where the researcher, an instrument of data
collection, gathers words or pictures, analyzes them inductively, focuses on
the meaning of participants, and describes a process that is both expressive
and persuasive in language.
Creswell (1998) defines qualitative study as:
“Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding
based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that
explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a
complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, report detailed
views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural
setting.”
Qualitative research should not be viewed as an easy substitute for a
“statistical” or quantitative study. It demands a commitment to an
extensive time in the field, engagement in the complex, time-consuming
process of data analysis, writing of long passages, and participation in a
form of social and human science research that does not have firm
guidelines or specific procedures and is evolving and changing constantly.
For reasons why one could conduct qualitative research, click here.
Reasons For Conducting Qualitative Research
To engage in qualitative enquiry, there is a need to first determine whether a
strong rationale exists for choosing a qualitative approach. The following
reasons could call for a qualitative inquiry:
· Topics that need to be explored: This is a situation where variables
cannot be easily identified, theories are not available to explain
behavior of participants or their population of study;
· Need to present a detailed view of the topic: This is the case where the
distant panoramic view is not enough to present answers to the
problem;

· Need to study individuals in their natural setting: This is the case
where, if participants are removed from their natural setting, it leads to
contrived findings that are out of context;
· Need to write in a literary style: This is where the writer engages a
story telling form of narration and the personal pronoun “I” is used;
· Where there is sufficient time and resources to spend on extensive data
collection in the field and detailed data analysis of “text” information;
· The nature of research question: In a qualitative study, the research
questions often starts with a how or a what; and
· Audiences are receptive to qualitative research.
Designing A Study
Generally, the format for the design of this study follows the traditional
research approach of presenting a problem, asking a question, collecting data
to answer the question, analyzing the data, and answering the question.
The following format can serve as a guide for planning a study:
· Introduction
o Statement of the Problem
o Purpose of the Study
o The Grand Tour Question and Sub Questions
o Definitions
o Delimitations and Limitations
o Significance of the Study
· Procedure
o Assumptions and Rationale for a Qualitative Design
o The Type of Design Used
o The Role of the Researcher
o Data Collection Procedures
o Methods for Verification
o Outcomes of the Study and Its Relation to Theory and Literature
· Appendixes
Characteristics of a “Good” Qualitative Research
There are standards for assessing the quality of qualitative studies (Creswell,
1998; Howe & Eisenhardt, 1990; Lincoln, 1995; Marshall & Rossman, 1995).
The following short list of characteristics of a “good” qualitative research is
presented by Creswell (1998):

· · It entails Rigorous data collection: The researcher collects multiple
forms of data, summarizes them adequately and spends adequate time in
the field.
· · The study is framed within the assumptions and characteristics of the
qualitative approach to research.
· · The researcher identifies, studies and employs one or more traditions
of inquiry.
· · The researcher starts with a single idea or problem that s/he seeks to
understand, not a causal relationship of variables.
· · The study involves detailed methods, a rigorous approach to data
collection, data analysis, and report writing.
· · The writing is so persuasive that the reader experiences “being there.”
· · Data is analyzed using multiple levels of abstraction. That is, the
researcher’s work is presented in a way that moves from particulars to
general levels of abstraction.
· · The writing is clear, engaging, and full of unexpected ideas. The story
and findings become believable and realistic, accurately reflecting all the
complexities that exist in real situation.
Types/Traditions of Qualitative Research
Five types/traditions of qualitative research are identified here.
The following are specified concerning each tradition:
· Definition
· Procedures involved in conducting a study
· Potential problems that exist in using it
Click on each of the five traditions listed below for details of the issues
mentioned above on each of them:
· Biography
· Phenomenology
· Grounded Theory
· Ethnography
· Case Study
Biography

Definition:
A biographical study is the study of an individual and his/her experiences as
told to the researcher or found in documents and archival records (Creswell,
1998).
Procedures Involved In Conducting A Study:
· · It begins with an objective set of experiences in the subject’s life, noting
life course stages and experiences. The life course stages may be
childhood, adulthood, or old age, written in a chronology, or experiences
such as education, marriage, and employment.
· · Next, the researcher gathers concrete contextual biographical material
using interviewing. Here, the researcher focuses on gathering stories as
the subject recounts a set of life experiences in the form of a story or
narrative.
· · The researcher then organizes the stories around themes that indicate
epiphanies (i.e., pivotal events) in the subject’s life.
· · The researcher explores the meanings of these stories. However, the
researcher relies on the individual to provide explanations and then
searches for multiple meanings.
· · In addition, the researcher looks for larger structures to explain the
meanings, and provides an interpretation for the life experiences of the
individual. The larger structures could be social interactions in groups,
cultural issues, ideologies and historical context. If more than one
individual is studied, cross-interpretation can be done.
Challenges:
· · The information gathering from and about the subject is usually very
extensive and demanding.
· · There is the need to have a clear understanding of the history and
context to enable one to position the subject within the larger trends in
society or in the culture.
· · It takes a keen eye to determine the particular stories, slant, or angle
that “works” in writing a biography and to uncover the “figure under the
carpet” (Edel, 1994) that explains the multilayered context of a life.
· · The researcher needs to be able to bring himself/herself into the
narrative and to acknowledge his or her standpoint, since this is an
interpretive research.
Click on any of the other traditions or the comparison below to read on them.
Phenomenology
Definition:
A phenomenological study describes that meaning of the lived experiences
for several individuals about a concept or a phenomenon (Creswell, 1998).

As noted by Polkinghorne (1989), phenomenology explores the structures
of consciousness in human experiences.
· · The researcher writes research questions that explore the meaning of
lived experiences for individuals, and asks individuals to describe these
experiences.
· · The researcher then collects data, typically via long interviews, from
individuals who have experienced the phenomenon under investigation.
· · The data analysis involves horizontalization (i.e., extracting significant
statements from transcribed interviews). The significant statements are
then transformed into clusters of meanings according to how each
statement falls under specific psychological and phenomenological
concepts. Finally, these transformations are tied together to make a
general description of the experience – both the textural description (of
what was experienced) and the structural description (of how it was
experienced). The researcher can incorporate his/her personal meaning of
the experience here.
· · Finally, the report is written such that readers understand better the
essential, invariant structure of the experience (or essence) of the
experience. The reader should come away with the feeling that, “I
understand better what it is like for someone to experience that.”
(Polkinghorne, 1989).
Challenges:
· · The researcher requires a solid grounding in the philosophical
precepts of phenomenology.
· · The subjects selected into the study should be individuals who have
actually experienced the phenomenon.
· · The researcher needs to bracket his/her own experiences, which is
difficult to do.
· · The researcher needs to decide as to how and when his/her personal
experiences will be incorporated into the study.
Click on any of the other traditions or the comparison below to read on them
Grounded Theory
Definition:
The intent of grounded theory is to generate or discover a theory – an
abstract analytical schema of a philosophy, that relates to a particular
situation. This situation could be one in which individuals interact, take
actions, or engage in a process in response to a phenomenon (Creswell,
1998).

· · In open coding, the researcher forms initial categories of information
about the phenomenon being studied by segmenting information. Within
each category (a category represents a unit of information composed of
events, happenings and instances), the researcher finds several properties,
or subcategories, and looks for data to dimensionalize, or show the extreme
possibilities on a continuum of, the property.
· · In axial coding, the researcher assembles the data in new ways after
open coding. The researcher presents this using a coding paradigm or
logic diagram in which he/she identifies a central phenomenon, explores
causal conditions (i.e., categories of conditions that influence the
phenomenon), specifies strategies (i.e., the actions or interactions that result
from the central phenomenon), identifies the content and intervening
conditions (i.e., the narrow and broad conditions that influence the
strategies), and delineates the consequences (i.e., the outcomes of the
strategies) for this phenomenon.
· · In selective coding, the researcher identifies a “story line” and writes a
story that integrates the categories in the axial coding model. In this
phase, conditional propositions (or hypotheses) are typically presented.
· · Finally, the researcher develops and visually portrays a conditional
matrix that elucidates the social, historical, and economic conditions
influencing the central phenomenon.
This process results in a theory, written by the researchers close to a specific
problem or population of people.
Challenges:
· · The researcher needs to set aside, as much as possible, theoretical ideas
or notions so that the analytical, substantive theory can emerge.
· · Despite the evolving, inductive nature of this form of a qualitative
inquiry, the researcher must recognize that this is a systematic approach to
research with specific steps in data analysis.
· · The researcher needs faces the difficulty of determining when the
categories are saturated or when the theory is sufficiently detailed.
Case Study
Definition:
Creswell (1998) defines a case study as an exploration of a “bounded system”
or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data
collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context. Some
consider “the case” as an object of study (e.g., Stake, 1995) while others
consider it a methodology (e.g., Merriam, 1998). According to Creswell, the

bounded system is bounded by time and place, and it is the case being
studied – a program, an event, an activity, or individuals.
· · The researcher needs to situate the case in a context or setting. The
setting may be a physical, social, historical, and/or economic.
· · The researcher needs to identify the focus of the study. It could be
either on the case (intrinsic study), because of its uniqueness, or it may be
on an issue or issues (instrumental study), with the case used
instrumentally to illustrate the issue. A case study could involve more
than one case (collective case study).
· · In choosing what case to study, a researcher may choose a case because
it shows different perspectives on the problem, process, or event of
interest, or it may be just an ordinary case, accessible, or unusual.
· · The data collection is extensive, drawing on multiple sources of
information such as observations, interviews, documents, and audio-visual
materials.
· · The data analysis can be either a holistic analysis of the entire case or an
embedded analysis of a specific aspect of the case.
· · From the data collection, a detailed description of the case is done.
Themes or issues are formulated and then the researcher makes an
interpretation or assertions about the case.
· · When multiple cases are chosen, a typical format is to provide a
detailed description of each case and themes within the case (called
within-case analysis), followed by a thematic analysis across the cases
(called a cross-case analysis), as well as assertions or an interpretation of
the meaning of the case.
· · In the final stage, the researcher reports the “lessons learned” from the
case (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).
Challenges:
· · The researcher needs to identify his/her case among a host of possible
candidates.
· · The researcher needs to decide whether to study a single case or
multiple cases. The motivation for considering many cases is the issue of
generalizability, which is not so much of a pressing issue in qualitative
inquiry. Studying more than one case runs the risk of a diluted study,
lacking the “depth” compared to a single case. “How many” cases
becomes a challenge then.
· · Getting enough information to get a good depth for the case is a
challenge.
· · Deciding on the boundaries in terms of time, events and processes may
be challenging. Some cases have no clean beginning and ending points.
Click on any of the other traditions or the comparison below to read on them.

Biography Phenomenology Grounded Theory Ethnography
Ethnography
Definition:
An ethnography is a description and interpretation of a cultural or social
group or system (Creswell, 1998). In such a study, the researcher examines
the group’s observable and learned patterns of behavior, customs, and ways
of life (Harris, 1968). Here, the researcher becomes a participant observer,
and gets immersed in the day-to-day lives of the people or through one-on-one
interviews with members of the group. The researcher focuses on the
meanings of behavior, language, and inter-actions of the culture-sharing
group.
· · The research begins with the researcher looking at people in interaction
in ordinary settings and attempting to discern pervasive patterns such as
life cycles, events, and cultural themes.
· · To establish patterns, the ethnographer engages in extensive work in
the field (field work), gathering information through observations,
interviews, and materials helpful inn developing a portrait and
establishing “cultural rules” of the culture-sharing group.
· · The researcher is sensitive to gaining assess to the field through
gatekeepers. The ethnographer locates key informants, i.e., individuals
who provide useful insights into the group and can steer the researcher to
information and contacts. The researcher is also sensitive about
reciprocity between the investigator and the subjects being studied, so that
something will be returned to the subjects being studied in exchange for
their information. Lastly, the researcher is also sensitive to reactivity, the
impact of the researcher on the site and the people being studied. The
researcher also makes every effort to make his/her intent known from the
start to avoid any trace of deception.
· · The researcher then does a detailed description of the culture-sharing
group or individual, an analysis by themes or perspectives and some
interpretation for meanings of social interaction and generalizations about
human social life.
Challenges:

· · The researcher needs to have a grounding in cultural anthropology and
the meanings of social-cultural systems as well as the concepts typically
explored by ethnographers.
· · The time to collect data is extensive, involving prolonged time in the
field.
· · The style of writing, literary (almost story telling approach), may limit
audience and may be challenging for some authors who are used to
traditional approaches of writing social science research.
· · There is the possibility that the researcher would “go native” and be
unable to complete the study or be compromised in the study.
Links
Nova Southeastern University has a page maintained by Ron Chenail, that
has resources on qualitative research (papers, abstracts, and qualitative
methods on mental health research workshop).
Qualpage, by Judy Norris, has information on conferences, workshops,
conference proceedings, discussion forums, electronic journals, interest
groups, software resources, etc.
Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) has a lot of Internet resources on
qualitative methods.
York University’s graduate program in education maintains a course page
(Dr. Ron Owston) on qualitative methods with link to other resources on the
www.
H eskes & Partners is a Qualitative Market Research company in The
Netherlands for applications of Concept development research, Product
development research, Image and Positioning research, and Customer
Satisfaction research.
Social Research Update is published quarterly by the Department of
Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 5XH, England

Qualitative methods

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