Qualitative Research Methods

1. Qualitative Research Methods Communication Research Week 12

2. Who 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

3. Why qualitative methods? “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” … Albert Einstein

4. Varieties of Qualitative Methods Sources of data can include: • One’s own immediate experience • Other’s experiences that can be sought to be understood via … • their speaking or writing • their other behaviours • their other products – technology, artwork, footprints etc

5. Qualitative Methods • provide in-depth descriptions • study things in natural settings • from the individual’s perspective • complexity • in-depth examination of a number of issues • contextual • situational and environmental concerns specific to people

6. Myths 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

7. Why 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

8. Some types of qualitative research methods • Historical • Survey • Case Study • Participant Observation • Ethnography • Phenomenological • Interviews

9. Historical 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 Man’s Burden”

10. Views 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 …

11. What 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 …

12. What 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?

13. Potential 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

14. Case 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

15. Problems 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

16. Ethnographic 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…

17. Phenomenological 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

18. Unstructured 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

19. Focus 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

20. Focus 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

21. Grounded 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

22. Grounded 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

23. Key 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

24. Finally …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

25. The 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

26. The 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 scholar’s 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 …

27. Last 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