Chapter 4 Introduction to Qualitative Research

1. Chapter 4Introduction to Qualitative Research • Effective in capturing complexity of communication phenomena • Sensitive to social construction of meaning • Emphasizes communication environment of interactants

2. What is Qualitative Research? • Preserves the form and content of interaction • Contextually bound • Discourse is the data • Analyzed for its qualities – empirical, inductive, and interpretive • Aims for subjectivity • Allows interactants’ voices to be heard

3. Mutual Simultaneous Shaping • The here and now • Everything influences everything else • Emphasis on process and the holistic frame of interaction • Plausible explanations built on what is observed

4. Inductive Analysis • From the specific to the general • Explanations and theories emerge from the data • Propositions formulated continuously throughout the data collection and data analysis process

5. Model for Qualitative Research • Interdependent stages • Not linear • Cannot be planned in entirety • Top circle reflects design of the project • Bottom reflects activities in the field

6. Credibility in Qualitative Research • Extent to which data interpretations are • true • correct • dependable • Allows for multiple interpretations by asking “What’s plausible?”

7. Enhancing Credibility • Triangulation: use of several kinds of methods or data to enhance credibility • Data triangulation • Investigator triangulation • Interdisciplinary triangulation • Member validation • Taking research findings back to individuals who provided data

8. Conceptualizing Research Questions for Qualitative Research • Based on previous literature • Broadly stated • Nondirectional • Gives researcher latitude in following interesting paths • Specific to the interaction context

9. Assessing Research Questions • Does the question ask how or what? • Is the question nondirectional? • Does it reference the research site?

10. Assessing Research Questions • Does the question: • Focus on a specific type of interaction? • Discover how meaning is developed/shared? • Reveal naturally occurring communication not suitable for study in an experiment? • Reveal unanticipated phenomena/influences? • Reveal process that occur over time? • Explore the influences of the context?

11. What Counts as Data in Qualitative Research? • Anything that can be observed or captured • Interpreting meaning • Researcher construction • Subjective valuing • Contingent accuracy • Level of evidence • Microlevel, midlevel, macrolevel

12. Making the Case for Qualitative Research • Advantages • Documents the unseen • Provides information about those who cannot or will not speak for themselves • Supplements information from quantitative studies • Limitations • Communication environment must be accessible • Interactants may change their behavior • Observations filtered through the researcher • Time consuming

13. Threats to Credibility • Inaccuracy or incompleteness of data • Problems of interpretation • Whose interpretation is being imposed? • Theoretical validity • What about data that fail to fit the interpretation? • Selection bias • Reactivity bias

14. Comparing Quantitative and Qualitative Research • One methodology is not inherently better than the other • Each has advantages and limitations • Method should be selected because it helps the researcher answer hypotheses and research questions

15. Quantitative Uses numbers Participants randomly selected Removes some level of contextuality Relies on formal logic Qualitative Uses detailed descriptions Participants selected purposely Deeply contextualized Interpretive frame Key Differences

16. Key Similarities • Both quantitative and qualitative methods • Rely on empirical evidence • Provide useful information for describing, understanding, and explaining human communication behavior • Needed to develop complete picture of communication

17. Which Method Do You Choose? • Choose the method that answers “What do I want to know?” • Which method will maximize the amount of useful data generated to answer the question posed?