QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Learning Outcomes
• By the end of this session students will be able to
• Describe different types of research
• Differentiate between quantitative & qualitative research
• Describe qualitative research
What is research?
• Systematic investigation into and study of materials and
sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.

• Creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing

knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new
concepts, methodologies and understandings. This could
include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the
extent that it leads to new and creative outcomes.
What is research?
• It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of
information to increase understanding of a topic or issue.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research.
• It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions,
and motivations.
• It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or
hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

• It is used to understand how people experience the world.

• It tries to preserve the voice and perspective of participants

and can be adjusted as new research questions arise
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-
numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand
concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather
in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for
research.
• commonly used in the humanities and social sciences, in
subjects such as anthropology, sociology, education, health
sciences, history, etc.
Qualitative research questions
• How does social media shape body image in teenagers?

• How do children and adults interpret healthy eating in the

UK?

• What factors influence employee retention in a large

organization?

• How is anxiety experienced around the world?

• How can teachers integrate social issues into science

Approaches to qualitative research

• Phenomenology
• Ethnography
• Inductive Thematic Analysis
• Grounded Theory
• Case Study
• Discourse/Conversation Analysis
• Narrative Analysis
• Mixed Methods
Phenomenology
• Focuses on individual experiences, beliefs and perceptions
• Test used as a proxy for human experience

• Questions and observations are aimed at drawing out individual

experiences and perceptions
• In focus groups, group experiences and normative perceptions are
typically sought out
• In-depth interviews and focus groups are ideal methods for collecting
phenomenological data.
Ethnography

• Oriented toward studying shared meanings and practices

• Emphasizes the emic perspective
• Can have a historical or contemporary focus
• Questions and observations are generally related to social and
cultural processes and shared meanings within a given group
• Traditionally associated with long-term fieldwork
• Participation observation is well suited to ethnographic inquiry
Inductive Thematic Analysis
• Draws on inductive analytic methods
• Involves identifying and coding emergent themes within data
• Most common analytic approach used in qualitative inquiry

• Requires free-flowing data

•

• In-depth interviews and focus groups are the most common data collection techniques
associated with ITA
•

• Notes from participant observation activities can be analysed using ITA but
interview/group data is better
Grounded Theory
• Inductive data collection and analytic methods
• Uses systematic and exhaustive comparison of text-segments to build
thematic structure and theory from a body of text
• Common analytic approach in qualitative studies

• In-depth interviews and focus groups are the most common data
collection techniques
• Sample sizes for grounded theory are more limited than for ITA
because analytic process is more intensive and time-consuming
• ITA and grounded theory are not the same
Case Study
• Analysis of one to several cases that are unique with respect to the
research topic
• Analysis primarily focused on exploring a unique quality

• Case studies are selected based on a unique and sometimes rare

quality
• Questions and observations should focus on the unique feature
Discourse/Conversation Analysis
• Study of naturally occurring discourse - can range from conversation,
public events, documents.

• These linguistically focused methods often use existing

documentation
• Conversations between individuals that spontaneously emerge
within-group interviews or focus groups may be studies
• Participant observation is conductive to discourse analysis if
narratives from public events can be recorded
Narrative Analysis
• Narratives used as data source
• Can be from several sources i.e interviews, literature, letters

• If generating narratives, then questions need to be aimed at eliciting

stories and the importance those stories hold for participants as well
as the larger culture
Mixed Methods
• Defined as integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods
in a single study
• Collection of qualitative data in a mixed-methods study can be
informed from a wide range of theoretical perspectives and analytic
approaches
• Researches must specify upfront and in details how, when and why
qualitative and quantitative data will be integrated.
Sample size In Qualitative Research

Sample sizes can be as small as one

Usually small like 15-20

Saturation
Sampling Techniques in Qualitative Research
• Convenience sampling
• Judgement/Purposeful
• snowball sampling

• Theoretical Sampling necessitates building interpretative theories

from the emerging data and selecting a new sample to elaborate on
the new theories may be needed. This sample is ever-changing until
the research questions are answered
Data Collection Methods
• Observations
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Surveys:
open-ended questions.
• Secondary research: collecting existing data in the form of
texts, images, audio or video recordings, etc.
Point to remember
• Qualitative researchers often consider themselves
“instruments” in research because all observations,
interpretations and analyses are filtered through their own
personal lens.

• For this reason, when writing up your methodology for

qualitative research, it’s important to reflect on your
approach and to thoroughly explain the choices you made
in collecting and analyzing the data.
Example
To research the culture of a large tech company, you decide
to take an ethnographic approach. You work at the company
for several months and use various methods to gather data:
• You take field notes with observations and reflect on your
own experiences of the company culture.
• You distribute open-ended surveys to employees across all
the company’s offices by email to find out if the culture
varies across locations.
• You conduct in-depth interviews with employees in your
office to learn about their experiences and perspectives in
greater detail.
Data Analysis
Prepare and organize your data
Transcribe
Review and explore your data
Examine for patterns
Develop a data coding system
Establish a set of codes
Assign codes to the data
Tagging responses with codes, Create new codes if necessary
Identify recurring themes
Link codes together into cohesive, overarching themes.
Data Analysis

• Transcribing is the process of converting audio or video data to text

for analysis.
• Translation.
• Coding is the process of reviewing notes and discovering common
“themes.”
• Themes describe the patterns/phenomenon as results.
• Categories
Approach When to use Example

Content analysis To describe and categorize common A market researcher could perform
words, phrases, and ideas in qualitative content analysis to find out what kind of
data. language is used in descriptions of
therapeutic apps.

Thematic analysis To identify and interpret patterns and A psychologist could apply thematic
themes in qualitative data. analysis to travel blogs to explore how
tourism shapes self-identity.

Textual analysis To examine the content, structure, and A media researcher could use textual
design of texts. analysis to understand how news
coverage of celebrities has changed in
the past decade.

Discourse analysis To study communication and how A political scientist could use discourse
language is used to achieve effects in analysis to study how politicians
specific contexts. generate trust in election campaigns.
Advantages of qualitative research

. Flexibility

• Natural settings

• Meaningful insights

• Generation of new ideas

• Open-ended responses –research ers can uncover novel
problems
Disadvantages of qualitative research

• Unreliability

• Subjectivity

• Limited generalizability

• Labor-intensive
data analysis
Suggest Study Design
Activity 1
• To explore patient perspectives on unmet needs for self-
management and support and the role of DHI in adults living
with type 2 diabetes.
Activity 2
• Understanding the perception of COVID-19 policies by mining a
multilanguage Twitter dataset

• to explore popular discourse about the COVID-19 pandemic

and policies implemented to manage it
Activity 3
• Exploring COVID-19 stress and its factors in Bangladesh: A perception-
based study

• Methods
• An online based survey was carried out among 340 Bangladeshi adult
populations (65.90% male; mean age 26.23 ± 6.39) by utilizing the
socio-demographics, possible human stress due to COVID-19
pandemic and its consequences. Dataset were analysed through a set
of statistical tools e.g., T-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation
Matrix (PCM), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Cluster
Analysis (CA).
Activity 4
• This study examines the factors influencing consumption of local food
and beverages in destinations. The study obtain insight into the local
food experiences though interviews with 20 individuals and used
these data to propose a model of local food consumption. The model
constitutes three categories: ‘motivational factors’ ‘demographic
factors’ and ‘physiological factors’ This study established an in-depth
understanding of consumption of local food in destinations.
Activity 5
• To describe adolescents’ experience of living with type 1
diabetes.
• Six girls and two boys aged between 14 and 18 years were
interviewed. The interview started with an open-ended
qualitative question
Activity 6
• This first‐time qualitative Sri Lankan study explored the
health beliefs and practices of adults with diabetes to
enhance current nursing care and medical treatment.
• collect data through participant observations, in‐depth
interviews with 14 key informants in their homes and field
notes. Data were analysed by thematic analysis.
Activity 7
• Prevalence of symptoms among patients with advanced cancer: an
international collaborative study
Activity 8
• To assess the effect of petroleum products exposure on the spirometric
values
Activity 9
• To compare effectiveness of Azithromycin and hydroxychloquine in
patients of COVID-19.
Activity 10
• To determine the risk factors of COVId-19 in hypertensive population
Activity 11
Approach What does it involve?

Grounded theory Researchers collect rich data on a topic of interest and

develop theories inductively.

Ethnography Researchers immerse themselves in groups or

organizations to understand their cultures.

Action research Researchers and participants collaboratively link theory

to practice to drive social change.

Phenomenological research Researchers investigate a phenomenon or event by

describing and interpreting participants’ lived
experiences.

Narrative research Researchers examine how stories are told to

understand how participants perceive and make sense
of their experiences.
Questions?
Thank You