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3 - Introduction to Qualitative Research

Hello and welcome to this introductory micro lecture on qualitative research methods. Some
of you will be familiar with today's content, whereas others of you may not be so I am keeping
things fairly basic, but you will need to please supplement and consolidate by ensuring that
you read the first three chapters of the recommended Braun & Clarke text.
The way I set that out, is first of all to have a look at what qualitative research is. Secondly, to
have a very quick look at what count of data in qualitative research and introduced two
commonly used methods of data analysis and then talk about the strengths and limitations of
qualitative work.
Just to introduce the topic, in psychology we have two main research methods available to us.
The first is term quantitative. As its name suggests, like other numeric data from the likes of
scores on questionnaires, reaction times, heartbeats, height, weight. In fact, anything that we
can gather numeric data on. In contrast, when we carry out qualitative research on data on
numeric instead, they are words. It's fair to say that there is some debate between
quantitative and qualitative researchers, theories about which form of data is best that you
can read about that in Braun & Clarke introductory chapters in that book.
So, which method qualitative or quantitative? Well, really, it depends on what you want to
know. For example, your research question, what, for example, constitute the essential
subject matter of human development throughout the lifespan? Is it behaviour that we can
observe and measure, or is it the patterns of meaning that make up our experiences as we
developed, and how to structure and coordinate our relations with ourselves, each other in
the world? Or is it both? I would argue that it probably is.
So, what is qualitative research? What exactly is it? Some definitions on the slide for you. Both
of them are from well-known qualitative theorists and researchers Kidder and Fine. So
“qualitative work consists of a continually changing set of questions without a structured
design.” And another one, “the nature of qualitative data isn't just that they're not numbers,
but they are analysed with an ear for what informants are saying rather than an eye on
predetermined categories and hypotheses.”
So, what qualitative researchers aim to do is to understand what it's like to experience
particular circumstances and how people manage certain situations. So, for example, what it
means and how it feels to live with a chronic illness or to be unemployed in terms of
situations, how people negotiate family life or relations with work colleagues.
So hopefully you can begin to see that there are fundamental differences between qualitative
and quantitative research. In qualitative work, we don't reduce human experiences and
interactions to numbers, nor do we analyse our data using statistics. We have a number of
different approaches available to us that we can use to gather qualitative data and in
qualitative studies that are usually small numbers of participants.
Finally, we tend to study appropriate groups using what's known as purposive sampling. This
is when we purposefully recruit people to a study because they'll have knowledge about a
particular experience.
So, for example, if I wanted to explore how pain affected the of lives of people with cancer, I
would recruit cancer patients known to be experiencing pain to my study. So, in some
qualitative research is about meaning how people make sense of the world and the
experiences thrown at them as well. Rather than numerically measuring those experiences or
quantifying them. As I said earlier, language and discourse are central.
So, in terms of the questions that we ask, and I said earlier on the choice of research
methodology between quantitative and qualitative research will be based on the question
that you're asking. Turning to the kinds of questions that qualitative researchers ask, these are
usually explorative. So, in other words, they tend to start with words like how or why? As
opposed to the quantitative questions that start with how much or how often? The reason or
rationale or asking those how do or why questions is based on first the participants are in a
position to comment verbally on issues related to the research topic, and/or secondly, that
their comments are relevant to our understanding of that topic. So “how do?” and “why do?”
these kinds of questions.
Moving on to data collection methods. What count as qualitative data? Well, lots of things
count as qualitative data. So, we can analyse and interpret transcripts of interviews that we've
conducted with single participants or with a focus group. Also, naturally occurring talk, for
example, conversations about politics in a pub. We can also analyse and interpret things like
diaries, essays (as you will be doing), stories, the material from radio & TV shows, the
internet, newspapers and even archive material. So, there's lots to go out there.
I just want to briefly introduce you to two common methods of data analysis. As well as
having lots of ways to gather different kinds of data, we have a number of methods of data
analysis available to us. I’m just going to flag two of these, but just remember there are lots of
others.
The first is Thematic Analysis, which you will be using to analyse your assignment data.
Thematic Analysis is a simple way of identifying ‘themes’ across a set of data, in the case of
your assignment, across a set of essays. Themes are simply, similar ideas and ways of talking
across the data set. So, in Thematic Analysis, we are aiming to learn from and about
participants’ versions of their worlds.
The second form of analysis is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, or IPA as it’s usually
known. IPA goes a little further than Thematic Analysis, in that as well as understanding how
people make sense of things, it also aims to capture the quality and texture of individual
experiences. So, IPA is, according to Smith, “…an attempt to unravel the meanings contained
in accounts through a process of interpretative engagement with the texts and transcripts.”
(Smith, 1997, P.189). So, in other words, IPA is a little bit deeper than the thematic analysis
that you are using for your assignment.
Lastly, I want to end this session with a summary of some of the strengths and limitations of
qualitative work, which you might find useful when you come to write the discussion of your
report.
So, in terms of strengths, according to Willig, 2008, giving qualitative research can be an
adventure because we're discovering something new. We're not testing predictions or
possible outcomes. We are discovering something new when we undertake qualitative
research. It's about discovering meanings and revealing the subtlety and complexity of cases,
or issues. We have rich, detailed, descriptive type data to work with and those data are based
on participants own categories of meaning rather than those that researchers impose. We are
trying to get close to participants experience of their lives and we can examine issues in
detail, in depth. The researcher isn't restricted to specific questions or lists. Lastly, data
collection can be more informal, relaxed and even fun, which encourages participants to
participate in the research.
Some limitations. First of all, findings from qualitative studies cannot be generalised to the
large population. That's not the aim of qualitative work. It should be applicable in the sense of
it being similar for different people under the same circumstances. We don't generalise to a
larger population. Research data, data analysis and the quality of service are heavily
dependent on the individual skills of the researcher. Rigour in scientific rigour. Imposing
controls is much more difficult to maintain, assess and demonstrate. Although it can be done.
The volume of data can make analysis and interpretation time consuming. Lastly, it's not as
well understood as quantitative research, so it's therefore often more difficult to convince
others of the importance and its contribution.
A few more on this very final slide. An immersion in the depths of a qualitative study can lead
to what's referred to as going blind or macro blindness. That means that the findings can be
influenced by the researchers’ personal biases and idiosyncrasies. Qualitative research can
sometimes be a high risk, low yield enterprise. It takes an awful lot more organisation. For
example, negotiate access, assemble a sample, develop trust and rapport, find out what is
'going on' or what people are thinking and how they make sense of the world. Lastly,
qualitative studies are often accused of being impressionistic, subjective, biased, idiosyncratic
and lacking in precision. I will say that not that those are particularly true, but just to give you
an idea of some of the critiques of qualitative work.
That is, it for this session. Thank you very much for listening. Please don't forget to
supplement your learning by reading the first three chapters in the Braun & Clarke texts,
which is very readable.
Thank you.