CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
How does one choose the appropriate qualitative
research design?
PARTS:
 Purpose
 conceptual context (framework)
 research questions or statements (from
chapter 1)
 Methods
 and validity of your research.
CONSIDERATIONS:

 think about how your methods will enable you

to answer your research questions
 decide what types of data you will gather
 structure of your research design
 population
In-depth interviews
 Research questions that seek to understand people’s
feelings and experiences, including perspectives on family,
work and social life, are a good match for this method.
 They are the only method for collecting data when you are
seeking to understand the perspectives of individuals
contextualized within their own history and/or
experiences.
 This method frequently takes the form of semi-structured
interviews; the researcher directs the content to be
discussed while allowing participants to shift ideas in new
but related directions.
Focus Groups
 It involves a small group of people with common
characteristics and/or experiences who participate in
discussions about a topic, guided by a moderator.
 This method is especially useful in settings and
situations where a ‘one-shot collection’ is necessary,
the research topic is culturally sensitive, or research
participants come from marginalized backgrounds
(Berg and Lune, 2012).
Field Research
 also referred to as ethnography, and participant observation,
is the methodology of choice for projects in which the
research question focuses on processes, events and
relationships.
 It requires immersion in and systematic observation of the
social life of a group observation or culture for a prolonged
period of time, and writing extensive notes based on these
observation and experience (Hammersley ad Atkinson, 1995)
 Field research can be participatory, where the researcher
becomes an accepted member of the community, or non-
participatory, where the researcher remains an outsider who
observes systematically without interacting with participants.
What is the appropriate sampling procedure
and sample for a chosen research design?

Collecting Data is identifying the strategy

you will use is key to ensuring the validity of
the data collection plan.
Questions which the researcher should ask themselves at the outset, and
which will inform the design of the sampling strategy.

 What are the research objectives?

 What is the target population?
 What is the accessible population? Who
should be excluded from the sample? Who
should be included in the sample?
 What is the budget? What is the reporting
time period? How many qualified
researchers are available to work on the
project?
What sampling technique(s) should be employed?

Qualitative research uses non-probability

sampling (non-random sampling) as it does
not aim to produce a statistically
representative sample or draw statistical
inference.
 Purposive sampling is one technique
often employed in qualitative investigation.
 What are the sample criteria?
 How long will the interview be?
 What size should the sample be?
What is a research instrument?
 In qualitative research & qualitative studies, the
main instrument is the researcher him or herself.
 According to Helfferich (2009), a good interviewer
needs the following skills: Technical competence,
Interactive competence: attention and steering,
competencies in communication theory and
knowing how to deal with previous knowledge
and personal bias.
What is the appropriate research instrument for a
chosen research design?
Instrument is the generic term that
researchers use for a measurement device
(interview guide, observation form, survey,
test, questionnaire, etc.)
 the instrument is the device and
instrumentation is the course of action (the
process of developing, testing, and using
the device).
What is an interview schedule or guide?

 An interview schedule includes all the

questions you plan to ask and the probes
that you may need to elicit a response or
more detail.
 A semi – structured interview schedule has
three main parts: Introductory Remarks,
Body and Closing Remarks.
 Introductory remarks set the stage and include any
administrative details such as recording procedures
and ethics forms.
 The body contains the questions reflecting the central
aims of the research project; it may also include the
most sensitive or difficult questions.
 Closing remarks should reflect a concerted effort to
provide the interviewee and interviewer with some
closure.
1. Introduce yourself and provide information that may
be relevant to the interviewee
2. Thank the interviewee for their participation
3. Provide a brief description of the project
4. Establish the project’s purpose
5. Establish how you will use the information
6. Handle administrative details including:
 How long the interview will take
 Review and sign ethics forms
 If applicable ask for permission to record the interview
and for how you will use the recording
7. Ask the interviewee if they have any questions or
concerns before the interview begins
Warm – up questions
1.Set the stage for the main themes or issues explored in the interview
including:
 Biographic questions
 Background questions
 Baseline perception or attitudinal questions
Central questions
2. Cover all the main issues, themes or concepts of the study. It
includes the most difficult or sensitive questions
 See Part 2 for organization and wording guidelines
Cool – down questions
3. Wrap – up questions
 May be future oriented
Other options include questions that serve as a form of member -
checking
Establish that the interview is coming to an end
Provide the interviewee with a specific example of
how their insights have made a contribution
Unless you are conducting a fixed – response
interview, ask the participant if there are additional
questions that should be asked or issues that
should be examined
Try to build new referral chains
Remind the interviewee of potential follow – up
with the researcher of research team
Thank the interviewee again
Probes serve to clarify questions or generate a more
elaborate response by the interviewee.
 Verbal probes are pre – prepared follow –
up questions that encourage the participant
to expand on his responses.
Verbal probe type
Who, when, what and how questions

Elaboration questions
Clarification questions
Comparison or relational
Imaginative questions
Verbal clues
 Visual probes are also used to encourage
participants to expand on their responses,
but involve the use of visual aids and using
appropriately timed visual (and verbal)
cues.
The wording of questions
Phase 1: Original Phase 2: Re – written
Good questions usually
question question
Are clear and avoid What publics does the What groups participate in
using jargon, specialist CHP serve? the community housing
language or acronyms program?
Ask one thing at a time What programs are What programs are
offered for seniors and offered for seniors?
young families? What programs are
offered for young
families?
Are organized in logical When did you exit the Can you tell me about
order or sequence program? how you found out about
Can you tell me about the program?
how you found out about When did you exit the
the program? program?
Are non – leading Did the program How did the program
make you feel better? make you feel?

Are value – neutral Do your really think How do you think the
that the program program affects its
benefits participants? participants?

Are open – ended Do you know about the Can you describe the
rather than closed - community housing services offered by the
ended services? community housing
program?
The nature of questions
 Descriptive questions
Descriptive questions are used more inductively,
often to examine localized understandings. They
cover everything from basic experiences all the way
to interviewees’ understandings of a particular
condition or outcome.
 Starting Point Examples
Knowledge Who developed the program?
When did you meet to discuss the program?
How did the program develop?
Experiences and Can you describe your involvement with the program?
behaviors
Experiential Can you walk me through a typical day?
Interpretation How would you explain X event?
Perceptions What did you learn from that experience?
How would you describe parents’ commitment to the
program?
How do you think X person would understand that?
Comparison or What characteristics would distinguish that from X?
relational How does that compare with X?
How does that relate to X?
How are things different now compared with 3 years ago?
How would you prioritize that?
Imaginative What would you propose?
What is the ideal program?
How would you change the program?
If you could start over, what would you do?
Past or future How was the program organized before?
oriented What do you think the program will look like in five years?
Values How do you think the program affects the community
Evaluative What impact does the program have on the community?
How did you decide to do that?
Frequency How often do you attend the program?
Outsider How would you explain the program to someone who had
never heard of it before?
 
What do critics have to say about this program?
 
Local causation Why do you think the program was started?
Theoretical questions
 Theoretical questions take a more
deductive approach, and build questions
around a theoretical proposition. This
approach starts with a theory or concept
that you want to explore, and develops
questions that allow you to explore its
micro – foundations.
How are research instruments validated?
Ensuring the validity of your findings is a key component of
a good research design.

Validity in qualitative research broadly refers to whether a

study is ‘well-grounded (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003: 270).

There are a number of ways to test the credibility of your

conclusions:
 length of time conducting research,
 the richness of your data,
 obtaining feedback from participants,
 triangulation
Validity threats (the ways that you might be
wrong)

This means considering factors that might present as threats

before beginning the research process and attending tot their
evolution or to new threats. There are two broad types of threats
to validity that you confront: research bias and reactivity
(Maxwell, 2013)

These include alternative explanations or other ways of

understanding your data not accounted for
Research bias.
 refers to the tendency that researchers have to collect,
interpret or present data that support their own
prejudgments, theories or goals

 has something to do with the “subjectivity” of the researcher

Reactivity.
Reactivity, or observer effect, occurs when
the process of conducting research alters the
behavior of the participants, challenging the
validity of the data.
2 Types:
*Hawthorne effect
*Novelty effect
Validity tests.
- can help bolster the credibility of your conclusions
- testing involves searching for evidence that calls
into question your findings
Intensive, long-term involvement
 observation can be a good method to test
validity of your findings
 allows you to gather a diversity of data, and
you have the time to check and confirm
your observations and understandings
Rich data.
Long term observations and intensive interviewing
produce rich data that can aid in testing the validity
of your conclusions. Verbatim transcripts of
interviews and detailed field notes can give you a
broad picture of the circumstances and
contradictions that take place in social life.
Respondent validation.
Obtaining feedback from respondents can be
an important strategy to test your
interpretations against those of your
respondents.
Intervention.
Qualitative researchers unavoidably intervene
in the social world they study. This fact can
create challenges to ensuring valid
conclusions but can also represent an
opportunity to test the validity of your finding,
using intervention as a way to test your
interpretations.
Searching for discrepant evident and
negative cases.

You might ask others to consider your

evidence and the discrepant evidence to
ensure that you are not relying too much of
your own perspectives in making conclusions.
Triangulation.
 triangulation of methods of data collection
 investigator triangulation
 triangulating data sources.
 theory triangulation
Numbers.
Maxwell notes that many of the conclusions that
result from qualitative research have ‘an implicit
quantitative component’ (2013: 128). Incorporating
an appropriate use of numbers to assess the amount
of evidence you have is a good way to increase the
credibility of your conclusions.
Comparison.
Comparisons help to draw out regularities
and specify the underlying social
mechanisms and processes that generate
these regularities, thereby strengthening the
validity of your conclusions.
How is data collection and validity concerns done?

Data collection approaches for qualitative

research usually involves:
Direct interaction with individuals on a one to one
basis
Or direct interaction with individuals in a group
setting
The main methods for collecting qualitative data are:
A. Individual interviews.
 Unstructured. Can be referred to as 'depth' or 'in
depth' interviews.
 Semi structured. Semi structured interviews are
sometimes also called focused interviews
 Structured. The interviewed asks the respondent the
same questions in the same way.
Good quality qualitative research involves:

 Thought
 Preparation
 The development of the interview schedule
 Conducting and analyzing the interview
data with care and consideration
B. Focus groups.
Group interviews can be used when:
Limited resources (time, manpower, finances)
The phenomena being researched requires a
collective discussion in order to understand the
circumstances, behavior or opinions
Greater insights may be developed of the group
dynamic - or cause and consequence
Characteristics of a focus group:
 Recommended size of the sample group is 6 - 10
people
 Several focus groups should be used in order to get a
more objective and macro view of the investigation
 Members of the focus group should have something in
common which is important to the investigation
 Groups can either be put together or existing groups - it
is always useful to be mindful of the group dynamics of
both situations
This method requires the researcher to use a range of skills:

 group skills
 facilitating
 moderating
 listening/observing
 analysis
C. Observations.
Techniques for collecting data through observation.
Written descriptions. The researcher makes written
descriptions of the people, situations or environment.
Limitations include:
 Researcher might miss out on an observation as they are
taking notes
 The researcher may be focused on a particular event or
situation
 There is room for subjective interpretation of what is
happening
 Video recording. Allows the researcher to also record
notes. Limitations may include people acting unnaturally
towards the camera or others avoiding the camera. The
camera may not always see everything.

 Photographs and artifacts. Useful when there is a need to

collect observable information or phenomena such as
buildings, neighborhoods, dress and appearance. Artifacts
include objects of significance - memorabilia, instruments,
tools etc
D. Self-Study.
E. Ethnography.
F. Action research
Other forms:

 Longitudinal research or panel studies

 Case study research
What are the ethical standards to be observed
on data collection and analysis?
 Informed consent.
 Anonymity and confidentiality.
 Protecting participants from harm.
 Protecting researchers from harm.