Qualitative Research

DR. KEERTI JAIN

NIIT UNIVERSITY, NEEMRANA
Qualitative Research
‘Qualitative Research…involves finding out what
people think, and how they feel - or at any rate, what
they say they think and how they say they feel. This
kind of information is subjective. It involves feelings
and impressions, rather than numbers’
Bellenger, Bernhardt and Goldstucker, Qualitative Research in Marketing,
American Marketing Association

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 Qualitative Research
•Qualitative research is an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and
sometimes counter-disciplinary field.
•It crosses the humanities and the social and physical sciences.
•Qualitative research is many things at the same time. It is multi-
paradigmatic in focus.
• Its practitioners are sensitive to the value of the multimethod approach.
• They are committed to the naturalistic perspective, and to the
interpretative understanding of human experience.
• At the same time, the field is inherently political and shaped by multiple
ethical and political positions.

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Qualitative Research
•Qualitative research is multimethod in focus,
involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to
its subject matter.
•Qualitative Researchers study “things” (people and
their thoughts) in their natural settings, attempting
to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms
of the meanings people bring to them.

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Qualitative Research
•Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection
of a variety of empirical materials - case study, personal
experience, introspective, life story, interview,
observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts-that
describe routine and problematic moments and meanings
in individuals lives.

•Deploy a wide range of interconnected methods, hoping

always to get a better fix on the subject matter at hand.

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Popularity of Qualitative
Research
Usually much cheaper than quantitative research
Qualitative research understand in-depth the motivations
and feelings of consumer/respondent.
Qualitative research can improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of quantitative research

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Limitations of Qualitative
Research
 Qualitative research doesn’t distinguish the differences as
well, as quantitative research can.
 Not representative of the population that is of interest to
the researcher
Since in qualitative research, the study is from multiple
methods and dimensions, so a trained and expert can
handle this.

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Qualitative Research as a
Process
Following three interconnect to define the qualitative
research process:

 Theory
 Method
 Analysis

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 Theoretical Approach Deductive
Deductive Theoretical Approach

Seek to use existing theory to shape the approach which you adopt to
the qualitative research process and to aspects of data analysis

Analytical Procedures

Pattern Matching

Involves predicting a pattern of outcomes based on theoretical

propositions to explain what you expect to find

Explanation Building

Involves attempting to build an explanation while collecting and

analysing the data, rather than testing a predicted explanation as in
pattern matching
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 Inductive Approach
Inductive Theoretical Approach

Seek to build up a theory which is adequately grounded in a number of relevant

cases. Referred to as Interpretative and Grounded Theory

Art of Interpretation

Field Text: Consists of field notes and documents from the field

Research Text: Notes and interpretations based on the filed text

Working interpretative document: Writers initial attempt to make sense out of

what he has learned

Public Text: The final tale of the Field

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Foundational Similarities
•All qualitative data can be measured and coded
using quantitative methods.
•Quantitative research can be generated from
qualitative inquiries.

Example: One can code an open-ended interview

with numbers that refer to data specific references,
or such references could become the origin of a
randomized experiment.

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 Foundational Differences
•The major difference between qualitative and
quantitative research stems from the researcher’s
underlying strategies.
•Quantitative research is viewed as confirmatory and
deductive in nature.
•Qualitative research is considered to be exploratory and
inductive.

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Qualitative v.'s Quantitative
Qualitative Quantitative
Research Research
Type of questions Probing Limited probing
Sample Size small large
Info. Per much varies
respondent
Admin Requires skilled Fewer specialist
researcher skills required
Type of Analysis Subjective, Statistical
interpretative
Type of research Exploratory Descriptive or
causal

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 Types of Qualitative Research
1. Grounded theory
2. Ethnography
3. Field research
4. Focus Groups
5. Narrative

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Grounded Theory
•Grounded theory refers to an inductive process of
generating theory from data.
•This is considered ground-up or bottom-up
processing.
•Grounded theorists argue that theory generated
from observations of the empirical world may be
more valid and useful than theories generated
from deductive inquiries.

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 Grounded Theory (con’t)
•Grounded theorists criticize deductive reasoning since it relies
upon a priori assumptions about the world.
•Grounded theory incorporates deductive reasoning when using
constant comparisons.
•Researchers detect patterns in their observations and then create
working hypotheses that directs the progression of the inquiry.

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 Ethnography
•Ethnography emphasizes the observation of details
of everyday life as they naturally unfold in the real
world.
•This is sometimes called naturalistic research.
•Ethnography is a method of describing a culture or
society.

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What is Ethnography?
Ethnography: literally means “writing culture”
Ethnographic research
Seeks an in-depth understanding of how people make
sense of lived reality in their social worlds
Involves observation or participant-observation,
“hanging out” with people in their natural, everyday
settings
Uses field notes to render “thick descriptions” of social
interaction and lived experience through researcher
immersion in events and activities of the social setting
 When is ethnography appropriate?
Ethnography is useful for studying the links between social
contexts, cultural meanings, and practices
Practices are people’s everyday “doings” (activities,
interactions)
Ethnographic focus on behavioral and interactive dimensions
of social life lends richness and depth
Ethnography requires great deal of time, energy, resources
Ethnography is most often rooted in the interpretive or
critical traditions, not a positivist framework
Ethnography provides a window into the social worlds
people inhabit
Ethnography focuses on people’s “doings” (practices,
interactions) in their natural setting
Participant-observation is the most common
ethnographic approach
Recording and analyzing field notes are the core research
activities of ethnography
Ethnographic field notes can be paired with other data
collection methods (e.g., interviews)
Ethnography is an interpretive activity
Ethnography is representation of lived experience, not
“reality”
Phenomenological Research
(Narrative)
•Narrative research is a term that subsumes a group of
approaches that in turn rely on the written or spoken words
or visual representation of individuals.
•These approaches typically focus on the lives of individuals
as told through their own stories
•The goal of qualitative phenomenological research is to
describe a "lived experience" of a phenomenon.
•Same is the goal of qualitative analysis of narrative data.
• The methods to analyze its data must be quite different
from more traditional or quantitative methods of research.

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 Focus Groups
•Concentrated group exploration and discussions.

What can be gained from the focus group method?

•Method is qualitative but the information gathered can be
quantitative.

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 Field Research

•Field research is a general term that refers to a group

of methodologies used by researchers in making
qualitative inquiries.
•The field researcher goes directly to the social
phenomenon under study and observes it as
completely as possible.

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 Field Research (con’t)

•The natural environment is the priority of the field

researcher. There are no implemented controls or
experimental conditions to speak of.
•Such methodologies are especially useful in observing
social phenomena over time.

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 Methods
1. Participant observation
2. Direct observation
3. Unstructured or intensive interviewing
4. Case studies

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Participant Observation
The researcher literally becomes part of the observation.

Example: One studying the homeless may decide to walk the streets
of a given area in an attempt to gain perspective and possibly subjects
for future study.

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 Direct Observation
Direct observation is where the researcher observes the
actual behaviors of the subjects, instead of relying on what
the subjects say about themselves or others say about them.

Example: The observation booth at the CECP in Martha Van

may be used for direct observation of behavior where
survey or other empirical methodologies may seem
inappropriate.

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Unstructured or Intensive
Interviewing

•This method allows the researcher to ask open-

ended questions during an interview.
•Details are more important here than a specific
interview procedure.
•Here lies the inductive framework through which
theory can be generated.

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Case Studies
•A particular case study may be the focus of any of the
previously mentioned field strategies.
•The case study is important in qualitative research,
especially in areas where exceptions are being studied.
•Example: A patient may have a rare form of cancer that has
a set of symptoms and potential treatments that have never
before been researched.

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Strengths and Weaknesses of
Qualitative Research
•Objectivity
•Reliability
•Validity
•Generalizability

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Objectivity
•It is given that objectivity is impossible in qualitative
inquiry.
•Instead the researcher locates his/herself in the research,
if required.
•Objectivity is replaced by subjective interpretation and
mass detail for later analysis.

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Reliability
•Since procedure is de-emphasized in qualitative
research, replication and other tests of reliability
become more difficult.
•However, measures may be taken to make
research more reliable within the particular study
(such as observer training, or more objective
checklists, and so on).

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 Validity
•Qualitative researchers use greater detail to argue for the
presence of construct validity.
•Weak on external validity.
•Content validity can be retained if the researcher
implements some sort of criterion settings.
•Having a focused criterion adds to the study’s validity.

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Generalizability
•Results for the most part, do not extend much
further than the original subject pool.
•Sampling methods determine the extent of the
study’s generalizability.
•Quota and Purposive sampling strategies are used
to broaden the generalizability.

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 Thank You

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