Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research
DePaul University CSC-426 Values in Computer
Technology Presented by Mamoun Hirzalla April
25, 2006
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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Introduction
What do you see?

• No single or ultimate truth to be discovered,
  more likely there are multiple perspectives

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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What is Qualitative Research?

• Research using qualitative data in the form of
  text and pictures, not numbers
• Takes a holistic approach with a specific focus
  and tells a richer story than quantitative
  research
• Used to answer questions about the complex nature
  of phenomena, often with the purpose of
  describing and understanding the phenomena
• Builds on researchers ability to interpret and
  make sense of what he or she sees for
  understanding any social phenomenon
• Takes longer to tell a story and usually ends
  with tentative answers of hypotheses about what
  was observed
• Often used in combination with quantitative
  methods and data, and can be objective or
  subjective, and makes considerable use of
  inductive reasoning
• Although objective methods may be appropriate for
  studying physical events such as electricity,
  chemical reaction, and black holes, an objective
  approach for studying human events ,
  relationships, social structures, etc., is
  neither desirable nor, perhaps, even possible
  (Eisner, 1998 Moss 1996).

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Major Qualitative Research Designs

• Case study
• Attempts to shed light on a phenomena by
  studying in-depth a single case
• example of the phenomena.  The case can be an
  individual person, an event,
• a group, or an institution.
• Ethnography
• Focuses on the sociology of meaning through
  close field observation of
• sociocultural phenomena. Typically, the
  ethnographer focuses on a community.
• Phenomenology
• A study that attempts to understand peoples
  perceptions, perspectives, and understandings of
  a particular situation. In other words, what is
  it like to experience such and such?
• Grounded theory
• Theory is developed inductively from a corpus of
  data acquired by a participant-
• observer.
• Content Analysis
• A detailed and systematic examination of the
  contents of a particular body of material for the
  purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or
  biases within a material
• Historical
• Systematic collection and objective evaluation
  of data related to past occurrences
• in order to test hypotheses concerning causes,
  effects, or trends of these events
• that may help to explain present events and
  anticipate future events.

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Observations

• Qualitative research usually starts by questions
  like
• How do people feel while living under occupation?
  
• How can a teacher use principles from behaviorist
  psychology to help a student with Autism succeed
  in an elementary school?
• Good percentage of research could start as
  qualitative and then morph into other types. For
  example, medicine and biology.
• Qualitative research may start using any
  technique of the previously described designs,
  and could shift towards another design as more
  information may suggest a better approach
• Qualitative research requires considerable
  preparation and planning. Researches should be
  well trained in observation techniques, interview
  strategies, and data collection methods
• Qualitative research does not yield quick results
  and easy answers

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When To Choose A Qualitative Approach

• Description
• Qualitative research can reveal the nature of
  certain situations, settings, processes,
  relationships, systems or people
• Interpretation
• To enable a researcher to gain new insights about
  a particular phenomenon
• Develop new concepts or theoretical perspectives
  about the phenomenon
• Discover the problems that exist within a
  phenomenon
• Verification
• Allow researchers to test the validity of certain
  assumptions, claims, theories or generalizations
  within real-world contexts
• Evaluation
• Allow researchers to judge the effectiveness of
  particular policies, practices and innovations.
• In general, not a good method to identify
  cause-effect relationships, i.e. Why questions,
  and
• what caused what type of investigations

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research Designs Case Study

• Definitions and Observations
• A particular individual, program, or event is
  studied in depth for a defined period of time.
• Examples
• Studying the effect of a new drug on a particular
  patient
• Studying the effectiveness of a political
  campaign for a candidate
• Studying the level of improvement in educational
  achievement on a student when given a new
  multi-vitamin formula
• Researchers may study two or more cases, often
  cases that are different in certain key ways, to
  make comparisons, build theory, or propose
  generalizations. This is referred to as
  collective case study.
• Major weakness of case study design is that we
  cannot be sure that the findings are
  generalizable to other situations, especially if
  only one case study was performed.

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Qualitative Research Designs Case Study

• Method
• Gather Case Study Data
• Researcher collects extensive data on the
  individual(s), program(s), or event(s) on which
  investigation is focused.
• Observations, interviews, documents, past
  records, audiovisual materials (photographs,
  videotapes, audiotapes)
• Spend time on site to interact with people who
  are being studied
• Gather Context Information
• Researcher records details about the context
  surrounding the case
• Physical environment
• Historical, economic, and social factors that may
  affect situation

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Qualitative Research Designs Case Study

• Data Analysis Steps
• Organize details about case
• Case facts are organized in a logical order
• Categorize data
• Cluster data into meaningful groups
• Interpret data
• Examine specific documents, occurrences, and
  other bits of data for a meaning that may be
  important to the case
• Identify Patterns
• Data and their interpretations are scrutinized
  for underlying themes and other patterns that
  characterize the case more broadly than a single
  piece of information can reveal
• Synthesize and Generalize
• Construct an overall portrait of the case and
  draw conclusions that may have implications
  beyond the specific case that has been studied
• Triangulation of data many separate pieces of
  information must all converge to the
• same conclusion

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Qualitative Research Designs Case Study

• Research Report Content
• Case study rationale
• Why the case study worthy of in-depth
  investigation and how it will contribute to human
  beings knowledge about the world
• Detailed description of the facts related to the
  case
• Describe the object(s), event(s), individual(s)
  you studied and any other facts uncontested about
  the case
• Be thorough and objective as much as possible
• Discussion of found patterns
• Describe any trends, themes, etc. that the data
  suggest (interpretation)
• Provide evidence for every pattern you report to
  convince readers that such pattern do exist and
  portray the collected data
• If you find pattern-contradicting data, you
  should include it to provide unbiased account of
  the case
• Connection to the larger scheme of things
• Answer the question So What?
• How does the case study contribute to the
  knowledge about some aspect of the human
  experience
• You can compare against previously reported case
  studies to either support or disconfirm an
  existing hypothesis or theory

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research Designs Ethnography

• Definitions and Observations
• Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos nation and
  graphein writing) refers to the qualitative
  description of human social phenomena, based on
  fieldwork. Ethnography is a holistic research
  method founded in the idea that a system's
  properties cannot necessarily be accurately
  understood independently of each other.
• Focuses on entire group that shares a common
  culture where the group is studied in its natural
  setting for an extended period of time, months to
  years
• Focus of the investigation is on the everyday
  behaviors (e.g. interactions, language, rituals)
  of the people in the group, with an intent to
  identify cultural norms, social structures, and
  other cultural patterns
• Requires a lot of patience and considerable
  tolerance
• Beware of going native
• Was first used in cultural anthropology, and now
  seen in sociology, psychology, and education
• Good to have a grounding in cultural anthropology
  before venturing into Ethnography

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Qualitative Research Designs Ethnography

• Method
• Gain access to a site appropriate for answering
  the research question
• Ideally, the researcher should be a stranger with
  no vested interest in the outcome of the study
• The researcher may have to go through a
  gatekeeper, a person who can provide a smooth
  entrance into the site
• Establish rapport with people being studied and
  gain their trust and be open about reason of
  study
• Gather Information
• Intermingle with everyone and get an overall
  sense of the cultural context (big net approach)
• Identify sources of information, i.e. key
  informants
• Observe, interview, listen, and take extensive
  field notes

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Qualitative Research Designs Ethnography

• Data Analysis Steps
• Description
• Describe events in chronological order
• Describe a typical day in the life of the group
  or of an individual within the group
• Focus on a critical event for the group
• Develop a story, complete with plot and
  characters
• Analysis
• Categorize data according to their meanings.
• Identify patterns, regularities, and critical
  events
• Interpretation
• General nature of the culture is inferred from
  the Analysis step outcomes
• Existing theoretical frameworks in the field may
  lend structure and support during the
  interpretation process
• Interpret with rigorous subjectivity since
  objectivity is hard to attain

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Qualitative Research Designs Ethnography

• Research Report Content
• Rarely written in impersonal style. Often
  personal and literary narrative designed to
  engage the readers attention and interest.
• Introduction that provides a rational and context
  for the study
• Present the research question and the rationale
• Describe why the study was important for you to
  conduct and for others to read about
• Describe the setting and the method
• Describe the group you studied and the methods
  you used to study it
• Make it real for readers through considerable
  details about everything
• Analyze the studied culture
• Describe the patterns and themes you observed
• Present evidence use participants actual words
  
• Provide a conclusion
• Relate your findings to the research question and
  to concepts and theories in your discipline
• Avoid making judgments
• Convey the voice of the people

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research DesignsPhenomenological
Study

• Definitions and Observations
• Phenomenology refers to a persons perception of
  the meaning of an event, as opposed to the event
  as it exists external to the person.
• Phenomenological Study is a study that attempts
  to understand peoples perceptions, perspectives,
  and understandings of a particular situation. In
  other words, what is it like to experience such
  and such?
• The researcher may have had the experience
  related to the phenomenon in question and wants
  to gain better understanding of the experiences
  of others
• The researcher could make some generalizations of
  what something is like from an insiders
  perspective

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Qualitative Research Designs Phenomenological
Study

• Method
• Almost exclusively limited to lengthy interviews
  with a carefully selected sample of participants
• Typical interviews length 1-2 hours
• Typical sample size 5-25 individuals
• Participants must have had a direct experience
  with the phenomenon being studied
• Interviews nature is unstructured. Researcher
  and participants work together to arrive at the
  heart of the matter
• Researcher suspends any preconceived notions or
  personal experiences that may influence
  participants

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Qualitative Research Designs Phenomenological
Study

• Data Analysis Steps
• Identify statements that relate to the topic
• Researcher separates relevant from irrelevant
  information
• Break relevant information into small segments
  that each reflect a single, specific thought
• Group statements into meaning units
• Researcher groups the segments into categories
  that reflect the various aspects (meanings) of
  the phenomenon as it is experienced
• Seek divergent perspectives
• Researcher looks and considers the various ways
  in which different people experience the
  phenomenon
• Construct a composite
• Researcher uses various meanings identified to
  develop an overall description of the phenomenon
  as people typically experience it
• The final result is a general description of the
  phenomenon as seen through the eyes of the people
  who have experienced it firsthand.
• Focus on common themes despite diversity in the
  individuals and settings studied

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Qualitative Research DesignsPhenomenological
Study

• Research Report Content
• No specific structure for the report
• Present research problem or question
• Describe methods of data collection and analysis
• Draw a conclusion about the phenomenon
• Discuss practical implications of your findings

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research DesignsGrounded Theory
Study

• Definitions and Observations
• A type of research that begins with the data and
  use it to develop a grounded theory
• A grounded theory study uses a prescribed set of
  procedures for analyzing data that have been
  collected in the field rather than taken from
  research literature
• Typically focuses on a process related to a
  particular topic, with the ultimate goal of
  developing a theory about that process
• Helpful when current theories about a phenomenon
  are either inadequate or nonexistent
• Examples Interactions between building
  contractors and future home owners, management of
  a difficult pregnancy, experiences with chronic
  illness, remarriage following a divorce, and
  spousal abuse.

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Qualitative Research Designs Grounded Theory
Study

• Method
• Gather Data
• Researcher collects extensive data on the
  individual(s), program(s), or event(s) on which
  study is focused.
• Observations, interviews, documents, past
  records, audiovisual materials (photographs,
  videotapes, audiotapes)
• Data collected must include the perspectives and
  voices of the people being studied
• Analyze Data
• Researcher develops categories to classify the
  data into proper categories
• Revise categories and gather enough data to
  saturate categories

Gather Data
Analyze Data
Constant Comparative Method
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Qualitative Research Designs Grounded Theory
Study

• Data Analysis Steps
• Open coding a process of reducing the data to a
  small set of themes that appear to describe the
  phenomenon under investigation
• Data is divided into segments and then
  scrutinized for commonalities that reflect
  categories or themes
• After data is categorized, its further examined
  for subcategories that characterize each category
  
• Axial coding a process of making
  interconnections among categories and
  subcategories
• Focus is to determine the following about each
  category
• Conditions
• Context
• Strategies that people use to manage it or carry
  it out
• Consequences of such categories
• Selective coding categories and their
  interrelationships are combined to form a
  storyline that describes what happens in the
  phenomenon being studied
• Development of a theory
• Develop a theory, in the form of a verbal
  statement, model, series of hypotheses, to
  explain the phenomenon in question and explains
  how certain conditions lead to certain actions or
  interactions. And how those interactions lead to
  other actions, and so on.
• Based entirely on the collected data

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Qualitative Research DesignsGrounded Theory
Study

• Research Report Content
• What do you think of report style?
• Report style is objective and impersonal
• Description of the research question
• Review of related literature
• Do not use literature to provide concepts or
  theories, rather use it to provide rationale and
  context
• Describe methods of data collection and analysis
• Outline nature of sample and setting
• Outline specific methods used in collecting data
• Explain the categories and subcategories you
  identified
• Describe how your data collection was driven by
  your data analysis
• Present a theory
• Discuss implications

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Qualitative Research DesignsContent Analysis

• Definitions and Observations
• Detailed and systematic examination of the
  contents of a particular body of material for the
  purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or
  biases.
• Typically performed on forms of human
  communications, i.e. books, newspapers, films,
  etc.
• Requires a lot of upfront preparation
• Not necessarily a stand-alone design. Could be
  used with other forms of research to aid in the
  analysis of the results of a given research. E.g.
  cross-sectional study, ex post facto study, and
  quasi-experimental study

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Qualitative Research Designs Content Analysis

• Method
• Identify specific body of material to be studied
• Small amounts of material is usually studied in
  its entirety
• Large amounts of material are sampled randomly
• Define the characteristics or qualities to be
  examined in precise, concrete terms.
• Researcher may identify an example of each
  characteristic to be more precise.
• If material to be analyzed is complex, e.g.
  books, transcripts of conversation, etc. , break
  down each item into small, manageable segments to
  be analyzed separately
• Scrutinize the material for instances of each
  characteristic or quality defined previously.
• When judgments are objective (e.g. looking for
  occurrence of a word in a text ), one rater is
  sufficient
• When judgments are subjective (e.g. evaluating a
  behavior for an activity), then multiple raters
  (two or three ) are required, and a composite of
  their judgments is used

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Qualitative Research Designs Content Analysis

• Data Analysis Steps
• Tabulate the frequency of each characteristic
  found in the studied material quantitative
  approach
• Often times, statistical analyses are performed
  on the frequencies or percentages obtained to
  determine whether significant differences exist
  relevant to the research question
• Use tabulations and statistical analyses to
  interpret the data as they reflect on the problem
  under investigation

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Qualitative Research DesignsContent Analysis

• Research Report Content
• Description of the material studied
• Describe the overall studied material and any
  sampling procedures used, if any
• Precise definition and description of the
  investigated characteristics
• Define each characteristic enough such that other
  researchers could replicate the study
• Consider using specific examples from your data
  to illustrate each characteristic
• Description of the rating procedure
• Describe the rating procedure used to evaluate
  the material, and how multiple ratings were
  combined
• Tabulation of each characteristic
• Report frequencies or percentages (or both) for
  each characteristic.
• Consider using tables and graphs for illustration
• Descriptions of found patterns
• Identify themes or trends in the studied material

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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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Colleting Data in Qualitative Research

• Need for Sampling
• Purposeful sampling Selecting individuals or
  objects that would yield the most information
  about the topic under investigation
• Theoretical sampling Choosing data sources that
  are most apt to help develop a theory of the
  process in question
• Discriminant sampling Returning to data sources
  that are most apt to help validate a theory
• Observations
• Experiment with various recording strategies
• Get introduced to the people you are watching
• Remain quiet and inconspicuous, yet be friendly
  when approached
• Record and interpret at the same time
• Interviews
• Rarely structured. Either open-ended or
  semi-structured
• Could interview multiple people in a focus group
• Identify questions in advance with, carefully
  pick your sample, proper location, written
  permission, rapport, actual vs. abstract or
  hypothetical, listen, record verbatim, keep
  reactions to self, and interviews do not
  necessarily reveal facts
• Pay attention to group dynamics when conducting
  focus groups

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Organizing and Analyzing Data from Qualitative
Studies
The Data Analysis Spiral Creswell, 1998
The Final Report
Synthesis Offering hypothesis or
propositions Constructing tables, diagrams,
hierarchies
Classification Grouping the data into categories
or themes Finding meaning in the data
Perusal Getting an overall sense of the
data Jotting down preliminary interpretations
Organization Filling Creating a computer
database Breaking large units into smaller ones
The Raw Data
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Agenda

• Introduction
• What is Qualitative Research?
• Major Qualitative Research Designs
• Observations
• When to Choose A Qualitative Approach?
• Qualitative Research Design Case Study
• Qualitative Research Design Ethnography
• Qualitative Research Design Phenomenological
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Grounded Theory
  Study
• Qualitative Research Design Content Analysis
• Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing Data In
  Qualitative Research

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What Makes Good Qualitative Research?

• Purposefulness
• Research question drives the methods used to
  collect and analyze the data
• Explicitness of assumptions and biases
• Researcher identifies and communicates any
  assumptions, beliefs, biases, and values that may
  influence data collection and interpretation
• Rigor
• Researcher uses rigorous, precise, and thorough
  methods to collect, record, and analyze data and
  takes steps to remain as objective as possible
• Open Mindedness
• Researches shows willingness to modify hypothesis
  and interpretations when newly acquired data
  conflict with previously collected data
• Completeness
• Researcher describes all aspects of researched
  materials
• Coherence
• Data yield consistent findings and multiple
  resources converge onto consistent conclusions
  (triangulation)
• Persuasiveness
• Researcher presents logical evidence and weight
  of evidence points strongly towards conclusions
• Consensus
• Other individuals and participants agree with the
  researchers interpretations and explanations
• Usefulness
• Project yields conclusions that promote better
  understanding of a phenomenon, enable more
  accurate predictions about future events

Trustworthy Credible
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Question Answer