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Qualitative research
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Contents
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• 5 References
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The term qualitative research has different meanings in different fields, with the
social science usage the most well-known. In the social sciences, qualitative research
is often a broad term that describes research that focuses on how individuals and
groups view and understand the world and construct meaning out of their experiences.
It essentially is narrative-oriented and uses content analysis methods on selected
levels of communication content. Other researchers consider it simply to be research
whose goal is not to estimate statistical parameters but to generate hypotheses to be
tested quantitatively.
In statistics, qualitative analysis consists of procedures that use categorical data, that
is data that concern classifications. An important subfield is the analysis of
dichotomous data – that is, data which can take only the values 0 (zero) and 1 (one).
These techniques are suitable where events or entities can only be counted or
classified rather than measured on a higher level. The techniques themselves are, of
course, numerically based.
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History
"Qualitative research methods also began at the margins of acceptable science. From
Freud on, ... Carl Rogers (1942; 1951) ... Piaget ... Mary Ainsworth (1979)." [Pamela
Maykut, Richard Morehouse]
Qualitative research approaches began to gain recognition in the 1970s. The very
phrase 'qualitative research' was until then marginalized as a discipline of
anthropology or sociology, and terms like ethnography, fieldwork, participant
observation and Chicago school (sociology) approach were used instead. During the
1970s and 1980s qualitative research began to be used in other disciplines, and
became a dominant - or at least significant - type of research in the fields of women's
studies, disability studies, education studies, social work studies, information studies,
management studies, nursing service studies, human service studies and others. In the
late 1980s and 1990s after a spate of criticisms from the quantitative side, new
methods of qualitative research have been designed, to address the problems with
reliability and imprecise modes of data analysis.[Taylor, 1998]
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Overview
In the social sciences, qualitative research is a broad term that describes research that
focuses on how individuals and groups view and understand the world and construct
meaning out of their experiences. Qualitative research methods are sometimes used
together with quantitative research methods to gain deeper understanding of the
causes of social phenomena, or to help generate questions for further research. Unlike
quantitative methods, qualitative research methods place little importance on
developing statistically valid samples, or on searching for statistical support for
hypotheses.
Generally (though there are exceptions), qualitative research studies rely on three
basic data gathering techniques: participant observation, interview, and social artifact
(usually, documents) content analysis (Wolcott, 1995, 1999). Each of these techniques
represents a continuum of from less to more structured (Adler & Adler, 1987; DeWalt
& DeWalt, 2002) Various studies or particular techniques may rely more heavily on
one data gathering technique or another.
Epistemologically qualitative methods insist that we should not invent the viewpoint
of the actor, and should only attribute to them ideas about the world they actually
hold, in order that we can truly understand their motives, reasons and actions.(Becker,
1996)
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Applications
Though it had its genesis in the fields of journalism, anthropology, and sociology,
qualitative research has burgeoned into and been taken up by many fields.
Anthropology contributed to the field with its development of the research method of
ethnography — a type of cultural translation (Boas, 1943; Malinowski, 1922/1961).
Qualitative research in sociology, especially in the U.S., has its roots in the Chicago
School (Adler & Adler, 1987).
Some of the different methods included under the umbrella of qualitative research,
therefore, include: ethnography, ethnology, oral life history, case study, focus groups,
conversation analysis, and portraiture.
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References
• Adler, P. A. & Adler, P. (1987). Membership roles in field research. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
• Becker, Howard S., The epistemology of qualitative research. University of
Chicago Press, 1996. 53-71. [from Ethnography and human development :
context and meaning in social inquiry / edited by Richard Jessor, Anne Colby,
and Richard A. Shweder]
• Boas, Franz (1943). Recent anthropology. Science, 98, 311-314, 334-337.
• Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research
( 2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• DeWalt, K. M. & DeWalt, B. R. (2002). Participant observation. Walnut
Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
• Fischer, C.T. (Ed.) (2005). Qualitative research methods for psychologists:
Introduction through empirical studies. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-088470-
4.
• Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). "Five Misunderstandings About Case Study Research."
Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 2, April 2006, pp. 219-245.
• Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
• Kaminski, Marek M. 2004. Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-11721-7 http://webfiles.uci.edu/mkaminsk/www/book.html
• Malinowski, B. (1922/1961). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E.
P. Dutton.
• Pamela Maykut, Richard Morehouse. 1994 Beginning Qualitative Research.
Falmer Press.
• Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods ( 3rd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Charles C. Ragin, Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of
Method, Pine Forge Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8039-9021-9
• Steven J. Taylor, Robert Bogdan, Introduction to Qualitative Research
Methods, Wiley, 1998, ISBN 0-471-16868-8
• Wolcott, H. F. (1995). The art of fieldwork. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira
Press.
• Wolcott, H. F. (1999). Ethnography: A way of seeing. Walnut Creek, CA:
AltaMira Press.