Qualitative Research Examples
Definition:
Case Study Research focuses on the choice of study rather than the methodology. Unlike the other methodologies mentioned here, case studies are not meant to be generalized. Rather they are an in-depth observation and analysis of a specific case for its own sake. Case studies seek to provide as complete and extensive an understanding of a phenomena as possible by a total consideration and description of all variables involved. Though case study research design can consist of quantitative methods, it is largely classified as a qualitative research method due to its overall narrative nature.
Further Reading:
- Designing and Conducting Case Studies (2005) Colorado State University
- Case Study Research (2014) The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice
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Bias:
- Unconscious Bias - is when the researcher intuitively draws on stereotypes to make value judgements without enough knowledge, evidence, understanding or reflection. Unconscious bias can show itself in a whole range of ways including affinity bias, attribution bias and confirmation bias:
- Affinity Bias - refers to when we display a preference towards individuals or groups who share certain qualities or characteristics with us, or people we like.
- Confirmation Bias - is when the researcher searches for information or interprets what they see in ways that confirm their preexisting beliefs. We pay specific attention to information or observations that support our views, leading us to pay much more attention to our assumptions and beliefs than what is actually happening in front of them. They may go out of their way to look for evidence to prove their expectations to be true, while at the same time turning a blind eye to the information that challenges their beliefs. Confirmation bias has an influence on how researchers gather information, interpret and recall it. Confirmation bias can also reinforce stereotypes.
- Attribution Bias - refers to the errors that a researcher makes when trying to find reasons for their own behaviors and motivations or the behaviors and motivations of others. Attribution bias is about when researchers attribute the cause of an individual’s behavior to their character and not the situation.
Further Reading:
Case Study Research Methods by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781441159069Publication Date: 2010More people than ever are using case studies in research, yet there is very little guidance on how to construct case studies effectively.
Doing Case Study Research by Call Number: LB1028 .H313 2006ISBN: 9780807747087Publication Date: 2006This step-by-step handbook guides beginning researchers through the stages of planning and implementing case studies. Starting with how to establish a rationale for conducting a systematic case study and identifying literature that informs the research effort, this indispensable resource shows students how to determine an appropriate research design and conduct informative interviews, observations and document analyses.
Case Study Research by Call Number: H62 .Y56 2003ISBN: 0761925538Publication Date: 2002With over 90,000 copies sold of the previous editions the new Third Edition of the best-selling Case Study Research has been carefully revised, updated, and expanded while retaining virtually all of the features and coverage of the second edition. Robert Yin′s comprehensive presentation covers all aspects of the case study method - from problem definition, design, and data collection, to data analysis and composition and reporting.
Definition:
Focus groups are a form of group interview that capitalizes on communication between research participants in order to generate data. Although group interviews are often used simply as a quick and convenient way to collect data from several people simultaneously, focus groups explicitly use group interaction as part of the method. This means that instead of the researcher asking each person to respond to a question in turn, people are encouraged to talk to one another: asking questions, exchanging anecdotes and commenting on each other's experiences and points of view. The method is particularly useful for exploring people's knowledge and experiences and can be used to examine not only what people think but how they think and why they think that way.
Further Reading:
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Bias:
- Focus groups may disproportionately represent the opinions of those who are more talkative or quick to answer.
- Conformity bias - is the tendency to give an opinion that feels socially appropriate. Respondents will often do this to fit in or to not offend anyone. In a focus group, they may go along with what everyone else is saying, even if it is plainly wrong or they simply disagree. leads to group think.
- Authority bias - This type of bias describes the tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure, even if that figure is unrelated to the topic under discussion. In focus groups, authority bias can occur when one person asserts their authority or presents themselves as being something of an expert on the subject. This can deter others from speaking up or lead them to agree with whatever is being said. This leads to unbalanced point(s) of view.
Further Reading:
Focus Groups by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780203590447Publication Date: 2013Focus Groups: From Structured Interviews to Collective Conversations is a conceptual and practical introduction to focus group. As the title indicates, focus groups traditionally encompass a wide range of discursive practices. These span from formal structured interviews with particular people assembled around clearly delimited topics to less forma.
Focus Group Discussions by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199383962Publication Date: 2013The Understanding Research series focuses on the process of writing up social research. The series is broken down into three categories: Understanding Statistics, Understanding Measurement, and Understanding Qualitative Research.
Using Focus Groups in Research by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781441141804Publication Date: 2003Focus Groups are often under-used as a valuable tool for research. This practical and extremely well-written guide offers advice on: * planning and organising focus groups * what types of questions to use* the limitations and advantages of using these groups as research methods* collecting the data at group sessions* how to analyse the data produced.
The Focus Group Guidebook by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781452250151Publication Date: 1997Providing a general introduction to focus group research, The Focus Group Guidebook includes the appropriate reasons for using focus groups and what you can expect to accomplish with them. It provides a brief history of focus groups, a discussion of when to use focus groups and why, and several brief case studies illustrating different uses of focus groups.
Definition:
Ethnography is a qualitative method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioral sciences. Data are collected through observations and interviews, which are then used to draw conclusions about how societies and individuals function.
It is standard practice that a researcher often live among the people they are studying, enabling the ethnographer to effectively conduct their research. This research involves the collection and analysis of relevant data concerning individual societies and cultures such as aspects of:
• the geography and environment
• the people's technology and techniques of adaptation
• food practices
• their values regarding and institution of marriage, family, politics, folklore, religion
• economy
• language structure and use
• social relationships, practices, and roles
Primary methods for fieldwork include:
• participant observation
• interviews
• note-taking and record-keeping
• taking photographs/making films
• collecting artifacts
Further Reading:
- Ethnographic Research (2006) The Encyclopedia of Aging
- Field Methods: Ethnographic (2001) Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics
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Bias:
- Ethnographer Bias may obscure a genuine relationship as produce artifactual correlations. This could be especially true in cases where an ethnographer's theoretical orientation leads him to seriously distorted perceptions and thus to distorted reporting of behavior.
- Read this study for suggestions mitigating bias: ETHNOGRAPHY: MITIGATING OBSERVER BIAS (2015)
Further Reading:
Qualitative Strategies for Ethnocultural Research by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781433811494Publication Date: 2012Culture has become one of the most important constructs in contemporary psychology, but behavioral and social scientists still rely on mostly quantitative methods in their research on ethnocultural communities. Part I of this edited volume explores an array of methodological issues in qualitative research, with particular attention to studies and interventions in marginalized ethnocultural communities. Part II addresses specific qualitative research applications.
Decolonizing Language Learning, Decolonizing Research by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780429631832Publication Date: 2020This volume explores the socio-political dynamics, historical forces, and unequal power relationships which mediate language ideologies in Mexican higher education settings, shedding light on the processes by which minority students learn new languages in postcolonial contexts. Drawing on data from a critical ethnographic case study of a Mexican university over several years, the book turns a critical lens on language learning autonomy and the use of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in postcolonial higher education settings, and advocates for an approach to the language learning and teaching process which takes into account minority language learners' cultural heritage and localized knowledge.
Methodologies of Mobility by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781785334818Publication Date: 2017Research into mobility is an exciting challenge for the social sciences that raises novel social, cultural, spatial and ethical questions. At the heart of these empirical and theoretical complexities lies the question of methodology: how can we best capture and understand a planet in flux?
Psychiatry interrogated : an institutional ethnography anthology by Call Number: eBookISBN: 3319411748Publication Date: 2016This edited volume is an anthology of institutional ethnography (IE) inquiries into psychiatry--the first ever to be written. It focuses on a large variety of different geographic locations and constitutes a major contribution to anti/critical psychiatry, as well as institutional ethnography. Themes include the DSM, the use and protection of problematic psychiatric research, the penetration of psychiatry into the workplace. Adding depth and breath, the contributors, while all are schooled in IE, come from a large variety of walks of life, authors including: academics, psychiatric survivors, investigative reporters, activists, nurses, artists, and lawyers--each bringing their own unique expertise/standpoint to bear.
Definition:
Grounded Theory sets out to discover or construct theory from data, systematically obtained and analyzed using comparative analysis. Grounded theory is a structured, yet flexible methodology. This methodology is appropriate when little is known about a phenomenon; the aim being to produce or construct an explanatory theory that uncovers a process inherent to the substantive area of inquiry. One of the defining characteristics of grounded theory is that it aims to generate theory that is grounded in the data.
Further Reading:
-
Grounded Theory (2008) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods
- Grounded Theory (2008) Key Concepts in Ethnography
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Bias:
- Grounded theory methods tend to produce large amounts of data, often difficult to manage.
- There are no standard rules to follow for the identification of categories
Further Reading:
Five Ways of Doing Qualitative Analysis by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781609181444Publication Date: 2011This unique text provides a broad introduction to qualitative analysis together with concrete demonstrations and comparisons of five major approaches.
Virtue As Social Intelligence by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780203880579Publication Date: 2010Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory takes on the claims of philosophical situationism, the ethical theory that is skeptical about the possibility of human virtue. Influenced by social psychological studies, philosophical situationists argue that human personality is too fluid and fragmented to support a stable set of virtues.
Research and development in school : grounded in cultural historical activity theory by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9789004410213Publication Date: 2019Research and Development in School: Grounded in Cultural Historical Activity Theory intends to give student teachers, teachers and school leaders research knowledge about which methodologies (research approaches) and methods (data collection and analysis methods) they can use as tools when researching the day-to-day affairs of school and classroom practice. Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) is presented as the framework.
Definition:
Narrative research (or narrative inquiry) is the study of written or oral accounts to understand experience and the way in which people make meaning of their lives. This methodology places emphasis and value in the not only the knowledge that a person or persons may possess, but in they themselves and their ways of sharing or expressing that knowledge. Prominent in fields such as cognitive science, organizational studies, knowledge theory, sociology, occupational science, and education studies, narrative research exists in the realm of knowledge and information management.
This methodology uses a number of artifacts such as:
• autobiographies
• journal writing
• field notes
• letters
• conversation
• research interview
• stories passed down across generations of family members
• documents
• photographs, memory boxes, and other personal-family-social artifacts
• life experience
Further Reading
- Explorations in narrative research
- Five ways of doing qualitative analysis: phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuitive inquiry
- Narrative Inquiry as an Approach for Aesthetic Experience: Life Stories in Perceiving and Responding to Works of Art
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Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2004). Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass, 2004.
Ingraham, C. (2015). Narrative. In K. Tracy (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from http://ezproxyles.flo.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileylasi/narrative/0?institutionId=1429
Personal accounts or narratives can contain bias because the way we perceive the world is filtered through our personal beliefs, wants, and experiences. Bias might also occur when what is depicted is a story or account that the researcher wants to display in order to present a certain impression or conclusion.
Further Reading:
Definition:
Phenomenological Research seeks to understand and describe the universal essence of a phenomenon. The approach investigates the everyday experiences of human beings while suspending the researchers’ preconceived assumptions about the phenomenon. Phenomenological Research is similar to narrative research in that the emphasis of the research lies in the experience. How it differs is that narrative research is not interested in the experience itself per se, but rather the mode and manner in which people make sense of that experience. Phenomenological research, on the other hand, keeps its focus on the experience itself, regardless of the method in which the meaning is extracted from it. Phenomenological research recognizes that people are instrumental in extracting meaning from the experience, but remains generally less concerned with the type of data used.
Further Reading
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Stein, J. Y. (2016). Narrative Research vs. Phenomenological Research [Online Forum Comment]. Message posted to https://www.researchgate.net/post/Narrative_Research_vs_Phenomenological_Research
- Selection bias can occur during the process of recruiting individuals to participate in a study.
- Data collection is another major area where bias can infiltrate the research process. Conducting interviews, even using a structured questionnaire, can easily be influenced by the personal characteristics of the researcher, including inflections in voice, the order of the questions, and subjects’ desire to please the one collecting the data. Observational data are particularly at risk of bias because how one person views a situation may be completely different from how another sees the same situation. Since data collection for phenomenological research occurs through interviews, bias may easily distort the findings through the personal relationship that develops between the researcher and the participant. In order to allow participants to tell their stories, intimacy is requisite and the researcher needs to be in the moment and allow the story to flow. Leading the participants to say what they think the researcher wants to hear is always problematic. It can occur through probing questions, facial expressions, and body language, which are more powerful means of communication than just words.
- Analysis of the data collected from interviewing participants can be easily influenced by bias since the researcher is the one who must sort through all of the information and come to conclusions that include themes, theories, or descriptions. It is easy when searching through all of the words to find only those that support what the researcher thinks is happening and to dismiss things that do not fit into a preconceived schema.
Further Reading: