Qualitative Research Methods and

Approaches to Data Analysis

By :___________________

Second Week
1
Contents to be Covered in the Session

 Introduction to Qualitative Research

 Core Activities in Qualitative Research

 Types of Qualitative Research

 Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research

 Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research

 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data

 Qualitative Data Preparation/Level of Analysis

 Analyzing Qualitative Data

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

 Recognize meaning of qualitative research
 Identify core activities in qualitative research
 Categorize Qualitative Research into different types
 Appreciate some common data collection methods in qualitative

research
 Comprehend methods of evaluating qualitative data
 Be familiar with specific qualitative data analysis methods
Introduction to Qualitative Research
What is Qualitative Research?
 Qualitative research is a method of naturalistic enquiry-- it aims to
study people in their natural social settings. The focus is on the
meanings the participants in the study setting attach to their social
world. (Bowling, 2002)

 Qualitative research believes that if we are to understand a topic,

we need to look at it through the eyes of those who experience it
and try to understand it from their point of view. (Rees, 1997)
Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
 Qualitative Research…involves finding out what people say, what
they think, and how they feel. This kind of information is
subjective. It involves feelings and impressions, rather than
numbers
 Qualitative research involves 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.
Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
 Deploy a wide range of interconnected methods, hoping always
to get a better fix on the subject matter at hand.

 Therefore qualitative research is Not measurements, but words!

 Instead of asking how many times someone purchased an

item, you ask "Why...?"

 Typically the samples are small, and not "random“

 Usually field research & usually complex

Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
Qualitative Research
Strengths
 Good for examining feelings and motivations
 Allows for complexity and depth of explorations & descriptions
 Provides insights
Weaknesses
 Can’t extrapolate to the whole population
 Volume of data
 Complexity of analysis
 Time-consuming nature of the clerical efforts require
Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
Why would you use a qualitative method?
 To develop a theory
 To understand a phenomena
 To describe the nature of a phenomena
 To verify something in a real world setting
 To evaluate a practice or approach
Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
How does qualitative research differ from quantitative?
Quantitative Qualitative
 Emphasis on measuring &  Emphasis on feeling and
counting experiences & usually no counting
 Makes general statements  Sees the world as changing
about people as groups
 Likes to prove causal  Emphasis on the individual
relationships
 Tests theory  Develops theory
 Introduction to Qualitative Research ... Cont’d
How does qualitative research differ from quantitative?
Aspect Quantitative Qualitative
Research question How much, How many, What is the experience; feeling,
How often, ... opinion, pattern of behaviour?
Type of answer Precise numeric answer Broad and verbal answer
Hypothesis Present at start May emerge from study
Issues described Through eyes of researcher Through eyes of respondent
Data collection Extensive Intensive
Sample size Large Small
Sample Representative Relevant
Generalizability High Low
Analytical approach Deductive Inductive
Type of Analysis Statistical/objective Subjective
Type of Research Descriptive or Causal Exploratory
 Core Activities in Qualitative Research
Qualitative approaches on:
A. Literature review (to show how current findings fit into what is
already known)
B. Explicating researcher’s beliefs (setting aside one’s biases and
personal views on a topic)
C. Role of participants: (People being studied are viewed as
participant or informant, not “subject”, requires learning about
the participants’ culture through on-going discussion and
involvement with them)
D. Selection of participants (Method is called “purposive
sampling” Participants must have first-hand experience with the
research topic (e.g., homelessness, gang involvement, attending
medical school) and be able to talk about it
Core Activities in Qualitative Research… Cont’d
E. Setting for data collection
 “Informant-driven” rather than “theory-driven”
– Investigator assumes ignorance of the culture or experience being
studied
– Informant teaches the investigator
 Data is collected in the “field” – the natural world where people live
and experience life
– Investigator should be nonintrusive and spend a prolonged time
in the field
 Some researchers used multiple methods
F. Approach to data analysis (using software tools etc)
G. Saturation (Refers to a situation in data analysis where participants’
descriptions become repetitive and confirm previously collected
data)
Types of Qualitative Research

1) Phenomenology

2) Ethnography

3) Case Study Research

4) Grounded Theory

5) Historical Research
Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d
1. Phenomenology: a form of qualitative research in which the
researcher attempts to understand how one or more individuals
experience a phenomenon.

Example: Interviewing 20 widows and asking them to describe their

experiences of the deaths of their husbands.

 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

 Focus on revealing the meaning of the lived experience from the

perspective of participants

 Describe the essences of lived experience

 The essences is related to the true meaning of something that

gives common understanding to the phenomenon under study

 Conveyed with descriptive language

 Drawn from philosophy used across disciplines

 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

2. Ethnography: is the form of qualitative research that focuses on

describing the culture of a group of people. Note that a culture is the
shared attitudes, values, norms, practices, language, and material
things of a group of people.

For example: One might decide to go and live in an area and study the
culture and their educational practices.
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

The various steps in the research process while doing ethnography are
as follows:

A. Selecting a Field Problem

 Tackling the problem of access

 Factoring in one’s own interest in a particular research problem

 The amount of preparation requires

 Previous field work carried out by self or others

Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

B. Literature Review

C. Language learning (including language/terms relating to one’s

research problem)

D. Building rapport to gain acceptance in the field

E. Taking Residence in the field

 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

Ethnographic research involves collecting three types of data, each of

which require specific tools of data collection:

 Outline of institutions or customs: Document concrete evidence

 Actualities of social action: ethnographic diary /journal/ field

notes

 Narratives, typical utterance, folklore, magic, health: what

people say, do, think

Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

 The focus is to study human behavior in the cultural context in

which it is embedded

 Ethnography is the work of describing a culture – the way of life of

a cultural group and is associated with Cultural Anthropology
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

3. Case study research: A type which looks intensily at an individual

or small participant pool or an organization or an event, drawing
conclusions only in that specific context.

For Example: you might study a classroom that was given a new

curriculum for technology use

 Applied to understand life story/life world of an individual or an

organization.
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

Steps:

[Link] a subject of the case study;

[Link] a checklist which consist a set of questions (who, what,

where, why, when and how) focusing on issues;

[Link] collection through interview, FGD, KII and secondary sources;

[Link] and organizing the data (writing the life story of the
case).
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

4. Grounded theory: is a qualitative approach to generating and

developing a theory from data that the researcher collects.

For example: you might collect data from parents who have pulled their
children out of public schools and develop a theory to explain how and
why this phenomenon occurs, ultimately developing a theory of school
pull-out.
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

 Focus on developing a theory to explain underlying social processes

of a cultural group
 Useful in areas where little is known or when a new perspective is
needed
 Used for exploratory, descriptive studies

 Because the theory emerges from the data, it is said to be grounded

in the data
 Foundation in Symbolic Interactions
 Types of Qualitative Research … Cont’d

5. Historical research: Is research about events that occurred in the

past.

Example: you might study the use of corporeal punishment in schools

in the 19th century.

 Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research

The four major qualitative methods of data collection include:

1. Observation
Observation as a technique is useful under the following conditions:
1. There is no adequate native language exists to explain a process
or phenomena or object
2. There is no clear generalized pattern of behavior; no regularities
3. There is an inability to verbalize certain kinds of behavior
4. There is an inability to report on behavior considered not done
5. There is inability to report because of conflict situations
6. There is difficulty in remembering or inability to generalize
 Data Collection Mthods in Qualitative Research … Cont’d
Observation can be of different type and the followings are strengths of
participant observation
 Not artificial, not distorting the environment
 Inconspicuous observation
 For some settings, other methods not usable: eg. deviant subcultures,
subjects unwilling to talk, unable to verbalize habits,
 Enables us to study large groups at a time: social movements,
sporting events, informal groups, prisons
 Immersion: deep understanding
 First hand information
 High face validity
 Simple and inexpensive
Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research … Cont’d

Informal Interviews and Key Informant Interviews

 In informal interviews, the researcher talks with people in the field

casually or informally, without the use of a structured interview
guide
or questionnaire.
 Key informants are people who may have special or additional
knowledge on a particular topic or issue.
 Data Collection Mthods in Qualitative Research … Cont’d
Informal Interviews and Key Informant Interviews

The three steps for interviewing key informants are:

1)Early contact: conducting a pre-interview, getting first impressions,
describing and deciding data collection goals, and obtaining
permissions
2)Preparation for the interview: selecting topics, formulating questions,
ordering questions, deciding appropriateness of topics and questions,
and negotiating the form and content of questions
3)The actual interview: the interview is conducted in a site where the
respondent feels comfortable, is not intimidated, and feels at home. If
permission is given, the interview may be recorded by note taking or
using audio-visual methods.
Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research … Cont’d

The following issues need to be kept in mind while conducting key

informant interviews:

 Setting of the interview

 Interviewer strategies

 Recognizing cultural differences

 Choosing the right informants

 Recording the information, and

 Reporting the results truthfully and accurately

Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research
 Reliability refers to the consistency or repeatability of measurement
 Repeating tests, and testing for consistency as they are done in
statistical analysis is not possible since:
 Validity refers to whether we actually measured or recorded what
we
actually wanted to study.
 It may also refer to the strength of conclusions, inferences or
propositions.
 Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research … Cont’d

 In qualitative research one way of enhancing reliability and validity

is through
 Triangulation: obtain the same data or information using multiple
methods and from multiple sources.
 Face validity: since the data is collected directly by the
researcher and not by an assistant or investigator.
 Concerns about reliability and validity are essentially concerns
regarding quality of data and appropriateness of methods used in
research
 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data

 Developing standards of quality

 In qualitative research, validity or trustworthiness and reliability or

consistency that reflect the assumptions of the qualitative paradigm
can be checked by:

I. Credibility

II. Dependability

III. Transferability

IV. Confirmability
 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data … Cont’d

I. Credibility
 To assure credibility (internal validity) you can describe appropriate
strategies such as:
 Using different data sources, methods, data type (triangulation),
 Prolonged time in the field, repeatedly observing and interacting
with participants,
 Conducting member checks
 Saturation
 Reflexivity and
 Peer review.
 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data … Cont’d

II. Dependability
 Want to determine the extent to which another researcher with similar
training and rapport with participants would make the same
observations
 Involves auditing research process, documenting all the raw data
generated, and assessing method of data analysis
 Can be established through audit trails and triangulation
 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data … Cont’d

III. Transferability
 Transferability (external validity) refers to the generalizability of the study findings to other
settings, populations, and contexts
 Report must provide sufficient detail so that readers can assess this

 Transferability can be achieved by “thick descriptions” and variation in participant selection.

 Methods of Evaluating Qualitative Data … Cont’d

IV. Conformability
 Refers to the objectivity of the data

 Would another researcher agree about the meanings emerging from

the data?
 An audit trail is used in which the researcher explicates how
personal biases may have come into play
 Is established through reflexivity or intra- or inter-coder reliability,
where applicable.
Qualitative Data Preparation/Level of Analysis

1. Domain Analysis/Getting familiar with the data:

 Transcribing the data and reading the data several times.

 The researcher is moving from observing a social situation (set of

behaviors carried out by people in a social situation) to discovering
the cultural scene
Qualitative Data Preparation/Level of Analysis … Cont’d
2. Taxonomic Analysis
 Revisiting the research objectives and identifying the questions that

can be answered

 More in-depth analysis in which the researcher is searching for

larger categories to which the domain may belong

 A taxonomy is a set of categories organized on the basis of a single

semantic relationship
Qualitative Data Preparation/Level of Analysis … Cont’d

3. Componential Analysis

 Developing a framework using matrices and/or tables to discover

the differences among the subcomponents of domains.

Qualitative Data Preparation/Level of Analysis … Cont’d
4. Theme Analysis
 Identifying patterns and connections

 Involves a search for relationships among domains, as well as a

search for how these relationships are linked to the overall cultural

context

 Themes are assertions that apply to numerous situations and have a

high degree of generality

 Analyzing Qualitative Data
 Data analysis is a systematic search for meaning

 Qualitative data analysis works a little differently from quantitative

data, primarily because qualitative data is made up of words,
observations, images, and even symbols.

 Deriving absolute meaning from such data is nearly impossible;

hence, it is mostly used for exploratory research.

 While in quantitative research there is a clear distinction between

the data preparation and data analysis stage, analysis for qualitative
research often begins as soon as the data is available.
 Analyzing Qualitative Data … Cont’d

Qualitative Data analysis Methods

1. Content analysis
 Is the procedure for the categorization of verbal or behavioral
data for the purpose of classification, summarization &
tabulation
 The content can be analyzed on two levels –
 Descriptive: What is the data? –
 Interpretative: What was meant by the data?
2. Narrative analysis
 Narratives are transcribed experiences
 The researcher has to sort-out and reflect up on them, enhance
them, and present them in a revised shape to the reader
 The core activity in narrative analysis is to reformulate stories
presented by people in different contexts and based on their
different experiences
 Analyzing Qualitative Data … Cont’d
3. Discourse analysis
 A method of analyzing a naturally occurring talk (spoken
interaction) and all types of written texts
 Focus on ordinary people method of producing and making
sense of everyday social life:
 Sometimes people express themselves in a simple and
straightforward way and sometimes express themselves
vaguely and indirectly
 Analyst must refer to the context when interpreting the message
as the same phenomenon can be described in a number of
different ways depending on context
 Analyzing Qualitative Data … Cont’d
4. Framework Analysis
 Familiarization: Transcribing & reading the data
 Identifying a thematic framework: Initial coding framework
which is developed both from a priori issues and from emergent
issues
 Coding: Using numerical or textual codes to identify specific
piece of data which correspond to different themes
 Charting: Charts created using headings from thematic
framework (can be thematic or by case)
 Mapping and interpretation: Searching for patterns,
associations, concepts and explanations in the data
 Analyzing Qualitative Data … Cont’d
5. Grounded Theory

Analytic induction starts with an examination of a single case from

a ‘pre-defined’ population in order to formulate a general statement

about a population, a concept or a hypothesis then the analyst

examines another case to see whether it fits the statement

 Analyzing Qualitative Data … Cont’d

6. Hermeneutic Analysis

 Is a type where the researcher tries to “interpret” the subjective

meaning of a given text within its socio-historic context.

 Unlike grounded theory or content analysis, which ignores the

context and meaning of text documents during the coding process,

hermeneutic analysis is a truly interpretive technique for analyzing

qualitative data.
Thanks