Qualitative Research Methods: An Introduction

Posted on Apr 28, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Readings

Week 1: Introduction to Qualitative Research

Text – van den Hoonaard and van den Scott (2022): Chapter 1

Focus on pp. 4-6 (Qualitative Research in Everyday Life)

Qualitative research encompasses a wide range of topics and employs various approaches.
Researchers aim to understand the everyday lives and social settings of their participants.
Methods include:
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Participant observation
- Document analysis
Qualitative methods provide a deeper understanding of participants compared to quantitative methods.
Qualitative research in daily life:
- Researchers draw inspiration from their daily experiences for research ideas.
- Potential challenge: Maintaining a separation between professional and personal life, as analytical thinking can be difficult to turn off.
Key chapters:
- Chapter 2: Asking Questions & Identifying Goals
  - Importance of research questions
  - Basic qualitative and quantitative assumptions
  - Major differences between the two approaches
  - Indigenous research methods
  - Theoretical approach: Symbolic interactionism
- Chapter 3: Strategies for Designing Research
  - Sociological imagination
  - Undermining the hierarchy of credibility
  - Beginning research
  - Turning a topic into a research question
  - Origins of qualitative studies (personal experience, serendipity, casual observation)
  - Combination of theoretical and personal aspects in studies
- Chapter 4: Ethics on the Ground: A Moral Compass
  - Principles of ethical research
  - Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
  - Ethical concerns at various stages of the qualitative research process

Labuschagne, A. (2003). Qualitative Research – Airy Fairy or Fundamental?

Quantitative research focuses on measurement and causal relationships, often using statistical analysis. It is suitable for large-scale data collection and generalizations.
Qualitative research emphasizes understanding the nature and meaning of phenomena through detailed analysis. It provides depth and detail but involves smaller sample sizes.
Both approaches are complementary.
Qualitative methods include interviews, observations, and document analysis, yielding rich data.
Data analysis involves identifying patterns, themes, and meanings.
Qualitative research aims for reliability by identifying consistent or inconsistent features across contexts.

Sommers, R. C. (1997). The Quilting Bee: A Research Metaphor

This paper uses quilting as a metaphor to compare qualitative and quantitative research. The stories of two Amish women, Sarah and Elizabeth, illustrate the contrasting nature of these approaches. Sarah’s quilt represents a personal journey, while Elizabeth’s focuses on precision and tradition. Both approaches have merit and contribute to understanding. Discussions should focus on how each method aligns with individual goals and research questions rather than comparing their worthiness.

Week 2: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Textbook Chapter 2: Key Concepts

Qualitative	Quantitative
Human lived reality	Theory development and testing
Inductive reasoning (specific to general)	Deductive reasoning (general to specific)
Participant meaning	Researcher meaning
Definition of the situation	Objective definition
Social setting is complex and can affect experimental outcomes	Valid experiments should yield the same conclusions
Understanding is based on agreed-upon experiences	Truth is objective

Term / Question	Answer / Definition
What is Qualitative Research?	A diverse and evolving field with a wide range of topics, research interests, and methods.
What is a method? How is it used?	Tools used to collect data. Various methods are employed to understand the everyday lives and social settings of people studied.
Goal of qualitative research?	To gain a rich understanding of everyday life’s social processes.
Participatory approach? Common?	Research participants shape the focus of analysis. Researchers engage with and become partners with participants. This approach is common.
What does qualitative research depend on?	The development of research questions. The question determines the type of answer sought.
How do quantitative and qualitative researchers ask different types of questions?	Quantitative: Deductive, from general to specific. Qualitative: Inductive, from specific to general.
What type of data is most commonly used in qualitative research?	Original data from the study, not secondary data.
How are qualitative and quantitative research different? Examples	Quantitative: Deductive, scientific method, hypothesis testing, quick results. Qualitative: Inductive, explores deeper questions, longer process to reach results.
Examples of qualitative research methods	Interviews, focus groups, observation.
Auguste Comte (Positivism)	Quantitative approaches were first developed within positivism, which relies on deductive reasoning, a realist perspective, and A to B knowledge.
Statistical research methods in positivist quantitative research	Before data collection and analysis, deductive reasoning is used to operationalize theory into testable hypotheses.
Two 20th-century (1st half) concepts	Verstehen: Sympathetic understanding, where researchers put themselves in the subject’s shoes. W.I. Thomas: Definition of the situation, symbolic interactionism, individual behavior is influenced by their understanding of the situation rather than the objective reality.
Looking-glass self	Cooley’s concept that our self-image is based on how we think we appear to others.
Ethnomethodology	Researchers study people to learn how unwritten/invisible rules allow them to navigate everyday life.
Breaching experiment	An ethnomethodological perspective where researchers break an unspoken law of interaction.
Simultaneous data collection and analysis	A characteristic of qualitative research.
Indigenous resurgence	High community engagement, community-defined topics, land-based learning and understanding, transformational knowledge.
Two-eyed seeing	Research with Indigenous peoples, considering both Indigenous knowledges and Western approaches.
Three attributes of positivism	1) Adherence to a realist perspective 2) Trust in causal knowledge 3) Reliance on deductive reasoning
Max Weber (1864-1920)	Introduced the concept of sympathetic understanding, “verstehen.”
Symbolic interactionism’s primary understanding	We create and construct social reality as social actors.
Sociological imagination	C. Wright Mills’ (1959) concept of the ability to link personal experiences with broader societal patterns, distinguishing between private troubles and public issues, and connecting biography with history.
Difference between a trouble and an issue	Trouble: A private matter where an individual’s cherished values are threatened. Issue: A public matter where a value cherished by the public is threatened.
Hierarchy of credibility	“Experts” are seen as more credible than those in subordinate or marginalized social positions. This is particularly damaging in research with Indigenous peoples.
Participatory Action Research (PAR)	Community-based research that aims to identify group needs, translate findings into actionable insights, and influence social policy or interventions to improve the group’s situation.
Parachute research	A past practice where researchers “dropped in,” collected data, and left, working on participants instead of with them.
Ethics considerations	Justice and inclusiveness, human dignity, free and informed consent, avoiding patronizing vulnerable people, privacy and confidentiality, balancing harms and benefits, minimizing harm and maximizing benefits (for whom), confidentiality vs. anonymity.
Confidentiality vs. anonymity	Confidentiality: Not disclosing information that identifies any participant to anyone else; anonymizing data. Anonymity: Protecting the identity of participants, writing in a way that individuals cannot be identified.
WWII Nuremberg Code	Created in response to horrific experiments conducted on people without their consent.
Three general ethics principles	1. Respect for persons 2. Concern for human welfare 3. Justice
Ethics code	Defines the character of a system and applies morals. It changes based on the environment, balances harms and benefits, and determines what is allowed and what is not.
Respect for persons	A dual moral obligation to respect autonomy and protect those with developing or diminished autonomy. The Willowbrook study (1950s-1972) is an example of coerced consent and exploitation of children with disabilities.