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Qualitative research
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Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in

social sciences. Qualitative research involves an indepth understanding of human
behaviour and the reasons that govern human behaviour. Unlike quantitative research,
qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behaviour. Simply put,
it investigates the why and how of decision making, as compared to what, where,
and when of quantitative research. Hence, the need is for smaller but focused samples
rather than large and random samples.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Differences between qualitative and quantitative research

• 2 History
• 3 Overview
• 4 Applications

• 5 References
[edit]

Differences between qualitative and quantitative

research
1. Qualitative research develops theory whereas quantitative tests theory as well
2. Qualitative research describes meaning or discovery whereas quantitative
establishes relationship or causation
3. In qualitative research the researcher is explicitly a part of the data gathering
process whereas in quantitative, the researcher is formally an independent
entity
4. Qualitative research uses communication and observation whereas quantitative
uses instruments
5. Qualitative research uses unstructured data collection whereas quantitative
uses structured data collection

Another way to describe these differences is cited by [Pamela Maykut, Richard

Morehouse]:
 1. Qualitative approaches use multiple realities which can only be understood by
the intersecting socio-psychological contructions. Quantitative approaches
have one reality created from dividing and studying parts of an entity.
2. Qualitative approaches have interdependency between the knower and the
known. Quantitative approaches believe true objectivity exists because the
knower can be studied outside of the known.
3. Qualitative approaches have non-numerical values that mediate and shape
what is understood. Quantitative approaches believe that non-numerical values
can be ignored or otherwise rendered unimportant.
4. Qualitative approaches involves multidirectional relationships where events
shape each other. Quantitative approaches claim that a preceding event can be
said to cause a following event.
5. Qualitative approaches have only tentative explanations for one time and one
place. Quantitative approaches believes that explanations can be generalized to
other times and places.
6. Qualitative approaches seek to discover or uncover hypotheseses. Quantitative
approaches generally seeks verification or proof of hypotheses.

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.

In climate research, qualitative reconstructions of past temperatures rely on records

of events such as frost fairs which indicate periods of cold or warmth, but give little or
no information as to the degree of temperature variation. Other indicators – dates of
harvest, first flowering of plants – produce information somewhere between
qualitative and quantitative.

[edit]

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]

[edit]

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.

Instead, qualitative research focuses on the understanding of research phenomena in

situ; that is, within their naturally-occurring context(s). One aim of the qualitative
researcher is to tease out the meaning(s) the phenomena have for the actors or
participants. Quantitative studies, however, may also observe phenomena in situ and
address issues of meaning, and one criticism of this approach to qualitative research is
that the definitions offered of it do not distinguish it adequately from quantitative
research (for more on this issue, and about the debate over the merits of qualitative
and quantitative approaches, see qualitative psychological research).

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.

Qualitative research has gained in popularity, especially due to the linguistic or

subjective turn taking hold across the globe (Giddens, 1990). The social sciences,
especially, as well as laypeople, have more readily accepted a subjective (as opposed
to an objective or objectivist) ontology. Its practitioners often believe that qualitative
research is especially well-suited to getting at the subjective qualities of the lived
world, although this belief is far from universally accepted.

Many forms of qualitative analysis are labour-intensive. A number of software

packages have been developed with the aim of reducing the load and systematising
the task. Commercially available packages include Qualrus, Atlas.ti, NVivo, and
NUD*ist; open source or free packages including AnSWR homepage and Transana.

Because of its emphasis on in-depth knowledge and elaboration of images and

concepts, qualitative methods have been viewed as particularly useful for the areas of
social research like "giving voice" to marginalized groups, formulation of new
interpretations of historical and cultural significance of various events and advancing
theory as in-depth, empirical qualitative studies may capture important facts missed
by more general, quantitative studies. Such investigations usually focus on a primary
case, on the commonalities among separate instances of the same phenomenon
identified through analytic induction, or on parallel phenomena identified through
theoretical sampling. (Ragin, 1994).

[edit]

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.

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