QUALITATIVE Research

& ANALYSIS Methods

Qualitative Research Methods

METHOD

STUDY FOCUS

OBJECTIVE

DISCIPLINES

Ethnography
Ethnology(Copm)
Ethnohistory

culture/cultural group

describe a culture/cultural
group

Cultural Anthropology

Netography

online groups

Explaining/understanding
cyber society

Sociology/Psychology

Phenomenology

individual experience

discern the essence of the

lived experience

Philosophy

Case Study

Individual cases

Understanding

Psychology/Management

Historical Research

Past events/ artifact

Explanation/understandin
g/hypothesizing

Anthropology/history/
sociology

6-2

1. Ethnography
Focus: study human behaviour 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

Associated

with Cultural Anthropology

Some
Concepts
In
Ethnography
Ethnocentrism (i.e., judging others based on your cultural
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

standards).
Emic perspective (i.e., the insider's perspective) and emic
terms (i.e., specialized words used by people in a group).
Etic perspective (i.e., the external, social scientific view) and
etic terms (i.e., outsider's words or specialized words used by
social scientists).
Going native (i.e., identifying completely with the group being
studied).
Holism (i.e., the idea that the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts; it involves describing the group as a whole unit,
in addition to its parts and their interrelationships).

2. Netography
Relatively a new discipline
Focuses on Exploring and understanding
online groups and societies

3. Phenomenology
Focus: reveal the meaning of the lived
experience from the perspective of
participants
Describe the essences of lived
experience

Essences:

elements related to the true meaning of

something that gives common understanding to the
phenomenon under study

Drawn,

mainly from Philosophy

6

4. Case Study
In depth understanding & exploring the case:
individual, organization, process etc..
1. Intrinsic case study :interest is only in understanding
the particulars of the case.
2. Instrumental case study : interest is in understanding
something more general than the case.
3. Collective case study : is in studying and comparing
multiple cases in a single research study.

5. Historical Research

Exploring the past events in order to understand

the phenomena
Sources

of Data
Types of Data
External Criticism validity, trustworthiness, or
authenticity of the source.
Internal Criticism reliability or accuracy of the
information contained in the sources

Qualitative Data Collection

Methods

6-9

Qualitative Sampling Techniques

6-10

Selection of Sample

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

Researcher establishes clear criteria and

rationale for sample selection
Goal is a rich descriptions

11

Types of Sample
Maximum variation sampling (i.e., you select a wide range of cases).
Homogeneous sample selection (i.e., you select a small and
homogeneous case or set of cases for intensive study).
Extreme case sampling (i.e., you select cases that represent the
extremes on some dimension).
Typical-case sampling (i.e., you select typical or prototype cases).
Critical-case sampling (i.e., you select cases that are known to be
very important).
Opportunistic sampling (i.e., you select useful cases as the
opportunity arises).
Mixed purposeful sampling (i.e., you can mix the sampling strategies
tailored to your specific needs).
12

Saturation

Refers to a situation in data analysis

where participants descriptions become
repetitive and confirm previously collected
data
An

indication that data analysis is complete

When data analysis is complete, data
collection is terminated

13

Tools of Data Collection

Interviews
Observations
Open Ended questionnaires
Artifacts
Media
Others

14

Authentication of Data

Corroboration: comparing documents to each

other to determine if they provide the same
information.
Sourcing: identifying the author, date of creation
of a document, and the place it was created.
Contextualization: identifying when and where
an event took place, is another technique used
to establish authenticity and accuracy of
information.
15

Qualitative Data Analysis

Techniques/Methods

16

Grounded Theory/Constant
Comparison/Grounded

Grounded theory uses a systematic hierarchical

set of procedures to develop inductively derived
theory grounded in data. Glaser and Strauss
invented Grounded Theory in the 1960s to
analyze data on caring for dying patients.

17

Quasi-statistics
Count the # of times something is
mentioned in field notes/content as very
rough estimate of frequency
Often enumeration is used to provide
evidence for categories created or to
determine

18

Discourse analysis

Finding patterns of interaction and

meanings etc..

19

Content Analysis
Standard rules of content analysis include:
How big a chunk of data is analyzed at a time (a line, a sentence, a phrase,
aparagraph?) Must state and stay with it.
What are units of meaning?, the categories used. Categories must be:
1. Inclusive (all examples fit a category)
2. Mutually exclusive
Also note context. Start by reading all way through, then specify rules. Could have
emergent theory, but usually theory-driven. After determine categories, do the
counting how often do categories occur. Most of literature emphasizes the quantitative
aspects.
Originated with analyzing newspaper articles for bias - counting things in print. Very
print oriented - can be adapted for visual and verbal as well

20

LEVELS & UNITS OF ANALYSIS

words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs,
sections, chapters, print media, ideological
stance, subject topic, elements relevant to
the context etc.

21

Manifest vs. Latent content analysis

- manifest content (surface structure):
perceptible, clear, comprehensible message
- latent content (deep structure): implied,
unstated message

22

3 Broad Levels Of Analysis

Simply count the number of times a particular word or concept

occurs (e.g., communication) in a narrative: The qualitative data can
then be categorised quantitatively and subjected to statistical
analysis.
For a thematic analysis want to go deeper than this.
All units of data (eg sentences or paragraphs) referring to loneliness
could be given a particular code, extracted and examined in more
detail. Do participants talk of being lonely even when others are
present? Are there particular times of day or week when they
experience loneliness? In what terms do they express loneliness?
Do men and women talk of loneliness in different ways? Are those
who speak of loneliness also those who experience depression?
Themes could eventually be developed such as lonely but never
alone or these four walls.

For a theoretical analysis such as grounded theory you would want

to go further still.
23

Nature & Process of Analysis

24

Common Steps of Analysis

Familiarization with the
data through review,
reading, listening etc
2. Memoing/Transcription
of material
3. Storing of data for easy
retrieval and identification
4. Coding (or indexing)
Giving codes; and
Anonymising of sensitive
data
5. Identification of themes.
1.

6. Re-coding
7. Development of provisional
categories/concept development
8. Exploration of relationships
between categories
9. Refinement of themes and
categories/concept modification
10. Development of theory
11. Testing of theory against the
data.

25

Approaches to Coding in Content Analysis:

Coding Frames

Structured Coding/ A priori codes

Open Coding/inductive codes
Axial Coding

26

Coding Frames

Data
MT 1

Open coding

Axial Coding

MT 2

MT1

MT 3

MT 3

Axial
*MT=Major Theme
27