INTL 5100 RESEARCH METHODS AND
PERSPECTIVES
INGO 5200 RESEARCH METHODS AND
PERSPECTIVES IN INGO’S
Doing qualitative research
12 November, 2015
Leiden campus
By Antony Otieno Ong’ayo
Clarifications of concepts
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Paradigms
Theories
Mixed methods
Selection (bias)
Comparison
Reliability
Validity
Variables
Variables
• Can take on a number of values
• Examples: Individual characteristics, age,
income, or education, religion
• Categorical: Age
• 18-24 years, 25-34
• Nominal: Religion
• Catholic, protestant, evangelical, Muslim, Jew,
Hindu
• order-a scale: 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree
• Different people have different values or scores
on these characteristics
Relationships between variables
• Example: education and voter turnout
• how is education related to voter turnout
• independent variable = the "cause" and
• dependent variable = the "effect."
• Steps:
• start with dependent variable then identify
independent variables that are strongly
related to the dependent variable
Starting a thesis
• What is your concept (theme) of your thesis?
• What is your research question?
• What is your dependent variable in this research
question?
• What is the definition of your dependent
variable (specify how you would measure your
dependent variable (s)
• What are potential explanatory variables?
• What is the relation between your dependent
and explanatory variables?
Split in TEAMS of 3 persons, use exercise sheet to start.
Doing qualitative research
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Design
Formulating a Research Question
Using Theories
Choosing a Methodology
Number Cases
Ethics
Research Proposal
Types of research designs
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Surveys
Experiments
Fieldwork
Longitudinal
Cross-sectional
Case study
Comparative
Secondary analysis
Action research
Evaluation research
Impact assessment
Design
Title
The problem/introduction
Aims/Goals/objectives
Research questions
Literature review
Research strategy (inductive/deductive/abductive)
Concepts/models/framework/theoretical framework
• Methodology
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Data sources, types and forms
Selection of data sources
Data collection and timing
Data reduction and analysis
• Problems and limitations
Formulating a Research Question
• Defines the scope of the study
• Determines what is to be studied
• Types
Examples
– What questions: what are the characteristics of a dictator?
– Why questions: why people think and act in a certain way?
– How questions: how can corporate corruption be stopped?
• Corresponding purposes
– Description
– Explanation/understanding
– change
Using Theories
• Derives from different fields
• Examples of theoretical perspectives
– Realism, idealism, feminism (Herding),
Marxism, interpretivism,
• Other categories
functionalism, structuration (Giddens);
phenomenology (Berg, Luckman);
structuralism (Foucault, Levi Strausse),
critical theory (Habermas); conflict
(Weber), RCT (Weber)
Choosing a Methodology
• Qualitative
• Quantitative
• Mixed methods - Triangulation
• Strategy
– Case study
– Within case study
– Comparison
Case selection
• Number of Cases (n/N)
• Selection criteria
– Similarities or differences between groups
– Random process
– Purposive
– Snowball
– Systematic- from fixed intervals
• Selection bias
– In the choices - of group/variables/subject
– Baseline characteristics of the groups that are
compared
Research Proposal - Content
Aims
Significance
Background - research problem
Budget and justification
Timeframe for each stage
Expected outcome ad benefits
Ethical issues and how to deal with them
How the findings will be communicated/
disseminated
• Bibliography
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Use of research proposals
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Public presentations and feedback
Obtaining approval from authorities
Applying for grants
Preparation of a study/fieldwork
Note: The purpose/use determines the design
MAJOR STEPS
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Formulating a Research Question
Using Theories
Choosing a Methodology
How Many Cases Do You Need?
Ethical Research
• Writing a Research Proposal
Main tools/techniques
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Interviews
Ethnographies
Content analysis/texts
Audio data
Visual data
Participant observations
Focus group discussions
Surveys
Interviewing in Qualitative Research
• Structured /standardized: self-completion
questionnaire- closed or close ended
(Supervised, postal, internet)
• Semi-structured: Open questions
• Unstructured: list of topics
• Ethnographic/intensive
• In-depth: structured and semi structured
• Focus group: discuss issue in specific group(s)
• Life history
• Oral historical
Differences between structured and
qualitative interviews
• Qualitative interviews…
– are less structured/standardized
– take the participant’s viewpoint
– encourage ‘rambling’ off the
topic
– are more flexible
– seek rich, detailed answers
– aim to understand rather than to
generalize
Types of qualitative interview
• Unstructured interview
– few, loosely defined topics
– open-ended questions to allow free response
– conversational style
• Semi-structured interview
– list of specific topics to cover (interview guide)
– flexible question order and phrasing
• Life history interview
– subject looks back across their entire life
– reveals how they interpret, understand and
define the social world (Faraday & Plummer,
1979)
– shows how life events have unfolded
– naturalistic, researched or reflexive (Plummer,
2001)
• Oral history interview
– subject reflects on specific events in the past
– testimonies of ‘unexceptional’ social groups
Preparing an interview guide
• memory prompts of topics to be covered
• focus on research questions: ‘what do I need
to know about?’
• logical but flexible order of topics
• record ‘face sheet’ information (name, age,
gender, position etc.)
• quiet and private setting
• good quality recording machine
What makes a good interviewer?
• Kvale (1996)
– knowledgeable
– structures the
interview
– clear
– gentle
– sensitive/empathic
– open
– steers the
conversation
– critical/challenging
– remembers what
has been said
– interprets meaning
• Bryman (2004)
– balanced
• talks neither
too much nor
too little
– ethically sensitive
• informed
consent
• confidentiality
• privacy
Kinds of questions
• Kvale (1996)
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introducing (“Tell me about…”)
follow-up
probing
specifying (“What happened next?”)
direct
indirect (“What do most people think about…?”)
structuring (“Let’s move on to…”)
silence
interpreting (“Do you mean that…?”)
• vignettes
– ground questions in a concrete and realistic situation
Feminist approaches to interviewing
• the in-depth, face-to-face interview has
become the paradigmatic ‘feminist
method’ (Kelly et al, 1994)
• unstructured or semi-structured rather than
structured interviews (Oakley, 1981):
– indefensible for women to ‘use’ other women
– non-hierarchical research relationship
– rapport and reciprocity
• possible tension between researcher’s
interpretation and women’s own
perspective
Qualitative interviewing versus
participant observation
• Advantages of participant observation
– seeing through others’ eyes
– learning the native language
– taken for granted ideas more likely to
be revealed
– access to deviant or hidden activities
– sensitivity to context of action
– flexibility in encountering the
unexpected
– naturalistic emphasis
Qualitative interviewing versus
participant observation
• Advantages of qualitative interviewing
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finding out about issues resistant to observation
interviewees reflect on past events / life course
more ethically defensible
fewer reactive effects
less intrusive
longitudinal research (follow-up interviews)
greater breadth of coverage
specific focus