Introduction to
Qualitative Research
Methods
Erin Whiteside
John Curley Center for Sports Journalism
What is Qualitative Research?
 Qualitative
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Methodology is…
Exploratory
Descriptive
Seeks to document and understand meaning
Useful for describing social processes and
relationships, understanding culture or a lived
experience
Two Research Traditions
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Qualitative
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Study of everyday life
Acknowledges intersubjectivity of research
Interpretivist
Methods:
•
•
•
•
Observation
Interviews
Visual analysis
Focus Groups
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Quantitative
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Study of large scale
patterns
Assumes research
objectivity
Positivist
Methods:
• Surveys
• Scales
• Databases
Value of Qualitative Research

Quantitative approaches are strong for capturing
statistical relationships.
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Many aspects of social life can only be illuminated
through qualitative methods.
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Example: relationship between gender and income
Can’t always get at the “lived experience” or “meaning” such as
the experience a person has in a specific situation
Example: “Five stages of grief”
A way to generate new ideas--especially useful in market
research

A way to move beyond doing what we’ve always done
When are qualitative methods
most useful?
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When the research objective is:
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To interpret, illuminate, illustrate
To understand how or why
To describe previously unstudied processes or
situations
To get in-depth, detailed information
To understand context
To learn about subjects who are few or hard to
reach
To capture experience
http://www.eotu.uiuc.edu/live/index.html
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Research Questions

Qualitative methods answer specific types of
questions that relate to describing and/or
explaining a lived experience or phenomenon


Qual: What is the experience of watching a Penn
State football game from the student section?
Quant: What is the relationship between seat location
and level of enjoyment at a Penn State football
game?
Research Questions

Qual: What does the institution of marriage
mean to college students?
 Quant: What is the relationship between age and
attitudes toward marriage?

Qual: What attracts college students to the ipod?
 Quant: What is the distribution of ipod users by
race, gender, age and major?
Research Questions
 Research
questions that seek to describe
lived experience, explain meaning or offer
rich, thick description should be answered
using qualitative methods.
Sampling
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Generally always purposive
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Different types of purposive sampling:
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Definition: A goal of reaching a pre-defined group
Snowball, extreme case, stratified and opportunistic
No need for random sampling: the goal of
qualitative research is not to generalize but to
explain

Example: We need people who have attended a
Penn State football game in order to study the
experiences at a Penn State football game
Sampling Questions to Ask
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What is your
purpose?
What is at stake?
What will be
sufficient?
What will be credible
to your audience?
What resources and
time do you have?
Choosing a Method
 Different
questions require different
methods (tools):
 In-depth interviews
 Focus Groups
 Field Research
Focus Groups
 Definition

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and key characteristics
“Group” interviews led by a researcher’s
“focus”on a topic
2-? Participants; no magic number; 1-2 hours
• Depends on participant involvement with the
subject.

Reliance on interaction within the group
• The “hallmark” of qualitative work
Focus Groups
 When

to use?
Best used when assessing attitudes, beliefs
or perceived experiences rather than behavior
 Example

What are the attitudes of Pittsburgh citizens
toward the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?
Focus Groups
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4 key criteria for quality groups
1) The group should cover the maximum range
of relevant topics (Range)
2) Provide data that are specific as possible
(Specificity)
3) Foster interaction that explores the
participants’ feeling in some depth (Depth)
4) Take into account the personal context that
participants use in generating their responses to
the topic (Context)
Focus Groups: Questions

Structured:
Researcher has a specific
set of open-ended
questions
Example: “We are
interested in hearing
about how you use your
ipod. Why don’t we start
by walking me through a
typical day.”

Unstructured:
Researcher provides
several main topics or
subjects and asks the
group to discuss.
 Example: “Today I’d
like to talk about the
way you access, use
and enjoy music.”
Focus Groups

Strengths

The creation of shared meaning
• Until they interact with others, people may be unaware of
their own implicit perspectives

Effective way to collect many descriptive opinions in
one sitting
• Control


Collects a unique form of data
Weaknesses

The creation of shared meaning (again)
In-depth Interviews

Definition and key characteristics:
 A conversation in which a researcher gently
guides a conversational partner in an extended
conversation.
 One-on-one: researcher and participant

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In person vs. the phone
1-2 hours at a time, but again, no magic number
 Best-used when the research focus may be
sensitive; provides a sense of comfort for the
participant
 Each interview is unique, unlike a survey
In-depth Interviews: Questions
 Start
broad, then go focused; start easy,
then go difficult
 Non-loaded
 Open-ended
 Example: 1) What changes have you
noticed at Penn State since you’ve been
here?
 2) How do you feel about those changes?
In-depth questions and probes
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Interview questions structure the interview by
focusing on your research questions
Tour Questions (Generally broad)
Hypothetical Questions (Generally broad)
Chronology Questions (Generally more focused)
Stage Questions (Generally more focused)
Confirmatory Questions (Generally more focused)
Probes manage the conversation, fill in gaps and
keep the conversation on-topic
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Continuation, elaboration, clarification, steering,
sequence, evidence, slant probes
Questions
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Tour Questions
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Very general
“Could you walk me
through this process?
“How do you prepare
for class?”
“What is a typical day
like for you?”
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Hypothetical Qs
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Very general
“If you were given the
option, when would
you prefer to have
classes? Why is that?”
Questions
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Chronology
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More focused
Try and use
appropriate vocabulary
“What happened after
the tailagate?”
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Stage Questions
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More focused
Used after you discover the
stages of a process
Focus in on a time and ask
the interviewee about that
stage
“I noticed you said your
parents dropped you off at
school a day before
classes started. How did
you go about meeting
people?”
Questions
 Confirmatory
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Questions
Very specific
Used to confirm with interviewees that you are
interpreting their answers in a way that
resonates with them
“What I am hearing you say is…”
Probes
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Continuation Probes Elaboration Probes
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“Then what?”
“Mhmmm”
“Can you say more
about that?
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Virginia: “I grew up on Dodge
and Rollers…in that
neighborhood. There was
always a gang around, but the
difference that I noticed, in the
same neighborhood today is the
gangs--when we were growing
up--had a tendency to take care
of their turf, or their
neighborhood and now the
gangs don’t. They have a
tendency to just milk it for what
it’s worth.
Interviewer: What do you mean
that the gangs took care of their
neighborhood?
Probes
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Attention Probes
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Good for cueing the
interviewee that you
are following what they
are saying
“Okay, I understand”
“Very interesting…”
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Clarification Probes
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“You said the ‘whole
scene is crowded.’ Did
you mean the tailgate
or inside during the
game?”
“I’m not sure what you
mean by ‘winking’ on
match.com. Can you
explain that?”
Probes
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Steering Probes
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Useful for re-directing
the conversation. Use
carefully
“I’m sorry, I distracted
you with that question.
Let’s get back to…”
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Sequence Probes
 Based on time
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“Could you tell me
what happened stepby-step?”
“When did that
happen?”
Probes
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Evidence Probes
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Used if you are
receiving conflicting
information
“You said you do the
majority of the
cooking. Can you give
me some examples?”
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Slant Probes
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Used to get people to
explain or justify their
slant or bias.
Use very gently
“Really?”
Field Work

A type of research method in which the
researchers interacts with, observes and
sometimes even participates in a social
phenomenon.
 Sometimes only observational, but many times
used in conjunction with interviews or focus
groups
 Advantages:
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Observations happen in natural setting
Best way to get rich, thick data
Disadvantages
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Time-consuming and often costly
The “Fridge Pack”
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Research Question:
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Method
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Interviews, field work
Findings

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Why are soda sales down?
How can we improve
sales?
Storage issues creating
difficulties
Result of Fridge Pack:

10% sales increase in
three months
American Heart Association
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Research Question:
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Method
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Interviews, field work
Findings
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How can we better educate
cardiovascular disease
patients on health issues?
A problem of motivation
Result of New Program:

Implementation of new,
more active “coaching”
programs that will keep
people on track with a
healthy lifestyle
Pizza Hut
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Research Question:
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Method
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How do mothers or others
make decisions about
various family meals?
How can Pizza Hut be a
part of those decisions?
What are pizza-eaters’
experiences like with Pizza
Hut employees?
Interviews, participant
observation (ordering and
eating pizza)
Findings

Ongoing Study
Masterbrand Cabinets
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Research Questions
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Method
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Field Observations
Findings
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How do Americans organize their cabinets?
Cabinets have a social function as well as a utilitarian
function
Result of study

New cabinet products with organization features
designed for the way people really live
In-class Exercise

Phase I: In small groups
come up with three
research questions per
group related to the topic
of life as a college
student
 Phase 2: Individually
write 5 broad interview
questions related to the
RQ; discuss as a class
 Phase 3: Interviews and
then class discussion on
the process.