HD FS 503
Research Methods in HD FS
Qualitative Research Methods
Susan Hegland & Mary Winter
April 8, 2002
1
Tonight
Review: Threats to Validity
Qualitative Designs
• Characteristics
• Scientific rigor
• Applications
2
Qualitative Research
• All researchers use qualitative methods
• Quantitative researchers usually assign
numbers to qualitative responses
• Often numbers are category names
• gender
• quality, not quantity
• but we correlate as if it is a quantity
3
Qualitative Methods
• Goal: “thick description” of phenomenon
• Involve data gathering through a variety of
techniques
• Goal not to quantify whatever is being
observed
• Data reduction: winnowing into themes or
concepts
Art: the elimination of the unnecessary
Picasso
4
No one set of accepted rules
for qualitative research
• Some reject all quantitative methods
and numerical data reduction methods
• Some perceive quantitative research as
reflecting historically male-dominated
power systems
• Others see value in both verbal and
quantitative data reduction techniques
• Require similar levels of rigor or
trustworthiness in data
5
Anthropological research
Etic view
• Sees the world as an independent
observer sees it
• “cloud of gnats” from the observer’s view
Emic view
• Sees and understands the world as it
appears and is understood by
those being studied
• cloud of gnats from the gnat’s view
6
Ethnography
• Traditionally, an ethnography defines a
culture
• May be the culture of a classroom, village,
neighborhood, organization, agency
• Ethnographer observes, interviews, reads
records
• Often participant observation
7
Participant Observers
• Live in the community
• Meet day needs the way community
residents do
• Writes copious notes,
• then organizes them
• Memory assists the ethnographic
organization
8
Participant observation
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Ideally, participate in what you are study
Living in the community
Studying a human services agency
Classics:
• Children of Sanchez
• Tally’s Corner
• Five Families
• Among Schoolchildren
• Mostly books
9
In-depth, open-ended
interviews
• Coded for content analysis
• Accompanied by member checks or
focus groups to check perceptions
• Used by Mary Jane Brotherson & Harvey
Joanning
• Begin with “Grand tour question”
• Follow with mini-tour questions
10
Methods not necessarily
qualitative
• Field research
• can be quantitative or qualitative
• Unobtrusive research
• can be quantitative or qualitative
• Observation research
11
General Issues for
Observers
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Observer, or
Participant, or
Observer-as-participant, or
Participant as observer?
Ethical considerations:
Should you tell those whom you are
observing what you are doing?
12
Informants, not
respondents
Beware of the first native on the beach
• May have a hidden agenda
• May be seeking approval of outsider:
says what you want to hear!
Check with other informants
• “Why is this person willing to talk with
me?
• “What point of view is s/he
expressing?”
13
Test Reliability, test
validity ~ triangulation
• Get information about the same
phenomena from at least two different
sources
• Three is better!
• Have two different sources of the same
information
• A State of Mind
14
Three forms of
triangulation
Data triangulation:
• Multiple sources of data across
time, space, and persons
Investigator triangulation:
• Multiple investigators; peer checking
Method triangulation:
• Multiple methods
Denzin (1978)
15
Non-random, nonprobability sampling
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Quota
Snowball
Deviant cases
Typical
Purposive
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Hig
h
Av
era
ge
Lo
w
Number of Participants
Random sampling:
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High
Average
Low
Number of
Participants
Purposive sampling:
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Saturation
• Situation in qualitative research where so
many examples of dimension or concept
have been gathered
• Nothing new expected to be learned from
additional examples
• No reason to gather more from center of
distribution than from extremes
19
Field procedures
• Outline questions
• See Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview
• Have a good idea where you are headed
before you begin
• Periodically check back,
revise procedure
20
Recording data during
interview
• Tape recorder
• Maybe?
• Maybe not?
• Writing notes?
• Definitely: not impolite!
• As verbatim as possible (see p. 272)
• Lap top? Will it be confidential?
• Leave space for analyses
• Include reflections
21
Analysis
• Patterns; commonalities; “Meaning”
• Not enough to string together quotes
• Quotes illustrate points
• Begins before all data collected
• Starts with contact sheet for each interview
• Revise questions, member checks, focus groups
• Look for negative instances
• Audit trail kept
• Very time-consuming!
22
Ethical issues
• How much do you tell about what you are
doing?
• Is it fair to observe under false pretenses?
• At least, you must debrief afterwords!
• Use member checks to review the patterns
you see
• Do you report illegal behaviors observed?
• Consider the social consequences of the
study
23
Advantages
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•
•
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Explores new ground
Depth of understanding
Identifying interrelationships
Flexibility
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Disadvantages
• Generalizations not appropriate
• Because of limited and selective nature of
qualitative evidence
• Not probability nor random sampling
• Transferability highly speculative!
• Hard to get published
25
Comparinq quantitative
and qualitative research
• “Quantitative research is...quite
accurate but limited in scope.”
• “[Qualitative research] aims for greater
depth but allows less precision.”
Sprey, 1995, p. 873
26
Comparing qualitative and
quantitative methods
Quantitative criteria: Qualitative criteria:
• Scientific rigor
• Trustworthiness
• Internal validity
• Credibility or
plausibility
• External validity
• Transferability or
fittingness
• Test Reliability
• Dependability
• Objectivity
• Confirmability
Lincoln, Miles &
Huberman
27
Don’t pick the method first!
• Pick the question
• Then pick the most appropriate
method!
• Remember:
Bad quantitative research is not
good qualitative research!
and
Bad qualitative research is not good
quantitative research!
28
For which questions
• Would you prefer qualitative methods?
• Would you prefer quantitative methods?
29
Example of qualitative
analysis:
Content analysis
30
Steps in Content Analysis
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•
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From text to table
Sorting the table by question
Grouping, coding, and labeling responses
Checking with a second rater
Summarizing the data
31
From Text to Table
• Enter text for each response into Word
as one paragraph, separated by
slashes (/).
• For each response, enter
ID/Question#/Response.
• Table menu: convert text to table
• Adjust column width using Autofit
command.
32
Sort Table by Question
• In the Table Menu,
Sort Table by Question#.
• Split the Table into separate tables for
each question.
33
Group, Code, and Label Responses
• Find a second rater to group, code, and
label the responses
• For each question, group similar
responses
• Use cut and paste to move similar
responses together.
• You may choose to split each response
into multiple responses
• However, beware of losing context!
34
Code your Groupings
• In the Table menu, use Insert Column
next to responses column.
• Give similar responses the same code.
• Label each code to represent the
content of each group of responses.
• Use the Table menu to insert a
column; enter labels for each group of
responses.
35
Sort Your Codes
• In the Table menu, sort by Code, then
ID.
• Meet with the second rater to review and
revise the categories.
• In order to demonstrate _____?
• Create an index with cross-references
• Summarize the results.
• Statistics (i.e., percentages) controversial!
• You may enter the codes into SPSS
• to analyze or to merge with other data sets
36
Practice
• Use Table in Handbook
• Generate your own codes for the parent
statements
• Note in right-hand column
• Try peer checking
• Did you agree? Disagree?
• Do you come from similar or different
professional backgrounds?
37
Computer Software for
Qualitative Analyses
• Sample: QSR Nud:ist: in MacKay Lab
• Nonnumerical Unstructured Data-Indexing,
Searching, & Theorizing
• See Scolari.com on the Web
• Other software available
• Use of software is controversial!
• Experts: Damhorst, Littrell
38
QSR NUDIST
• Multifunctional software system for
qualitative data projects
• development,
• support, and
• management
39
Components of NUDIST
• Document system
• to store and retrieve text
• store references to external data sources
• Search function
• words, phrases, etc. in text
• automatically indexes the result
• Index system for data
• links categories
• explores links with data
40
Indexing with NUDIST
• Flexible tree structure for indexing nodes
• Free nodes for temporary and nonhierarchical index structures
• Index System Search Operators
• 18 operators for comparing, relating,
contrasting, exploring nodes two, three, or
more at a time
• Use Boolean co-occurrences (and, or, not)
• Use qualitative matrices (p. 315)
(Miles & Huberman,1994)
41
On-Campus Resources
• HD FS 604
• HPC 580; HPC 680X
• Faculty: Brotherson, Greder, Littrell,
Bloom, Willis, Blount
• not me
42
Application
You’ve designed a qualitative study;
preliminary reviews claim that you’ve
provided no evidence that your “study ”
will be more than a novel created in
your head:
• Stepfamilies involved in blending families
• Successful bed-and-breakfast operations
• Low income parents in welfare reform
• Working parents with children in child care
43
Describe how you will
demonstrate:
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Trustworthiness
Credibility
Transferability or linkability
Dependability
Confirmability
44