QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Professor Dr Rosmimah Mohd Roslin
Faculty of Business Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA
40450 Shah Alam
E-mail: rosmimah@salam.uitm.edu.my
Tel: 03-55444785
Qualitative Methods for you?
• What is your research about?
• Are you looking at something new?
– Are you addressing a new area?
– Are you studying human behaviour in an in-depth
manner?
• Are you addressing or answering questions pertaining to
WHY? And HOW?
• Are you just confirming what others have done?
– Testing hypotheses?
– Describing quantitatively a situation?
When to use qualitative research…………?
• When there is not enough information/literature to allow you
to develop frameworks,
• When you are in the process of correctly identifying
problems or opportunities,
• When you want to establish new theories,
• When assessing behavioral issues, emotional, attitudinal and
personality factors
Is qualitative method appropriate for
you?
• Exploratory phase of your Ph.D
research
– Refining existing variables
– Possibility of adding new variables to
existing framework
• Seeking new theory
– Non-existent of complete variables in
existing literature
– Completely new knowledge that has yet
to be studied extensively
Is using qualitative method partially in your research
qualifies it as a
MIXED METHOD?
• NO!
• Definitions….
John Creswell (2007):
Mixed methods research is a research design (or methodology) in which the
researcher collects, analyzes, and mixes (integrates or connects) both
quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or a multiphase program
of inquiry.
Janice Morse (2003):
A mixed method design is a plan for a scientifically rigorous research process
comprised of a qualitative or quantitative core component that directs the
theoretical drive, with qualitative or quantitative supplementary component(s).
These components of the research fit together to enhance description,
understanding and can either be conducted simultaneously or sequentially.
EMPHASIS OF MIXED
METHODS
Research Paradigms
Source: Johnson, Onwuegbuzie, & Turner (2007), Towards a definition of mixed methods research,
Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1, (2), April, 112-133
Let’s define qualitative research…
• “ …interpretive techniques which
seek to describe, decode, translate,
and otherwise come to terms with
the meaning, not the frequency, of
certain more or less naturally
occurring phenomena in the social
world.”
– Van, Maanen, J. (1979). Preface, Administrative
Science Quarterly, Vol. 24, pp. 520-526
How different is this from
quantitative research?
Qualitative
Quantitative
The aim is a complete, detailed
description.
The aim is to classify features, count
them, and construct statistical models in
an attempt to explain what is observed.
Researcher may only know
Researcher knows clearly in advance
roughly in advance what he/she is what he/she is looking for.
looking for.
Data is in the form of words,
pictures or objects.
Data is in the form of numbers and
statistics
Qualitative data is more 'rich',
time consuming, and less able to
be generalized
Quantitative data is more efficient, able
to test hypotheses, but may miss
contextual detail.
Assumptions of Qualitative
Designs
• Qualitative researchers are concerned
primarily with process, rather than outcomes
or products.
• Qualitative researchers are interested in
meaning how people make sense of their
lives, experiences, and their structures of the
world.
Cont.
• The qualitative researcher is the primary
instrument for data collection and analysis.
Data are mediated through this human
instrument, rather than through inventories,
questionnaires, or machines
• Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The
researcher physically goes to the people,
setting, site, or institution to observe or
record behavior in its natural setting.
Cont.
• Qualitative research is descriptive in that the
researcher is interested in process, meaning,
and understanding gained through words or
pictures.
• The process of qualitative research is
inductive in that the researcher builds
abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and
theories from details.
Adequacy of Qualitative Methods
• Lincoln & Guba (1985) identify four criteria for
adequacy or rigor in scientific research
– Truth value
– Applicability
– Consistency
– Neutrality
Criteria for Adequacy
CRITERIA
QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
Truth-value
Internal validity
Credibility
Applicability
External validity
Fittingness
Consistency
Reliability
Auditability
Neutrality
Objectivity
Confirmability
In Quantitative Research…..
• Internal validity: In quantitative research, the
elimination of alternative hypotheses such as history,
maturation, testing effects, regression,
instrumentation, subject selection, and mortality.
Also relates to validity of instruments such as content
validity, criterion validity, and construct validity.
• External validity: In quantitative research, the
generalizability of findings and the
representativeness of subjects, tests, and testing
situation.
Cont..
• Reliability: In quantitative research, the
consistency, stability, and dependability of a
test or testing procedure.
• Objectivity: In quantitative research, the
outcome of establishing internal and external
validity and reliability. Based on distance
between researcher and subjects; relationship
is mediated by protocol, theory, and
instrumentation.
In Qualitative Research…
• Credibility: When others can recognize the
experience by reading about it.
• Fittingness: When findings "fit" into contexts
outside the study situation and when the
audience views the findings as meaningful and
applicable in terms of their own experience.
Cont.
• Auditability: When another researcher can clearly
follow the "decision trail" used by the investigator. In
addition, another researcher could arrive at the
same or comparable but not contradictory
conclusions given the researcher's data, perspective,
and situation.
• Confirmability: When auditability, fittingness, and
credibility have been established. Based on
engagement between researcher and subjects.
Cont.
– the subjective involvement of
investigators with their subjects
and
– the emphasis on subjective
reality or the meanings subjects
give to and derive from their life
experiences.
Dealing with Qualitative Data
• Transforming qualitative data into quantifiable
data,
OR
• Internalizing the meaning of the qualitative data
– Thick description
– Emerging themes
Commencing a qualitative
enquiry…
• Starts with research question/s
– Not hypotheses!
• Develop a conceptualization of
constructs
– Not a theoretical framework!
A qualitative enquirer will
ask…
1. What do my informants know about their culture that I can
discover?
2. What concepts do my informants use to classify their
experiences?
3. How do my informants define these concepts
4. What theory do my informants use to explain their
experience?
5. How can I translate the cultural knowledge of my informants
into a cultural description my colleagues will understand?
Compared to a quantitative
enquirer…
1.
2.
What do I know about a problem that will allow
me to formulate and test a hypothesis?
What concepts can I use to test this hypothesis?
3.
How can I operationally define these concepts?
4.
What scientific theory can explain the data?
5.
How can I interpret the results and report them
so that my colleagues will understand?
How to carry out qualitative
research….?
Methods of data collection
• Document/Archival Analysis
– Texts, graphics, videos, movies, art
works etc
• In-depth interviews
– Face-to-face
• Focus group interviews
• Observation
– Participant Observation
– Full observation
Sampling Method…
• Sampling is Open and Purposive
–Convenient
–Chain
–Snowball
–Judgmental
Analysis
• Methods of analysis are interpretive
leading to induction rather than
deduction of research findings
• Transcribing of responses is crucial for
analysis
• Analyses leading to the development of
hypotheses
Interpretive Analysis
– Interpreting how people construct and give
meaning to their actions in concrete social
situations
– The observer deals with how social objects are
made meaningful
– No specific method of analysis or tool used apart
from researcher’s interpretive ability
Outcome of a Qualitative Research
• Propositions or Hypotheses
• Model or Theoretical
Framework
• Emerging Theory
Qualitative Research
Approaches
•
•
•
•
Case Study
Ethnography
Phenomenology
Grounded Theory
Case Study Approach – When to
use?
• According to Yin (2003) a case study design should be
considered when:
(a)the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why”
questions;
(b)you cannot manipulate the behaviour of those involved in
the study;
(c)you want to cover contextual conditions because you
believe they are relevant to the phenomenon under study;
or
(d)the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon
and context.
Types of Case Study
Type
Definition
Explanatory
Seek to explain causal link in real life
interventions that are too complex for
surveys
Exploratory
To explore situations where the
interventions have no clear outcomes
Descriptive
Used to describe an intervention and the
real life context in which it occurred
Multiple case
studies
Used to explore differences between and
within cases
Intrinsic
Seek to better understand the case
Instrumental
Helps to refine a theory
Collective
Similar to multiple case studies
Ethnography
• “……observation of people, in situ:
finding them where they are, staying
with them in some role which will
allow both intimate observation of
certain parts of their behaviour, and
reporting it in ways useful to social
sciences but not harmful to those
observed.”
• Ethnographic methods rely substantially
on participant observation.
Participant observation may range
from……
Participant
a. as observer
b. Complete Participant
Overt Research
Covert Research
c. Observer
as participant
d. Complete Observer
Spectator
Features of Ethnography
• a focus on exploring the essence and
the nature of social phenomena;
• the investigation of a small number of
cases and possibly only one case in
depth;
• a tendency to work with unstructured
data i.e. data that is not easily
quantifiable or organisable in strict
analytical categories;
Phenomenology
• A study that is concerned with
reality-constituting interpretive
practices.
• This approach examine how
human beings construct and
give meaning to their actions in
concrete social situations.
• It is a study of a phenomena
appearances of things
Cont.
• A study of things as they appear in our
experience
• A method of inquiry based on the premise
that reality consists of objects and events
as they are perceived or understood in
human consciousness and not of anything
independent of human consciousness.
Grounded Theory
• This is a general methodology of
developing theory that is grounded
in data which are systematically
gathered and analyzed.
• Grounded theory methodology is
designed to guide researchers in
producing theory that is
“conceptually dense” – that is,
with many conceptual relationships.
Analyzing Qualitative Data –
The Process
Data Collection
Transcribing Data
- Verbatim
Draw meanings from
the responses
Seek patterns
Develop categories
Construct themes
Propositions/Hypotheses
Development
Analyzing Qualitative Data
• Constant Comparative Method
– Content Analysis
– is the process of:
• Identifying primary patterns in the data
• Coding data
• Categorizing
– Looking for similarities and differences in the responses
– Naming or categorizing all similarities identified
– Describing the meaning behind these categories
• Interpretive Analysis
– Interpreting how people construct and give
meaning to their actions in concrete social
situations
– The observer deals with how social objects are
made meaningful
– No specific method of analysis or tool used apart
from researcher’s interpretive ability
– Subjectivity is paramount
Analysis can be done…..




Line-by-line analysis
This involves close examination, phrase by phrase and even
sometimes of single words.
Analyzing sentence or paragraph
You will be looking at the whole sentence and asking yourself what
is/are the major idea/s brought out in the sentence.
Analyzing an entire document, observation or interview
Assessing the whole document and asking yourself what exactly is
going on.
Look for similarities and differences of the documents, observation
or interviews with that of others.
– Coding of responses – Open, Axial and Selective
coding
– An observation, a sentence, or a paragraph is
taken apart and scrutinized and is then given a
name or label that represent the phenomenon.
OPEN CODING
AXIAL CODING
Is the part of the analysis that focuses
specifically to the naming and
categorizing of phenomena through
close examination of the data.
A set of procedures where data from open coding
are put back in new ways by making
connections between categories
Involves putting back the open codes by making
connections between categories.
SELECTIVE CODING
The process involves selecting core category, systematically
relating this to other categories, validating those relationships,
and filling in categories that need further refinement and
development
Example…..
• Let’s say you are interested in understanding
how work environment affects job satisfaction
among women working in a manufacturing
plant.
• Your research question:
– Does work environment affects job satisfaction
among women factory workers?
Coding…
Dependence
• Worker A:
– The factory is my source of livelihood. I’m a
single parent. My husband passed away 2
years ago and I have 4 children to feed. It is
hard work. I sometimes work more than 5
hours standing. At my age, standing for a
long time really hurt my feet. I sometimes
get headaches when I go back home.
There’s a lot of dust in the factory…. But I
have to work, there’s no choice.
Physical
deprivation
Poverty
Another transcript….
• Worker B
– The management promises us a lot
of things but not one promise has
been kept. I feel like quitting but
this is the only job I can get here. I
can go to Kulim to look for another
job but its too far away from my
house. I may have to pay more for
transportation or to rent a house
near Kulim.
Untrustworthy
Forced
circumstances
Constructing Themes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dependence
Physical deprivation
Poverty
Untrustworthy
Forced circumstances
Individual attitude
Compliant
Forced Situation
It is circumstances
beyond their control like
poverty that is
forcing these women to
work here.
Otherwise they may not be
compelled to work here.
Another example…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Physical deprivation
Poverty
Untrustworthy
Forced circumstances
Individual attitude
Compliant
Personal Orientation
- Resigned Attitude
Its all up to
women
themselves in
terms of how
they face the
situation. Even
though their
employer could
not be trusted,
they still remain
in the job
Mapping Out Propositions
Job Satisfaction
in factories
affected by social circumstances
Poverty
Deprivation
Resigned attitude
Not necessarily affected by work environment
Developing Propositions
(or hypotheses)
• Job satisfaction among women working in
factories are influenced by social
circumstances affecting their lives.
• Women’s job satisfaction in factories are
characterized by a resigned attitude that
accepts physical working conditions.
Evaluating Qualitative Research
• Validity
– Does the study reflect construction of the actors?
– Trustworthiness
– ‘Thick Description’
• Reliability
– Dependability
– Reflexivity
– Can be verified - triangulation
• Objectivity
– Authenticity – report in the voice of the source
Triangulation Issue
– Denzin (1978) has identified several types of
triangulation.
• One type involves the convergence of multiple
data sources.
• Another type is methodological triangulation,
which involves the convergence of data from
multiple data collection sources.
Cont.
• A third triangulation procedure is investigator
triangulation, in which multiple researchers
are involved in an investigation.
• Related to investigator triangulation is
researcher-participant corroboration, which
has also been referred to as crossexamination
Sources of Reference
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and
implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559.
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods
research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Denzin, N. K. (1978). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological
methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). The landscape of qualitative research: Theories
and issues. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative
materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A., (1967), The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for
qualitative research. Chicago, Ill: Aldine Pub. Co.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E., G. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions and
emerging confluences. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative
Research (2nd ed., pp. 163-188). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Cont.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Morse, J. M. (2003). Principles of mixed methods and multimethod research design.
In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and
behavioral research (pp. 189-208). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods ( 2nd ed.).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rossman, R. B., & Ralllis, S. F. (1998). Learning in the field: An introduction to
qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Schwandt, T. A. (2000). Three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry:
Interpretivism, hermenutics, and social construction. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln,
(Eds). Handbook of qualitative research, p. 189- 213. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J., (1990), Basics of qualitative research. Thousands Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Van Manen, J. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action
sensitive pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
All the best…
Thank you