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Qualitative Research
Design and Analysis
Soc302b
Overview
Note:
Free demos of Nud*ist, NVivo, XSight at:
http://www.qsr.com.au/DemoReg/DemoReg1.asp
 Enable
researchers to study social and cultural
phenomena
 The methods are designed to help researchers
understand people and the social and cultural
contexts
 Can combine one or more research methods in
one study (called triangulation)
Distinctions between Quantitative
and Qualitative Research
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objective versus subjective
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nomothetic versus idiographic
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etic versus emic perspective
Ethnography
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A way of building an understanding the culture
and behaviours of a group as a whole.
Done in a setting or field site where a group of
people share a common culture.
In sociology, ethnography usually called a field
study
Uses:
 Participant Observation
 Interviews with Informants
 Examination of documents and cultural
artifacts
Ethnomethodology
The study of commonsense knowledge
 How do individuals make sense of social
situations and act on their knowledge?
 What are the tacit rules used by members
of a culture?
 Detailed studies of interactions
 Breeching experiments (Garfinkel)
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 To
uncover hidden norms
The Case Study Approach
To try to develop an understanding of a
social process by studying one case or a
small number of cases in depth
 Can be done using a combination of
intensive interviewing and observation
 Snapshot case studies
 Longitudinal case studies
 Pre-post case studies
 Patchwork case studies
 Comparative case studies.
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Construct Validity in Case Studies
Problematic because of investigator
subjectivity
 Can counteract by:
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 using
multiple sources of evidence,
 establishing a chain of evidence,
 and having a draft case study report reviewed
by key informants (Yin, 1994)
Analyzing Case Study Evidence
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Techniques not well developed
Some researchers use quantitative strategies:
 analytic
techniques such as creating arrays
 placing the evidence in a matrix of categories
 creating flowcharts or data displays
 tabulating the frequency of different events,
 using means, variances and cross tabulations to
examine the relationships between variables
 and other such techniques to facilitate analysis
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Pattern-matching another major mode of
analysis (based on Weber’s ideal types)
Phenomenological Study
Understanding an experience from a
research participant's point of view
 Interview several participants as to their
perceptions of an experience
 Try to build a picture of the experience
through using a combination of theories,
literature in the area, illustrated by
anecdotes, to build a detailed portrait of
the experience
 Use of Max Weber’s “verstehen”
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Data Collection Methods Used
in Qualitative Research:
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Qualitative research methodology
includes:
Intensive interviewing
Participant observation and nonparticipant observation
Asking Questions: The Intensive
Interview in Qualitative Research
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Types of qualitative interviews:
 Structured
 Semistructured
 Depth
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Field research most often uses
unstructured interviews
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The use of probes is important in field
research
Conducting interviews
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Try to be interactive and sensitive to the language
and concepts used by the interviewee
Try to keep the agenda flexible
Aim to go below the surface of the topic being
discussed
Explore what people say in detail
Check you have understood respondents' meanings
Try to discover the interviewee's own framework of
meanings
Avoid imposing own structures and assumptions
Need to consider how perceived by interviewees and
the effects of characteristics such as class, race, sex,
and social distance on the interview
Types of questions for
qualitative interviews
Behaviour or experience
 Opinion or belief
 Feelings
 Knowledge
 Sensory
 Background or demographic
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Recording interviews
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Notes written at the time
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Notes written afterwards
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Audio or videotaping
Researcher as research
instrument
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Qualitative interviews require considerable skill
on the part of the interviewer.
The interviewer needs to notice how directive
he or she is being
Whether leading questions are being asked
whether cues are picked up or ignored
Whether interviewees are given enough time to
explain what they mean
Whyte’s Directiveness Scale
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1. Making encouraging noises
2. Reflecting on remarks made by the informant
3. Probing on the last remark by the informant
4. Probing an idea preceding the last remark by
the informant
5. Probing an idea expressed earlier in the
interview
6. Introducing a new topic
(1=least directive, 6=most directive)
Maintaining control of the
interview
Know what it is you want to find out
 Ask the right questions to get the
information you need
 Give appropriate verbal and non-verbal
feedback
 Good feedback vs. bad feedback
 Avoiding bias
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Bracketing Your Biases
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First, make a list of your characteristics:
1. your gender;
2. your age;
3. your ethnic or national identification;
4. your religion or philosophy of life;
5. your political party or orientation;
6. your favourite psychological theory.
Add four more characteristics: words or phrases
that are descriptive of you as an individual.
Bracketing (cont.)
1. List ways in which your characteristics
might bias you in your efforts at research
interviewing.
 2. Then write how you might counteract
these biases.
 3. And then write how these efforts to
counteract your biases might themselves
lead to other biases!
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Participant and Non-Participant
Observation in Field Research
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Preparing for the field:
 1.
Background preparation and literature
review
 2.
Talking to informants
 3.
Gaining entry into the group
Gatekeepers
 Public vs. private settings
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The Various Roles of the Observer
(Raymond Gold’s levels, 1983)
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A.
Complete participant
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B.
Participant-as-observer
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C.
Observer-as-participant
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D.
Complete observer
Recording observations
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Field journal
 To
record empirical data
 To record interpretations
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Guidelines for note taking
 Don't
trust your memory
 Take notes in stages
 Record everything
Organizing and Writing Notes
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Make simple jotted notes at time of
observation
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Rewrite your notes in full as soon as
possible after making observations
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Best to do this on computer, using word
processor
Notes (cont.)
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Creating files helps organize field notes for
analysis.
 a.
Chronological file as a master file.
 b. Background files (from literature review, and
documentation of topic's history.)
 c. Biographical files on key subjects in the study.
 d. Bibliographical files of all references related to
study.
 e. Analytical files to categorize what you are
observing.
 f. Cross-reference files may be useful to retrieve
data.
Using computers in field
research
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some software programs (i.e. NVivo) are now
available for field research notes
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Can save time, especially when analyzing
data
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But can use Word, Word Perfect too
Data analysis in field work
Data analysis in field work is an ongoing
process
 Constant interaction between data
collection and data analysis.
 Look for:
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 Similarities,
norms, and universals
 Dissimilarities, differences, and deviations
from norms
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Selective perception can be a problem as
you learn more about the topic
Disadvantages of field research
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Time consuming
Not applicable to the investigation of large social
settings
Low internal validity (lack of control)
Biases, attitudes, and assumptions of the
researcher can be problem
Selective perception and memory
Selectivity in data collection
Presence of the researcher may change the
system or group being studied
Virtually impossible to replicate the findings
Advantages of field research
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High external validity
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Can study nonverbal behaviour
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Flexibility
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Natural environment
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Longitudinal analysis
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Relatively inexpensive
Grounded Theory Study*
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Theories are empirically grounded into the
data.
 Data collection and analysis are combined.
 Cycle – observe data, modify theory, observe
data
based on theory
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An “inductive” theory building process
Developed 1960’s by Barney Glaser, Anselm
Strauss (1968)
Used for clinical sociology
An important methodological breakthrough
Def’n: The systematic generation of theory from
data
*is an experiential methodology
Grounded Theory (cont.)
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Main assumptions:
 Social
life integrated and patterned
 All actions integrated with other actions
 Can discover pattern categories within which
the action is integrated
 All social action is multivariate
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Inductive vs. deductive is an
oversimplification of complex thinking
processes (i.e. thinking up hypotheses
actually an inductive process)
Content Analysis
A technique used to study written material
by breaking it into meaningful units, using
carefully applied rules.
 Use objective and systematic coding to
produce a quantitative description of the
observed material.
 Can analyze common myths
 Can also be used in a qualitative way
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 Employ
semiotic techniques
Erving Goffman’s Gender Advertisements
(1979, 1988)
Goffman combined content with
semiotic analysis to look at how
gender was (and still is!)
portrayed in advertising. In his
analysis, Goffman examined a
selection of advertising images
and found that that women are
consistently shown in
subordinated positions compared
to men in a variety of social
situations. He also concluded that
advertising both reflects and
helps shape our concept of what
it means to be masculine or
feminine in our culture.
Content Analysis (cont.)
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What can be studied
 Any
written material
 Audio/visual information
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Useful for 3 types of research
 Problems
involving a large volume of text
 Research from afar or in the past
 Revealing themes difficult to see with casual
observation.
Coding in a content analysis
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What gets counted?
What is important for understanding themes?
Structured observation – systematic observation
based on careful rules
Coding systems
 Before
you decide specifically on coding categories,
you must specify what you are going to measure
 A set of rules on how to systematically observe and
record content from text.
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What is the unit of analysis?
 One
word
 One paragraph
 One theme
Manifest and Latent Content
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Manifest
 Overt
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or visible material – can count
Latent
content uncovered by semantic analysis –
needs to be coded first (inductive process) and then
counted
 Symbolic
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Can use both deductive and inductive
approaches to find categories (codes) for
content analysis
 Divide sample
 Use grounded
in sections
theory on a smaller portion to develop
categories
 Use those categories on the rest of the sample.
Deductive and Inductive Category Formation
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Deductive
 Reasoning
from the general to the specific
 Forming categories to score based on
theoretical ideas.
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Inductive category formation
 Reason
from the specific to the general
 Come up with categories from data
 Can obtain categories by using grounded
theory
Analyzing Qualitative Data
1. Read through your data and identify
themes.
 2. Identify important sub-themes.
 3. Ensure consistency in the themes.
 4. Confirm depth of themes.
 5. Assign codes.
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Coding
(Corbin and Strauss, 1990)
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3 stages of analysis in coding
 1.
Open coding: Find conceptual categories in
the data
 2. Axial coding: Look at relationship between
the categories
 3. Selective coding: To account for
relationships, find core categories.
Method of Constant Comparison
(Strauss)
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Look for indicators of categories in events and
behavior - name them and code them on
document(s)
Compare codes to find consistencies and
differences
Consistencies between codes (similar meanings or
pointing to a basic idea) reveals categories. So need
to categorize specific events
Create memos on the comparisons and emerging
categories
Eventually category saturates when no new codes
related to it are formed
Certain categories become more central focus axial categories and perhaps even core category.
Analytic Induction
(Znaniecki, Becker, and Katz)
Look at event and develop a hypothetical
statement of what happened.
 Look at another similar event and see if it
fits the hypothesis. If it doesn't, revise
hypothesis.
 Look for exceptions to hypothesis, when
find it, revise hypothesis to fit all examples
encountered.
 Eventually will develop a hypotheses that
accounts for all observed cases.
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