CJ 425 Research Methods Chapter 6 Notes PDF

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Research Using Qualitative Data Why Conduct Research Using Qualitative Data? ● Ideal for answering many research questions that seek to reveal a comprehensive understanding about a topic ● Can glean an understanding about what is important and the meaning of symbols, body language, and rituals related to a particular topic ● Seven contributions of qualitative inquiry - Illuminate meaning and implications - Study how things work and the effect of those things - Capture stories about perspectives and experiences - Provide insight into how systems function - Provide rich understanding of context - Give meaning to unintended consequences - Enable comparisons of similarities and differences to identify patterns and themes across cases - Not listed: conducting research using qualitative data provides valuable information and understanding that allows researchers to develop hypotheses and propose theory that can guide additional qualitative as well as quantitative inquiry ● Open-ended questions: Designed to give the respondent the opportunity to answer in his or her own words ● Closed-ended question:Type of survey question that requires respondents to select an answer from a list of response categories What is Research Using Qualitative Data? ● Data that are non-numeric in nature - Text from transcribed interviews with people, narratives, published documents, videos, music, photos, observations, body language, and voice intonation ● Stages of research using qualitative data - Developing a research topic and question - Consulting the literature to gain any insight on the topic or related topics that may be useful - Identifying the best way to gather data-observation, interviews and fieldwork, or document examination - Sampling or gaining access to sources of data - Gathering data - Organizing data - Analyzing data and developing conclusions - Reporting findings

● Benefits of research using qualitative data - Allow the researcher to gather in-depth, detailed, and nuanced data that result in a comprehensive understanding of a topic of interest - Access to details and deeper understanding of a topic - Enable a researcher to study a difficult-to-reach group - The nimbleness of approaches used to gather qualitative data - Focus of context (without a focus on context, meaning is lost) - Frequently less expensive than other approaches ● Limitations of research using qualitative data - Quality of research based on qualitative data is highly contingent on the skills of the researcher - Despite being as objective as possible, it is impossible for a researcher to be 100% objective whether they are using qualitative or quantitative data - Gathering qualitative data is more time-consuming than many other approaches given the sheer quantity of data gathered - Research findings based on qualitative data are not generalizable to a larger population if the data were gathered from a nonprobability sample - The data tend to be gathered from small samples ● Coding- the process in which data are ordered and arranged into categories based on manageable and important themes or concepts

Considerations: Research Using Qualitative Data ● Qualitative inquiry is conducted by analyzing non-numerical data that are generally collected in natural setting to answer what are frequently an exploratory or descriptive research question ● Gathering qualitative data involved approaches that are flexible and immediately responsive to information learned ● Probing- subtle phrase or follow up question that interviewers use to encourage survey participants to elaborate on previous responses ● Generally characterized by broad, open-ended research questions that generally focus on “why” or “how” things occur ● Unconcerned with clearly identifying variables, attributes, conceptual definitions, or operationalization prior to data collection ● Used to reveal, identify, or deeply understand what the participants view as important variables, concepts, attributes, definitions, and operationalizations ● Frequently uses inductive reasoning ● Inductive reasoning

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An approach in which researchers gather a lot of specific data from interviews, observations, or examination of documents, and after analysis, the researchers develop a broad understanding, meaning, generalizations, themes, hypotheses, or even theories - Use of minimal assumptions when engaging in the research - Involved allowing the specific data gathered to tell a broad and general story - Open ended approach - Sometimes both inductive and deductive reasoning is used in qualitative inquiry - Inductive reasoning: Specific data - patterns/themes/relationships- hypothesesbroad theory/explanations - Deductive reasoning: Broad theory/explanations- hypothesespatterns/themes/relationships- specific data ● Sampling considerations - Frequently but not always uses nonprobability sampling - Maximum variation sampling - A purposeful sampling approach in that subject are selected to maximize or increase the variation or heterogeneity of relevant characteristics in the sample - The goal is to seek maximum variation in the sample - Theoretical sampling - Useful for gathering data with the purpose of developing grounded theory - Accomplished using an iterative approach where the researcher simultaneously “collect, codes and analyses his data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it emerges” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 45) Approaches Used to Gather Qualitative Data ● Interviews, observations and fieldwork, and document examinations ● Interviews - Conversations between the researcher and the subject or a group of subjects - Used to gather qualitative data from a single individuals, a small group, or a larger group such as a focus group - Allows the researcher to follow up immediately on information by probing more deeply about topics based on what is learned from the respondent - Unstructured interviews (ethnographic interviewing): conducted conversationally and are based on very few, broad, guiding questions that provide a basic framework to the interview - Semistructured interviews: all respondents are asked the same set of questions so the researcher can compare responses

● Individual interviewing - Interviews conducted in person should be conducted in a place of comfort for the respondent and can include a research facility or office, a home, or a public location like a park - It is important to word questions in a way that the only way a respondent can answer is “yes” or “no” ● Focus groups - Interviewing a group of individuals simultaneously - Involve the discussion of a predetermined set of short, clear, and nonbiased questions - Generally last for 45 minutes to 2 hours and are conducted by a moderator who not only guides and nurtures the discussion but also ensures the environment is open and accepting ● Observations and fieldwork - Involve the researcher going into the field to observe the topic of interest, as well as the participate or engage with the topic to some degree - Participation observation: the combination of observation with some degree of participation by the researcher - Role conceptions: identify the exact nature of the field researcher’s engagement with the topic of interest (1: complete observer 2: observer as participant 3: participant as observer and 4: complete participant) - Ethnography: a systematic research approach used to gather qualitative data in which the researcher’s goal is to gather a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the culture, environment, and social phenomenon associated with a group of individuals in a group - Going native: a phrased devised by Gold (1958), occurs when the researcher actually becomes the role he or she is playing and is no longer able to observe the situation with objectivity ● Complete participant: the researcher hides his or her true identity and purpose from those being observed - The researchers’ goal is to interact in this natural setting as naturally as possible to best gather information and meaning ● Participant as observer: when the researcher and the primary contact(s) in the field are the only ones aware of the researcher’s actual role and purpose for the observation - The researcher then engages with the groups as a member or as a colleague - Hawthorne Effect: identified in 1953, refers to possible impact on the behavior of those who are aware they are being observed and studied and it suggests that

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people will react by hiding or exaggerating behavios when they are aware they are being observed Observer as participant: the researcher’s presence and purpose is known by those being observed - The goal of the researcher is to play a neutral role, while observing a topic in its natural environment Complete observer: the researcher only observes, and does not participate, or conduct interviews at all - The role of the observer is to observe and to take meaning from what is seen Document examination- used to gather qualitative data from existing written or electronic documents - Refers to a systematic collection, review, evaluation, synthesizing, and interpretation of documents to gain meaning and understanding, regardless of whether the document is printed or available in electronic form Triangulation- the use of multiple methods, researchers, theory, or data to conduct a study Content analysis - Searching text to count recurring words or themes - The collection and analyzing of non-numeric information that leads to the development of inferences pertinent to the research question

Recording Qualitative Data ● Field notes - Describes the environment, the time, the weather, the sounds, the smells, and the sights Organizing and Analyzing Qualitative Data ● Field notes- organization means ensuring your field notes are legible, edited, and corrected ● Recorded data should be transcribed, corrected, and edited ● Grounded theory: a systematic methodology that leads to the construction of theory through the coding and analysis of qualitative data - Involves three coding steps: 1: open coding 2: axial coding 3: selective coding - Open coding: a researcher reading the complete set of raw data multiple times to organize and summarize the data into preliminary groupings of analytic categories - Axial coding: the researcher focuses on the preliminary analytic categories or labels developed during open coding to identify relationships between the categories - Selective coding: the researcher reviews all raw data and the previous codes or labels with few purposes in mind (first the researcher makes comparisons and

contrasts among themes or labels developed and another purpose is to identify overarching and broad variables that describe connections and relationships among some of the labels or themes)...