Chapter 1
What is qualitative research?
Definition:
- uses words as data collected and analysed in all sorts of ways, contrasting to quantitative
research which uses numbers as data and analyses using statistical techniques
- Techniques (of data collection or data analysis) and a wider framework for conducting
research, or paradigm beliefs, assumptions, values and practices shared by a research
community, providing an overarching framework for research
- Captures the complexities yet allows us to make sense of patterns of meaning.
- Big Q qualitative research Application of qualitative techniques within a qualitative
paradigm (dif. From qtt paradigm)
- Small q qualitative research the use of specific qualitative data collection and techniques
not (necessarily) within a qualitative paradigm
- qualr can be conducted in a realist, positivist way that rejects the values
and assumptions of Big Q Qr
- Qual. methods can be used as a precursor for quantitative research
Used alongside quantitative methods as part of a mixed methods design
qual data might be converted to a numerical representation and analysed
quantitatively.
,Qualitative Research as a Paradigm
- Non-positivist qualitative research paradigm
- NOT to assume there is only one correction version of reality/knowledge.
- There are multiple versions of reality (even for the same person) and they
are closely linked to the context they occur in. Researchers agree we
should not consider knowledge outside of the context in which it was
generated. Only these context:
- Context of data generation (e.g. interview setting)
- Broader sociocultural and political contexts of the research
- Use of qual. data + analysis of words that are not reducible to numbers
- We cannot make sense of data in isolation from its context (such as in
experiments) therefore, qual. research uses more naturally occurring data
collection methods that more closely resemble real life.
- Meanings are more significant, rather than reports and measures of behaviour or
internal cognitions
, - Inductive, theory-generating research
- Reject natural sciences as the model for research and reject objective (unbiased)
scientist
- Recognition that scientists bring their subjectivity into the research process (seen
as a strength not a weakness)
- Recursive rather than a linear process (therefore there is no directional/sequential
methods design)
The Emergence of a Qualitative Research Paradigm (in psychology)
- Usually, qual. research is seen in two ways (but we try not to think of it this way)
New development
Used as complimentary data collection and analysis toolkit for quantitative
research.
- History will illustrate why we shouldn’t think about it this way
The only reason qualitative research designs are looked down upon is because of
the historical popularity of quantitative methods during the (post)positivists
experimental paradigm in which dominated the discipline of psychology
Early psychology was more subjective and deemed unscientific once this quant.
method took over.
1980s was when qual. data started re-emerging again: feminism,
poststructuralism, postmodernism, social constructionism, hermeneutics,
phenomenology.
, We should understand qual. research as “Operating within a subjective, interpreted world,
the organization of which offered a certain version of reality”. Relationship between
context and person is more fluid and reciprocal with influence in both directions.
We have access to people’s subjective worlds and meanings and to groups
marginalized
Crucial for identifying and theorising dif. constructed versions of reality + the
ways ppl are both construct by and constructors of (the classic example of British
far-right group and their arguments of a white only Britain)
(this contrasts quant. method which understands humans as responding to
external and internal influences.
Qualitative Sensibility
- Refers to an orientation towards research (in terms of RQs and analysing data) that fits
within the qual. paradigm.
- Skills required to make up qualitative sensibility
Interest in process and meaning over cause and effect
Critical and questioning approach to life and knowledge (don’t take things to face
value)
Step outside your cultural membership and become a cultural commentator so we
can question and see the shared values and assumptions that make up being a
member of a particular society. -- in order to do this, we need to identify our own
assumptions and putting these aside (bracketing them off) so research is not
What is qualitative research?
Definition:
- uses words as data collected and analysed in all sorts of ways, contrasting to quantitative
research which uses numbers as data and analyses using statistical techniques
- Techniques (of data collection or data analysis) and a wider framework for conducting
research, or paradigm beliefs, assumptions, values and practices shared by a research
community, providing an overarching framework for research
- Captures the complexities yet allows us to make sense of patterns of meaning.
- Big Q qualitative research Application of qualitative techniques within a qualitative
paradigm (dif. From qtt paradigm)
- Small q qualitative research the use of specific qualitative data collection and techniques
not (necessarily) within a qualitative paradigm
- qualr can be conducted in a realist, positivist way that rejects the values
and assumptions of Big Q Qr
- Qual. methods can be used as a precursor for quantitative research
Used alongside quantitative methods as part of a mixed methods design
qual data might be converted to a numerical representation and analysed
quantitatively.
,Qualitative Research as a Paradigm
- Non-positivist qualitative research paradigm
- NOT to assume there is only one correction version of reality/knowledge.
- There are multiple versions of reality (even for the same person) and they
are closely linked to the context they occur in. Researchers agree we
should not consider knowledge outside of the context in which it was
generated. Only these context:
- Context of data generation (e.g. interview setting)
- Broader sociocultural and political contexts of the research
- Use of qual. data + analysis of words that are not reducible to numbers
- We cannot make sense of data in isolation from its context (such as in
experiments) therefore, qual. research uses more naturally occurring data
collection methods that more closely resemble real life.
- Meanings are more significant, rather than reports and measures of behaviour or
internal cognitions
, - Inductive, theory-generating research
- Reject natural sciences as the model for research and reject objective (unbiased)
scientist
- Recognition that scientists bring their subjectivity into the research process (seen
as a strength not a weakness)
- Recursive rather than a linear process (therefore there is no directional/sequential
methods design)
The Emergence of a Qualitative Research Paradigm (in psychology)
- Usually, qual. research is seen in two ways (but we try not to think of it this way)
New development
Used as complimentary data collection and analysis toolkit for quantitative
research.
- History will illustrate why we shouldn’t think about it this way
The only reason qualitative research designs are looked down upon is because of
the historical popularity of quantitative methods during the (post)positivists
experimental paradigm in which dominated the discipline of psychology
Early psychology was more subjective and deemed unscientific once this quant.
method took over.
1980s was when qual. data started re-emerging again: feminism,
poststructuralism, postmodernism, social constructionism, hermeneutics,
phenomenology.
, We should understand qual. research as “Operating within a subjective, interpreted world,
the organization of which offered a certain version of reality”. Relationship between
context and person is more fluid and reciprocal with influence in both directions.
We have access to people’s subjective worlds and meanings and to groups
marginalized
Crucial for identifying and theorising dif. constructed versions of reality + the
ways ppl are both construct by and constructors of (the classic example of British
far-right group and their arguments of a white only Britain)
(this contrasts quant. method which understands humans as responding to
external and internal influences.
Qualitative Sensibility
- Refers to an orientation towards research (in terms of RQs and analysing data) that fits
within the qual. paradigm.
- Skills required to make up qualitative sensibility
Interest in process and meaning over cause and effect
Critical and questioning approach to life and knowledge (don’t take things to face
value)
Step outside your cultural membership and become a cultural commentator so we
can question and see the shared values and assumptions that make up being a
member of a particular society. -- in order to do this, we need to identify our own
assumptions and putting these aside (bracketing them off) so research is not
