This document discusses key terminology and methods used in qualitative research including phenomenology, interpretivism, hermeneutics, participant observation, in-depth interviews, case studies, ethnography, grounded theory, sampling techniques, qualitative interviewing, life histories, focus groups, recording observations, qualitative data processing and analysis. It also covers the strengths, weaknesses and standards for evaluating qualitative studies.

1. Qualitative Research
Methods
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2. Some Terminology of Qualitative Inquiry
• Phenomenology: It refers to a consideration of all
perceived phenomena, both the “objective” and
“subjective”
o To discover the subjects’ experiences and how they
make sense of those experiences
• Interpretivism: It seeks to discover how the
subject interprets his or her experience of life
o More focusing on understanding by means of
conversations with the human beings to be
understood
o More idiographic than nomothetic approach

3. • Hermeneutics: The interpretation of
religious texts
o Interested in the interpretivist’s process of
discovery
o Overall understanding of a text gives us a
place from which to examine and interpret the
meaning of its parts
o The examination of the parts may lead us to
reframe our overall assessment

4. • Participant Observation: a specific form of
field research in which the researcher
participates as an actor in the events
under study
• In-depth Interview: less structured and
gives the subject of the interview more
freedom to direct the flow of conversation

5. • Case study: an idiographic examination of
a single
individual, family, group, organization, co
mmunity, or society
o Description is a chief purpose
• Ethnography: naturalistic observations
and holistic understandings of cultures or
subcultures

6. • Generic Propositions: Interested in the
patterns of human social life
• Unfettered Inquiry: field researchers
basically side with the view that anything
is fair game
• Deep Familiarity: Place yourself in the
position of those you wish to understand

7. • Emergent Analysis: theory emerges in the
course of analyzing observations rather than
preceding observation in the form of hypotheses
• True Content: Interested in what is “really” going
on
• New Content: not replicating findings, but
creating new observations, or new analyses, or
both with each research effort

8. • Developed Treatment: Interested in
balance between the presentation of data
from observations and the elaboration of
theoretical concepts that can represent
and make sense of those data

9. Coined by Glauser &
Strauss in 1967
Grounded Theory
• Inductive approach to understanding
• It begins with observations and looks for
patterns, themes, or common categories
• The selection of new cases is guided by
theoretical sampling concepts
o Theoretical sampling begins by selecting new
cases that seem to be similar to those that
generated previously detected concepts and
hypotheses

10. • To better ground your hypothesis in the empirical
world, you might interview several additional
practitioners with good clinical reputations to see
if the same patterns are generated
• The process of using notes and memos in
ground theory resembles the social worker’s use
of process recording and problem-oriented case
record keeping

11. Topics Appropriate to Field Research (Lofland &
Lofland, 1995)
• Practices See p.
• Episodes 430
• Encounters
• Roles
• Relationships
• Groups
• Organizations
• Settlements
• Social Worlds
• Lifestyles or subcultures

12. The Various Roles of the Observer
• Complete participant
• Participant-as-observer
• Observer-as-participant
• Complete observer

13. Relations to Subjects
• How you may relate to the subjects of
your study and to their points of view?
o “Really” jointing or “pretending” joining
o Insider understanding: adopt their points of
view as true temporarily
o Symbolic realism: to treat the beliefs they
study as worthy of respect rather than as
object of ridicule

14. Preparing for the Field
• Begin with a search of the relevant
literature, filling in your knowledge of the
subject and learning what others have
said about it
• Make use of informants
• Be wary about the information
• Establish a certain rapport with them

15. Sampling in Field Research
Select cases that are more or
• Quota sampling less intense than usual, but not
• Snowball sampling so unusual that they could be
• Deviant case samplingcalled deviant
o Intensity sampling
o Critical incidents sampling
o Maximum variation sampling
o Homogeneous sampling See p. 445
o Theoretical sampling
• Purposive sampling

16. Qualitative Interviewing
• Informal Conversational Interviews
• General interview guide approach
• Standardized open-ended interview

17. Life History
• Researchers ask open-ended questions to
discover how the participants in a study
understand the significant events and
meanings in their own lives
• Oral history interviews

18. Client Log
• Qualitative logs are journals that clients
keep of events that are relevant to their
problems
• The logs can be utilized to record
quantitative data about target behaviors
as well as qualitative information about
critical incidents

19. Focus Groups
• Group interviewing
• To assess whether a new social program
or social service being considered is really
needed in a community
• 12 to 15 people were recommended
• Discussion of a specific topic

20. Recording Observations
• Tape recording
• Taking notes
o Don’t trust your memory any more than you have to:
it’s untrustworthy
o It’s usually a good idea to take notes in stages
 Need to take sketchy notes (words and phrases) to keep
abreast of what’s happening
 Remove yourself and rewrite your notes in more detail
o To write out all of the details you can recall right after
the observation session

21. Qualitative Data Processing
• Rewriting your notes
• Creating files
• Using computers

22. Qualitative Data Analysis
• Similarities and dissimilarities
• Norms of behavior
• Universals
• Six different ways of looking for patterns
o Frequencies
o Magnitudes
o Structures
o Processes
o Cases
o Consequences

23. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Field
Research
• Depth of understanding
• Subjectivity
• Generalizability

24. Standards for Evaluating Qualitative
Studies
• Threats to Trustworthiness
o Reactivity Researcher’s
perceptions
o Research biases
o Respondent biases Social desirability