Transcript Chapter 10 - Institute for Behavioral Genetics

Chapter 10
Qualitative Research
Chapter 10
Conducting & Reading Research
Baumgartner et al
Characteristics of Qualitative
Research
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The Natural Setting
The Researcher as Instrument
Emergent Approach
Interpretive Approach
A Holistic View
Reflexivity and Subjectivity
Use of Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
Strategies of Inquiry
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The Natural Setting
• Qualitative researchers must
physically go to the people, site,
institution, or field
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The Researcher as Instrument
• Build trust, rapport, and credibility
with subjects
• Observation
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Complete participation
Observer as participant
Participant as observer
Complete observer
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• Interviews
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Closed quantitative
Standardized open-ended
Interview guide
Informal conversational
• Content analysis
– Process in which a researcher examines
a class of social artifacts to describe
specific characteristics of a message
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Emergent Approach
• Research question may change or be
refined as researcher learns more
about subject under investigation
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Interpretive Approach
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– method for deciphering
indirect meaning and a reflective practice
for unmasking hidden meaning beneath
apparent meaning
Constant comparison
1. Reduce, code, and disply the major themes or
patterns that emerge
2. Integrate categories and compare them to one
another or the themes
3. Delimit and refine the themes
4. Provide examples from the data that show how
the themes were derived
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Trustworthiness of Qualitative Data
• Credibility (
validity)
– quotes, field notes, checks by
participants
• Transferability (
validity)
• Dependability (
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• Confirmability (
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– detailed description of setting, thick
data descriptions
– document research plan, triangulate
– clearly describe observations, provide
alternative explanations
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Conducting & Reading Research
Baumgartner et al
A Holistic View
• Broad studies rather than
microanalysis or focusing on the
relationship between independent and
dependent variables
Chapter 10
Conducting & Reading Research
Baumgartner et al
Reflexivity and Subjectivity
• Reflexivity – systematic reflection on
how personal assumptions, biases, and
values shape a study
Chapter 10
Conducting & Reading Research
Baumgartner et al
Use of Deductive and Inductive
Reasoning
• Inductive reasoning (from specific to
broad) is more prevalent, but
deductive reasoning (from brad to
specific) can be appropriate
Chapter 10
Conducting & Reading Research
Baumgartner et al
Strategies of Inquiry
• Use multiple strategies
• Mixed-method – combination of both
quantitative and qualitative research
methods
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What is Qualitative Research?
• naturalistic inquiry: being in the
natural environment to gather data
• holistic, inductive, dynamic,
subjective, humanistic, exploratory,
process-oriented
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Conducting & Reading Research
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Qualitative vs. Quantitative Studies
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Types of Qualitative Research
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Grounded Theory
Life Histories
Case Studies
Phenomonology
Ethnographical Research
Basic/Generic Qualitative Research
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Grounded Theory
• Form of data collection and analysis
that uses comparison as an analytic
tool to generate concepts and
hypotheses
• Goal is to group parts together to
form a core variable
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Life Histories
• Narrative research or biographical
research
• Studies cover lives of individuals or
the that result from one or more
individuals providing stories about
their lives
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Case Studies
• Involves studying an event, activity,
program, process or one or more
individuals
• Holistic understanding of single unit
or bounded system
• Can be based on realistic (
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or confessional (
) tales
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Phenomenology
• Goal: to describe and clarify subjects’
experiences without any previous
assumptions about their meanings
• Try to determine the “
” of an
experience
• No interview schedule (flexibility)
• “Go with the flow”
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Ethnographical Research
• Describes and interprets a cultural or
social group.
• Uncovers and describes beliefs,
values, and attitudes that structure
the behavior of a group.
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Process of Qualitative Reserach
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Conceptualizing the Research
Framing the Research Question
Collecting Data
Analyzing Data
Writing up the Research
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Conceptualizing the Reseach
• Curiosity and intuition play an
important role
• What concept or puzzling phenomena
is interesting?
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Framing the Research Question
• No hypothesis to test
• Questions: “What,” Why,” “How” seek
to be answered
• Process of discovery
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Collecting Data
• Goal: Produce a “
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” description
Direct Observation
Focused Interviewing
Document Analysis
Photographs and Videos
Supportive Quantitative Data
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Direct Observation
• Participant-observers: become
involved in the social setting they are
studying
• Nonparticipant observers: more
removed from the social process
– use key informants
• Both kinds of observers collect field
notes
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Focused Interviewing
• Range from structured to
unstructured
• Interview schedule: list of flexible,
open-ended questions
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: convey interest, try to pull
out more information from subject
• Focus group interviews: guided by a
facilitator
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Document Analysis
• Examination of records
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newsletters, news releases
student records
minutes from meetings
code of ethics
philosophy statements
diaries, letters
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Photographs and Videos
• Use to gain insight into how people
view and interpret their world
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Supportive Quantitative Data
• Attendance counts, injuries, scores
can tell about attitudes and trends
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: process of crosschecking across different methods
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Writing up the Research
• No formal conventions
• Writer tries to convince plausibility
• Present quotes from subjects, field
notes, other primary data
• Present alternative explanations,
points of view, and problems with the
study
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