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