Qualitative Research Design

Question 1

What is a tight design?

Answer 1

Good when working with well-delineated constructs.

Question 2

What is a loose design?

Answer 2

the conceptual framework will tend to emerge from the field during the study, and the RQ will only become clear gradually, setting and participants will first be selected after initial orientation to the field site.

Good to use when experienced researchers have plenty of time and are exploring unfamiliar cultures, understudied phenomena, or complex social processes.

Question 3

what is a conceptual framework?

Answer 3

A conceptual framework explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied – the key factors, variables, or constructs – and the presumed interrelationships among them.

A conceptual framework forces you to be selective about what information to be collected and analyzed.

Question 4

What are the key Features of Qualitative Sampling?

Answer 4

Qualitative research usually works with small samples of people, nested in their context and studied in-depth.

Qualitative samples tend to be purposive rather than random.

Conceptually driven sequential sampling: when the whole sample is not chosen at once, but it gets chosen through the process.

Qualitative sampling is often theory driven.

Question 5

What are the eight Qualitative Quality criteria?

Answer 5

o (a) worthy topic,
o (b) rich rigor,
o (c) sincerity,
o (d) credibility,
o (e) resonance,
o (f) significant contribution,
o (g) ethics,
o (h) meaningful coherence.

Question 6

How can one achieve ‘worthy topic’?

Answer 6

The topic of the research is:
- Relevant
- timely
- significant
- interesting

Question 7

How can one achieve ‘rich rigor’?

Answer 7

The study uses sufficient, abundant, appropriate, and complex:
- theorethical construction
- data and time in the field
- samples(s)
- context(s)
- data collection and analysis processes

Question 8

How can one achieve ‘sincerity’?

Answer 8

The study is charaterized by:
- self-reflxivity about subjective values, biases, and inclinations of the researcher
- transparency about the methods and challenges

Question 9

How can one achieve ‘credibility’?

Answer 9

the research is marked by
- thick description, concrete detail, explication of tacit knowledge, and showing rather than telling
- triangulation or crystalization
- multivocality
- member reflections

Question 10

How can one achieve ‘resonance’?

Answer 10

The reseacrh influence, affects, or moves readers through
- evocative representations
- naturalistic generalization
- transferable findings

Question 11

How can one achieve ‘significant contribution’?

Answer 11

the researcher provides a significant contribution
- conceptually/theorethically
- Pratically
- morally
- methodologically
- Heuristic

Question 12

How can one achieve ‘ethics’?

Answer 12

The researcher considers
- procedural ethics
- situational and culturally specific ethics
- relational ethics
- exiting ethics

Question 13

How can one achieve ‘meaningful coherence’?

Answer 13

the study
- achieves what it is meant to
uses methods and procedures that fits stated goals
- meaningfully interconnects literature, RQ, findings, and interpretations

Question 14

Define Epistemology

Answer 14

EPISTEMOLOGY -> What is the nature of knowledge?
Epistemology is usually understood as being concerned with knowledge about knowledge.
- what do we mean by the concept ‘truth’ and how do we know whether some claim is true or false?

Is it possible to objectively observe and describe the world? (Objectivism - realism)

The researcher plays an active part in the knowledge construction (Subjectivism - relativism)

Question 15

Define Ontology

Answer 15

ONTOLOGY -> What is the nature of existence?

Ontology deals with the essence of phenomena and the nature of their existence.

Differentiate between realist and subjectivist assumptions:
- Realist assumptions entail the view that the social world exists, ‘out there’, independent of our perceptual or cognitive structures.
- subjectivist assumptions entail the view that what we take to be social reality is a creation, or projection, of our consciousness and cognition.

Question 16

Describe Positivism

Answer 16

A key aspect of positivism entails ignoring the subjective dimensions of human action.

The approach usually investigates human behavior through the use of hypothetico-deductive method.
o the aim is to produce generalizable knowledge through the testing of hypothetical predictions deduced from a priori theory.

Question 17

Describe Qualitative Neo-positivism

Answer 17

Believes it is possible to neutrally apprehend the facts ‘out there’.

the belief that science can produce objective knowledge rests on two assumptions:
o the assumption of ontological realism – that there is a reality ‘out there’ to be known
o that it is possible to remove subjective bias in the assessment of that reality.
- Thus, what is ‘out there’ is presumed to be independent of the knower and is accessible to the trained observer following the correct procedures.

Question 18

Describe Interpretivism

Answer 18

it takes human interpretation as the starting point for developing knowledge about the social world’.
Actors subjectively attribute to phenomena to describe and explain their behavior through investigating how they experience, sustain, articulate, and share with others these socially constructed everyday realities.

Question 19

Describe Critical Theory

Answer 19

A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures.

The researcher is no longer the neutral observer.

Question 20

Describe Postmodernism

Answer 20

subjectivist ontology is combined with a subjectivist epistemology -> relativist view of science and knowledge.

there is a focus on language and discourse.

for postmodernists reality can have an infinite number of attributes, since there are as many realities as there are ways of perceiving and explaining.

Question 21

What is meant be theoretical sampling?

Answer 21

Theoretical sampling simply means that cases are selected because they are particularly suitable for illuminating and extending relationships and logic among constructs.

Question 22

What are the strengthens of qual. research?

Answer 22

Depth and richness of data

The participant perspective: understanding the meaning for participants in the study of events, situations, experiences they are involved with or engaged in

The role of context: understanding the particular contexts within which participants act and the influence these contexts have on their actions

Grasping processes: understanding the process by which events and actions take place.

Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences: openness and flexibility in the design

Question 23

What are the weaknesses of qual. research?

Answer 23

• Labor intensiveness and extensiveness
• Time demanding
• Frequent data overload
• Too subjective? –> Researcher (self)reflexivity and integrity
• Access and adequacy of sampling
• Generalizability of findings
• Credibility and quality of conclusions and their utility in the world

Question 24

What is a case study?

Answer 24

A case study is
o A research strategy that involves using one of more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions and or theory from case-based empirical evidence

Question 25

Why do a case study?

Answer 25

• Accuracy (Context): Faithful to everyday realities – what is actually going on
• Comprehensiveness: Allows the researcher to maintain holistic and meaningful characteristics
• Richness and Depth: Relationships, Complexity
• Dynamics/Process: Follow developments over time

Question 26

When to do a case study?

Answer 26

• At the beginning of an inquiry into a phenomenon –> Requires little delimitation, flexible
• When new perspectives are needed
• To understand processes
• When context is important

Question 27

What is meant by Analytic generalization?

Answer 27

Generalize to theory and not populations