MTO-E: Qualitative Research Methods
Lecture 1
Qualitative: Quantitative:
- Understanding how and why - Measuring how many and causality
- Theory emergent (inductive) - Theory testing (deductive)
- Words & text - Variables & numbers
- Participant’s view - Researcher’s view
- Proximity - Distance
- Process - Static
- Unstructured/open - Structured
- Rich, deep data - Hard, ‘reliable data
- Interpretation - Measuring
(interview)
Example of a quantitative study
From the abstract:
‘’The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of 36
organizations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along
with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of
subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organization. Personal experience of
bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher
levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organization, and lower
self-rated performance.’’
Example of a qualitative study
From the abstract:
A qualitative methodology is adopted. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were
conducted with frontline employees and management in an organization comprising several
retail outlets.
A qualitative methodology is adopted. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were
conducted with frontline employees and management in an organization compromising
several retail outlets.
The interviews reveal that although participants experienced a variety of behaviours
associated with workplace bullying and harassment, these behaviours were commonly
ignored or neglected until they escalated into confrontation and threatened productivity
and profitability. Employees and supervisory staff had minimal appreciation, practical skills
or training on how to deal effectively with negative workplace behaviours.
,Typical research questions
Qualitative research:
- Open questions (starting with how and what)
- Focused on understanding, developing concepts
- Dealing with complex matters for which people need many words to address these:
experiences, meaning
- Dealing with processes
Quantitative research:
- Hypotheses or closed questions
- Focused on measuring, causality and correlation
- Dealing with subjects that can be operationalized into variables: satisfaction,
motivation
- Dealing with measuring established concepts, such as ‘life satisfaction’, ‘place
attachment’, ‘psychological strain’
Research purposes
- Exploratory (Ritchie & Lewis: contextual): explore a phenomenon (at the start of the
research), what exists? Quantitative: counting ‘how many’, qualitative: which
features?
- Descriptive (Ritchie & Lewis: contextual (descriptive)): addressing ‘what’ questions,
what is the form or nature of what exists? More focused than exploratory research
- Explanatory (R & L): addressing ‘why’ questions:
o Quantitative: surveys and experiments, measuring, calculating correlations
between variables, building causal models
o Qualitative research: studying underlying structures, mechanisms and
processes to explain certain behaviours, actions, or events.
- Evaluative (R & L): appraising the effectiveness of what exists (policy
implementations f.e.)
- Generative (R & L): to develop theories, strategies or actions.
,Box 2.1 overview of the different purposes of research
Qualitative or quantitative research?
1. How do pensioners experience getting retired? qualitative
2. What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian
university students? quantitative
3. What is the relationship between study time and exam scores among university
students? quantitative
Foundations- paradigms
Ontology, epistemology and paradigms in social science research
Learning goals:
- Know the implications of adopting a particular paradigm
- Recognize research traditions and paradigms in publications
Ontology: assumptions about the nature of reality
Ontological beliefs influence both the kind of topics you want to research and the way you
want to do research.
Ontological beliefs influence epistemological beliefs, i.e. beliefs about how we can acquire
knowledge.
, Two major positions in social science: objectivism (we can see and touch) and
constructionism (our social life is constructed, it is something that we have constructed in
our minds (friendship))
(note: Ritchie & Lewis use different names: realism & idealism, BUT objectivism and
constructionism are more current.)
Ontology
It’s a pipe… objectivism/ realism
It’s not a pipe… it’s a painting of a pipe.
Or: it is a painting of something that we recognize as being a pipe
It is a representation, or a construction (on paper, or perhaps only in our
minds)
Constructionism/ idealism
Epistemology: assumptions about the nature of knowledge
Objectivism empiricism
Constructionism interpretivism (more critical view): how people construct meaning from
their experiences.
Language
A matter of life and death
Web-based interactive simulated family meeting: imagine a beloved family member having
been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) on life support
Actor playing in the ICU doctor tells family that their loved one has a 10% likelihood of
survival in the event of cardiac arrest requiring CPR
Actor asks family about the decision they want to take in case a cardiac arrest occurs:
Framing the alternative of CPR as ‘’Allow Natural Death’’ significantly decreased the
family’s choice of CPR for their loved ones: 49% vs 61%
Framing the decision as the social norm also significantly affected CPR choice.
If CPR was framed as the norm 64% of the families chose it
If no CPR was the norm, 48% chose CPR
Ontology + epistemology= paradigm
Lecture 1
Qualitative: Quantitative:
- Understanding how and why - Measuring how many and causality
- Theory emergent (inductive) - Theory testing (deductive)
- Words & text - Variables & numbers
- Participant’s view - Researcher’s view
- Proximity - Distance
- Process - Static
- Unstructured/open - Structured
- Rich, deep data - Hard, ‘reliable data
- Interpretation - Measuring
(interview)
Example of a quantitative study
From the abstract:
‘’The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of 36
organizations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along
with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of
subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organization. Personal experience of
bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher
levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organization, and lower
self-rated performance.’’
Example of a qualitative study
From the abstract:
A qualitative methodology is adopted. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were
conducted with frontline employees and management in an organization comprising several
retail outlets.
A qualitative methodology is adopted. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were
conducted with frontline employees and management in an organization compromising
several retail outlets.
The interviews reveal that although participants experienced a variety of behaviours
associated with workplace bullying and harassment, these behaviours were commonly
ignored or neglected until they escalated into confrontation and threatened productivity
and profitability. Employees and supervisory staff had minimal appreciation, practical skills
or training on how to deal effectively with negative workplace behaviours.
,Typical research questions
Qualitative research:
- Open questions (starting with how and what)
- Focused on understanding, developing concepts
- Dealing with complex matters for which people need many words to address these:
experiences, meaning
- Dealing with processes
Quantitative research:
- Hypotheses or closed questions
- Focused on measuring, causality and correlation
- Dealing with subjects that can be operationalized into variables: satisfaction,
motivation
- Dealing with measuring established concepts, such as ‘life satisfaction’, ‘place
attachment’, ‘psychological strain’
Research purposes
- Exploratory (Ritchie & Lewis: contextual): explore a phenomenon (at the start of the
research), what exists? Quantitative: counting ‘how many’, qualitative: which
features?
- Descriptive (Ritchie & Lewis: contextual (descriptive)): addressing ‘what’ questions,
what is the form or nature of what exists? More focused than exploratory research
- Explanatory (R & L): addressing ‘why’ questions:
o Quantitative: surveys and experiments, measuring, calculating correlations
between variables, building causal models
o Qualitative research: studying underlying structures, mechanisms and
processes to explain certain behaviours, actions, or events.
- Evaluative (R & L): appraising the effectiveness of what exists (policy
implementations f.e.)
- Generative (R & L): to develop theories, strategies or actions.
,Box 2.1 overview of the different purposes of research
Qualitative or quantitative research?
1. How do pensioners experience getting retired? qualitative
2. What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian
university students? quantitative
3. What is the relationship between study time and exam scores among university
students? quantitative
Foundations- paradigms
Ontology, epistemology and paradigms in social science research
Learning goals:
- Know the implications of adopting a particular paradigm
- Recognize research traditions and paradigms in publications
Ontology: assumptions about the nature of reality
Ontological beliefs influence both the kind of topics you want to research and the way you
want to do research.
Ontological beliefs influence epistemological beliefs, i.e. beliefs about how we can acquire
knowledge.
, Two major positions in social science: objectivism (we can see and touch) and
constructionism (our social life is constructed, it is something that we have constructed in
our minds (friendship))
(note: Ritchie & Lewis use different names: realism & idealism, BUT objectivism and
constructionism are more current.)
Ontology
It’s a pipe… objectivism/ realism
It’s not a pipe… it’s a painting of a pipe.
Or: it is a painting of something that we recognize as being a pipe
It is a representation, or a construction (on paper, or perhaps only in our
minds)
Constructionism/ idealism
Epistemology: assumptions about the nature of knowledge
Objectivism empiricism
Constructionism interpretivism (more critical view): how people construct meaning from
their experiences.
Language
A matter of life and death
Web-based interactive simulated family meeting: imagine a beloved family member having
been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) on life support
Actor playing in the ICU doctor tells family that their loved one has a 10% likelihood of
survival in the event of cardiac arrest requiring CPR
Actor asks family about the decision they want to take in case a cardiac arrest occurs:
Framing the alternative of CPR as ‘’Allow Natural Death’’ significantly decreased the
family’s choice of CPR for their loved ones: 49% vs 61%
Framing the decision as the social norm also significantly affected CPR choice.
If CPR was framed as the norm 64% of the families chose it
If no CPR was the norm, 48% chose CPR
Ontology + epistemology= paradigm
