Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research

Common Content Analysis Steps (recording unit and coding)

1) Define the recording unit (word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph). 2) Define the coding categories. 3) Test the coding by applying it to a sample of your collected data. 4) Assess the accuracy and reliability of this sample coding (perhaps using multiple coders to check for intercoder consistency). 5) Revise the coding rules and/or instructions to improve consistency and accuracy in coding. 6) Return to step 3 and run the cycle until you achieve sufficient consistency and accuracy in coding. 7) Code all data. 8) Assess overall consistency and accuracy of the codings

Reasons for Mixed-Methods

1) Enhancement: Building on findings from one method using evidence gathered from the other method 2) Triangulation: using findings from one method to verify or corroborate findings collected using the other method. The process of operationalizing and measuring constructs or variables in multiple ways to converge upon a more accurate observation or assessment. 3) Completeness: using both methods to more comprehensively examine an area or issue of interest than would be possible with one method used alone. 4) Illustration: using qualitative data to explain quantitative findings, or vice versa. 5) Sampling: using one method to help with the sampling of participants or cases in a targeted and focused fashion

Qualitative analysis

Two Core Approaches are: 1) Content Analysis 2) Thematic Coding

Strengths of Case Studies

Provides detailed (rich qualitative) information. Provides insight for further research. Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations.

Challenges of Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research

1. A tendency to report only the qualitative or quantitative data, but not both. 2. A tendency to report findings for one method, followed by findings from the other, without any attempt at integration. 3. The perceived need to focus the presentation of results toward either a quantitatively or qualitatively focused audience. 4. A personal preference of comfort with one method over the other. 5. A research design that inhibits the integration of quantitative and qualitative data (the quantitative structure overly limits the qualitative follow-up. 6. The pressure to publish some results as quickly as possible, which might push the researcher to lean on one method more than the other.

Quantitative Examples

Behavioral Observations: Counting Frequency, Rating Intensity Interviews: Rating specific responses of the interviewee to specific questions for quality and accuracy Survey: Gathering self-ratings of agreement or satisfaction with descriptive items and scales Case Study: Small-n or single participant study of changes in behaviors, attitudes, or other measurable variables

Qualitative Examples

Behavioral Observations: Describing process or actions. Highlighting perceived causes and effects Interviews: Recording and transcribing the entirety of the interview experience, including interviewer questions, interviewee responses, gaps in conversation, etc., viewing all as meaningful information and reflections of interviewees' own reality. Survey: Eliciting writing responses to open-ended questions or comment-request boxes Case Study: More in-depth review of individualizing cases, with goal of providing detail regarding context and process, rather than generalize quantified effects.

Benefits (advantages) of Mixed Methods Research

Benefits (advantages) • In many, dare we say most cases the researcher can learn the most about a phenomenon by using a combined, mixed-methods approach • The researcher can also successfully apply principles of data triangulation (The process of operationalizing and measuring constructs or variables in multiple ways to converge upon a more accurate observation or assessment) to ensure you are gaining the clearest possible understanding of the phenomenon you are studying.

Limitations of Case Studies

Can't generalize the results to the wider population. Researchers' own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias). Difficult to replicate. Time consuming.

Qualitative Data Techniques

Field Notes • Observation-focused • Comprehensive: complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something. "A comprehensive list of sources" of or relating to understanding. Behavioral observation, interviews, Case studies, surveys

So when should you consider qualitative or mixed-methods research methods?

In general, when your research questions are more in line with developing understanding than identifying differences, some form of qualitative inquiry may be helpful.

Case studies are

in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community. Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g. observations & interviews). The research may also continue for an extended period of time, so processes and developments can be studied as they happen. The case study is not itself a research method, but researchers select methods of data collection and analysis that will generate material suitable for case studies. Most of this information is likely to be qualitative (i.e. verbal description rather than measurement) but the psychologist might collect numerical data as well.

Qualitative methods

instead of relying on numbers, counts, and frequency-type data, qualitative research will often involve the collection and analysis of detailed observations, stories or narrative histories, sounds, picture or video. • Qualitative methods often bring a fresh or new perspective to existing research in fields of science that have been dominated by quantitative methods. • When combined with quantitative techniques, qualitative strategies can often help researchers to more strongly support their research design choices and final inferences.

Action Research

investigation or analysis that is directed in the direction behind a useful objective, typically a growth in a specific function or system, in comparison to strictly trial and error studies. In company growth and advancement, it comprises not just methodically gathering information regarding a company but additionally supplying evaluations to the company, taking actions to improve the company mainly based on the evaluations, and consequently reviewing the feedback behind these behaviors, ACTION RESEARCH: "The action research methods would lead scientists to provide further proof of the drug's efficacy."

Inductive reasoning (Qualitative Research)

is a logical process in which multiple premises, all believed true or found true most of the time, are combined to obtain a specific conclusion. Inductive reasoning is often used in applications that involve prediction, forecasting, or behavior.

Quantitative research

is also typically designed to test predetermined hypothesis that are formed on the based on existing theory (a deductive process), while qualitative research often functions to develop theory from the data that are collected (an inductive process). With these two distinctions in mind it is also often suggested that qualitative research tends to focus more on rich description of a phenomenon than on its qualifications.

A case study

is one type of observational data collection technique in which one individual is studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average, of others. Case studies often include face-to-face interviews, paper and pencil tests, and more. Sigmund Freud conducted case studies.

Etic perspective

the behavioral research approach is across various cultures to learn about the universality of behaviors

Bacon's Idols:

when we carry preconceptions into the data collection or analysis process we may influence our findings and interpretations. All of these risks also exist in the case of qualitative research, and for this reason there is no way to ensure that the development of understanding can occur completely from the data and not the researcher's own experience or knowledge.

Most common mixed-methods approaches include:

• Either self-administered survey or questionnaire, or a structured or semi-structured interview

Grounded Theory Methodology

• Perhaps the most well-known discussion of this inductivist approach to qualitative research is contained within explanations of the grounded theory methodology.. By definition, this orientation toward research implies that one develops the relevant theory for a study from the data as they are collected and analyzed in qualitative fashion.

Quantitative Research

• Pertains to numerical forms of data • Is focused on identifying the presence and magnitude of effects • Deductive Process

Qualitative Research

• Tends to include the "other" forms of data. • Emphasizes sense-making • Inductive process

Action Research con't

Action research challenges traditional social science by moving beyond reflective knowledge created by outside experts sampling variables, to an active moment-to-moment theorizing, data collecting and inquiry occurring in the midst of emergent structure. "Knowledge is always gained through action and for action. From this starting point, to question the validity of social knowledge is to question, not how to develop a reflective science about action, but how to develop genuinely well-informed action - how to conduct an action science" (Torbert 2002 Why educational research has been so uneducational: the case for a new model of social science based on collaborative inquiry)[citation needed]. In this sense, performing action research is the same as performing an experiment, thus it is an empirical process

Emic perspective

An emic is a type of research study in which the focus is one single culture. This type of research attempts to study the behaviors of interest though the lens of a member of the culture. It involves looking at behaviors of a group from the perspective of one member of that group. An emic research study is the opposite of an etic study in which the behavioral research approach is across various cultures to learn about the universality of behaviors. Emic studies are common in social sciences.

Thematic Coding

Differs from other, more quantitatively oriented forms of content coding. The goal of thematic coding is typically to extract themes from a set of data. Typically, these data are verbal in nature, either collected via open-ended survey or interview questions, or extracted from communication records (e.g., e-mail, or Internet chat logs). Thematic coding also can be used with records of speeches or recorded dialogues between people. Or even video capturing a person's movements and nonverbal behaviors.

Mixed Methods

Example: healthcare-related interventions, which are implemented in a highly complex environments, answering the question of why some interventions work while others fail is not easily done within a quantitative framework. Such a question can be more comprehensively addressed with the use of a qualitative or combo of qualitative and quantitative (mixed methods) strategy.

Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research

It is your research question that should drive the method you use, not the other way around. You may want to ask a question that requires less quantification and more qualification, fewer numbers and statistics and more detail and description. In these cases, a qualitative and/or combined qualitative and quantitative method for data collection and analysis may be useful to you.

Collecting case study data Analyzing case study data Reporting case study data Reflective reporting Analytic reporting

The data collected can be analyzed using different theories (e.g. grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological analysis, text interpretation, e.g. thematic coding) etc. All the approaches mentioned here use preconceived categories in the analysis and they are ideographic in their approach, i.e. they focus on the individual case without reference to a comparison group. The procedure used in a case study means that the researcher provides a description of the behavior. This comes from interviews and other sources, such as observation. The client also reports detail of events from his or her point of view. The researcher then writes up the information from both sources above as the case study, and interprets the information. Interpreting the information means the researcher decides what to include or leave out. A good case study should always make clear which information is factual description and which is an inference or the opinion of the researcher.

Content Analysis

The goal with content analysis is typically to quantify otherwise-qualitative data. Such quantification is often done to identify the qualitative content areas that are of highest importance or greatest prevalence.

Concurrently

When two or more things happen at the same time, they occur concurrently. If the concerts you want to attend are happening concurrently, you have to choose one — unless you know how to be in two places at the same time.

In thematic coding Example: The meaning of ethnic identity was explored, with an emphasis on how this was associated with student's adjustments to college in ethnically diverse college settings.

the first task for a researcher is typically to get familiar with the data that have been collected. By sorting and labeling responses into thematic categories, the qualitative research can begin to make sense of the rich information that has been provided. • The goal in thematic coding is not necessarily to quantify the number of responses per category (although that is always an option), but rather to identify which categories are most prevalent and/or important to respondents and then to dig into the responses in those categories to start to make sense of whatever phenomenon is under study.

Cynical nature of action research

those who are more driven by the researcher's agenda and those more driven by participants; those who are motivated primarily by instrumental goal attainment and those motivated primarily by the aim of personal, organizational or societal transformation; and 1st-, to 2nd-, to 3rd-person research, that is, my research on my own action, aimed primarily at personal change; our research on our group (family/team), aimed primarily at improving the group; and 'scholarly' research aimed primarily at theoretical generalization or large scale change.[1] .