Week 4 Qualitative Research (Part 1)

Case Study Advantages

- Valuable when the researcher wants to obtain a wealth of information - Provide tremendous detail. - Advantageous to the researcher who is trying to find ideas for further research - Can be used to gather descriptive and explanatory data. - Can be used in combination with theory to achieve maximum understanding. - Affords the researcher the ability to deal with a wide spectrum of evidence. Documents, historical artifacts, systematic interviews, direct observations, and even traditional surveys can all be incorporated into a case study.

Case Study Disadvantages:

- Lack of scientific rigor - Not amenable to generalization - Often time consuming and may occasionally produce massive quantities of data that are hard to summarize. - Researchers are forced to wait years for the results of the research, which too often are poorly presented.

why are intensive interviews unique?

- They generally use smaller samples. - They provide detailed background about the reasons respondents give specific answers. - They allow for lengthy observation of respondents' nonverbal responses respondents' opinions, values, motivations, recollections, experiences, and feelings are obtained. - They are usually long. An intensive interview may last several hours and may take more than one session. - They allow interviewers to form questions based on each respondent's answers. - The success of intensive interviews depends on the rapport established between the interviewer and the respondent.

Characteristics of Case Study Research:

1. Particularistic. 2. Descriptive. 3. Heuristic. 4. Inductive.

Intensive Interviewing Disadvantages:

1. Typically done with a nonrandom sample. 2. With unstructured interviews, each respondent may answer a slightly different version of a question. 3. Especially sensitive to interviewer bias. In a long interview, it is possible for a respondent to learn a good deal of information about the interviewer. 4. Despite practice and training, some interviewers may inadvertently communicate their attitudes through loaded questions, nonverbal cues, or tone of voice. 5. Presents problems in data analysis, especially concerning validity.

Advantages of Intensive Interviewing include...

1. Wealth of detail that can be provided. 2. Provides more accurate responses on sensitive issues. 3. The rapport between respondent and interviewer makes it easier to approach certain topics that might be taboo in other approaches.

what are UNSTRUCTURED intensive interviews?

Interviewers have a list of pre-planned questions, but not all questions may be asked or they may not be asked in a certain order

what are STRUCTURED intensive interviews?

Interviewers stick to a set of pre-planned questions in order

This means that the case study focuses on a particular situation, event, program, or phenomenon, making it a good method for studying practical, real-life problems.

Particularistic

Intensive interviewing is used to develop a comprehensive picture of the respondent's ....

background, attitudes, and actions

...... are conducted when a researcher needs to understand or explain a phenomenon. a researcher will select a specific occurrence that illustrates a certain key term, process, or theory that he or she wishes to examine.

case studies

The final product of a case study is a detailed description of the topic under study.

descriptive

A case study helps people to understand what's being studied. New interpretations, new perspectives, new meaning, and fresh insights are all goals of a case study.

heuristic

Most case studies depend on inductive reasoning. Principles and generalizations emerge from an examination of the data. Many case studies attempt to discover new relationships rather than verify existing hypotheses.

inductive

a conversation between a researcher and an informant

intensive interviews

Case study research includes both...

single cases and multiple cases

Intensive Interviews can be:

structured or unstructured

Comparative case study research, frequently used in political science, is an example of .....

the multiple case study technique