Download QUALITATIVE RESEARCH What Is Qualitative Research?

QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
What Is
Qualitative Research?
is research that addresses political objectives
through techniques that allow the researcher
to provide elaborate(ayrıntılı)interpretations of
political phenomena without depending on
numerical measurement.
Its focus is on discovering true inner
meanings and new insights. Qualitative
research is less structured than most
quantitative approaches.
It does not rely on self-response
questionnaires containing structured
response formats. Instead, it is more
researcher-dependent in that the
researcher must extract meaning from
unstructured responses, such as text
from a recorded interview or a collage
representing the meaning of some
experience.
Uses of Qualitative Research
The researcher has many tools
available and the research design
should try to match the best tool
to the research objective.
The less specific the research objective,
the
more likely that qualitative
research tools will be appropriate.
Araştırmanın
amacı
ne
kadar
belirginleşirse, nitel araştırma araçları o
kadar uygun olur.
WHEN QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH BE USED?
1. When it is difficult to develop
specific and actionable problem
statements or research objectives.
2. When the research objective is to
develop an understanding of some
phenomena in great detail and in much
depth.
3. When the research objective is to learn how
a phenomena occurs in its natural setting or
to learn how to express some concept in
colloquial(argo) terms.
For example, how do voters discuss the
political issues in their daily life?
4. When a fresh approach to studying some
problem is needed. This is particularly the
case when quantitative research has yielded
less than satisfying results.
Qualitative tools can yield unique insights,
many of which may lead the organization in
new directions.
QUALITATIVE VERSUS
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative
research
can
accomplish
research
objectives
that
quantitative
research cannot. Similarly truthful, but no
more
so,
quantitative
research
can
accomplish
objectives
that
qualitative
research cannot.
The key to successfully using either is to
match the right approach to the right
research context.
Many good research projects combine both
qualitative and quantitative research. For
instance, developing valid survey measures
requires first a deep understanding of the
concept to be measured and a description of
the way these ideas are expressed in everyday
language.
Quantitative business research can be
defined as business research that addresses
research
objectives
through
empirical
assessments
that
involve
numerical
measurement and analysis approaches.
There are great differences between the quantitative
and qualitative approaches to studying and
understanding subjects. The arguments between
qualitative and quantitative business researchers
about their relative strengths and weaknesses are of
real practical value.
This means that seeking a singular and uniform
approach to supporting decision-makers by focusing
on one approach is useless. Business decision makers
use both approaches and will continue to need both.
The distinction between qualitative
and quantitative research can be in
the context of research designs.
There is a close parallel in the
distinctions between ‘exploratory
and
conclusive
research’
and
‘qualitative
and
quantitative
research’. There is a parallel, but
the terms are not identical.
(fark)
Conversely, there may be circumstances
where quantitative measurements are used
to conclusively answer specific hypotheses or
research questions using descriptive or
experimental techniques.
Quantitative researchers direct a considerable
amount of activity toward measuring concepts
with scales that either directly or indirectly
provide numeric values. The numeric values
can then be used in statistical computations
and hypothesis testing.
qualitative researchers are more interested in
observing, listening, and interpreting.
For these reasons, qualitative research is
said to be more subjective, meaning that
the
results
are
researcher-dependent.
Different researchers may reach different
conclusions based on the same interview.
In that respect, qualitative research lacks
the ability of different individuals following
the same procedures to produce the same
results or come to the same conclusion.
Qualitative
research
seldom
involves
samples with hundreds of respondents.
Instead, a handful of people are usually the
source of qualitative data. This is perfectly
acceptable in discovery-oriented research.
Qualitative research is most often used
in exploratory designs. Small samples,
interpretive
procedures
that
require
subjective judgments, and the unstructured
interview
format
all
make
traditional
hypotheses testing difficult with qualitative
research.
Contrasting Exploratory and
Confirmatory Research
Most
exploratory
qualitative data.
research
designs
produce
Often, exploratory research may be needed to
develop the ideas that lead to research hypotheses.
In some situations the outcome of exploratory
research is a testable research hypothesis.
Confirmatory research then tests these hypotheses
with quantitative data.
The major categories of
qualitative research
1. Phenomenology—originating in philosophy and
psychology
2. Ethnography—originating in anthropology
3. Grounded theory—originating in sociology
4. Case studies—originating in psychology and in
business research
1. Phenomenology
(olguculuk)
Represents a philosophical approach to
studying human experiences based on the
idea that human experience itself is
inherently(doğal
olarak)subjective
and
determined by the context in which people
live.
The phenomenological researcher focuses on
how a person’s behavior is shaped by the
relationship he or she has with the physical
environment,
objects,
people,
and
situations.
When conversational interviews are face to
face, they are recorded either with video then
interpreted by the researcher.
The phenomenological interviewer is careful to
avoid asking direct questions when at all
possible. Instead, the research respondent is
asked to tell a story about some experience.
2. Ethnography
Participant observation, a tool of measuring the
ethnographic events, means the researcher
becomes immersed(bulaşmış) within the culture that he
or she is studying and draws data from his or her
observations.
A culture can be either a broad culture, like Turkish
culture, or a narrow culture, like regional culture,
Ford owners, or people who are intrested in
football.
OBSERVATION IN
ETHNOGRAPHY
Researchers today sometimes ask households for permission
to place video cameras in their home. In doing so, the
ethnographer can study the individuals in a “natural habitat”
and use the observations to test new concept
Ethnographic study can be particularly useful when a certain
culture is comprised (oluşmak) of individuals who cannot or
will not verbalize(sözel)their thoughts and feelings. For
instance, discovering insights among children since it does
not rely largely on their answers to questions. Instead, allow
the children to do what they do naturally, and record their
behavior.
3. Grounded
Theory
(gömülü)
Represents an inductive(tümevarımsal) investigation in
which the researcher poses questions about
information provided by respondents or taken from
historical records. The researcher asks the questions
to him or herself and repeatedly questions the
responses to derive deeper explanations.
Grounded theory is particularly applicable in highly
dynamic situations involving rapid and significant
change. Two key questions asked by the grounded
theory researcher are “What is happening here?”
and “How is it different?”
By questioning the events discussed in the political
interviews and analyzing differences in the
situations that may have led to the discussion, the
researcher is able to develop a theory.
Grounded Theory is trying to extract a theory
from events or texts
Example for diduction(tümdengelim). Every human
dies. Ahmet is a human, so Ahmed one day will
die. Decreasing the price of any elastic
product will increase the demand. If the price
of jewelry, luxury cars and hotel services increase
the demand of these products will increase.
Example for induction(tümevarım). First and Second
World War have brought disaster. So all wars bring
disaster. Or If we put a piece of ice many times on
a fire, the ice will be melted. Therefore the fire
melts the ice.
Experiment 1 or
observation 1
Experiment 2 or
observation 2
Experiment 3 or
observation 3
Inductive Approach
Result, certainty
or reality
Diductive Approach
Conviction 1
Kanaat
Conviction 2
Conviction 3
4. Case Studies
Case studies simply refer to the documented
history of a particular person, group, organization,
or event. Typically, a case study may describe the
events of a specific political party as it faces an
important decision or situation, such as introducing
a new campaign. Textbook cases typify this kind of
case study.
Philosophy and
qualitative research
Pozitivizm and
Emprizm
Empiricism A theory of knowledge. A
broad category of the philosophy of
science that locates the source of all
knowledge in experience.
Positivism
A
philosophy
of
language and logic cosistent with an
empiricist philosophy of science.
Paradigm A set of assumptions
consisting
of
agreed
upon
knowledge, criteria of judgement,
problem fields, and ways to consider
them.
Action Research
A process whereby one could construct a
social experiment with the aim of achieving a
certain goal. For example, in the early days of
the Second World War, Lewin conducted a
study, commissioned by US authorities, on the
use of tripe işkembe as part of the regular daily
diet of American families.
(
)
The research question was: ‘To what extent
could American housewives be encouraged to
use tripe rather than beef for family dinners?’
Action research is a team research
process, facilitated by one or more
professional researchers, linking with
decision-makers
and
other
stakeholders who together wish to
improve particular situations.
CLASSIFICATION OF
QUALITATIVE
TECHNIQUES
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Focus Group
A focus group interview is an unstructured,
free-flowing interview with a small group of
people, usually between six and ten. Focus
groups are led by a trained moderator who
follows a flexible format encouraging dialogue
among respondents.
Common focus group topics include political
issues, international problems.
Procedure for
Planning and
Conducting Focus
Groups
Advantages and disadvantages of
focus groups
1 Synergy. Putting a group of people together will
produce a wider range of information, insight and
ideas than will individual responses secured
privately.
2 Snowballing. A bandwagon effect often operates in
a group discussion in that one person’s comment
triggers a chain reaction
from the other
respondents. This process facilitates a very creative
process where new ideas can be developed, justified
and critically examined.
3 Stimulation. Usually after a brief introductory
period, the respondents want to express their ideas
and expose their feelings as the general level of
excitement over the topic increases in the group.
4 Security. Because the respondents’ feelings may be similar to
those of other group members, they feel comfortable and are
therefore willing to ‘open up’ and reveal thoughts where they
may have been reluctant if they were on their own.
5 Spontaneity(doğallık). Because respondents are not required to
answer specific questions, their responses can be spontaneous
and unconventional and should therefore provide an accurate
idea of their views.
6 Serendipity(tesadüfilik). Ideas are more likely to arise
unexpectedly in a group than in an individual interview. There
may be issues that the moderator had not thought of. The
dynamics of the group can allow these issues to develop and
be discussed. Group members, to great effect, may clearly and
forcibly ask questions that the moderator may be reluctant to
ask.
7 Specialisation. Because a number of respondents are involved
simultaneously, the use of a highly trained, but expensive,
interviewer is justified.
8 Scientific scrutiny(ayrıntılı inceleme). The group discussion allows close
scrutiny of the data collection process in that observers can witness
the session and it can be recorded for later analysis. Many individuals
can be involved in the validation and interpretation of the collected
data.
9 Structure. The group discussion allows for flexibility in the topics
covered and the depth with which they are treated. The structure
can match the logical structure of issues from the respondents’
perspective as well as the language and expressions they are
comfortable with.
10 Speed. Because a number of individuals are being interviewed at
the same time, data collection and analysis proceed relatively
quickly.
The Disadvanges og Focus
Groups
1 Misjudgement. Focus group results can be more easily
misjudged than the results of other data collection techniques. As
a qualitative technique, focus groups can evolve through a line of
questioning and probing. The specific direction of questioning and
the ultimate interpretation of findings can be susceptible to bias.
2 Moderation. As well as being great fun to moderate, focus
groups can be difficult to moderate. Much depends upon the
‘chemistry’ of the group in terms of how group members get on
with each other and draw ideas and explanations from each other.
Even moderators with many years of experience can get into
difficulty with particular group members who disrupt the
discussion. The quality of the results depends upon how well the
discussion is managed and ultimately on the skills of the
moderator.
3 Messiness. The unstructured nature of the responses makes
coding, analysis and interpretation difficult in comparison with
the structure of quantitative techniques. Focus group data tend
to be messy and need either strong theoretical support or the
discipline of a grounded theory approach to ensure that
decisionmakers can rely upon the analyses and interpretations.
4 Misrepresentation. Focus group results concentrate on distinct
target groups, describing them and contrasting them to other
groups or types of respondent. Trying to generalise to much
wider groups, in the same manner as with a quantitative survey
based on a representative sample, can be very misleading.
5 Meeting. There are many problems in getting potential
respondents to agree to take part in a focus group discussion.
Even when they have agreed to participate, there are problems
in getting focus group respondents together at the same time.
Running focus groups on the Internet has helped to resolve
these problems to some extent, but for some target groups
even this does not offer a solution.
THE FOCUS GROUP MODERATOR
1. The moderator must be able to develop relation
with the group to promote interaction among all
participants.
2. The moderator must be a good listener. Without
good listening skills, the moderator may direct the
group in an unproductive direction
VIDEOCONFERENCING AND FOCUS
GROUPS
With the widespread utilization of videoconferencing,
the number of companies using these systems to
conduct
focus
groups
has
increased.
With
videoconference focus groups, managers can stay
home and watch on television rather than having to
take a trip to a focus group facility.
Brain Storming
Traditional brainstorming has been used for several
decades, especially in the context of management
or political issues.
Whether formal or informal, the process is the
same: think of as many ideas as you can and say
them out loud; leave the evaluation until later;
build on and combine others’ ideas; be as
imaginative as possible, the wilder the ideas the
better.
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Depth
interviews
Depth interviews are an unstructured
and
direct
way
of
obtaining
information but, unlike focus groups,
depth interviews are conducted on a
one-on one basis.
A
depth
interview
is
an
unstructured,
direct,
personal
interview in which a single respondent
is probed(tahkik, sorgulama)by an experienced
interviewer to uncover underlying
opinions,
motivations,
beliefs,
attitudes and feelings on a topic.
Depth interview is common in the
field of international relationship. If
this interview is being done with a
political leader or with any opposition
group leader, the titles, subtitles and
the general questions should be well
prepared before the interview.
The questions and probes they put to
respondents should follow the interest and
logic of the respondent, making them feel
motivated to respond in a manner that suits
them.
As with a focus group discussion, the
respondent should feel comfortable and
relaxed.
SOCIAL
NETWORKING
For many consumers, particularly younger
generations, social networking sites like MySpace,
Second Life, Zebo, and others have become the
primary tool for communicating with friends both
far and near and known and unknown.
Social networking has replaced large volumes of email
and,
many
would
say,
face–to-face
communications as well.
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
PROJECTIVE
TECHNIQUES
Projective techniques are different from these
techniques
in
that
they
attempt
to
totally
disguise(gizlemek)the purpose of the research.
A projective technique is an unstructured, indirect
form of questioning that encourages respondents to
project their underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes
or feelings regarding the issues of concern. In
projective techniques, respondents are asked to
interpret the behavior of others rather than to
describe their own behavior.
In interpreting the behavior of others, it is contended
(iddia, farz etmek) that respondents indirectly project their
own motivations, beliefs, attitudes or feelings into the
situation.
The more ambiguous(belirsiz)the situation, the more
respondents project their emotions, needs, motives,
attitudes and values, as demonstrated by work in
clinical psychology.
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Association techniques
An individual is presented with a stimulus and asked to
respond with the first thing that comes to mind. Word
association is the best known of these techniques
In word association, respondents are presented
with a list of words, one at a time, and are asked to
respond to each with the first word that comes to
mind.
A Sample: Dealing with dirt
Word association was used to study women’s attitudes
towards detergents. Below is a list of stimulus words
used and the responses of two women of similar age
and household status. The sets of responses are quite
different, suggesting that the women differ in
personality
and
in
their
attitudes
towards
housekeeping.
Ms M’s associations suggest that she is resigned to
dirt. She sees dirt as inevitable and does not do much
about it. She does not do hard cleaning, nor does she
get much pleasure from her family. Ms C sees dirt too,
but is energetic, factual-minded and less emotional.
She is actively ready to combat(mücadele etmek)dirt, and she
uses soap and water as her weapons.
Pessimist
Fırçalamak
Pislik
Optimist
Kirli
Çekişme
These findings suggest that the market for
detergents could be segmented based on
attitudes.
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Compilation techniques
Respondents are asked to complete an incomplete
stimulus situation. Common completion techniques
in business research are sentence completion
and story completion.
1. Our political relation with neighbor countries should be
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
2. In my opinion the future of Middle east will be,
………………………………………………………………………..
3. Can be said that he economical policy of Turkish government is
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In story completion, respondents are given
part of a story, enough to direct attention to a
particular topic but not to hint at the ending.
They are required to give the conclusion in
their own words
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Construction techniques
In a construction technique, the researcher provides
less initial structure to the respondents than in a
completion technique. The two main construction
techniques are picture response techniques and
cartoon tests.
picture response
Consists of a series of pictures of ordinary as well as
unusual events. In some of these pictures, the
persons or objects are clearly definede, while in
others they are relatively vague(müphem).
The respondent is asked to tell stories about these
pictures. The respondent’s interpretation of the
pictures gives indications of that individual’s
personality.
Karıcığım, bugün
alışverişimizi Migros’tan
yapalım, ne dersin?
.................
Qualitative Research Proccedures
Direct
Focus
Groups
Indirect
Depth
Interviews
Association
Techniques
Completion
Techniques
Projective
Techniques
Construction
Techniques
Expressive
Techniques
Expressive(etkileyici)techniques
Respondents are presented with a verbal or visual
situation and asked to relate the feelings and
attitudes of other people to the situation. The
respondents express not their own feelings or
attitudes, but those of others. The two main
expressive techniques are role playing and thirdperson technique.
In role playing, respondents are asked to play the
role or to assume the behavior of someone else.
The researcher assumes that the respondents will
project(yansıtmak)their own feelings into the role.
¨Assume that you are the president of X Party,
how you will act in facing the political problem?¨
It is time to
have fun