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The term qualitative research has at least three meanings:
- Qualitative research is an umbrella term used, especially in the social sciences, to describe various research methods or approaches. A commonality shared by these methods is a concern with an investigation of the research phenomena in situ; that is, within their naturally-occurring context(s). One aim of the qualitative researcher is to tease out the meaning(s) the phenomena have for the actors or participants.
Techniques
Generally (though there are exceptions), qualitative research studies rely on three basic data gathering techniques--participant observation, interview, and document or artifact analysis (Wolcott, 1995, 1999). Each of these techniques represents a continuum of from less to more structured (Adler & Adler, 1987; DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002) Various studies or particular techniques may rely more heavily on one data gathering technique or another.
Examples of Qualitative Research Methods
Though it had a genesis in the fields of journalism, anthropology and sociology, qualitative research has burgeoned into and been taken up by many fields. Anthropology contributed to the field with its development of the research method of ethnography--a type of cultural translation (Boas, 1943; Malinowski, 1922/1961). Qualitative research in sociology, especially in the US, has its roots in the Chicago School (Adler & Adler, 1987).
Some of the different methods included under the umbrella of qualitative research, therefore, include: Ethnography, ethnology, oral life history, case study (though this method can be quantitative), conversation analysis, and portraiture.
The Theory in the Method(s)
Qualitative research has gained in popularity, especailly, due to the linguistic or subjective turn taking hold across the globe (Giddens, 1990). The social sciences, especially, as well as laypeople, have more readily accepted a subjective (as opposed to an objective or objectivist) ontology. Qualitative research is especially well-suited to getting at the subjective qualities of the lived world.
--147.26.188.223 21:26, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)Duncan Waite
- Adler, P. A. & Adler, P. (1987). Membership roles in field research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
- Boas, F. (1943). Recent anthropology. Science, 98, 311-314, 334-337.
- DeWalt, K. M. & DeWalt, B. R. (2002). Participant observation. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
- Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Malinowski, B. (1922/1961). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E. P. Dutton.
- Wolcott, H. F. (1995). The art of fieldwork. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
- Wolcott, H. F. (1999). Ethnography: A way of seeing. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
- In statistics, qualitative analysis refers to procedures that use only dichotomous data – that is, data which can take only the values 0 (zero) and 1 (one). These techniques are suitable where events or entities can only be counted or classified rather than measured. The techniques themselves are, of course, numerically based.
- In Climate research, qualitative reconstructions of past temperatures rely on records of events such as Frost fairs which indicate periods of cold or warmth, but give little or no numerical information as to the degree of temperature variation. Other indicators - dates of harvest, first flowering of plants - produce information somewhere between qualitative and quantitative.
See also: quantitative research
See also: qualitative marketing research
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