Much of market and academic research transcription involves qualitative research as both frequently include recorded field notes or interviews. We will review the qualitative research process by examining its relationship to quantitative research, explaining its design, and describing its methodology.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research
Qualitative research is a method of inquiry used in the social sciences to explore the complex processes of human behavior. Specifically, qualitative research focuses on the why and how of our motivations, decisions, reactions, and meaning-making. Unlike quantitative research, which produces empirically measurable data, qualitative research methods are designed to yield primarily non-numerical data. However, social phenomena can be explored through both lenses.
Let us take the example of intelligence. When we say somebody is intelligent, how did we arrive at that conclusion? A quantitative way of measuring intelligence could be an IQ test that is ordinally scaled and results in a certain score. If the score is high, we can assume the person is intelligent. However, as a qualitative researcher, you might want to look at aspects of intelligence that are not assessed by an IQ test, such as creativity or emotional intelligence. You may want to conduct in-depth interviews to find out what intelligence means and/or how people express their intelligence.
Another example is racism. Say you want to investigate racism in the workplace. As a quantitative researcher, you could look at the number of complaints submitted addressing racial discrimination or you could have the employees fill out questionnaires with scaled items measuring notions of racism. In this case, your research questions could be “How racist is company X?” or “Is branch A more or less racist than branch B?” As a qualitative researcher, you could search employees’ email correspondence or conduct interviews with employees to see if issues of racism are brought up. In this scenario, you might want to ask research questions like “How is racism expressed in company X?” or “How do the employees of branch A experience racism in contrast to the employees of branch B?”
Quantitative and qualitative research are equally legitimate and should ideally be used to complement each other. Quantitative data allows us to express observations in a very precise and concrete manner; however, it can overlook a phenomenon’s complexity and richness. Qualitative data acknowledges complexity and richness, but it can sometimes be too subjective, ambiguous or arcane.
Qualitative Research Design
Now that we have established the major distinctions between quantitative and qualitative research, let us take a closer look at the design of a qualitative study. Qualitative research design is less rigid than quantitative research design in that it is organized by the progress of the research project. Hammersly and Atkinson state that in a qualitative study, “research design should be a reflexive process operating through every stage of a project.” This includes the collection and analysis of data, the development and advancement of the theory, the elaboration or modification of the research questions, as well as the consideration of possible problems with validity and reliability. These activities occur simultaneously and also influence each other. As a researcher, you often have to adjust the design of your qualitative study in response to new developments in the research process.
Elements of Design
Even though qualitative research design is quite flexible, this does not mean that it is devoid of structure. A good qualitative study should have a clearly laid out design whose elements work together harmoniously and reasonably. You can imagine a qualitative study as a dialogue between established and newly acquired knowledge – or, as anthropologists call it, etic (what the researcher already has) and emic (what the researcher will gain). For example, let us say that your qualitative study on racism in the workplace is guided by critical race theory (CRT). CRT assumes that power structures are based on white privilege, which marginalizes people of color. Yet, you found in your research that the employees of color in company X use humor to subvert the power structures rooted in white privilege. This newly gained knowledge might then inspire you to modify your application of CRT and perhaps even change the phrasing of your research questions.
Questions to Ask When Designing a Study
So, how should you plan your qualitative research project? In order to conduct a productive, significant qualitative study, you want to consider the following six components:
1. Significance and goals: Why is your research project significant? Do you address a social problem? Do you apply a novel theory or modify an established theory? Do you use unconventional and/or provocative methods? Why should we care about this study? What do you want to accomplish? Can your study help social change? Can it contribute to academic discourse?
2. Conceptual framework: What do you think is happening with the issues, settings or people you plan to study? Which theories will guide or inform your research? What scholarly literature and preliminary studies will you draw on regarding your subject of study? How might prior research findings interact with your results?
3. Research questions: What is your overarching research question? What is it that you want to find out? More specifically, what do you wish to learn or understand from this study? What do you already know about your subject? What are your secondary research questions and how are they related to your overarching research question? What questions will your research attempt to answer?
4. Methodology: What exactly are you going to do in your study? How are you going to collect data? How are you going to analyze and evaluate your data? How and why do you select your methods? Why are they appropriate for your research purposes? What is your role as a researcher? What ethical concerns do you have to consider?
5. Analysis: What are your major findings? Do they answer your research questions? How do they support your theory? Do they support or contradict previous findings? Did you learn something that you had not expected at all?
6. Implications: How might your findings affect a social issue? How do they inform or modify your theory? How do they contribute to the scholarly discourse or previous studies? If your finding did not answer your research questions, how and why may your results and conclusions be faulty? What might be suggestions for future research projects?
The Methodological Approach of a Qualitative Study
After reading the above paragraphs, you might have already guessed that a qualitative study primarily distinguishes itself from other forms of research through its methodological approach. Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis aim to investigate the intricate, complex processes of human behavior. Generally speaking, qualitative research methods are inductive and ideographic.
Inductive Reasoning
While quantitative research employs deductive reasoning, which applyies more general concepts to specific occurrences, qualitative research uses inductive reasoning, which moves from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories. For instance, while investigating intelligence, you may notice that the interviewee makes a very witty, self-deprecating joke. You thus conclude that the interviewee is intelligent, and may even incorporate that observation into your theory.
Ideographic Approach
Unlike quantitative research, which typically seeks to find general, law-like explanations for a given social phenomenon, the ideographic approach of qualitative research attempts to zoom in on a variety of elements that may explain said social phenomenon. In the example of racism in the workplace, that could mean that you look at how racism is expressed through humor, email correspondence, body language or hiring policies.
So, which theoretical approaches, data collection methods, and data analysis procedures can you use for a qualitative study? Here are some of the most common ones:
Approaches
- Grounded Theory
- Narratology
- Storytelling
- Ethnography
- Action Research
Methods
- Participant Observation
- Field Notes
- Research Journals
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
Data Analysis
- Finding Focus
- Reading, Annotating
- Data Entry and Storage
- Coding, Categorizing
- Matrices
In a qualitative study, data collection and analysis often occur simultaneously. For instance, you attend a meeting at company X as a participant-observer to see how racism can play out in such meetings, and are taking field notes. However, you might already include some of your thoughts and interpretations while writing down your observations. Likewise, you might add your first key terms or concepts while you are reviewing your field notes.
Keep your research questions in mind. You should stop gathering data when you see the same concepts reoccurring and are unable to identify new findings. Once your data analysis is complete, look at how your findings relate to your research goals. Are they significant? How do they link up with the theory? Were your methods adequate? And finally, do your findings answer your research questions?