Techniques of Qualitative Research in Research

Techniques of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is defined as a research technique that focuses on getting information through open-ended and conversational communication.

This technique isn’t only regarding “what” individuals think but also “why” they assume this. As an example, contemplate a convenience store wanting to improve its patronage. A scientific observation concludes that the amount of men visiting this store is additional. One good technique to see why girls weren’t visiting the shop is to conduct an in-depth interview of potential customers within the category.

a. Conversation Analysis (CA)

Conversation analysis is a qualitative research method, which takes the CA in audio or video-recorded conversations. The researcher has not been involved in this circular process of deriving theoretical ideas inductively from data and then returning to the data to verify those ideas, the theories are considered to be grounded in the data. What are the characteristics of this type of 415 conversations in a real-life setting as the object of study? The researcher, first of all, formulates a problem. Then, he collects the data. The data collected in the data collection. He puts the audio or video equipment in the room, where the conversation takes place without being directly involved in the data collection process.

After the data has been collected, the researcher prepares the detailed transcription of data and then he makes the inductive analysis to develop a rule or model to explain the occurrence of the problem under study.

It should be noted that the conversation between the speakers should be unplanned and informal, i.e., it should be a natural conversation. The recorded conversation is subjected to detailed analysis, like how the conversation is initiated, noting the number of times that a person interrupts another person, and so on. The conclusion derived from such a study is useful to explain the many hidden aspects of human behaviors.

b. Grounded Theory Method (GTM)

This is an important method of conducting qualitative research. This method was developed by, sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967. This is an inductive method of research, where theories are generated from the collection of data rather than being derived deductively.

This method works almost in a reverse fashion from the traditional research methods. It is in contradiction to the scientific method of conducting research. In the scientific method, the researcher plans the research, develops the hypothesis, and collects the data to test the hypothesis. However, in GTM, the first step is the collection of data. This method moves from collecting data (through observation, interview, or written records) towards generating insights from the data, forming generalizations, theoretical concepts, and hypotheses, and then back to collecting more data to test or verify those concepts. Qualitative research is the continual back–and–forth effort of going from data to theory building and then back to collect more data to verify and test theoretical ideas. It should be noted that the term grounded theory is used more loosely to refer to any type of effort to build theoretical ideas from data (Baker, 1998:241)

c. Content Analysis

Content analysis is the study of the contents of documents or communications, like books, journals, web pages, newspapers, paintings, laws, essays, interviews, discussions, historical documents, and so on. It is a very essential technique of qualitative data analysis Researchers use this technique to study the presence of certain concepts within the text or texts. They analyze the presence, meaning, and relationship of such a concept involved in the texts and make inferences about the messages within the text. Instead of the contents of documents, content analysis can also be used to analyze the content of case studies, field notes, open-ended answers from questionnaires, and so on.

There are two methods of content analysis. They are conceptual analysis and relational analysis. In the conceptual analyses, a concept is chosen for examination, and the analysis involves quantifying and tallying its presence.

In such an analysis, the focus is on looking at the occurrence of a concept within a text or text. Similarly, in the relational analysis, the researcher identifies the concept present in a text or text and then explores the relationship between the concepts identified. Relational analyses are also known as semantic analysis. Holsti (1969:3-5) identified three requirements for content analysis. They are:

(i) It must be objective so that every step in the research must be carried out on the basis of explicitly formulated rules and procedures.

(ii) It must be systematic so that every inclusion or exclusion of content or categories is done according to consistently applied rules.

(iii) It must possess generality. For this, findings must have theoretical relevance.

A narrative refers to a story that is created in a constructive format that describes the sequence of the event. It may be in the form of speech, poetry, song, pictures, video games, and so on.

These different forms of narratives are the sources of data in the narrative analysis. Autobiography is the classic share and recounting their experiences on a particular event instead of answering and interpreting the results. This process would bring it all together and

d. Narrative Analysis

Thus, narrative analysis refers to the analysis of a chronologically told story. In the narratives, the speakers or respondents have a pre-determined set of questions. The narrative analysis focuses on how events are sequenced, why some events are more important than others, how the past events are influencing the present, whether there is a chance of influencing future events by the present activities, and so on.

Pant (2009:311) has identified the following steps in conducting the narrative analysis:

1. Get to know your data

2. Focus on the analysis

3. Codify the data by making the segment of data with symbols, descriptive words, etc

4. Categorize the information by classifying and segmenting data into meaningful analytical units based on themes.

5. Identify patterns and connections within and between categories. Drawing and networking diagrams is a process of making a sketch, drawing, or outline to show how something works, or classify the relationship between parts of a whole.

6. Show links between categories, variables, or events over time.