Qualitative Research Method Essay

Unlike positivist or experimental research that utilizes a linear and one-directional sequence of design steps, there is considerable variation in how a qualitative research study is organized.

In general, qualitative researchers attempt to describe and interpret human behavior based primarily on the words of selected individuals [a.k.a., “informants” or “respondents”] and/or through the interpretation of their material culture or occupied space.

How can the data that you have, or that you could potentially collect, support or challenge your ideas about what’s going on? Conclusion Although Maxwell does not mention a conclusion as one of the components of a qualitative research design, you should formally conclude your study. In this way, qualitative research can be used to vividly demonstrate phenomena or to conduct cross-case comparisons and analysis of individuals or groups.

Briefly reiterate the goals of your study and the ways in which your research addressed them. It is very much true that most of the limitations you find in using qualitative research techniques also reflect their inherent strengths.

Questions to ask yourself are: What do you specifically want to learn or understand by conducting this study?

The word qualitative implies an emphasis on the qualities of entities and on processes and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured [if measured at all] in terms of quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency.

Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry.

Questions to ask yourself are: How might your results and conclusions be wrong?

What are the plausible alternative interpretations and validity threats to these, and how will you deal with these? The Qualitative Report 3 (March 1997); Marshall, Catherine and Gretchen B. The advantage of using qualitative methods is that they generate rich, detailed data that leave the participants' perspectives intact and provide multiple contexts for understanding the phenomenon under study.