PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1

Qualitative Research and Its Importance in Daily Life

Lord, help us in our work today
give us concentration so that
may we listen, understand, learn
and have a peaceful mind and
may we always remember that
Jesus Christ is always with us.
Amen..
The students are expected to be able to:
1.describe the characteristics of qualitative research ,
its strengths and weaknesses;
2. identify the types of qualitative researches; and
3. explain how qualitative research facilitate finding
solutions to real life problem, develop critical thinking
and good decision-making skills
RESEARCH
According to Coghan 2014, there is a personal
involvement in every stage of your research. According
to Silverman 2013; Litchman 2013;

Walliman 2014; Suter 2012, qualitative research is an act

of inquiry or investigation of real-life events.
TYPES OF
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
Types of Qualitative Research
1. Phenomenology. Coming from the word “phenomenon,” which
means something known through sensory experience. It refers to
the study of how people find their experiences meaningful. Its
primary goal is to make people understand their experiences.
2. Ethnography. It is the study of a particular cultural group to get a
clear understanding of its organizational set-up, internal operation
and lifestyle.
 Types of Qualitative Research
3. Grounded theory. It is a development of theory directly based and
grounded in the data collected by the researcher. It is a research
methodology for discovering theory in a substantive area. It takes place
when you discover a new theory to underlie your study at the time of data
collection and analysis.

4. Case study. This involves a long time study of a person, group,

organization, or situation. It seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs
to the subject. Varieties of data collection methods such as interviews,
questionnaires, observations and documentary analysis are used.
 Types of Qualitative Research
3. Grounded theory. It is a development of theory directly based and
grounded in the data collected by the researcher. It is a research
methodology for discovering theory in a substantive area. It takes place
when you discover a new theory to underlie your study at the time of data
collection and analysis.

4. Case study. This involves a long time study of a person, group,

organization, or situation. It seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs
to the subject. Varieties of data collection methods such as interviews,
questionnaires, observations and documentary analysis are used.
Major
Characteristic
s of
Qualitative
Research
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Naturalistic inquiry. Studying real-world situations as they unfold
naturally; nonmanipulative, unobtrusive, and non-controlling; openness
to whatever emerges—lack of predetermined constraints on outcomes.

Inductive analysis. Immersion in the details and specifics

of the data to discover important categories, dimensions,
and interrelationships; begin by exploring genuinely open
questions rather than testing theoretically derived
(deductive) hypotheses.
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Holistic perspective. The whole phenomenon under study is understood
as a complex system that is more than the sum of its parts; focus is on
complex interdependencies not meaningfully reduced to a few discrete
variables and linear, cause-effect relationships.

Qualitative data. Detailed, thick description; inquiry in

depth; direct quotations capturing people‘s personal
perspectives and experiences.
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Personal contact and insight. The researcher has direct contact with
and gets close to the people, situation, and phenomenon under study;
researcher‘s personal experiences and insights are important part of the
inquiry and critical to understanding the phenomenon.

Dynamic systems. Attention to process; assumes

change is constant and ongoing whether the focus is
on an individual or an entire culture.
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Unique case orientation. Assumes each case is special and unique; the
first level of inquiry is being true to, respecting, and capturing The
details of the individual cases being studied; cross case analysis follows
from and depends on the quality of individual case studies.

Context sensitivity. Places findings in a social, historical,

and temporal context; doubtful of the possibility or
meaningfulness of generalization across time and space.
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research

Emphatic neutrality. Complete objectivity is impossible; pure

subjectivity undermines credibility; the researcher‘s passion is
understanding the world in all its complexity – not proving something,
not advocating, not advancing personal agenda, but understanding;
the researcher includes personal experience and empathic insight
as part of the relevant data, while taking a neutral nonjudgmental
stance toward whatever content may emerge.
Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Design flexibility. Open to adapting inquiry as
understanding deepens and/or situations change; avoids
getting locked into rigid designs that eliminate
responsiveness; pursues new paths of discovery as they
emerge.
Strengths of
Qualitative
Research
 1. Issues can be examined in detail and in
depth.

2. Interviews are not restricted to specific

questions and can be guided/redirected by
the researcher in real time.
STRENGTHS
3. The research framework and direction can
be quickly revised as new information
emerges
4. The obtained data based on human
experience is powerful and sometimes more
compelling than quantitative data.
 5. Subtleties and complexities about the research subjects
and/or topic are discovered that are often missed by more
positivistic inquiries.
STRENGTHS 6. Data usually are collected from a few cases or individuals
so findings cannot be generalized to a larger population.
Findings can however be transferable to another setting.
Limitations of
Qualitative
Research
 1. Research quality is heavily dependent on the individual
skills of the researcher and more easily influenced by the
researcher's personal biases and idiosyncrasies.
2. Rigor is more difficult to maintain, assess, and
demonstrate.
3. The volume of data makes analysis and interpretation
time consuming.
4. It is sometimes not as well understood and accepted as
LIMITATIONS quantitative research within the scientific community
5. The researcher's presence during data gathering, which
is often unavoidable in qualitative research, can affect the
subjects' responses.
6. Issues of anonymity and confidentiality can
bring/result to problems when presenting findings
7. Findings can be more difficult and time consuming to
characterize in a visual way.
Importance
of
qualitative
research
across fields
 Qualitative research is a growing field of
inquiry that cuts across disciplines and
subject matter. it subsumes a range of
Importance of perspectives, paradigms and methods and
qualitative within each epistemological theory,
research across qualitative research can mean different
fields things. Qualitative research provides
valuable data for use in the design
product-including data about user needs,
behavior patterns, and use cases.
 Qualitative research is very important in
educational research as it addresses the “how”
Importance of and “why” research questions and enables
qualitative deeper understanding of experiences,
research across phenomena and context. Qualitative research
allows you to ask questions that cannot be
fields easily put into numbers to understand human
experience.
Importance of Qualitative is important in arts since with the
qualitative use of this research people could be able to
reach new ideas and conclusions which will help
research across people improve arts and discover new
fields techniques and any other more.
 It provides an in-depth understanding of the
Importance of ways people come to understand, act and
qualitative manage their day-to-day situations in particular
settings. ... Qualitative research uses words and
research across images to help us understand more about
fields “why” and “how” something is happening (and,
sometimes “what” is happening).
 It provides an in-depth understanding of the
Qualitative researchers in the field of music
Importance of education interact with research participants
qualitative and perform data collection in a variety of
research across settings and formats. The ethical conduct of
research is paramount in all circumstances, but
fields the nature of external regulatory oversight
varies with the research design.
 In the field of Humanities, researchers ought to
Importance of focus not to man’s social life but instead studies
qualitative it’s meanings, significance & visualizations of
research across man’s experiences in the field of Fine Arts,
Literature, Music, Drama, Dance & other
fields artistically inclined subjects.
Task #1 p. 14
Write a 10 sentences reflection on the importance of
qualitative research in your own field of specialization by
identifying real life problems and explain how does
qualitative research will help you in solving these problems
Assimilation pages 15-16
Read the research article below.
Improving patient care as the use of telemedicine rises
A new app, developed by Abbott’s UK-based nutrition business, has already seen more
than 2,500 healthcare professionals screen their patients simply and remotely for
malnutrition, muscle mass and function loss.
 
Answer the following questions:
1. What type of qualitative research is this? Support your answer.
2. Describe this research in terms of its characteristics, its strengths and limitations
 
Assessment page 17

Answer test I and test II.