PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1

OBJECTIVE
• To develop critical thinking and problem
–solving skills through QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Involves analysis of data such as words,
pictures or objects.

• Is aimed at getting a deep understanding of a

specific organization or event, rather than a
surface description of a large sample of
population.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Aims to provide an explicit rendering of
a structure, order and broad patterns
found among a group of participants.

• Also called ethnomethodology or field

research- it generates data about human
groups in social settings
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Does not introduce treatments or
manipulate variables or impose researcher’s
operational definitions of variables to the
participants.

• lets the meaning emerge from the

participants

• Is more flexible that it can adjust to settings

 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

• Aims to get better understanding

through first-hand experience, truthful
reporting, and quotations of actual
conversations.
 ETHICS AND RESEARCH
• RESEARCHER’S QUESTIONS:

• Is it right to conduct a particular study or

investigate a certain question?

• Will any physical or psychological harm

come to anyone as a result of my research?
 ETHICS AND RESEARCH
• RESEARCHER’S RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Protect participants from harm.

• Ensure confidentiality of data.

• Avoid deception.
 QUALITATIVE vs. QUANTITATIVE
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Makes less use of mathematical Employs statistics or other
techniques mathematical operations to
analyse data
“Words not numbers” Concepts are assigned
numerical values

Concerned with understanding Seeks facts or social

of human behavior from the phenomenon without regard to
actor’s own frame of reference subjective state of individuals
 QUALITATIVE vs. QUANTITATIVE
QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH RESEARCH
Systematically arranging Collects a small amount of
and presenting data from a large number
information to search for of people
meaning in data collected
Naturalistic and Obtrusive and controlled
uncontrolled observation measurement
Subjective Objective
 QUALITATIVE vs. QUANTITATIVE
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Close to the data: The ‘insider’
perspective
Process-oriented
Valid: Real, Rich, deep data
Ungeneralizable
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Removed from the data: The
‘outsider’ perspective
Outcome-oriented
Reliable: Hard and replicable
data
Generalizable