Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences (8e)

Qualitative Research Methods - collection, organization, and analysis strategies

This text shows novice researchers how to design, collect, and analyze qualitative data and then present their results to the scientific community.

The book stresses the importance of ethics in research and taking the time to properly design and think through any research endeavor.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book, readers should be able to:

• Effectively design, collect, organize, and analyze data and then to present results to the scientific community
• Use the Internet as both a resource and a means for accessing qualitative data
• Explore current issues in the world of researchers, which include a serious concern about ethical behavior and protocols in research and a more reflexive and sensitive role for the researcher
• Recognize the importance of ethical concerns before they actually begin the research collection, organization, and analytic process
• Understand basic elements associated with researcher reflexivity and research voice

IN THIS SECTION:

1.)    BRIEF

2.)    COMPREHENSIVE

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chapter 1:   Introduction

Chapter 2:   Designing Qualitative Research

Chapter 3:   Ethical Issues

Chapter 4:   A Dramaturgical Look at Interviewing

Chapter 5:   Focus Group Interviewing

Chapter 6:   Ethnographic Field Strategies

Chapter 7:   Action Research

Chapter 8:   Unobtrusive Measures in Research

Chapter 9:   Social Historical Research and Oral Traditions

Chapter 10: Case Studies

Chapter 11: An Introduction to Content Analysis 

Chapter 12: Writing Research Papers: Sorting the Noodles from the Soup

COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Quantitative Versus Qualitative Schools of Thought

Use of Triangulation in Research Methodology

Qualitative Strategies: Defining an Orientation

From a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Why Use Qualitative Methods?

A Plan of Presentation

Chapter 2: Designing Qualitative Research

Theory and Concepts

Ideas and Theory

Reviewing the Literature

Evaluating Web Sites

Content versus Use

Theory, Reality, and the Social World

Framing Research Problems

Operationalization and Conceptualization

Designing Projects

Data Collection and Organization

Data Storage, Retrieval, and Analysis

Dissemination

Trying It Out

Chapter 3: Ethical Issues

Research Ethics in Historical Perspective

From Guidelines to Law: Regulations on the Research Process

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Ethical Codes

Some Common Ethical Concerns in Behavioral Research

New Areas for Ethical Concern: Cyberspace

Informed Consent and Implied Consent

Confidentiality and Anonymity

Securing the Data

Objectivity and Careful Research Design

Trying It Out

Chapter 4: A Dramaturgical Look at Interviewing

Dramaturgy and Interviewing

Types of Interviews

The Data Collection Instrument

Guideline Development

Communicating Effectively

A Few Common Problems in Question Formulation

Pretesting the Schedule

Long Versus Short Interviews

Telephone Interviews

Computer Assisted Interviewing

Conducting an Interview: A Natural or an Unnatural Communication?

The Dramaturgical Interview

The Interviewer’s Repertoire

Know Your Audience

Analyzing Data Obtained from the Dramaturgical Interview

Trying It Out

Chapter 5: Focus Group Interviewing

What are Focus Groups?

Working With a Group

The Evolution of Focus Group Interviews

Facilitating Focus Group Dynamics: How Focus Groups Work

The Moderator’s Guide

Basic Ingredients in Focus Groups

Analyzing Focus Group Data

Confidentiality and Focus Group Interviews

Recent Trends in Focus Groups: Online Focus Groups

Trying It Out

Chapter 6: Ethnographic Field Strategies

Accessing a Field Setting: Getting In

Reflectivity and Ethnography

Critical Ethnography

Becoming Invisible

Other Dangers During Ethnographic Research

Watching, Listening, and Learning

How to Learn: What to Watch and Listen For

Computers and Ethnography

OnLine Ethnography

Analyzing Ethnographic Data

Other Analysis Strategies: Typologies, Sociograms, and Metaphors

Disengaging: Getting Out

Trying It Out

Chapter 7: Action Research

The Basics of Action Research

Identifying the Research Question(s)

Gathering the Information to Answer the Question(s)

Analyzing and Interpreting the Information

Sharing the Results with the Participants

When to Use and When Not to Use Action Research

The Action Researcher’s Role

Types of Action Research

Photovoice and Action Research

Action Research: A Reiteration

Trying It Out

Chapter 8: Unobtrusive Measures in Research

Archival Strategies

Physical Erosion and accretion: Human Traces as Data Sources

Trying It Out

Chapter 9: Social Historical Research and Oral Traditions

What Is Historical Research?

Life Histories and Social History

What Are the Sources of Data for Historical Researchers?

Doing Historiography: Tracing Written History as Data

What Are Oral Histories?

Trying It Out

Chapter 10: Case Studies

The Nature of Case Studies

Theory and Case Studies

The Individual Case Study

Intrinsic, Instrumental, and Collective Case Studies

Case Study Design Types

Designing Case Studies

The Scientific Benefit of Case Studies

Case Studies of Organizations

Case Studies of Communities

Trying It Out

Chapter 11: An Introduction to Content Analysis

What is Content Analysis?

Analysis of Qualitative Data

Content Analysis as a Technique

Content Analysis: Quantitative or Qualitative?

Communication Components

What to Count: Levels and Units of Analysis

Category Development: Building Grounded Theory

Discourse Analysis and Content Analysis

Open Coding

Coding Frames

Stages in the Content Analysis Process

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Content Analysis Process

Computers and Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative Research at the Speed of Light

Trying It Out

Chapter 12: Writing Research Papers: Sorting the Noodles from the Soup

Plagiarism: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, and How to Avoid It

Identifying the Purpose of the Writing: Arranging the Noodles

Delineating a Supportive Structure: Visual Signals for the Reader

Terms and Conditions

Presenting Research Material

A Word About the Content of Papers and Articles

Write It, Rewrite It, Then Write It Again!

A Few Writing Hints

A Final Note

• Integrates new software and internet-based tools for research design, data collection, coding and analysis throughout the entire text.
• Significantly updated review of research ethics to better reflect the role of institutional review, the unique ethical concerns of cyber research and electronic media in research, and to add practical advice on researcher safety.
• Updated descriptions of the literature review process to incorporate electronic access to primary and secondary sources.
• Practical guidance for evaluating the reliability and applicability of different sources of information and different means of acquiring it.
• Inclusion of social historical research as a methodology. 
• Additional class exercises at natural break-points within the longer chapters, to better assist instructors in the pacing of the materials and/or to enable instructors to pair this text with a reader or other secondary text.
• Expanded discussion of interview guidelines for non-standardized and semi-standardized interview formats.
• New section on organizing one’s research from design to completion.

• MySearchLab with eText can be packaged with this text.

• MySearchLab provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals.
• eText – Just like the printed text, you can highlight and add notes to the eText or download it to your iPad.
• Assessment – Chapter quizzes and flashcards offer immediate feedback and report directly to the gradebook.
• Writing and Research – A wide range of writing, grammar and research tools and access to a variety of academic journals, census data, Associated Press newsfeeds, and discipline-specific readings help you hone your writing and research skills.

• An assortment of hands-on activities, such as "Trying It Out" exercises in each chapter, give students an opportunity to experience qualitative research first-hand (ex. p. 36).
• Provides an innovative strategy for conducting in-depth interviews using a dramaturgical orientation (ex. p. 105).
• Highly accessible “essay” style of presentation.
• Presents and discusses examples of research from across the social sciences, including sociology, criminology, community-oriented nursing, education and business (ex. p. 293).
• Provides detailed descriptions of the stages of content analysis and coding both as a research strategy in its own right and as the underlying logic for most qualitative data analysis (ex. p. 373).
• Describes focus group interviewing, one of the fastest growing styles of data collection, in detail as well as enhanced discussion of using the Internet to undertake focus group interviews (Ch. 5).
• Includes numerous, concrete examples from contemporary and classic cases to ensure that students understand the various procedures and concepts (ex. p. 328).
• Explains the importance of researcher reflexivity and voice, and discusses them in detail throughout (ex. p. 208).
• Provides resources for further study in the extensive references after each chapter to encourage independent learning (ex. p. 251).
• Offers a step-by-step discussion on how to write-up qualitative research proposals and findings as well as a series of specific writing hints (ex. p. 416).
• Uses the framework of symbolic interactionism to explain the strengths of each stage of the qualitative research process (ex. p. 375).

• MySearchLab with eText can be packaged with this text.

  • MySearchLab provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals.
  • eText — Just like the printed text, you can highlight and add notes to the eText or download it to your iPad.
  • Assessment — Chapter quizzes and flashcards offer immediate feedback and report directly to the gradebook.
  • Writing and Research — A wide range of writing, grammar and research tools and access to a variety of academic journals, census data, Associated Press newsfeeds, and discipline-specific readings help you hone your writing and research skills.

Bruce L. Berg received his PhD from Syracuse University in 1983. His first faculty position as Assistant Professor was at Florida State University, where he also served as Internship Director. In 1986, he took a position at University of Massachusetts-Boston Harbor campus. Then from 1988 to 1996, he moved up the academic ladder at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, achieving tenure and full professor status. He served as chair of many doctoral dissertation committees and thus influenced generations of young scholars. In 1997, he moved to Southern California and took a faculty position at CSULB, where he remained until his death in 2009.

Howard Lune is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Graduate Social Research Program at Hunter College, CUNY. He specializes in research on organizations and organizational fields, with a particular focus on nonprofit organizations. The majority of his research concerns the efforts by relatively marginal groups to organize for greater political, social and/or economic power. He has published studies of organizing in response to HIV/AIDS, the development of zero tolerance drug policies in the US, state-community relations in political policy domains, and adolescent violence in public schools.

He is presently working on a historical study of the development of the American Irish collective identity, from the founding the US to the end of the twentieth century.