Introduction to Qualitative Research

Study Notes

Qualitative research emphasizes understanding social phenomena through subjective experiences and meanings.
It aims to provide insights into social contexts and the complexities of human behavior.
Students will prepare to conduct their own qualitative studies throughout the course.

Questions are fundamental in social research, guiding the research process and influencing outcomes.
Differentiates between qualitative and quantitative research: qualitative focuses on meanings, while quantitative relies on numeric data.
Researchers' assumptions shape research questions, affecting the direction and interpretation of study outcomes.

Breaching Experiment: Investigates invisible social rules by deliberately violating unspoken norms to observe reactions.
Causal Knowledge: Highlights the assumption that the world operates through observable cause-and-effect relationships.
Deductive Reasoning: Involves forming a theory, deriving hypotheses, and testing those with data collection and analysis.
Definition of the Situation: Suggests that individuals’ actions are based on their perceptions of situations rather than objective realities.

Emergent Design: Flexibility in research strategies develops as familiarity with the research setting increases.
Ethnomethodology: Examines the unwritten rules governing everyday interactions within a society.
Generic Social Processes: Explores common social interactions such as identity formation and emotional experiences.

Impression Management: Explains how individuals shape the perceptions others have of them through behaviors and expressions.
Indigenous Methodologies: Focus on incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems and valuing community relationships in research.
Indigenous Resurgence: Acknowledges the significance of land and community in Indigenous identity and knowledge transformation.
Looking-Glass Self: Concept describing how self-perceptions are influenced by others’ perceived views.

Mixed-Methods Research: Combines qualitative and quantitative approaches for a comprehensive understanding of research questions.
Moral Entrepreneurs: Individuals advocating for the classification of certain behaviors as deviant or normative in society.

Operationalize: Developing testable hypotheses based on theoretical frameworks for empirical research.
Positivism: The belief that human behavior can be studied scientifically to discover consistent laws and predictions.
Realist Perspective: Asserts that reality exists independently and can be discovered through research.

Research Participants: Individuals who consent to provide data, contributing their personal experiences to the research process.
Symbolic Interactionism: Focuses on how individuals create and share meanings through social interactions.
Theoretical Saturation: Point in research where no new information emerges from data collection, signaling the end of research efforts.

Two-Eyed Seeing: Integrates Indigenous and Western knowledge systems for a holistic understanding.
Verstehen: Emphasizes empathetic understanding of research subjects' perspectives to inform the research process.