Qualitative Approaches in Internet-Mediated Research

Author(s):  
Claire Hewson

Internet-mediated research (IMR) has grown expansively over the past decade in scope, range of methodological possibilities, and breadth of penetration across disciplines and research domains. However, the use of IMR approaches to support qualitative research has lagged behind its application in supporting quantitative methods. This chapter discusses the possibilities of using IMR methods in qualitative research and considers the issues and debates that have led some qualitative researchers to be reluctant to consider IMR as a viable alternative to traditional offline methods. The chapter adopts an optimistic stance on the potential for qualitative IMR and outlines a range of possible methods and strategies, as well as examples of successful (and less successful) studies. Practical advice on tools, procedures, and guidelines for good design practice is offered. A comment on likely future scope, methods, emerging techniques, and developments in qualitative IMR is presented.

Author(s):  
Claire Hewson

Internet-mediated research (IMR) has grown expansively since the start of the 21st Century in scope, range of methodological possibilities, and breadth of penetration across disciplines and research domains. However, the use of IMR approaches to support qualitative research has lagged behind its application in supporting quantitative methods. This chapter discusses the possibilities of using IMR methods in qualitative research and considers the issues and debates that have led some qualitative researchers to be reluctant to consider IMR as a viable alternative to traditional offline methods. The chapter adopts an optimistic stance on the potential for qualitative IMR and outlines a range of possible methods and strategies, as well as examples of successful (and less successful) studies. Practical advice on tools, procedures, and guidelines for good design practice is offered. A comment on likely future scope, methods, emerging techniques, and developments in qualitative IMR is presented.


Author(s):  
Albert J. Mills

Purpose – A focus on the socio-politics of qualitative research and, given the space available, to raise more questions than answers. In other words, the author wants to be more speculative then definitive. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is grounded in a sociology of knowledge approach known as ANTi-History. Findings – The development of qualitative methods is grounded in the socio-politics of knowledge production. Research limitations/implications – The focus chosen – ANTi-History – is selected in exclusion to other potential approaches. Practical implications – To encourage researchers to include socio-politics in understanding the production of qualitative research methods. Social implications – Identification of the socio-politics that underlie qualitative approaches. Originality/value – The paper is rooted in a developing approach to the socio-politics of knowledge of the past.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 204-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Agius

SummaryQualitative research has a rich tradition in the study of human social behaviour and cultures. Its general aim is to develop concepts which help us to understand social phenomena in, wherever possible, natural rather than experimental settings, to gain an understanding of the experiences, perceptions and/or behaviours of individuals, and the meanings attached to them. The effective application of qualitative methods to other disciplines, including clinical, health service and education research, has a rapidly expanding and robust evidence base. Qualitative approaches have particular potential in psychiatry research, singularly and in combination with quantitative methods. This article outlines the nature and potential application of qualitative research as well as attempting to counter a number of misconceptions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gernot Bohmann

In recent years, qualitative research became an increasing methodical approach besides quantitative analysis. For that, there are approx. 20 software packages. Two of them are GABEK/WinRelan® and ATLAS.ti™, which are less used than others. The aims of this study are (1) to compare directly both tools with each other by applying the tools, using a pre-interview and (2) to conduct expert interviews to come to a better understanding of how and why either GABEK/WinRelan® or ATLAS.ti™is used. As qualitative research is helpful to answer questions associated with hypothesis-generating research processes, such as quantitative methods, this paper aims (3) how those qualitative approaches can be analyzed by computer-assisted software. This paper conducted a literature review of both CAQDAS and applied the tools by using a pre-interview for the first comparison of both tools. In the further research, it is planned to conduct expert interviews with users to collect data for a deeper direct comparison of both tools. The results at this stage show that (1) there is no direct comparison of both tools, (2) GABEK/WinRelan® is less know than ATLAS.ti™ and (3) there are differences between the two tools, such as up-to-dateness and user friendliness. The paper concludes at this stage, that both tools have their advantages and disadvantages. GABEK/WinRelan® is with its “Gestalten”-approach (perceptive appearance of holistic processing of complexity) is a deep analysis tool, whereas ATLAS.ti™ has many functions, will be kept up-to-date and is more widespread within the scientific community.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Anthony Lewis ◽  
Mario Bravo ◽  
Sarah Naiman ◽  
Adam R Pearson ◽  
Rainer Romero-Canyas ◽  
...  

This article describes the qualitative approach used to generate and interpret the quantitative study reported by Song and colleagues’ (2020) in their article, “What counts as an ‘environmental’ issue? Differences in environmental issue conceptualization across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.” Song and colleagues (2020) describe the results of a survey documenting that, in the United States, White and high-SES respondents perceive environmental issues differently than their non-White and lower-SES counterparts, reflecting structural differences in environmental risks. While Song and colleagues (2020) discuss the survey results in detail, the discussion of the qualitative research that led to the creation of that survey was limited due to space constraints. The current article provides a more holistic account of the methods behind the Song and colleagues (2020) study by discussing the qualitative component of the research in detail. In addition to discussing how the qualitative research complements and critically informs the findings reported by Song et al., we also consider the broader implications and value of integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in environmental psychology.


Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.


Author(s):  
Jeasik Cho

This book provides the qualitative research community with some insight on how to evaluate the quality of qualitative research. This topic has gained little attention during the past few decades. We, qualitative researchers, read journal articles, serve on masters’ and doctoral committees, and also make decisions on whether conference proposals, manuscripts, or large-scale grant proposals should be accepted or rejected. It is assumed that various perspectives or criteria, depending on various paradigms, theories, or fields of discipline, have been used in assessing the quality of qualitative research. Nonetheless, until now, no textbook has been specifically devoted to exploring theories, practices, and reflections associated with the evaluation of qualitative research. This book constructs a typology of evaluating qualitative research, examines actual information from websites and qualitative journal editors, and reflects on some challenges that are currently encountered by the qualitative research community. Many different kinds of journals’ review guidelines and available assessment tools are collected and analyzed. Consequently, core criteria that stand out among these evaluation tools are presented. Readers are invited to join the author to confidently proclaim: “Fortunately, there are commonly agreed, bold standards for evaluating the goodness of qualitative research in the academic research community. These standards are a part of what is generally called ‘scientific research.’ ”


Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia

This chapter documents the ethnographic context in which the interviews and participant observation were conducted for the study presented in this book. It also situates the study within the context of narrative inquiry and develops arguments about the role of self-reflexivity in doing ethnography at “home” and producing qualitative forms of knowledge that are based on personal, experiential, and cultural narratives. It is argued that there is significant interest in the adoption of interpretive methods or qualitative research in psychology. The qualitative approaches in psychology present a provocative and complex vision of how the key concepts related to describing and interpreting cultural codes, social practices, and lived experience of others are suffused with both poetical and political elements of culture. The epistemological and ontological assumptions undergirding qualitative research reflect multiple “practices of inquiry” and methodologies that have different orientations, assumptions, values, ideologies, and criterion of excellence.


Author(s):  
Maureen C. McHugh

Feminist research is described in terms of its purposes of addressing women’s lives, advocacy for women, analysis of gender oppression, working for social justice, and transformation of society. Feminist critiques of social science research are reviewed in relation to the development of methodological and epistemological positions. Feminist research is viewed as contributing to the transformation of science from empiricism to postmodernism. Reflexivity, collaboration, power analysis, and advocacy are discussed as common practices of feminist qualitative research. Several qualitative approaches to research are described in relation to feminist research goals, with illustrations of feminist research included. Validity and voice are identified as particular challenges in the conduct of feminist qualitative research. Intersectionality and double consciousness are reviewed as feminist contributions to the transformation of science. Some emerging and innovative forms of feminist qualitative research are highlighted in relation to potential future directions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 006-008
Author(s):  
Heather Stuckey

Qualitative research is a primary way to understand the context of diabetes in a person′s life, beyond the medical outcomes. Identifying the qualitative issues such as patients′ knowledge about diabetes, their beliefs and attitudes, and their relationship with health care professionals can serve as data to determine the obstacles and, in turn, resolutions to those issues in diabetes management. Characteristics of qualitative and quantitative methods are described, with the discussion that both methods are complementary, not conflicting, to further the field of diabetes research.


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