scholarly journals Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative Research

1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Collier ◽  
James Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Real Issue ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Selection Of

Qualitative analysts have received stern warnings that the validity of their studies may be undermined by selection bias. This article provides an overview of this problem for qualitative researchers in the field of international and comparative studies, focusing on selection bias that may result from the deliberate selection of cases by the investigator. Examples are drawn from studies of revolution, international deterrence, the politics of inflation, international terms of trade, economic growth, and industrial competitiveness. The article first explores how insights about selection bias developed in quantitative research can most productively be applied in qualitative studies. The discussion considers why qualitative researchers need to be concerned about selection bias, even if they do not care about the generality of their findings, and it considers distinctive implications of this form of bias for qualitative research, as in the problem of what is labeled “complexification based on extreme cases.” The article then considers pitfalls in recent discussions of selection bias in qualitative studies. These discussions at times get bogged down in disagreements and misunderstandings over how the dependent variable is conceptualized and what the appropriate frame of comparison should be, issues that are crucial to the assessment of bias within a given study. At certain points it becomes clear that the real issue is not just selection bias, but a larger set of trade-offs among alternative analytic goals.

scholarly journals The Process of Reinventing a Job: A Meta–Synthesis of Qualitative Job Crafting Research

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Lazazzara ◽  
Maria Tims ◽  
Davide de Gennaro
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
And Performance

Two different research streams are encountered in the job crafting literature. The first, defined as task, cognitive, and relational job crafting by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001), has predominantly applied qualitative research designs to explore how employees craft their jobs to better align them with their preferences, abilities, and motivations to enhance work meaning and identity. The second stream, characterized by crafting job demands and job resources (Tims & Bakker, 2010), focuses mostly on quantitative research designs and examines the antecedents of job crafting and whether those antecedents are related to work-related well-being and performance. Although the quantitative studies have recently been meta-analyzed (Lichtenthaler & Fischbach, 2018; Rudolph, Katz, Lavigne, & Zacher, 2017), the knowledge that is captured in the qualitative studies has not been formally integrated. We contribute to a better understanding of job crafting by conducting a meta-synthesis of the qualitative research. Analyzing 24 qualitative studies, we developed a process model of job crafting that enhances an in-depth understanding of the processes associated with job crafting. More specifically, we highlight the motives for job crafting (i.e., proactive or reactive) and how the specific context may influence the form of job crafting in which individuals engage. Next, the process model shows that personal factors connect job crafting forms to the experienced job crafting consequences. The process model enables a better understanding of the conditions under which job crafting is most likely to generate positive or negative experiences.

scholarly journals A TOLERANSI POLITIK ETNIS TIONGHOA DI PROVINSI KEPULAUAN BANGKA BELITUNG

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
Eliza Eliza ◽  
Fajrina Aprillia
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Religion And Ethnicity ◽  
Selection Of

In Bangka Belitung, Malay ethnic and Chinese ethnic have been assimilated for a long time. According to Koentjaningrat (2009: 209), assimilation is a social process that arises when there are: (a) groups of people with different cultural backgrounds, (b) interacting directly with each other intensively for long periods of time so that, (c ) the cultures of the groups each changed to adapt to mixed cultures, the purpose of this study was to find out the factors that were considered by the Chinese in choosing legislative members. The method used in this study is a mix method, which is a quantitative research method used to facilitate qualitative research. The results of this study are that there are several factors that become ethnic Chinese considerations in selecting legislative members, namely considering the area in the selection of legislative members, choosing candidates for legislative members based on attention to the people, honest people and representing the religion and ethnicity of the community.

Quantitative Analysis and Qualitative Case Study Research

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale C. Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Large N

This chapter explores the degree to which an expectations approach can help us make sense of the seemingly contradictory findings of the large-N quantitative research that has dominated the study of interdependence and war over the last two decades. It also lays out a new approach to qualitative historical analysis for rare events research—one that minimizes the problems of selection bias and generalizability by covering the essential universe of cases for a chosen period of time. Additionally, the chapter discusses how qualitative research can help overcome the limitations of quantitative methods in the measuring of leader expectations about the future.

scholarly journals Understanding Retirement Requires Getting Inside People’s Stories: A Call for More Qualitative Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa M Amabile
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Psychological Issues ◽  
Identity Maintenance ◽  
Reciprocal Influence ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Retirement Decisions ◽  
Individual Decisions

AbstractQuantitative research, using surveys and archival data, has contributed much to the field’s understanding of the retirement transition, the factors influencing it, and its consequences. In this commentary, I argue that, in order to move to a deeper understanding of retirement decisions, retirement processes, and retirement experiences, researchers must add rigorous qualitative studies to their portfolios. Only by asking open-ended questions of people approaching, moving through, or living in retirement can we illuminate deeper psychological issues such as identity maintenance and change, the reconstruction of life narratives and structures, the reciprocal influence of relationships on individual decisions and experiences, and the confrontation of existential questions about the meaning of one’s life.

scholarly journals Generalizability in Qualitative Research: A Tale of Two Traditions

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (13) ◽  
pp. 2094-2101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Carminati
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Controversial Topic

Generalizability in qualitative research has been a controversial topic given that interpretivist scholars have resisted the dominant role and mandate of the positivist tradition within social sciences. Aiming to find universal laws, the positivist paradigm has made generalizability a crucial criterion for evaluating the rigor of quantitative research. This positivist echo has led generalizability to acquire a quantitative meaning, inappropriate for describing qualitative studies. The purpose of qualitative research has, thus, been directed toward providing in-depth explanations and meanings rather than generalizing findings. Through a critical review of empirical and theoretical studies, this commentary seeks to show that in qualitative domains, generalizability is possible provided that, first, generalizability is the main objective of the study; second, due precautions concerning the philosophy and terminology selected are taken. Hence, this commentary contributes to the literature on qualitative research by making suggestions for more consistent and unanimous procedures to adopt in qualitative inquiries.

The Possibility Principle: Choosing Negative Cases in Comparative Research

2004 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES MAHONEY ◽  
GARY GOERTZ
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Selection Of

A central challenge in qualitative research is selecting the “negative” cases (e.g., nonrevolutions, nonwars) to be included in analyses that seek to explain positive outcomes of interest (e.g., revolutions, wars). Although it is widely recognized that the selection of negative cases is consequential for theory testing, methodologists have yet to formulate specific rules to inform this selection process. In this paper, we propose a principle—the Possibility Principle—that provides explicit, rigorous, and theoretically informed guidelines for choosing a set of negative cases. The Possibility Principle advises researchers to select only negative cases where the outcome of interest is possible. Our discussion elaborates this principle and its implications for current debates about case selection and strategies of theory testing. Major points are illustrated with substantive examples from studies of revolution, economic growth, welfare states, and war.

The Practice of Designing Qualitative Research on Educational Leadership: Notes for Emerging Scholars and Practitioner-Scholars

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
The Way

This article addresses a gap in methodological writing, concerning typical practice in designing qualitative inquiry, especially in research on educational leadership. The article focuses on how qualitative research designs are actually developed and explores implications for scholars’ work, especially for new scholars and for methods teachers. Working from methodological literature across multiple traditions, combined with the author’s experience designing qualitative studies and guiding emerging scholars and practitioner-scholars, the article describes alternative ways to develop viable designs, noting essential considerations and trade-offs along the way. While noting differences by tradition, the article emphasizes common patterns and implications shared by multiple traditions.

Pakistan's Export Possibilities

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Policy Maker ◽  
Time Horizon ◽  
Price Level ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Domestic Saving ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
High Level

The recent uncertainties about aid flows have underscored the need for achieving an early independence from foreign aid. The Perspective Plan (1,965-85) had envisaged the termination of Pakistan's dependence on foreign aid by 1985. However, in the context of West Pakistan alone the time horizon can now be advanced by several years with considerable confidence in its economy to pull the trick. The difficulties of achieving independence from foreign aid can be seen by reference to the fact that aid flows make it possible for the policy-maker to pursue such ostensibly incompatible objectives as a balance in international payments (i.e., foreign aid finances the balance of payments), higher rates of economic growth (Lei, it pulls up domestic saving and investment levels), a high level of employment (i.e., it keeps the industries working at a fuller capacity than would otherwise be the case), and a reasonably stable price level (i.e., it lets a higher level of imports than would otherwise be possible). Without aid, then a simultaneous attainment of all these objectives at the former higher levels together with the balance in foreign payments may become well-nigh impos¬sible. Choices are, therefore, inevitable not for definite places in the hierarchy of values, but rather for occasional "trade-offs". That is to say, we will have to" choose how much to sacrifice for the attainment of one goal for the sake of somewhat better realization of another.

Triangulating Area Studies, Not Just Methods

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudra Sil
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Causal Laws ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

This chapter revisits trade-offs that qualitative researchers face when balancing the different expectations of area studies and disciplinary audiences. One putative solution to such trade-offs, mixed-method research, emphasizes the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods. CAS, as defined above, essentially encourages a different form of triangulation—the pooling of observations and interpretations across a wider array of cases spanning multiple areas. This kind of triangulation can be facilitated by cross-regional contextualized comparison, a middle-range approach that stands between area-bound qualitative research and (Millean) macro-comparative analysis that brackets out context in search of causal laws. Importantly, this approach relies upon an area specialist’s sensibilities and experience to generate awareness of local complexities and context conditions for less familiar cases. The examples of cross-regional contextualized comparison considered in this chapter collectively demonstrate that engagement with area studies scholarship and the pursuit of disciplinary knowledge can be a positive-sum game.

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