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A Synopsis of Grounded Theory Research Design

Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived theory about a phenomenon. The methods involve collecting and analyzing qualitative data to construct theories through identifying patterns of meaning. The resulting theory is grounded in the views of the participants. This document provides an overview of grounded theory and summarizes a study that analyzed dissertation papers claiming to use grounded theory to understand how the term has been used and interpreted differently.

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55 views

A Synopsis of Grounded Theory Research Design

Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived theory about a phenomenon. The methods involve collecting and analyzing qualitative data to construct theories through identifying patterns of meaning. The resulting theory is grounded in the views of the participants. This document provides an overview of grounded theory and summarizes a study that analyzed dissertation papers claiming to use grounded theory to understand how the term has been used and interpreted differently.

Uploaded by

Josie Pablo
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A SYNOPSIS OF

GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH DESIGN

Grounded theory refers to a set of systematic inductive methods for conducting qualitative
research aimed toward theory development. The term grounded theory denotes dual referents:
(a) a method consisting of flexible methodological strategies and (b) the products of this type of
inquiry. Increasingly, researchers use the term to mean the methods of inquiry for collecting and,
in particular, analyzing data. The methodological strategies of grounded theory are aimed to
construct middle-level theories directly from data analysis. The inductive theoretical thrust of
these methods is central to their logic. The resulting analyses build their power on strong
empirical foundations. These analyses provide focused, abstract, conceptual theories that explain
the studied empirical phenomena. (Charmaz, 2009),

Grounded theory has considerable significance because it (a) provides explicit, sequential
guidelines for conducting qualitative research; (b) offers specific strategies for handling the
analytic phases of inquiry; (c) streamlines and integrates data collection and analysis; (d)
advances conceptual analysis of qualitative data; and (e) legitimizes qualitative research as
scientific inquiry. Grounded theory methods have earned their place as a standard social research
method and have influenced researchers from varied disciplines and professions.

The study conducted by O’Connor, et al (2008) entitled “Grounded Theory: Managing the
Challenge for Those Facing Institutional Review Board Oversight”, is a good sample of a
grounded theory type of research.

The study attempted to analyze the content of several dissertation papers who claimed to
have utilized grounded theories in their own studies, specifically those who may have faced
Institutional Review Board (IRB) oversight. They also pointed out that there are two useful sets
of standards that should be utilize in doing an evaluation on the quality of a study claiming to
have utilized the grounded theory design. The study mentioned about the confusion between the
terms “grounded theory” and “constant comparison”. Thus they tried to look for dissertations
which used Grounded Theory in their titles.

In their data gathered, they found out that the most frequent category was that of constant
comparison at 35%. These included those dissertations that used the constant comparison analytic
tool from grounded theory but did not appear to have developed a grounded theory research
design.

The second category, producing grounded theory at 24% showed all those dissertation that
used multiple designs and methods to produce a “grounded theory”. While the third category,
named Interpretive Grounded Theory at 21% which contained dissertations that appear engaged
in the interpretive grounding of theories. The fourth group, classical grounded theory design at
11% contained those dissertations that appeared to have engaged in a full grounded theory design
in the tradition of its proponents Glaser and Strauss. The fifth and final group at 9%, used the
term grounded theory but even in the abstract, was undecipherable.

DISCUSSION

From the above data, the researchers were able to conclude that the term GROUNDED
THEORY has been used in different ways in researches. Some researchers adhered to the
classical and traditional definition of Grounded theory while others are using different
terminologies which lead to the same usage, interpretation and meanings of the term. Therefore
it had been challenging for those who assessed the quality and usefulness of research reports to
actually review the differences and similarities of the terms in each of the reports that they
reviewed.
Additional References:
Charmaz, Kathy. "Grounded Theory." The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research
Methods. 2003. SAGE Publications. 24 May. 2009. .

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