QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN

DAILY LIFE
Research in Daily Life 1
Module 3
 THE CHARACTERISTICS,
STRENGTHS, AND WEAKNESSES Lesson 1

OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
MELC: The learner describes characteristics, strengths,
weaknesses, and kinds of qualitative research (CS_RS11-IIIb-1)
Objectives:
1. Enumerate the characteristics of qualitative research; and
2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative
research.
 WHY DO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?
▪ acts as an inquiry or investigation of an actual event
▪ explores or describes its own experiences of a life event
aiming at interpreting what has been said to explain why
it has been said.
▪ Describes things that cannot be quantified
▪ promotes a deep, holistic understanding of a particular
phenomenon.
FEATURES OF QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
1. RESEARCHING THE MEANING OF
PEOPLE'S LIVES AND NOT LIMITING
THE RESPONSE OF THE PARTICIPANTS
BY THE LIMITS OF A LABORATORY.
Example: Public Health Nurses-researchers immersed at the
Batak tribe community in Sitio Manggapin, Barangay
Langogan to conduct interviews and observations on the
mother and newborn care management and practices of the
tribe
2. REPRESENTATION OF THE VIEWS AND
PERSPECTIVE OF THE PARTICIPANTS OF
THE STUDY AND MIRROR THE VALUES
AND MEANINGS OF THE RESULTS PROPER.
Example: A psychologist studies the influence of religious
beliefs on parenting, from the perspectives of both
adolescents and parents
3. CONSIDERING THE RELATED
CONDITION AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON
HUMAN EVENTS.
Example: A business researcher studied the impacts of
consumers' internet and store-based grocery shopping
practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic
4. ADDING INSIGHTS INTO EXISTING OR
DEVELOPING CONCEPTS THAT MAY HELP
HUMAN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR.
Example: Social workers conducted an in-depth study on the
factors that contribute to the trauma of locally stranded
individuals being isolated during the community quarantine,
leading them to close family ties and mental and emotional
health support
5. USES MULTIPLE SOURCES OF EVIDENCE
THAN RELYING ON A SINGLE SOURCE
ALONE.
Example: Research Institute for Tropical Medicine scientists
finds records and related studies to support their review of
health care interventions for COVID-19.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative research is known for its naturalistic
inquiry. Studying real-world situations as they
unfold naturally; non-manipulative, understated,
and non-controlling; openness to whatever
emerges—lack of predetermined constraints on
outcomes.
Qualitative Research uses inductive analysis. It
aimed at specific details of data to get important
categories, extents, and interrelationships. It
begins by exploring genuinely open questions to
get into the general idea than testing theoretically
derived (deductive) hypotheses.
Qualitative Research has a holistic perspective.
The whole phenomenon under study is
understood as a complex system that is more
than the sum of its parts; It uses multiple voices
from many participants, gathers multiple
perspectives, and develop multiple themes.
Detailed and personal, thick description; inquiry in
depth; direct quotations capturing people‘s
perspectives and experiences.
Qualitative Research uses personal contact and
insight. The researcher has direct contact with and
gets close to the people, situation, and
phenomenon under study; the researcher‘s
personal experiences and insights are an
important part of the inquiry and critical to
understanding the phenomenon.
Qualitative Research focuses on dynamic
systems. The researcher keeps attention to
process; records change as constant and ongoing
whether the focus is on an individual or an entire
culture.
The researcher assumes each case is special and
unique; the first level of inquiry is being true to,
respecting, and capturing the details of the
individual cases being studied; cross-case
analysis follows from and depends on the quality
of individual case studies.
Qualitative research has context sensitivity.
Places findings in a social, historical, and
chronological context; doubtful of the possibility
or meaningfulness of generalization across time
and space.
Qualitative research considers emphatic neutrality.
Complete objectivity is impossible; pure subjectivity
undermines credibility; the researcher’s passion is
understanding the world in all its complexity – not proving
something, not advocating, not advancing personal
agenda, but understanding; the researcher includes
personal experience and empathic insight as part of the
relevant data while taking a neutral nonjudgmental stance
toward whatever content may emerge.
Qualitative Research is open to adapting inquiry
as understanding deepens and/or situations
change; avoids getting locked into rigid designs
that eliminate responsiveness; pursues new paths
of discovery as they emerge.
 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Strengths Weaknesses
1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter. 1. It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in
2. Promotes a full understanding of human data analysis.
behavior/personality traits in their natural setting.
2. It is hard to know the validity/reliability of
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
the data.
4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality.
3. Open-ended questions yield “data
5. It’s a way of understanding and interpreting social
interactions.
overload” that requires long-time analysis.
6. Increases the researcher’s interest in the study. 4. It is time-consuming.
7. Offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining 5. It involves several processes whose results
knowledge about something.
greatly depend on the researcher’s views or
8. Lift the silent voices of marginalized groups or interpretations.
populations.
THE KINDS OF QUALITATIVE Lesson 2
RESEARCH
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
MELC: The learner describes characteristics, strengths,
weaknesses, and kinds of qualitative research CS_RS11-IIIb-1
Objectives:
3. Differentiate the kinds of qualitative research; and
4. Explain the use of qualitative research in real-life
situations.
 UNLOCKING OF DIFFICULTIES
▪ Blueprint is a guide for making something it's a
design or pattern that can be followed
▪ Axial coding is the breaking down of core
themes during qualitative data analysis.
▪ Criterion is a standard by which something may
be judged
 TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. Action Research 5. Historical Research
2. Case Study 6. Narrative Research
3. Ethnography 7. Phenomenology
4. Grounded Theory
This is a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing
practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a
participatory worldview which we believe is emerging at this historical
moment. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice,
in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions of pressing
concern to people and more generally the flourishing of individual persons
and their communities.
Example: Public Health Nurses conducts Community Organizing Participatory
Action Research (COPAR) that aims to empower marginalized communities by
allowing them to engage in the research process (community organizing) where
they play an active role as participants
A case study is used when we analyze and describe; each person
individually for his/her activity, special needs, life situation, life
history, etc.; a group of people, such as a school department,
teaching staff, etc., a problem or several problems, process,
phenomenon or event in a particular institution, etc., in detail.
Example: A Mobile case study on Neutrogena’s new sun activated
advertising. Researchers studied all aspects of the advertising
techniques by Neutrogena on its weather- and location-based
technology to create a relevant, engaging campaign that drove
awareness and sales.
It represents an approach in which the researcher engages in prolonged
observations from the group’s everyday life. In this type of research
behaviors, values, and interactions among the members of the group
are deeply studied, described, and interpreted by the researcher.
Example: In human service and education programs that serve children,
the researcher can't become a student and therefore experience the setting
as a child; it may be possible, however, for the research observer to
participate as a volunteer, parent, or staff person in such a setting, and
thereby develop the perspective of an insider in one of these adult roles.
This is an approach to the development of a theory that is grounded/rooted
in the data rather than empirical testing of the theory. It is where data are
collected and analyzed, and then a theory is developed which is grounded
in the data. The researcher attempts to derive a general, abstract theory of
a process, action, or interaction grounded in the views of participants in a
study.
Example: A researcher collects data from parents who have pulled their children
out of public schools and develop a theory to explain how and why this
phenomenon occurs, ultimately developing a ‘theory of school supplement’.
It is the systematic collection of data that happened in the past, and
subsequently to identify, classify, arrange, clarify, evaluate, synthesize,
elaborate, develop, and publish them employing scientific methods. It
also helps both researchers and readers to analyze the present events
and realize future ones.
Example: A researcher studied an event in 1609, where he clarified that
Galileo trained his telescope for the first time on the moon, and observed
previously unsuspected features, ones that he believed were not very
different from those on the earth.
It is a method that includes the analysis of the characteristics of the narrative
text, and recently of the meaning of inter-human relations in social, historical,
and cultural contexts. It focuses on people’s narratives either about
themselves or a set of events. Instead of looking for themes that emerge from
an account, it concentrates on the sequential unfolding of someone’s story so
there is an emphasis on characters. It is time-consuming, and usually includes
a very small number of cases.
Example: A doctor takes interviews from a limited number of patients, and the
patients narrate the pros and cons of the diseases; and pains and sufferings of
the diseases
It is an approach to explore people’s everyday life
experiences. It is used when the study is about the life
experiences of a concept or phenomenon experienced by
one or more individuals. This type of research is used to
study areas in which there is little knowledge.
Example: A researcher takes an interview of 20 widows and
asks them to describe their experiences of the deaths of their
husbands.
 Focus Sample Size Data Collection
link theory to practice to drive May vary, may be Observation, Questionnaire,
Action Research social change based on a criterion Documents, & Text

Organization, entity, individual, May vary, may be Interviews, documents, reports,

Case Study or event based on a criterion observations

May vary, may be

Ethnography Context or culture
based on a criterion
Observation and interviews

Interviews, then open and axial

Develop a theory grounded in
Grounded Theory field data
20 to 60 coding (to identify themes and build
the theory)
Illustrates past events to present
Stories from eyewitness/ individuals,
Historical patterns and anticipating future 1 to 2
documents, texts, & artifacts
choices
Individual experience &
Narrative sequence
1 to 2 Stories from individuals & documents

People who have experienced a

Phenomenological phenomenon
5 to 25 Interviews, Focus Group Discussion
 THE IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ACROSS Lesson 3

FIELDS OF INQUIRY
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
MELC: The learner illustrates the importance of qualitative
research across fields. (CS_RS11-IIIb-2)
Objectives:
1. Explain the importance of qualitative research across
fields
2. Identify field applications of research based on career
path.
Researchers in advertising comes along from an
understanding of consumer’s preferred styles and
techniques, wants and needs. It is conducted to know how
customers respond to a particular ad or advertising
campaign.
Example: An advertising artist conducted a survey with open-
ended responses to the executives in his company on their
insights of using 3D integrated holographic system.
Methods such as participant observation, content analysis,
focus groups, narrative interviews and "hidden" methods
such as archival study are used by business establishments.
In this way, business establishments are able to obtain
reliable data and decide to develop their strategies and
processes.
Example: A group of businessmen studied the international
business strategies by its institution-based view of the
emerging economies
It is influenced by social research and has embedded
projective devices within the approach of in-depth
interview. The more modern qualitative marketing studies
use the grounded theory approach. By thorough
investigation through research, marketing strategies are
improved for better return of investment.
Example: Researchers in a US automobile manufacturing
explored the customers' desired value change in a Business-to-
Business Context at different levels.
Ethnography being used in education seeks to understand social
and cultural dynamics of a school or classroom and understand
what counts as education for members of a particular group.
Researchers pursue following agenda: research, educational
agenda and social, cultural and instructional change. Qualitative
research is important as it navigates towards improvement of
performance in education.
Examples: Matching teaching styles and the learning styles of
students.
Student reaction to the evaluation of their academic performance.
It seeks to understand and determine an observable,
objective psychological reality. Understanding the
psychological processes and how they affect the society is
the contribution of qualitative research.
Example: Psychologists seek to understand why some students
lack motivation to go to school and why some students resort
to bullying and the like.
Conducting a research under social work means studying about people’s experiences
especially what they found traumatic and painful. This can be done by analyzing
interview data and narratives which has four broad categories:
1. Knowledge-direct remembering and reliving, with complete details of the events
2. Awareness of mental process: awareness of emotions and of cognitive processes
3. Awareness of identity- awareness of values and the construction of personal
characteristics of each partner and of the couple as a unit
4. Alienation-refusal to observe, reflect or remember
Example: A group of social workers studied the court room professionals which focuses on
parental alienation (when one parent discredits the other parent to a child or children the two
share) and explores women’s experiences as well as legal and social services’ practices in
child custody cases.
Scientists use qualitative research as a foundation study such as in
environmental sciences. Qualitative research responded to many
questions in environmental investigations and professional reports.
Qualitative research approaches may be used to respond to the
questions arisen in preparation of professional reports such as
Environmental Impact Statements, Strategic Environmental
Assessment reports and Protected Area Management Plan.
Example: The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD)
gathered data on the statement and recommendations of experts and
community leaders on the issues on edible bird’s nest harvesting
Qualitative research can also be used in studying the effective use of
technology in the workplace to ensure smooth flow of communication. This can
be conducted using focus groups. Technical communications under study can
be in the forms of e-mail, fax messaging, video and voice conferencing,
intranet and extranet, jargons and graphics. The advancement in technical
communication is a product of exploration using qualitative research.
Example: A student conducted a case study of Engineering Professionals
reading White Papers
A researcher studied lessons learned from Museum Exhibit Design: Modeling
Information for Three-dimensional Space