Cargo Cult Science

What is "social" science? One of my favorite “characters” was Richard Feynman a Nobel Prize winning Physicist. His 1974 Caltech commencement address offers an interesting perspective on social science or as he puts it Cargo Cult Science . This is a must read for all social scientists and in particular qualitative researchers!

Qualitative Data Displays

How will you display the data and analyze the data using qualitative techniques? While the analysis methods often evolve during the execution of a qualitative study, it is helpful to begin with the end product in mind when designing a research study. This helps align the other components of the methodology with the ultimate outcome. There are numerous useful data displays. For a large collection of examples see Miles and Huberman (1994).

Example

Qualitative Data Display of verbatim comments from interviews and open-ended survey questions.

Click on diagram for a larger PDF view.

Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis

While I use visual displays extensively during the analysis phase, I also use qualitative data analysis (QDA) software to do a more in depth analysis of the data. I would not conduct a qualitative research project without the help of QDA software. The difference between manual and even manual methods supported by MicroSoft Office(TM) applications and a full featured QDA software package is like the difference between a bicycle and a Formula 1 race car.

I personally use NVivo8 for all my projects. I chose this package because: (a) it used an internal database (one file per project) making it easy to share the project with other researchers; (b) I preferred the user interface (UI) to all the alternatives; and (c) there are many resources to help learn the application (both free online tutorials and courses).

If you choose NVivo, I recommend that you visit Lyn Richards website at Sage and download the free PDF screen shot tutorials. They are at the bottom so you might have to scroll down. They were written for NVivo7 but they seem to work well with most of NVivo8. I have also found her book Handling Qualitative Data to be useful especially for first time qualitative researchers. For more on Lyn Richards visit her personal website.

Bias and Validity Threats

Qualitative methods are highly susceptible to a variety of bias and validity threats. I found the Nemov case at the 2004 Olympics to be a good example of some of these threats.  Read more....

References

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

john latham (c) 2000 - 2012  all rights reserved