Components of Qualitative Approaches - Assignment Example

Components of Qualitative Approaches Outline 1. Proposed research topic 2. Analysis of three qualitative researches 3. Challenges with interviewing people 4. Ways of dealing with the challenges 5. Three reasons for using qualitative 6. Advantages of using qualitative interview 7. Ethical issue involved in qualitative interview 8. Ten interview questions and reason for the questions 9. Ways of administering the interview, interpreting and reporting the data Proposed Research Topic This study being carried out should provide a detailed analysis of a qualitative approach of conducting research. Qualitative research involves the process of collecting data with non-discrete measures (Vogt, 2007), for example, research involving investigation of people’s opinions or attitudes. This process requires methods of assigning attributes and values for the data to make it quantitative, for the purpose of analysis and interpretation. Analysis of three qualitative researches This analysis proposes three topics of study that will involve qualitative research methods. The topics are Opinion poll predictions of country A, the use of a vaccine type in a city C and responses of people towards organic food products. The three topics all involve the use of qualitative information. To investigate the political opinions of citizens of country A, a researcher has to set interviews that will convert the qualitative attributes into quantitative measures. For example, the interview may have questions like “Do the candidates you intend to vote for know your economic challenges?” The responses can be assigned numeric indices to measure their level of strength as shown on the example in table below: Response Measure Strongly agree 5 Agree 4 No idea 3 Disagree 2 Strongly Disagree 1 Challenges encountered in the Case Study While using interviews to gather information from the people, few challenges were met. Some of them were, only a small number of these interviews could take place because they vary in time[Uni10]. Comparison of in-depth interviews may be difficult since the results may be unique. Due to the size of the sample, in this case being small, the results are unlikely to be representative of a particular population. The interview process may be time consuming, in terms of both data collection and analysis. There were many inconsistencies in the results due to bias amongst the people’s tastes and preferences. Ways of dealing with the challenges The following measures were recommended to be more effective in ways of collecting and interpretation of data especially through interviews. To avoid the inconsistencies, the data should be recorded in the agreed upon ways[Phi13] e.g. if the agreed upon way is using laptops, then laptops should be used to collect all results. Organization of the data is also a very important process that helps during the analysis. For example, the use of Geographical Information Systems is necessary especially when collecting data for investigating the political opinions of citizens based on different regions in that country. Three reasons for using qualitative Qualitative interviews according to the perspectives of Singh (2007) are essential for research works first, because the information regarding social and political subjects is usually of qualitative nature. Secondly, it is easier to interpret qualitative information into measurable quantities that people can easily understand. Qualitative interviews enable researchers to successfully produce reports on ambiguous data and perform relevant predictions out of the interpretations. Advantages of using qualitative interview Qualitative interviews have an advantage over quantitative methods because they apply to the greatest percentage of the research areas in the society. They deal with familiar aspects of the society, and their data is readily available. Secondly, qualitative interviews are easier to use for every category of respondents, including the illiterate and semi-illiterate. It can also be used especially where there is a language barrier. Thirdly, qualitative interviews are able to convert non-structured data into an interpretation that is easy to understand and make accurate predictions. Ethical issue involved in qualitative interview (and how to address it) Qualitative interviews may give rise to ethical issues and conflicts because first, people find it difficult to trust them. Those who trust them are tempted to make hasty conclusions about their presentations; hence can make wrong and critical decisions based on general conclusions of the research. Secondly, qualitative interviews investigate confidential information; hence violates the human rights to privacy. Thirdly, there is a risk of domestic conflicts because of the information that people provide to the interviewers. Again, these methods lead people to temptations of dishonesty. The other ethical issue involved is that respondents’ behaviours offend some interviewers and conflicts build up out of the intended noble exercise. Ten interview questions and reasons for the questions This section provides ten sample questions for the topic: “Responses of people towards organic food products.” Q1. Do you know what organic foods are? Q2. Have you ever consumed organic foods? Q3. Do you think organic foods are dangerous for human lives? Q4. Do you support the use of chemicals in industrial food processing? Q5. Do you support the use of toxic pesticide in farming? Q6. Do you use chemical fertilizers for growing your crops? Q7. Are you willing to restrict your farming to organic methods? Q8. Do you understand the difference between organic farming and chemical farming? Q9. Do you support the use of hormones to boost crop production yields? Q10. Can a solution be found to mitigate the effects of chemical farming? These questions can have measures assigned to their responses such that they will be interpreted in quantitative form. Ways of administering the interview Prior to the interview, respondents should be informed about the details of the study, assurance of ethical principles like confidentiality and anonymity[Pau08]. This gives the respondents an idea of what to expect in the interview, therefore increasing the likelihood of honesty. The interview should be conducted in a distraction-free area and at times or locations suitable to the interviewees. While carrying out the interview, familiarization with the interview schedule is important since it makes the interview process flow naturally. For effectiveness of the interview, key aspects to be observed are listening; body language and strategic use of silence aid this process. Interpreting and reporting the data Once the data collection process is complete, the researcher should proceed to the next stage, which involves data analysis. The researcher can use statistical software such as STATA or SPSS to perform the data analysis. Out of the analysis, there follows the process of data interpretation and the necessary predictions of the scenario (Balnaves & Caputi, 2001). Interpretation communicates the implication of data for example, 70 percent of the respondents do not support the use of inorganic chemicals in farming and industrial food processing. Reporting the data is the compilation of the results of qualitative research processes. It involves the preparation or publication of research outcomes. Logically, the report should contain all steps of the research including all the interview questions, data analysis, and interpretation. References Uni10: , (University of Portsmouth, 2010), Phi13: , (Phil Rabinowitz, 2013), Pau08: , (Paul Gill, 2008), Read More