PS398 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Qualitative Research, Systematic Review, Grounded Theory
Document Summary
Designing the study: methods, sampling strategies, data collection. Helps you hone your focus and frame your questions. Systematic review (looking for an overview of the existing qualitative and quantitative research in your topic area) helps focus your study and avoid duplication. Length and organization depend on field and project goals. Identifies key concepts and theoretical lenses to guide your work. Qualitative literature reviews lead to emerging, open questions, rather than a quantitative hypothesis to test. Theories and concepts play a key role in shaping qualitative research. Combines concepts from the literature review with your alignment as a researcher, planned approach, experiences, goals, and values. May include a paradigm, a qualitative approach, a grounding in existing theory etc. Starts from the assumption of building a theory from the ground up. Originally said researchers should throw away existing knowledge and start fresh, but now acknowledge this is not possible.
