InThinking Revision Sites

INTHINKING REVISION SITES

Own your learning

Why not also try our independent learning self-study & revision websites for students?

We currenly offer the following DP Sites: Biology, Chemistry, English A Lang & Lit, Maths A&A, Maths A&I, Physics, Spanish B

"The site is great for revising the basic understandings of each topic quickly. Especially since you are able to test yourself at the end of each page and easily see where yo need to improve."

"It is life saving... I am passing IB because of this site!"

Basic (limited access) subscriptions are FREE. Check them out at:

www.StudyIB.net

Qualitative research

  • /
  • Personalized learning/
  • Module: Qualitative research methods/
  • Qualitative research

HL Paper 3: Qualitative research

This component looks at the question of how qualitative research is essentially different from quantitative research.  The focus of this component is primarily on the nature of data and the sampling techniques used. It is important to understand sampling techniques when answer question 1 on Paper 3.

Conceptual understanding

Upon completion of this section, you should be able to discuss the following concepts:

  • purposive sampling
  • qualitative data
  • snowball sampling

text

Defining our terms

In order to understand research methods, it is important to understand that there are two distinct approaches to research that are defined by the type of data that they collect.  There are quantitative research methods that collect numerical data that can be statistically tested for significance.  And there are qualitative research methods that collective descriptive data that must be interpreted by the researcher.  Below is a chart that shows other key differences between the two types of research methods.

Quantitative vs qualitative research methods

Quantitative

Focuses on IV's relationship to DV

Data can be statistically analysed.

Attempts to be objective and draw conclusions about the behaviour of a participant.

Assumes that constructs can be measured objectively.

Processes are highly standardized in order to allow for replication.

Often done under highly controlled conditions (internal validity) that results in low ecological validity.

Tends to be deductive in nature - for a hypothesis and then test to see if that hypothesis can be supported.

Qualitative

Focuses on people's attitudes, feelings, and opinions - as well as their behaviour.

Data is interpreted; researchers look for trends.

Tries to understand behaviour through the eyes of the participants - a phenomenological approach.

Processes are to some extent standardized, but generally research is not easily replicated. 

Usually naturalistic, leading to high ecological validity, but low internal validity.

Tend to be inductive - observe or interview a group and see what types of ideas or behaviours "emerge" from the study. Then draw conclusions based on the analysis of the data.

text

Sampling techniques

In quantitative research, the goal standard is the random sample - where each person in a population has an equal chance of being selected to be part of a sample.  This is important because we want to be able to generalize back to that population.  However, in qualitative research, we often want to only generalize to the group that is being studied - so random sampling is not part of qualitative research.

Read through the following presentation to learn about the different sampling techniques used in qualitative research.

Link to IB Mathematics

Although the IB Psychology curriculum will not test you on stratified and quota sampling, these two terms are part of your IB maths program.  So, what do these terms mean in psychology?

The two types of sampling are very similar in that they both want the sample to represent the population with regard to the proportion of a certain trait.  For example, if we were doing a study of our school, we would want the sample to be 30% grade 9; 30% grade 10; 20% grade 11, and 20% grade 12, based on the number of students in each grade.

So, if I want to carry out 30 interviews to find out if online learning has been effective, I would have 9 grade 9 students, 9 grade 10 students, 6 grade 11 students, and 6 grade 12 students.

A stratified sample is used in quantitative research.  In a stratified sample, we would choose the 9 grade-nine students by random sampling.  For example, I would put all of the students' names into a hat and pull out nine names.  Quota sampling also needs the same numbers, but the system is not random.  It might be that I take the first 9 volunteers from the grade 9 class.  I may also have some exclusionary criteria - for example, students are excluded that have not been at the school for more than two years.

Once again, this will not be assessed on Paper 3 - but it is good to understand that there are ways to attempt to make a sample more representative of a population, even in qualitative research.

Checking for understanding

For Part I of this quiz, decide whether each scenario is an example of qualitative or quantitative data and drag the appropriate word into the space provided.

QualitativeQualitative QualitativeQualitative QualitativeQuantitativeQuantitativeQuantitativeQuantitativeQuantitative

1.  A psychologist is carrying out face-to-face interviews with students to discuss how they cope with stress.    data.

2.  A researcher gives participants a survey using a Likert scale in which they are asked questions about their current eating habits.  data.

3. A researcher is going through the children's books in a public library to determine the frequency of traditional gender roles in the books.  data.

4. A researcher is carrying out a study to see how the volume of grey matter in the hippocampus of taxi drivers may be different from non-taxi drivers.  data.

5. A researcher is carrying out an observation to see how retired people cope with stressful situations.   data.

6. After carrying out his famous experiment on conformity, Asch asked the participants why they chose to conform, even if they knew that the answer was incorrect.   data.

7. A researcher is carrying out an observation to see how frequently students in an English literature classroom check their phones.   data.

8. A researcher carries out a questionnaire to find out how immigrant teenagers define their identity.  data.

 

For the second part of this quiz, choose the sampling technique that is being described.

Opportunity  Opportunity  Purposive  Purposive  Self-selected  Self-selected  Snowball  Snowball 

1. A psychologist wants to study immigrants who came to the European Union who fled their country as a result of their sexual orientation.  Which sampling technique would this require?  

2. A researcher goes to a local church to ask people to be part of his study of religious belief and mental health.   sample.

3.  A researcher wants to study burnout in teachers.  She is looking for teachers who have taught at the same high school for at least ten years and have taught the same subject for the entire time.  

4.  A well-known researcher wants to study how students cope with boredom.  He puts out a tweet to announce his study.  

5. A doctor working with cancer patients asks if they would be willing to take part in a study that looked at resilience in cancer patients. 

6. A sports psychologist asks a local university to post in their student union (lounge) the opportunity to take part in a study of exercise and academic stress.   

7. A clinical psychologist is studying suicide attempts among drug addicts. He interviews a few drug users that he knows from his clinic, but has asked if they might be able to recommend some of their friends to take part in the study. 

 

 

Total Score:

Continue on to Naturalistic observations