Descriptive and interpretive approaches to qualitative research (original) (raw)

Qualitative research methods today are a diverse set, encompassing approaches such as empirical phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, protocol analysis and discourse analysis. By one common definition , all these methods rely on linguistic rather than numerical data, and employ meaning-based rather than statistical forms of data analysis. Distinguishing between measuring things with words and measuring them in numbers, however, may not be a particularly useful way of characterising different approaches to research. Instead, other distinctive features of qualitative research may turn out to be of far greater importance (Elliott, 1999): ◆ emphasis on understanding phenomena in their own right (rather than from some outside perspective); ◆ open, exploratory research questions (vs. closed-ended hypotheses); ◆ unlimited, emergent description options (vs. predetermined choices or rating scales); ◆ use of a special strategies for enhancing the credibility of design and analyses (see ; and ◆ definition of success conditions in terms of discovering something new (vs. confirming what was hypothesised).