Principles in Qualitative Methods: Section 2. Theoretical andMethodological issues in the Research Process

The decision to engage in qualitative research requires the researcher to think through the relationship between the issue under investigation and the method to be employed at a theoretical level, a process that would be unusual in quantitative research. Underpinning this consideration is the philosophical question of the nature of the relationship that exists between theory and any empirical observation of the world, together with the associated problem of the objectivity of the researcher in collecting and analysing data. Qualitative researchers must address the fact that the data or evidence they collect cannot be separated from the implicit or theoretically explicit assumptions they hold about the nature of the social world, and which therefore will guide the methods they choose to generate their data.

Many, if not most qualitative researchers would recognise the argument that facts 'speak for themselves' and need only to be 'collected' as 'data' is at best a naïve one. However, acknowledging the importance of this issue does not necessarily mean a retreat into relativism (no one explanation of an object is more is more valid than any other) and a loss of confidence in the findings of any kind of empirical research. Understanding that theory 'negotiates the conceptualisation' of observations does not mean a rejection of the idea that there is a social reality which exists independently of inquiry. Whilst concepts such as mental illness, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, etc are 'social constructions' in the sense that their identification and introduction into the discourse of health and illness reflects the interests of particular social and professional groups, the events that they seek to describe do exist independently of the terms which areused to describe them (Avis:2005).

This understanding thus leads onto the recognition that a research 'method' is much more than research design and data analysis, it is also the mode of explanation and understanding of the nature of the social object subject to investigation(Sayer:1992:84). Hence, the importance of the choice of method is something that cannot be an arbitrary decision as it ultimately informs the researcher's conceptualisation of the social object under investigation. Some qualitative research is explicitly theory-driven, wherein the researcher is committed to a particular explicit theoretical framework and seeks to apply it in order to explore and contextualise a particular research problem. However, many if not most qualitative research projects are method-driven; the method being chosen for primarily pragmatic reasons. By selecting a particular method the researcher then aligns themselves with the theoretical approach associated with that method (Rice and Ezzy:1999). So for example, ethnographic methods are associated with ethnomethodological assumptions about the construction of social realities within distinctive cultures, whilst the use of case-studies is often but not always associated with assumptions about the influence of social or organisational structures in shaping the actions of social agents.

In relation to quantitative methods, the notion of validity refers to whether a particular measure measures what it supposed to measure. However, within qualitative research, the issue of validity can be seen as much broader in scope than this procedural definition. Validity is generally seen as an evaluative concept embracing not only the question of whether a researcher has followed established procedures, but more substantively; '…the quality and strength of the arguments that researchers put forward to substantiate claims about the reliability of their conclusions' (Avis:2005:12). Validity seen in terms of the internal consistency of a piece of research draws attention to the ability of a researcher to combine their empirical research data with an application of social theory in order to explain a particular social phenomena rather than merely describe it.

© ICrinson & MLeontowitsch 2006