MPRA Paper No. 85654, 07 December 2018

Munich Personal RePEc Archive
Qualitative Research Methodology in
Social Sciences and Related Subjects
Mohajan, Haradhan
Assistant Professor, Premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
10 December 2018
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/85654/
MPRA Paper No. 85654, posted 04 Apr 2018 12:47 UTC

Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People,
Vol-7, Issue 01, 2018, pp. 23-48
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Qualitative Research Methodology in Social Sciences and
Related Subjects
Haradhan Kumar Mohajan
Premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Abstract
This literature review paper discusses the proper use of qualitative research methodology to
discuss several aspects of the research for the improvement of the skill of the readers. During the
last few decades, the use of qualitative research has been increased in many institutions. It can
be used to explore several areas of human behavior for the development of organizations. The
purpose of this study is to provide inspirations to the new researchers for the development of
their qualitative articles. The paper analyzes the design of qualitative research giving some
methodological suggestions to make it explicable to the reader. In this paper an attempt has been
taken to study the background of the qualitative research methodology in social sciences and
some other related subjects, along with the importance, and main features of the study.
Keywords: Research methodology, qualitative research, phenomenology, ethnography,
narrative approach, grounded theory, content analysis, action research, historical research,
case study.
Introduction
Every research must involve an explicit, disciplined, systematic (planned, ordered, and public)
approach to find out most appropriate results. Qualitative research is inductive in nature, and the
researcher generally explores meanings and insights in a given situation [Strauss & Corbin,
2008; Levitt et al., 2017]. It refers to a range of data collection and analysis techniques that use
purposive sampling and semi-structured, open-ended interviews [Dudwick et al., 2006;
Gopaldas, 2016].
It is described as an effective model that occurs in a natural setting and enables the researcher to
develop a level of detail from high involvement in the actual experiences [Creswell, 2009]. It

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consists of a set of interpretive material practices that makes the world visible. It is multi-method
in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter [Denzin & Lincoln,
2005]. It is a type of social science research that collects and works with non-numerical data that
seeks to interpret meaning from these data that help us to understand social life through the study
of targeted populations or places [Punch, 2013]. It is the observations and interpretations of
people’s perception of different events, and it takes the snapshot of the people’s perception in a
natural setting [Gentles et al., 2015]. It investigates local knowledge and understanding of a
given program, people’s experiences, meanings and relationships, and social processes and
contextual factors that marginalize a group of people. It is less structured in description, because
it formulates and builds new theories [Leedy & Ormrod, 2001]. It focuses on words rather than
numbers, this type of research observes the world in its natural setting, interpreting situations to
understand the meanings that people make from day to day life [Walia, 2015].
Qualitative research comprises of the following methods: logic, ethnography, discourse analysis,
case study, open-ended interview, participant observation, counseling, therapy, grounded theory,
biography, comparative method, introspection, casuistry, focus group, literary criticism,
meditation practice, historical research, etc. [Cibangu, 2012].
Qualitative research is a form of social action that stresses on the way of people interpret, and
make sense of their experiences to understand the social reality of individuals. It makes the use
of interviews, diaries, journals, classroom observations and immersions; and open-ended
questionnaires to obtain, analyze, and interpret the data content analysis of visual and textual
materials, and oral history [Zohrabi, 2013]. It is exploratory, and seeks to explain ‘how’ and
‘why’ a particular social phenomenon, or program, operates as it does in a particular context. It
tries to help us to understand the social world in which we live, and why things are the way they
are [Polkinghorne, 2005].
It has gained more and more area in the social domain. It aims to provide a detail understanding
into human behavior, emotion, attitudes, and experiences [Tong et al., 2012]. The main
paradigms within the qualitative research are positivist, interpretivist, and critical paradigms
[Punch, 2013]. It is used to explore the behavior, perspectives, feelings, and experiences of
people, and what lies at the core of their lives. The basis of it lies in the interpretive approach to
social reality, and in the description of the lived experience of human beings [Atkinson et al.,
2001]. It has a profound impact on the research area of education, health care, nursing,
sociology, anthropology, psychology, management, information systems, etc. [Denzin &
Lincoln, 2005].
Qualitative researchers are interested in people’s belief, experience, and meaning systems from
the perspective of the people. Qualitative research does not include statistical analysis and
empirical calculation [Brink, 1993]. The roots of qualitative research lie in social and cultural
anthropology, philosophy, psychology, history, and sociology. The goal of the qualitative
tradition is a ‘deep understanding of the particular’ [Domholdt, 1993]. The purpose of qualitative
research is to describe and interpret issues or phenomena systematically from the point of view
of the individual or population being studied, and to generate new concepts and theories. The
choice of methodology is directed by the questions being raised [Viswambharan & Priya, 2016].

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Recently interest in social sciences of qualitative research is growing remarkably. The rapid rise
of qualitative research to prominence in scientific communities; considerable debate has ensued
regarding epistemological, philosophical, and methodological issues [Spencer et al., 2003].
Literature Review
Burns and Grove [2009] have provided their opinions that qualitative research is a systematic
and subjective approach to highlight and explain daily life experiences, and to further give them
proper meaning. Alberto Crescentini and Giuditta Mainardi have presented some guidelines, and
suggestions for the preparation of a good qualitative research paper [Crescentini & Mainardi,
2009].
Svend Brinkmann, Michael Hviid Jacobsen, and Søren Kristiansen have discussed six histories
of qualitative research as: i) the conceptual, ii) the internal, iii) the marginalizing, iv) the
repressed, v) the social, and vi) the technological histories of qualitative research [Brinkmann et
al., 2014]. Md Shidur Rahman has discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using
qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods in language [Rahman, 2017]. Looi Theam
Choy has compared strengths and weaknesses of both qualitative and quantitative research
methodologies in social sciences [Choy, 2014].
In the grounded theory qualitative method has used by Williams and Irurita [2005] to study the
personal control and emotional comfort of hospitalized patients. Interviews are conducted with
40 patients, and 75 hours of field observations. Personal control referred to the ability of patients
to influence their environment; emotional comfort was defined as a state of relaxation that
affected the physical status of the patient.
In a case study of launching a product on a new market, Luminita Pistol and Rocsana Bucea-
Manea-Tonis have applied conjoint analysis approach to imitate and determine the optimal
marketing mix for a Romanian company that struggles to face the market higher competition.
They have tried to show how to use marketing simulation, more precisely conjoint analysis, in
evaluating the market conditions when launching a new product on a new market [Pistol &
Bucea-Manea-Tonis, 2017]. Hezi Aviram Shayb, in a case study, has analyzed the success
stories of some of the biggest and strongest companies in the world. He has also shown that there
are some risks when one runs his/her business. He has stressed on setting up a strong plan in
dealing with crisis, a business organization needs reliable, efficient and effective tools in
business organizations [Shayb, 2017]. Rocsana Bucea-Manea-Ţoniș and Radu Bucea-Manea-
Ţoniș have studied a case of Romanian SMEs that focus on technical elements for collecting
data from Romanian SMEs managers and save it in a MySql database [Bucea-Manea-Ţoniș &
Bucea-Manea-Ţoniș, 2017].
Jenny Edwards provides information about conducting action research on the effects of cognitive
coaching and adaptive schools. She shows the ways of formulating research questions, selecting
the setting, determining the participants, choosing the procedures, applying to Institutional
Review Boards, writing grants, analyzing the data, and sharing the findings [Edwards, 2016].
Vieri Maestrini, Davide Luzzini, Abraham B. (Rami) Shani, and Filomena Canterino have
investigated the potentialities of action research within purchasing and supply management

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research, focusing in particular on buyer-supplier relationship issues [Maestrini et al., 2016].
Joseph A. Maxwell reviews earlier research, in both the natural and social sciences that clearly
integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods, and discusses some
contemporary research traditions [Maxwell, 2016].
In the content analysis, the research report has five sections [Williams, 2007]: i) the description
of the materials studied, ii) the characteristics and qualities studied, iii) a description of the
methodology, iv) the statistical analysis showing the frequency table, and v) drawing conclusions
about the patterns, themes, or biases found in the human communications and data collection.
Natasha Constant and Liz Roberts have observed that narrative is rarely adopted as a form of
evaluation in research area. They have conjectured that narrative as an evaluative approach for
research projects with a core science communication element and offer several narrative methods
to be trialed [Constant & Roberts, 2017]. Greenhill et al. [2016] used narrative methods to assess
incidents of play, socialization, fun, and amusement to consider how social interactions relate to
the gaming elements of citizen science platforms.
Kalpita Bhar Paul has introduced an interpretive approach of phenomenological research
methodology in environmental philosophy [Paul, 2017]. Kimberly M. Jones-Goods and Marquis
Carter Grant have explored the factors affecting elementary teacher’s ability to understand the
academic needs of their racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse special education students, and
the ways in which their values and beliefs influenced their use of culturally responsive practices
in the special education classroom [Jones-Goods & Grant, 2016].
J. A. Hatch identifies five research paradigms: positivist, post-positivist, constructivist,
critical/feminist, and poststructuralist; and poses ontological, epistemological, and
methodological questions for each [Hatch, 2002]. In a review paper Haradhan Kumar Mohajan
has discussed reliability and validity of a good research that increase transparency, and decrease
opportunities to insert researcher bias in qualitative research [Mohajan, 2017].
Objective of the Study
This study analyzes the qualitative research methodology for the new researchers. We have tried
to highlight aspects of qualitative research strategy in social sciences and related subjects. This
study will bear the following specific objectives:
▪ To provide a basic understanding of qualitative research.
▪ To equip with sufficient information to appreciate how qualitative research is undertaken.
▪ To highlight different types of qualitative research.
▪ To describe in brief the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, advantages, and
importance of qualitative research.
Methodology of the Study
Research methodology indicates the logic of development of the process used to generate theory
that is procedural framework within which the research is conducted [Remenyi et al., 1998]. The
methodology of this article is to discuss aspects of qualitative research in social sciences and
some related subjects in some details. The data were collected to achieve the result for the

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purpose and scope of this study. In this study secondary data are used to enrich the article. For
the collection of secondary data we have used both published and unpublished data sources.
The published data are collected from: i) various publications of foreign governments or of
international bodies and their subsidiary organizations, ii) various research reports are prepared
by research scholars, universities, economists, etc., in different fields, iii) books of various
authors, hand books, theses, magazines, and newspapers, iv) various sources from university
libraries, vi) technical and trade journals, vii) websites, and viii) public records and statistics,
historical documents, and other sources of published information.
The unpublished data are collected from many sources. They are found in diaries, letters,
unpublished biographies and autobiographies, and also from scholars and research workers, trade
associations, labor bureaus, and other public/private individuals and organizations.
Historical Background
We cannot ignore the past experiences for the present and future development. Historical
research is founded on identification, analysis, and interpretation of old texts, which is one of the
functions of hermeneutics. It is a scientific method that seeks to understand a text and to interpret
it to other people. The folk wisdom expresses, “The nation which forgets its history is forced to
repeat the same mistakes” [Špiláčková, 2012]. To understand qualitative research it is pertinent
to know the brief history of research, its traditions and philosophical foundation. History writing
in qualitative research is not only just discussing the past but also about prospects for the future.
Medieval philosophers of scholasticism distinguished qualia (the qualities of things) from
quanta (the quantities) hundreds of years ago. The 17th centurion empiricist philosopher John
Locke argued that primary qualities were thought to be independent of observers, such as,
extension, number, and solidity. Secondary qualities were thought to be produced as effects in
observers, such as, colors, tastes, and smells. The post-medieval philosophers, such as,
Descartes, Locke, Hume, etc., confined the secondary qualities to the subjective mind
[Brinkmann et al., 2014]. European intellectual history has begins in the 18th century. Modern
scientific thought emerged during the Scientific Revolution by Newton and Galileo. French
philosopher August Comte founder of sociology merged rationalism and empiricism in a new
dogma called positivism [Walia, 2015].
Qualitative research was first used by anthropologists and sociologists as a method of inquiry in
the early decades of the 20th century. For example, in the 1920s and 1930s, social anthropologists
Mainowski [1920] and Mead [1935], and sociologists Park and Burgess [1925] had remarkable
contribution on qualitative research. The period from 1900 to 1945 is called the traditional age of
qualitative research. During this period, qualitative data analysis aimed at a more or less objec-
tive description of social phenomena in society or in other cultures. The positivist paradigm
reflects the principles of scientific enquiry of qualitative research. For example, the Chicago
School in sociology and the research of Malinowski in ethnography are formed in the traditional
age [Denzin & Lincoln, 2005].
Much of the literature of qualitative research and its textbooks begins in the 1960s and 1970s
[Flick, 2014]. The period from 1950 to 1970 is the second stage, called the golden age of