Re: WORST CASE SOME ONE!!!
QUALITATIVE SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data are not inherently quantitative, and can be bits and pieces of almost anything. They do not necessarily have to be expressed in numbers. Frequency distributions and probability tables don't have to be used. Data can come in the form of words, images, impressions, gestures, or tones which represent real events or reality as it is seen symbolically or sociologically (If people believe things to be real, they are real in their consequences - the Thomas Dictum). Qualitative research uses unreconstructed logic to get at what is really real -- the quality, meaning, context, or image of reality in what people actually do, not what they say they do (as on questionnaires). Unreconstructed logic means that there are no step-by-step rules, that researchers ought not to use prefabricated methods or reconstructed rules, terms, and procedures that try to make their research look clean and neat (as in journal publications).
It is therefore difficult to define qualitative research since it doesn't involve the same terminology as ordinary science. The simplest definition is to say it involves methods of data collection and analysis that are nonquantitative (Lofland & Lofland 1984). Another way of defining it is to say it focuses on "quality", a term referring to the essence or ambience of something (Berg 1989). Others would say it involves a subjective methodology and your self as the research instrument (Adler & Adler 1987). Everyone has their favorite or "pet" definition. Historical-comparative researchers would say it always involves the historical context, and sometimes a critique of the "front" being put on to get at the "deep structure" of social relations. Qualitative research most often is grounded theory, built from the ground up.