Week 4: Qualitative Research

I did read the abstract lecture/info, and bookmarked all the pages, but I think they will be better as reference when I start writing my abstracts and don't really have much to comment on here. 

The Qualitative research lecture left me with an interesting question, or thought, really.  This is a little odd since I feel like I'd prefer to do qualitative rather than quantitative research, but I have to wonder if anyone "really" thinks qualitative research is valid.  I suppose as a method to generating theories, then yes, it would be a good and useful tool (and interesting).  But there is so much in qualitative research that rests on the individual researcher, from how she interacts with subjects to what makes it into his observational notes to the way the observations and interviews are interpreted--it doesn't exactly "feel" scientific.  Do researchers often complete a qualitative study and then look for more quantitative ways to verify their findings? (I suppose this would really be mixed methods.)  How difficult is it to get enough funding to carry a study through to that extent?  And do the researchers start to get bored with the topic?  How many qualitative researchers have to generate the same theory before it is considered valid?  Is qualitative research the poor cousin of quantitative research, constantly asking to be excused for voicing theories?  "Excuse me, I'm sorry,  of course I could be wrong, but I think perhaps. . ."  I'm just picturing "hard" scientists looking at a qualitative study and thinking it's all made up conjecture.

Those are the thoughts rattling around in my brain after reading this lecture, anyhow. 

More direct notes on the lecture:

Four outcomes from  qualitative reserach:

1. description:  relationships, people, setting and situations, and systems.  
2. interpretation:  explain or create generalizations, develop new concepts, elaborate existing concepts, provide insights, clarify complexity, and develop theory
3. verification:  developing assumptions, generalizations, and theories (not to be confused with the type of verification in quantitative research where specific hypothesis are tested and re-tested).
4. evaluation:  research that impacts the policies and practices of a particular situation, or evaluates the effectiveness of a particular program; can include other outcomes or encompass them.

I suppose a major difference in qualitative and quantitative research is the complexity of the topics being probed.  Qualitative research is not about does variable x cause result z in this highly controlled setting.  It's much more about how things work in the real world, with unlimited variables.  You really can never prove anything.