ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ

Sensitivity to natural environment refers to the condition that the focal phenomenon/phenomena or event(s) of a qualitative research has/have to be examined in their natural environment, or context. This specifically means that any phenomenon or event studied via qualitative research can never be manipulated. The correct answer is B.

Assessment based case studies refer to informing relevant people or institutions about value judgements after researchers closely examine the aforementioned political formations, systems, projects, or other case studies.

Case studies are sometimes known as process tracing and case reports in IR, and they employ quantitative data collections, too. Therefore, the correct answe is D.

Ethnography researcher enters in the natural environment where the group lives and participates in daily routines together with the members of that culture during a time labeled as fieldwork. Sharing the same culture with the members, researchers conduct studies where they interact with others for a considerable amount of time with minimum intervention in order to develop noticeable study models.

What a researcher aspires to explore in narrative inquiry are the participants’ experiences. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

Interpretive phenomenology defines interpretation as revelation of concealed things within human relations and experiences. Therefore, interpretive phenomenology focuses on meanings embedded in individuals’ lives rather than simple definitions of concepts and their qualities. The correct answer is A.

The researcher in a grounded theory tries to explore participants’ social processes, behavioral patterns, acceptances, and meanings. In other words, researchers focus on a process or action that has a different step or phase formed in time. The correct answer is C.

In participatory observation, the researcher actively partakes in the target setting or the daily routines of the target group via direct interaction with the members of that group instead of taking a distant stance. The correct answer is B.

The focal point of a performative analysis is not the words spoken, but gestures, mimes, and moves accompanying narration, and the effort to convince listeners. The correct answer is D.

The final step of a qualitative research process is reporting, which includes the following sections: theoretical background, method, findings, and results. In reporting step, 'selecting participants' must have already completed. Therefore, the answe is E.

Qualitative research is defined as a method where perceptions and events can be pictured in their natural environments with a holistic and realistic perspective through use of qualitative data collection techniques such as observation, interview, focus groups and document analysis. Surveys are used for quantitative research methods.

Qualitative research methods’ basic features can be listed as follows: (1) sensitivity to natural environment, (2) participatory role of the researcher, (3) holistic approach, (4) identifying the perceptions,(5)flexibility in research design, and (6) inductive analysis. Holistic data collection is among the other features of qualitative research methods. Based on the fact that a whole means more than the collection of its parts, research subject is approached with a holistic perspective.

Research studies conducted via quantitative research methods are inclined to see the facts through the same eyes all the time, and thus, fail to explain social phenomena that are constantly in a state of change. Yet, it should be remembered that social phenomena cannot be universal, are never fixed, and can change in time. Social world is complex and only one research approach or design is not enough to understand this complexity.

The contributions that qualitative methods can introduce into IR include three types of information (environment, process, perceptions) which can be gathered through use of qualitative research methods. First is the environmental information, which regards social, psychological, cultural, demographic, and physical characteristics.

One qualitative research design that can be employed in IR is phenomenology, which is rooted in philosophy and psychology and where participants’ experiences about a phenomenon defined by them are described. As obvious by definition, phenomenological research aims to determine individuals’ own perceptions and experiences through their own standpoint. Phenomenology is a research design to study participants’ experiences about a phenomenon they define.

Case study is the most widely employed design in IR, and this is an increasing tendency in the field. The efforts to figure out complex social events or phenomena can be taken as the reason for this inclination. A simplified definition of case study could be the attempt to seek answers to “how?” or “why?” concerning a current case of interest. Case study refers to examination of a case in real life (context) when the boundaries between an event and its context are obscure.

Even though each research design is different, basic order of conducting a qualitative research is as follows: identifying the research focus or problem; selecting participants; data collection techniques; data analysis; and reporting.

As a qualitative data collection tool, interview enables the researcher to gather data that observation and questionnaire techniques cannot unravel and to examine the participants’ feelings, opinions, perceptions, and attitudes. Observation means reviewing naturally- emerging signs of an event/phenomenon to comprehensively understand that event/ phenomenon. Diary can be described as a source of data where the researcher writes down her/his comments, feelings, and opinions about events that s/he observes and hears and where s/he can add her/his reflections about her/his experience. Documents refer to any kind of written, audio, and/or visual materials that bear information about the focal events or phenomena in a given research. Artifacts are another source of help qualitative researchers can use to answer the research questions. They can also be described as physical evidence for qualitative research. Artifacts refer to object(s) located within the focal context, and somehow, they appeal to the researcher’s interest.

Rigor refers to assessing quality and accuracy of research processes and conclusions. Rigor of a research involves the concepts of credibility (reliability) and validity. First major criterion for rigor in qualitative research is “internal validity” (trustworthiness), which means questioning the true value of the research for trustworthiness and to clarify the question “Does this research have a valid value?” Answering the questions below could be advised to establish trustworthiness for a given research:

Another important criterion for rigor in qualitative research is “external validity” (transferability). This refers to precise definition or explanation of the area that findings can be generalized to. It is not a generalization based on numbers as in quantitative studies, but an analytic generalization in terms of similar units, places, or cases.

Grounded theory is one of the qualitative research methods where a series of methods are systematically operated in order to develop an inductive theory. It is defined as a process in which the researcher digs out a general abstract theory about a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants’ standpoint.