Grounded Theory

• AO1 1 and 2 - inductive, codes

  • Research conducted to gather info about something of interest + theory emerges gradually as data is gathered and analysed. Is in INDUCTIVE process - moving from general info into a specific theory
  • Researchers will begin by coding everything in same way until see patterns. Codes are initially broad but as theoretical concepts become more apparent, become more specific.
• AO1 3 and 4 - memo, selectively code

  • Researchers 'memo' work, adding comments to try and develop clarity about what data is showing - helps identify links between diff concepts emerging from the data.
  • Once clear theoretical concepts are obvious, researchers selectively code only relevant data and will sample more evidence supporting what they are beginning to see - review other literature and develop theory in more detail
• :) Evidence is integrated into theory

  As theory generated from the evidence being used, theory is highly relevant to making a diagnosis. T/f high validity
• :( Subjective analysis

  Researcher selectively chooses aspects of data to focus on, so only chooses data to support their theory, and can be argued to be forcing the data to do that. T/f researcher selecting information so may miss crucial info reducing val of theory
• :( Time consuming and expensive

  Researchers have to read through qualitative answers, make comparisons and generate themes, taking a long time to analyse and leading to high costs. T/f not most efficient method, could slow down the research process, leading to temporal val issues once published