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Qualitative Research
Design and
Sampling Techniques
M A’ A M M A R I V I E B . A N D A L I S

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Activity Master
1. Let’s title
check style
your prior knowledge…

Directions: Read each item carefully. Write TRUE if the

statement is true and FALSE if it is false.
1. The main purpose of sampling is the choice of
appropriate participants to enable the focus of the study to
be correctly researched.
2. Wrong sampling approaches may totally affect the results
and outcomes of a study.
3. In the case study, the data could be collected primarily
through in-depth interviews with individuals.
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4. In the Ethnography, an equal number of individuals
from 2 cultures could be in random.
5. Case study is in-depth analysis of a person,
situation or event. Hence, it is difficult to operate.
6. Conducting a study that involves a high-performing
police department who uses questionable methods,
department that does not take much risks, and a
police department that has a close relationship with
the community is an example of qualitative multi-case
study. 3 3
7. A phenomenological
Click viewpoint pays attention to the
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perceptions and feelings of people associated with
what they experienced.
8. The grounded theory methodology is used to
develop a theory about a phenomenon from data
inductively.
9. In grounded theory, the data will be collected
primarily through interviews.
10. The study that will use theory of culture is
phenomenological theory. 4 4
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Qualitative researches style
are designed
to provide the researcher a means
of understanding phenomenon
either concepts, opinions, or
experiences by
observing or interacting with the
participants of the study (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2008). Therefore,
qualitative researcher’s concern is
on exploring
and/or explaining phenomenon as 5 5
 Thistomeans
Click thattitle
edit Master qualitative
style researchers
investigate things in their natural settings,
trying to make sense of, or interpret,
phenomena in terms of the meanings people
bring to them (Newman & Benz, 1998). One
of the greatest strengths of qualitative
methods is that they have the potential to
generate rich descriptions of the
participants’ thought processes and
tend to focus on reasons “why” a
phenomenon has occurred (Creswell,
2009).
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Types of Qualitative Research Design

Ethnographical Research.

Ethnographic research is probably the

most popular and applicable type of
qualitative research. In ethnography, you
engage yourself in the target participants'
environment to understand the behavior,
cultures, challenges, motivations, and
themes that occur.
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Ethnography has its roots in cultural
anthropology where researchers engage
themselves within a culture, often for years
rather than relying on interviews or surveys;
experience the environment first hand; and
sometimes as a “participant observer”. The
goal of the standard ethnography
qualitative method is to “learn about a
culture from the people who actually live in
that culture” (Pleong, 1999).
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Purpose: To describe a culture's character

Outcome: Description of culture

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Case Study. Case study involves an
in-depth examination of a single
person or single individual or single
institution/organization. The goal of
a case study is to provide an
accurate and complete description
of the case; the principal benefit of
a case study is that it can expand
our knowledge about the human
behavior or attitude.
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It is also useful when the case is too

complex and need special attention. Case
study often includes in-depth interviews with
participant, review of his/her previous record,
and observation. It provides an opportunity for
the intensive analysis of many specific details,
which are often overlooked by other methods.

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A case study involves a deep understanding

through multiple types of data sources. Case
studies can be explanatory, exploratory, or
descriptive.

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Purpose: To give an in-depth description of the experience of one person, family, group, community, or institution

Outcome: In-depth description of the experience

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Phenomenological Research.

When you want to describe an event,

activity, or phenomenon, the
phenomenological study is an appropriate
qualitative method. In a phenomenological
study, you use a combination of methods,
such as conducting interviews, reading
documents, watching videos, or visiting
places and events, to understand the
meaning that participants place on
whatever is being examined.
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Click to edit Master title style You rely on the
participants’ own perspectives
to provide insight into their
motivations.

Phenomenology is useful for

learning about “a phenomenon
that has little
research by exploring the
experiences of people in their
natural environment
rather than confirming or
denying a preconceived theory”
(Powell, Gray, & Reese, 2013). 15
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Purpose: To describe
experiences as people
lived (e.g., examines Outcomes: Findings
uniqueness of described from
individual’s lived subject’s point-of-view
situations) Researcher identifies
themes.
Structural explanation of
findings is developed.

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Grounded Theory. While a phenomenological study

looks to describe the essence of an activity or
event, grounded theory looks to provide an
explanation or theory behind the events.
According to Ralph, Birks, and Chapman
(2015), grounded theory is “methodologically
dynamic” which provides a means of
constructing methods to better understand
situations that humans find themselves in.
This means that you primarily use interviews
and existing documents to build a theory based
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Purpose: To develop a
theory

Outcome: Theory supported

by examples from data

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Narrative/Historical Research Design.

A synonym of the term ‘narrative’ is ‘story’

or ‘history’ (Kramp, 2004). Narratives are
related with life stories. Moen (2006)
defined it as “a story that tells a sequence
of events that is significant for the narrator
or audience or her/his audience”.

This means that the narrative approach

weaves together a sequence of events,
usually from just one or two individuals to 19
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You conduct in-depth interviews, read documents, and
look for themes; in other words, how does an individual
story illustrate the larger life influences that created it.
Often interviews are conducted over weeks, months, or
even years, but the final narrative doesn't need to be in
chronological order.

Rather, it can be presented as a story (or narrative) with

themes, and it can reconcile conflicting stories and
highlight tensions and challenges which can be
opportunities for innovation.
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Purpose: To describe and examine events of the

past to understand the present and anticipate
potential future effects

Outcomes: Select means of presentation—

biography, chronology, issue paper

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Sampling Techniques

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Types of Sampling

Sampling in qualitative research is termed non-

probability sampling. Unlike probability
sampling used in quantitative research, non-
probability sampling does not involve
randomization. This means that members of a
qualitative study population do not have an
equal chance of being selected. Instead, they
are often ‘specifically’ picked by the
researchers. 2323
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“
Whitehead and Whitehead (2016)
identified four main types of
sampling of nonprobability
sampling, as follows:

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Convenience title style
Sampling

This is the most common form of qualitative sampling,

and it occurs when people are invited to participate in
the study because they are conveniently
(opportunistically) available with regard to access,
location, time, and willingness. Convenience sampling is
a relatively fast and easy way to achieve the sample size
needed for the study. While it may be the most common
form of sampling in
qualitative research, the main limitation of using
convenience sampling is that it could suffer from either
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Purposive Master title style
Sampling

Two further types of sampling sit under the umbrella of

purposive sampling; quota sampling and maximum
variation sampling. In quota sampling, the researcher
decides on both the number of participants required and
the characteristics of interest. These may be age, gender,
profession, diagnosis, ethnicity, and so forth.
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Purposive Master title style
Sampling

The population is segmented into the groups of interest,

for example, menu under the age of 45 years and men >45
years. The researcher would then select men from each
group to represent the proportion of each group in the
wider population. If the desired sample size was 20 men
and the proportion of men >45 years in the population
was 75%, then the sample would consist of 5 men under
45 years and 15 men >45 years.

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Purposive Master title style
Sampling

Quota sampling is therefore more specific with respect to

representing proportions of the sub-samples of interest in
a given research study. Maximum phenomena variation
sampling is an approach used to ensure that the full
range and extent of the phenomena are represented—
such as ensuring people who are experiencing mild
symptoms in relation to a particular condition are
included as well as those experiencing severe symptoms
(and all those in-between).
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Snowball Master title style
Sampling

Also known as ‘chain referral’ or ‘networking’ sampling, snowball

sampling occurs when the researcher starts gathering information
from one or a small number of people and then requests to put the
researcher in touch with others who may be friends, relatives,
colleagues, or other significant contacts. This type of sampling is
especially useful in recruiting ‘hidden populations’, for example,
marginalized or stigmatized individuals, where those individuals
are not easily accessible to researchers, such as drugusers,
prostitutes, or those not registered with a medical practice
(Babbie 2014).

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 Some limitations of
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snowball sampling are that
the researcher needs to
rely on referrals from
initial contacts to
generate additional
participants.

The participants,
therefore, are often not
considered to be
representative of the
overall population being
studied.
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Theoretical
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This form of sampling is mostly used in

grounded theory studies but is
increasingly being used to gather data for
the purpose of theory generation. The
research starts from a homogeneous
(small) sample and moves to a
heterogeneous (larger) sample (Babbie
2014). 3131
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Sampling occurs sequentially and alongside

data analysis. Analyzed data guides the areas
to be explored further in the next round of
data collection and the focus of the sample in
order to achieve this. The initial participants
are usually purposively chosen or conveniently
available.
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It is possible however, to use more than one

form of sampling in a single study. For
example, in a study by Zhou (2014), purposive
sampling was initially used to select
participants. When categories were tentatively
established, theoretical sampling was then
employed.

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