Grounded theory-History

1. Grounded theory-History • Grounded theory was developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss. Their collaboration in research on dying hospital patients led them to write the book Awareness of Dying. In this research they developed the constant comparative method, later known as Grounded Theory.

2. Defining grounded theory • ‘The discovery of theory from data – systematically obtained and analysed in social research’ (Glaser & Strauss, 1967: 1) • ‘The methodological thrust of grounded theory is toward the development of theory, without any particular commitment to specific kinds of data, lines of research, or theoretical interests . . . Rather it is a style of doing qualitative analysis that includes a number of distinct features . . . and the use of a coding paradigm to ensure conceptual development and density’ (Strauss, 1987) Grounded theory

3. Grounded theory is a research method that seeks to develop theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analysed • There is a continuous interplay between data collection and analysis • Rather than beginning with a hypothesis, the first step is data collection, through a variety of methods. • The key points are marked with a series of codes. The codes are grouped into similar concepts in order to make them more workable. • From these concepts, categories are formed, which are the basis for the creation of a theory, or a reverse engineered hypothesis Introduction Grounded theory

4. Introduction Contd……. • This contradicts the traditional model of research, where the researcher chooses a theoretical framework, and only then applies this model to the phenomenon to be studied The codes are grouped into similar concepts in order to make them more workable. From these concepts, categories are formed, which are the basis for the creation of a theory, or a reverse engineered hypothesis. This contradicts the traditional model of research, where the researcher chooses a theoretical framework, and only then applies this model to the phenomenon to be studied

5. The purpose of grounded theory • The purpose of grounded theory research in is to develop new concepts and theories of related phenomena, where these concepts and theories are firmly grounded in qualitative data • It allows for the emergence of original and rich findings that are closely tied to the data Grounded theory

6. Grounded theory and the literature review • As a general rule, grounded theory researchers should make sure that they have no preconceived theoretical ideas before starting the research • Many people think that this means ignoring the literature • But this is not so - the intention is to make sure that researchers are not constrained by literature when coding • Researchers should make sure that they do not impose concepts on the data – those concepts should emerge from the data Grounded theory

7. How to do grounded theory • Open coding • Summarizing some text by the use of a succinct code • Constant comparison: constantly compare and contrast qualitative data in the search for similarities and differences • Axial coding or selective coding • Refine the conceptual constructs • Theoretical coding • The formulation of a theory Grounded theory

8. Critique of grounded theory • Advantages: • It has intuitive appeal for novice researchers, since it allows them to become immersed in the data at a detailed level • It gets researchers analysing the data early • It encourages systematic, detailed analysis of the data and provides a method for doing so • It gives researchers ample evidence to back up their claims • It encourages a constant interplay between data collection and analysis • It is especially useful for describing repeated processes e.g. the communications processes between doctors and patients, or the communications processes between information systems analysts and users Grounded theory

9. Critique of grounded theory (2) • Disadvantages: • First time users can get overwhelmed at the coding level • Open coding takes a long time • It can be difficult to ‘scale up’ to larger concepts or themes • Because it is a detailed method, it can be difficult to see the bigger picture • Tends to produce lower level theories only Grounded theory

10. Grounded theory -Links For Detail please refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grounded_theory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SZDTp3_New http://www.groundedtheory.com/ http://books.google.com.np/books/about/Constructing_grounded_theory.html?id=v1qP1KbXz1AC&redir_esc=y Video-Grounded theory\Grounded Theory - Core Elements. Part 1.mp4 Grounded theory