Description
Glaser and Strauss published ‘The Discovery of Grounded Theory’ (1967) and it encompasses three underlying aims of the theory:
- To discover new ways of understanding the social world.
- To generate a new theory to understand the investigated phenomena. This is generated by empirical social research that engages in reality and works towards formulating a hypothesis and theory.
- The emergent theory should be ‘grounded’ from the collected data and not be imposed from the researcher.
Grounded theory is an inquiry that was developed as a procedural approach to collect and analyse qualitative data. The name 'grounded' was selected to represent the way in which the observational data gathered from the participants (behaviour, words and actions) was directly linked to the theory generated. It involves the researcher making constant connections between the data collected and their analysis to develop an emerging, iterative process. Grounded theory has flexible guidelines that assist researchers to analyse their data collection and build emerging theories.
The approach requires comparative methods with constant checking and elaborating on potential categories. It is a systematic inductive approach to inquiry that emphasises that the tentative categories are rigorously tested and retested. This comparative approach is an iterated process that keeps researchers interacting with the data emphasising that they ask analytic questions of the data and emerging analyses. In addition, the researcher interacts with participants, data, codes and emerging categories. These interactions allow the researcher to study the processes in the field setting(s), constantly exchanging information gained from the data and their analyses. This keeps the researcher close to the data and strengthens their claims. This approach helps grounded theory researchers to make their work visible and voices collected from the data heard.
The method involves:
- Comparing data with data and developing codes
- Comparing data with codes
- Comparing codes and developing significant codes to potential categories
- Comparing data and codes with emerging categories
- Treating the major category as a concept
- Comparing concept with concept
Purpose
The purpose of grounded theory is to discover or generate a new theory. Grounded theory begins with an inductive method and relies on comparative inquiry to analyse data and to formulate new theories and concepts. The data collection and analysis is reciprocal and informs these processes through an emergent iterative process. The developed theory aims to answer questions around a particular social phenomenon. This is in direct contrast to traditional quantitative methods, which seek to test a preconceived hypothesis (Moghaddam, 2006).
ontology AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Ontology
Classical grounded theorists (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) stem from post positivists and believe in an epistemology that is objective in nature and an ontology that stems from critical realism. The term ‘critical’ is used because they hold a similar stance to the positivist, for example, “the need for, precision, logical reasoning and attention to evidence is required, but unlike positivism, this is not confined to what can be physically observed” (Crossan, 2003, p.53). According to this paradigm, ‘truth’ exists, however, the exploration of these ‘truths’ are untenable (Letourneau & Allen, 2006). Moreover, discoverable truths are only part of or an approximation of the truth (Clarke, 1998). Knowledge, therefore, is subject to error due to a range of contextual factors that could influence its construction (McEvoy & Richards, 2003).
Grounded theorist's believe that reality is based on subjective experience and nothing outside our thoughts, exists (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Reality, therefore, cannot be distinguished from the subjective experience (Guba & Lincoln, 2005). Thus, “reality is human experience and human experience is reality" (Levers, 2013, p.3). Therefore, when people experience something similar, it’s not that they are having a different external experience, rather, their world and their experience are different. (Stajduhar, Balneaves, & Thorne, 2001). In addition, when there are multiple interpretations of an experience, there are also multiple realities. The purpose of a grounded theorist relativist ontology is not only to understand the subjectivity inherent in the social phenomena but to unpack the multiple truths.
Classical grounded theorists (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) stem from post positivists and believe in an epistemology that is objective in nature and an ontology that stems from critical realism. The term ‘critical’ is used because they hold a similar stance to the positivist, for example, “the need for, precision, logical reasoning and attention to evidence is required, but unlike positivism, this is not confined to what can be physically observed” (Crossan, 2003, p.53). According to this paradigm, ‘truth’ exists, however, the exploration of these ‘truths’ are untenable (Letourneau & Allen, 2006). Moreover, discoverable truths are only part of or an approximation of the truth (Clarke, 1998). Knowledge, therefore, is subject to error due to a range of contextual factors that could influence its construction (McEvoy & Richards, 2003).
Grounded theorist's believe that reality is based on subjective experience and nothing outside our thoughts, exists (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Reality, therefore, cannot be distinguished from the subjective experience (Guba & Lincoln, 2005). Thus, “reality is human experience and human experience is reality" (Levers, 2013, p.3). Therefore, when people experience something similar, it’s not that they are having a different external experience, rather, their world and their experience are different. (Stajduhar, Balneaves, & Thorne, 2001). In addition, when there are multiple interpretations of an experience, there are also multiple realities. The purpose of a grounded theorist relativist ontology is not only to understand the subjectivity inherent in the social phenomena but to unpack the multiple truths.
Epistemology
Grounded theorist's epistemological stance is objectivism . Objectivism, as defined by Crotty (1998), is "the belief that truth and meaning reside within an object and is independent of human subjectivity" (Levers, 2013, p.3). To hold an objective claim, one must bracket off any contextual factors or human subjectivity when observing a social phenomenon. Thus, removal of bias or subjectivity is the route to the determination of knowledge. Observations, therefore, must not be influenced by the researcher or participant.
Grounded theorist's combine "objectivist epistemology with a critical realist ontology" (Levers, 2013, p.3). This means that when observations are made of an object, they must be impartial and have no influence by humans. Knowledge, therefore, is universally applied, because the object remains constant as viewed from one observer to the next. "The goal of science is to discover the essences that reveal natural, universal laws of truth" (Levers, 2013, p.3). The purpose of knowledge, therefore, from this epistemological stance is used to predict, control and explain (Grant & Giddings, 2002).