Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods

by Matthew B. Miles and Michael Huberman

Qualitative data is unsurpassable for richness of detail, explanatory power, and intuitive 'undeniability' -- but can the data be described as scientific? Qualitative researchers are badly in need of systematic methods for drawing conclusions; for testing them; and for communicating them. Miles and Huberman have designed a practical sourcebook in which strong emphasis is placed on innovative types of data display, including charts, graphs, matrices...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803922744
• ISBN13: 9780803922747
• Release Date: April 1984
• Publisher: Sage Publications (CA)
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Review from a Focus Group Moderator

If you're looking for practical information that you can apply quickly, I suggest picking up this book. You'll flip through it time and again. As the owner of www.MyFocusGroupModerator.com, I see a lot of poorly written material. Krueger has done a good job in making this guide immediately impactful to the reader.

Helpful

As explained in the acknowledgements, this book grew out of research projects of the authors. It seeks to explain how one draws valid meaning from qualitative data. The focus of the book, as a consequence, is analysis. The authors see themselves as logical positivists. Three components of analysis are: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification.Like a large number of other scholars, they see compatibility between qualitative and quantitative research. They contend that "qualitative research can be outright 'confirmatory.'"This book covers the basics of doing a qualitataive study. It is a helpful reference to use for experienced researchers as well as an excellent introduction for beginners.

Focus groups

This was a wonderful guide for conducting focus groups for beginners. The book is easy to read and understand. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in conducting focus group research.

User friendly - not research friendly

This book contains a great deal of information about conducting focus groups and is very easy to use; however, the format is far too simplistic. Focus groups are a research technique; this book takes the approach of "so easy even a child could do it." Although it is filled with information and guidelines about appropriate techniques and uses for data, the lighthearted format undermines the serious nature of data collection and analysis. The second edition was much better as a comprehensive guide to focus groups that maintained some research integrity.Incidentally, I suspect that Paladin Red actually reviewed the second edition. The third edition does not contain appendices after each chapter - another unfortunate loss from the earlier edition.

A superb research guide!

Krueger's book on focus groups has been by far the most useful guide in terms of the step-by-step approach used. Everything from concise budgeting techniques to handling those "difficult" participants are outlined neatly and in a straight-forward fashion. The appendices after each chapter are also really helpful especially for beginner researchers such as myself. I borrowed this book from the library for a summer marketing research job and it was all I needed for the focus group portion. Recommended to me by my marketing prof, I in turn highly recommend it!