Grounded theory

Grounded theory is a general research methodology, a way of thinking about and conceptualizing data. It is used in studies of diverse populations from areas like remarriage after divorce[5] and professional socialization.[6] Grounded theory methods were developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss.[7]

While collaborating on research on dying hospital patients, Glaser and Strauss developed the constant comparative method which later became known as the grounded theory method. They summarized their research in the book Awareness of Dying, which was published in 1965. Glaser and Strauss went on to describe their method in more detail in their 1967 book, The Discovery of Grounded Theory.[7] The three aims of the book were to:

1. Provide a rationale to justify the idea that the gap between a social science theory and empirical data should be narrowed by firmly grounding a theory in empirical research;
2. Provide a logic for grounded theory;
3. Legitimize careful qualitative research, the most important goal, because, by the 1960s, quantitative research methods had gained so much prestige that qualitative research had come to be seen as inadequate.[3]

A turning point in the acceptance of the theory came after the publication of Awareness of Dying. Their work on dying helped establish the influence of grounded theory in medical sociology, psychology, and psychiatry.[3][7] From its beginnings, grounded theory methods have become more prominent in fields as diverse as drama, management, manufacturing, and education.[8]

Grounded theory combines traditions in positivist philosophy, general sociology, and, particularly, the symbolic interactionist branch of sociology. According to Ralph, Birks and Chapman,[9] grounded theory is "methodologically dynamic"[7] in the sense that, rather than being a complete methodology, grounded theory provides a means of constructing methods to better understand situations humans find themselves in.

Glaser had a background in positivism, which helped him develop a system of labeling for the purpose of coding study participants' qualitative responses. He recognized the importance of systematic analysis for qualitative research. He thus helped ensure that grounded theory require the generation of codes, categories, and properties.[10]

Strauss had a background in symbolic interactionism, a theory that aims to understand how people interact with each other in creating symbolic worlds and how an individual's symbolic world helps to shape a person's behavior. He viewed individuals as "active" participants in forming their own understanding of the world. Stauss underlined the richness of qualitative research in shedding light on social processes and the complexity of social life.[10]

According to Glaser, the strategy of grounded theory is to interpret personal meaning in the context of social interaction.[11] The grounded theory system studies "the interrelationship between meaning in the perception of the subjects and their action".[12]

Grounded theory constructs symbolic codes based on categories emerging from recorded qualitative data. The idea is to allow grounded theory methods to help us better understand the phenomenal world of individuals.[10] According to Milliken and Schreiber, another of the grounded theorist's tasks is to understand the socially-shared meanings that underlie individuals' behaviors and the reality of the participants being studied.[10]

Grounded theory provides methods for generating hypotheses from qualitative data. After hypotheses are generated, it is up to other researchers to attempt to sustain or reject those hypotheses. Questions asked by the qualitative researcher employing grounded theory include "What is going on?" and "What is the main problem of the participants, and how are they trying to solve it?"

Researchers using grounded theory methods do not aim for the "truth." Rather, those researchers try to conceptualize what has been taking place in the lives of study participants. When applying grounded theory methods, the researcher does not formulate hypotheses in advance of data collection as is often the case in traditional research, otherwise the hypotheses would be ungrounded in the data. Hypotheses are supposed to emerge from the data.[13]

A goal of the researcher employing grounded theory methods is that of generating concepts that explain the way people resolve their central concerns regardless of time and place. These concepts organize the ground-level data. The concepts become the building blocks of hypotheses. The hypotheses become the constituents of a theory.

In most behavioral research endeavors, persons or patients are units of analysis, whereas in grounded theory the unit of analysis is the incident.[13] Typically several hundred incidents are analyzed in a grounded theory study because every participant usually reports many incidents. When comparing many incidents in a certain area of study, the emerging concepts and their inter-relationships are paramount. Consequently, grounded theory is a general method that can use any kind of data although grounded theory is most commonly applied to qualitative data.[14][15]

Most researchers oriented toward grounded theory do not apply statistical methods to the qualitative data they collect. The results of grounded theory research are not reported in terms of statistically significant findings although there may be probability statements about the relationship between concepts.[16] Internal validity in its traditional research sense is not an issue in grounded theory. Rather, questions of fit, relevance, workability, and modifiability are more important in grounded theory.[7][17][16] In addition, adherents of grounded theory emphasize a theoretical validity rather than traditional ideas of internal validity or measurement-related validity.[18] Grounded theory adherents are "less charitable when discussing [psychometric] reliability, calling a single method of observation continually yielding an unvarying measurement a quixotic reliability."[18]

A theory that is fitting has concepts that are closely connected to the incidents the theory purports to represent; fit depends on how thoroughly the constant comparison of incidents to concepts has been conducted. A qualitative study driven by grounded theory examines the genuine concerns of study participants; those concerns are not only of academic interest. Grounded theory works when it explains how study participants address the problem at hand and related problems. A theory is modifiable and can be altered when new relevant data are compared to existing data.

Once the data are collected, grounded theory analysis involves the following basic steps:

1. Coding text and theorizing: In grounded theory research, the search for a theory starts with the very first line of the very first interview that one codes. Small chunks of the text are coded line-by-line. Useful concepts are identified where key phrases are marked. The concepts are named. Another chunk of text is then taken and the above-mentioned steps are continued. According to Strauss and Corbin,[19] this process is called open coding. The process involves analyzing data such that conceptual components emerge. The next step involves theorizing, which partly includes pulling concepts together and thinking through how each concept can be related to a larger more inclusive concept. The constant comparative method plays an important role here.
2. Memoing and theorizing: Memoing is the process by which a researcher writes running notes bearing on each of the concepts being identified. The running notes constitute an intermediate step between coding and the first draft of the completed analysis. Memos are field notes about the concepts and insights that emerge from the observations. Memoing starts with the first concept identified and continues right through the processing of all the concepts. Memoing contributes to theory building.
3. Integrating, refining and writing up theories: Once coding categories emerge, the next step is to link them together in a theoretical model constructed around a central category that holds the concepts together. The constant comparative method comes into play, along with negative case analysis. Negative case analysis refers to the researcher looking for cases that are inconsistent with the theoretical model.

Theorizing is involved in all these steps. One is required to build and test theory all the way through till the end of a project.[20]

The idea that all is data is a fundamental property of grounded theory. The idea means that everything that the researcher encounters when studying a certain area is data, including not only interviews or observations but anything that helps the researcher generate concepts for the emerging theory. According to Ralph, Birks, and Chapman field notes can come from informal interviews, lectures, seminars, expert group meetings, newspaper articles, Internet mail lists, even television shows, conversations with friends etc.[21]

Different approaches to grounded theory reflect different views on how preexisting theory should be used in research. In The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Glaser and Strauss[7] advanced the view that, prior to conducting research, investigators should come to an area of study without any preconceived ideas regarding relevant concepts and hypotheses. In this way, the investigator, according to Glaser and Strauss, avoids imposing preconceived categories upon the research endeavor.

Glaser later attempted to address the tension between not reading and reading the literature before a qualitative study begins.[17] Glaser raised the issue of the use of a literature review to enhance the researchers' "theoretical sensitivity," i.e., their ability to identify a grounded theory that is a good fit to the data. He suggested that novice researchers might delay reading the literature to avoid undue influence on their handling of the qualitative data they collect. Glaser believed that reading the relevant research literature (substantive literature) could lead investigators to apply preexisting concepts to the data, rather than interpret concepts emerging from the data. He, however, encouraged a broad reading of the literature to develop theoretical sensitivity. Strauss felt that reading relevant material could enhance the researcher's theoretical sensitivity.[27]

There has been some divergence in the methodology of grounded theory. Over time, Glaser and Strauss came to disagree about methodology and other qualitative researchers have also modified ideas linked to grounded theory.[9] This divergence occurred most obviously after Strauss published Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists (1987).[28] In 1990, Strauss, together with Juliet Corbin, published Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques.[19] The publication of the book was followed by a rebuke by Glaser (1992), who set out, chapter by chapter, to highlight the differences in what he argued was the original grounded theory and why what Strauss and Corbin had written was not grounded theory in its "intended form."[11] This divergence in methodology is a subject of much academic debate, which Glaser (1998) calls a "rhetorical wrestle".[16] Glaser continues to write about and teach the original grounded theory method.

Grounded theory methods, according to Glaser, emphasize induction or emergence, and the individual researcher's creativity within a clear stagelike framework. By contrast, Strauss has been more interested in validation criteria and a systematic approach.[29] According to Kelle (2005), "the controversy between Glaser and Strauss boils down to the question of whether the researcher uses a well-defined "coding paradigm" and always looks systematically for "causal conditions," "phenomena/context, intervening conditions, action strategies," and "consequences" in the data (Straussian), or whether theoretical codes are employed as they emerge in the same way as substantive codes emerge, but drawing on a huge fund of "coding families" (Glaserian).[29]

Grounded theory has been "shaped by the desire to discover social and psychological processes."[43] Grounded theory, however, is not restricted to these two areas study. As Gibbs points out, the process of grounded theory can be and has been applied to a number of different disciplines, including medicine, law, and economics. The reach of grounded theory has extended to nursing, business, and education.

Grounded theory focuses more on procedures than on the discipline to which grounded theory is applied. Rather than being limited to a particular discipline or form of data collection, grounded theory has been found useful across multiple research areas.[44] Here are some examples:

1. In psychology, grounded theory is used to understand the role of therapeutic distance for adult clients with attachment anxiety.
2. In sociology, grounded theory is used to discover the meaning of spirituality in cancer patients, and how their beliefs influence their attitude towards cancer treatments.
3. Public health researchers have used grounded theory to examine nursing home preparedness needs in relation to Hurricane Katrina refugees sheltered in nursing homes.
4. In business, grounded theory is used by managers to explain the ways in which organizational characteristics explain co-worker support.
5. In software engineering, grounded theory has been used to study daily stand-up meetings.[45]
6. Grounded theory has also helped researchers in the field of information technology to study the use of computer technology in older adults.[46][47]
7. In nursing, grounded theory has been used to examine how change-of-shift reports can be used to keep patients safe.[48] It was further developed in relation to students learning and working by Kath M. Melia.[49]

The benefits of using grounded theory include ecological validity, the discovery of novel phenomena, and parsimony..

Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research findings accurately represent real-world settings. Research based on grounded theories are often thought to be ecologically valid because the research is especially close to the real-world participants. Although the constructs in a grounded theory are appropriately abstract (since their goal is to explain other similar phenomenon), they are context-specific, detailed, and tightly connected to the data.

Because grounded theories are not tied to any preexisting theory, grounded theories are often fresh and new and have the potential for novel discoveries in science and other areas.

Parsimony refers to a heuristic often used in science that suggests that when there are competing hypotheses that make the same prediction, the hypothesis that relies on the fewest assumptions is preferable. Grounded theories aim to provide practical and simple explanations of complex phenomena by attempting to link those phenomena to abstract constructs and hypothesizing relationships among those constructs.

Grounded theory has further significance because:

• It provides explicit, sequential guidelines for conducting qualitative research.
• It offers specific strategies for handling the analytic phases of inquiry.
• It provides ways to streamline and integrate data collection and analysis and
• It legitimizes qualitative research as scientific inquiry.

Grounded theory methods have earned their place as a standard social research methodology and have influenced researchers from varied disciplines and professions.[50]

Grounded theory has been criticized based on the scientific idea of what a theory is. Thomas and James,[51] for example, distinguish the ideas of generalization, over-generalization, and theory, noting that some scientific theories explain a broad range of phenomena succinctly, which grounded theory does not. Thomas and James observed that "The problems come when too much is claimed for [for a theory], simply because it is empirical; problems come in distinguishing generalization from over-generalization, narrative from induction." They also write that grounded theory advocates sometimes claim to find causal implications when in truth they only find an association.

There has been criticism of grounded theory on the grounds that it opens the door to letting too much researcher subjectivity enter.[51][52] The authors just cited suggest that it is impossible to free oneself of preconceptions in the collection and analysis of data in the way that Glaser and Strauss assert is necessary. Popper also undermines grounded theory's idea that hypotheses arise from data unaffected by prior expectations.[53] Popper wrote that "objects can be classified and can become similar or dissimilar, only in this way--by being related to needs and interests." Observation is always selective, based on past research and the investigators' goals and motives, and that preconceptionless research is impossible. Critics also note that grounded theory fails to mitigate participant reactivity and has the potential for an investigator steeped in grounded theory to over-identify with one or more study participants.[52]

Although they suggest that one element of grounded theory worth keeping is the constant comparative method, Thomas and James point to the formulaic nature of grounded theory methods and the lack of congruence of those methods with open and creative interpretation, which ought to be the hallmark of qualitative inquiry.[51]

The grounded theory approach can be criticized as being too empiricist, i.e., that it relies too heavily on the empirical data. Grounded theory considers fieldwork data as the source of theory. Thus the theories that emerge from a new fieldwork are set against the theories that preceded the fieldwork.[54]

Strauss's version of grounded theory has been criticized in several other ways:[55]

• Grounded theory researchers sometimes have a quasi-objective focus, emphasizing hypotheses, variables, reliability, and replicability. This multi-faceted focus leads to contradictory findings.
• It is inappropriate to ignore the existing theories by not paying attention to the literature.
• Grounded theory offers a complex methodology and confusing terminology rather than providing a practical orientation to research and data analysis. Also see Tolhurst.[56]
• Some grounded theory researchers have produced poorly explained theories; concept generation rather than the generation of formal theory may be a more practical goal for grounded theory researchers.

Grounded theory was developed during an era when qualitative methods were often considered unscientific. But as the academic rigor of qualitative research became known, this type of research approach achieved wide acceptance. In American academia, qualitative research is often equated with grounded theory methods. Such equating of most qualitative methods with grounded theory has sometimes been criticized by qualitative researchers who take different approaches to methodology (for example, in traditional ethnography, narratology, and storytelling).

One alternative to grounded theory is engaged theory. Engaged theory equally emphasizes the conducting of on-the-ground empirical research but linking that research to analytical processes of empirical generalization. Unlike grounded theory, engaged theory derives from the tradition of critical theory. Engaged theory locates analytical processes within a larger theoretical framework that specifies different levels of abstraction, allowing investigators to make claims about the wider world.[57]

Braun and Clarke[58] regard thematic analysis as having fewer theoretical assumptions than grounded theory, and can be used within several theoretical frameworks. They write that in comparison to grounded theory, thematic analysis is freer because it is not linked to any preexisting framework for making sense of qualitative data. Braun and Clarke, however, concede that there is a degree of similarity between grounded theory and thematic analysis but prefer thematic analysis.

• Antipositivism
• Engaged theory
• Formal concept analysis
• Grounded practical theory
• Qualitative research
• Postpositivism
• Social research
• Content analysis

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Glaser

• Glaser BG, The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis. Social Problems, 12(4), 445, 1965.
• Glaser BG, Strauss A. Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research. Sociology Press, 1967
• Glaser BG. Theoretical Sensitivity: Advances in the methodology of Grounded Theory. Sociology Press, 1978.
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• Glaser BG (ed). Gerund Grounded Theory: The Basic Social Process Dissertation. Sociology Press, 1996.
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• Glaser BG. The Grounded Theory Perspective I: Conceptualization Contrasted with Description. Sociology Press, 2001.
• Glaser BG. The Grounded Theory Perspective II: Description's Remodeling of Grounded Theory. Sociology Press, 2003.
• Glaser BG. The Grounded Theory Perspective III: Theoretical coding. Sociology Press, 2005.

Strauss and Corbin

• Anselm L. Strauss; Leonard Schatzman; Rue Bucher; Danuta Ehrlich & Melvin Sabshin: Psychiatric ideologies and institutions (1964)
• Barney G. Glaser; Anselm L. Strauss: The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research (1967)
• Anselm L. Strauss: Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists (1987)
• Anselm L. Strauss; Juliet Corbin: Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, Sage (1990)
• Anselm L. Strauss; Juliet Corbin: "Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons and Evaluative Criteria", in: Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 19. Jg, S. 418 ff. (1990)
• Anselm L. Strauss: Continual Permutations of Action (1993)
• Anselm L. Strauss; Juliet Corbin: "Grounded Theory in Practice", Sage (1997)
• Anselm L. Strauss; Juliet Corbin: "Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques". 2nd edition. Sage, 1998.
• Juliet Corbin; Anselm L. Strauss: "Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques". 3rd edition. Sage, 2008.

Constructivist grounded theory

• Bryant, Antony (2002) 'Re-grounding grounded theory', Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 4(1): 25–42.
• Bryant, Antony and Charmaz, Kathy (2007) 'Grounded theory in historical perspective: An epistemological account', in Bryant, A. and Charmaz, K. (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory. Los Angeles: Sage. pp. 31–57.
• Charmaz, Kathy (2000) 'Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods', in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. pp. 509–535.
• Charmaz, Kathy (2003) 'Grounded theory', in Smith, J.A. (ed.), Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods. London: Sage. pp. 81–110.
• Charmaz, Kathy (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage.
• Charmaz, Kathy (2008) 'Constructionism and the grounded theory method', in Holstein, J.A. and Gubrium, J.F. (eds.), Handbook of Constructionist Research. New York: The Guilford Press. pp. 397–412.
• Charmaz, Kathy (2009) 'Shifting the grounds: Constructivist grounded theory methods', in J. M. Morse, P. N. Stern, J. Corbin, B. Bowers, K. Charmaz and A. E. Clarke (eds.), Developing Grounded Theory: The Second Generation. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press. pp. 127–154.
• Charmaz, Kathy (forthcoming) Constructing Grounded Theory 2nd ed. London: Sage.
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• Thornberg, Robert & Charmaz, K. (forthcoming) 'Grounded theory and theoretical coding', in Flick, U. (ed.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative analysis. London: Sage.

• The Grounded Theory Institute (Glaser tradition)
• Grounded Theory Online (Supporting (Glaserian) grounded theory researchers)
• Grounded Theory Review
• Sociology Press
• Grounded Theory Research Tutorial