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Grounded theory. By: Schroth, Stephen T., PhD, Salem Press

Encyclopedia, 2019

Research Starters

Grounded theory

Grounded theory is a method, often used in qualitative research, that involves the development of

theory in social science research through the collection and analysis of data. Unlike traditional social

science research, grounded theory begins with the collection of data rather than the formulation of a

hypothesis. Developed by two sociologists conducting research related to the sociology of illness at

the University of California, San Francisco, grounded theory has since been used in a variety of other

social science fields, including education, economics, anthropology, and political science. Since its

introduction during the 1960s, grounded theory has diverged into related but dissimilar approaches.

Overview

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Wikimedia Commons In 1967 Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss published

Awareness of Dying, a book that explored the experiences of

dying hospital patients. As part of this process, Glaser and

Strauss developed a research methodology that they initially termed the constant comparative

method, and was later named grounded theory. Most social science research up until that point had

followed a highly structured approach, which entailed forming a hypothesis, performing a literature

review, collecting and analyzing data, and only then realizing the findings. Grounded theory, which

Glaser and Strauss first wrote about in The Discovery of Grounded Theory in 1967, in many ways

reversed this traditional approach.

Researchers utilizing the grounded theory begin the process by collecting data as a way to use both

inductive and deductive thinking as a way to engage in a systematic generation from theory. In doing

so, researchers pursue several related but mutually exclusive goals. One goal is the formulation of

hypotheses based upon conceptual ideas. Another goal of researchers using grounded theory

approach is to discover what concerns the participants in the study may have and how they might try

to resolve them. Other researchers may seek verification of hypotheses that are generated through

the process of comparing conceptualized data at different levels of abstraction. Rather than seeking

“the truth,” researchers using a grounded theory approach try to answer the questions “what’s going

on here?” and “how are the participants trying to solve their main problem?” This focus on

explanation rather than description is one way in which grounded theory varies from other forms of

inquiry.

Those using grounded theory engage in four stages of analysis, each of which involves the collection

of data and concurrent analysis. Data collection is ongoing throughout four stages: codes, concepts,

categories, and theory. During the codes state researchers identify those anchors that permit the key

points of the data to be gathered. While involved in the concepts stage researchers collect codes of

similar content so that data may be grouped. The categories state using broad groups of similar

concepts in order to generate a theory. Finally, during the theory stage explanations are collected

that elucidate the subject of the research. No one stage is more important than the others, and each

helps the researcher to clarify what is going on in a given situation and to determine how participants

are trying to solve the main problem.

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While traditional social studies research focuses on the validity of findings, grounded theory is judged

by its fit, relevance, workability, and modifiability. Fit involves how well concepts fit with the incidents

they represent, and incidents are constantly compared to concepts to ensure this. Relevance

examines the real concerns of participants, and when it is well done it grabs the attention of readers.

Workability exists when a theory explains how the problem is being solved in a variety of settings.

Modifiability permits a theory to be altered if and when relevant new data is compared to existing

data. A grounded theory is neither valid nor invalid, but rather it has more or less fit, relevance,

workability, and modifiability.

After their initial work in 1967, Glaser and Strauss disagreed on how best to apply the grounded

theory method, resulting in Glaserian and Straussian paradigms. The disagreement between Glaser

and Strauss centered on several issues. The first area of disagreement focused upon whether the

researcher uses a well defined coding paradigm, or instead draws upon a huge fund of coding

families to generate codes as they emerge. Another area of dispute involves whether the researcher

looks systematically for causal conditions, phenomena, context, intervening conditions, action

strategies, and consequences in the data. These disputes have caused a great deal of discussion,

although some suggest that in the end the results may not vary greatly depending upon which

approach is used.

Bibliography

Birks, M., and J. Mills. Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2011. Print.

Bryant, A., and K. Charmaz, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks: Sage,

2007. Print.

Charmaz, K. Constructing Grounded Theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2013. Print.

Corbin, J., A. Strauss. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing

Grounded Theory. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2008. Print.

De Chesnay, Mary, ed. Research Using Grounded Theory: Qualitative Designs and Methods

in . New York: Springer, 2015. Print.

Della Porta, Donatella. Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research. New York: Oxford

UP 2014. Print.

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Denzin, N. K. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2011.

Print.

Fram, S. M. (2013). “The Constant Comparative Analysis Theory Outside of Grounded Theory.”

Qualitative Report 18.1 (2013): 1–25. Print.

Glaser, B., and A. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.

New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction, 1967. Print.

Martin, V. B., and A. Gynnild, eds. Grounded Theory: The Philosophy, Method, and Work of Barney

Glaser. Boca Raton: Brown, 2011. Print.

Stufflebeam, Daniel, and Chris L. S. Coryn. Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications. 2nd ed.

San Francisco: Jossey, 2014. Print.

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