Qualitative traditions

Four qualitative traditions, four different questions — and the exam item is almost always "match the study to its tradition." Get the core question each one asks and you'll nail these every time.

Grounded theory asks: what theory emerges from the data? Its whole purpose is to build a theory from the ground up, out of the data itself, rather than testing an existing one. Signature moves are constant comparison (continually comparing new data to earlier data and emerging categories) and theoretical sampling, continuing until you reach saturation (no new themes appear). If a study's goal is to generate a theory — think grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss).

Phenomenology asks: what is the lived experience of this phenomenon? It captures the essence of a shared experience as people actually live it — "what is it like to survive a stroke?" Researchers often bracket their own assumptions to see the experience freshly. Keyword: lived experience / essence → phenomenology (Husserl, Moustakas).

Ethnography asks: what are the shared patterns of a culture? It studies a culture or cultural group — its rituals, language, behaviors, and values — usually through prolonged immersion and participant observation in the field. Keyword: culture → ethnography (roots in anthropology).

Case study asks: what's happening in this one bounded case? It's an in-depth exploration of a single bounded system — one person, program, event, or organization — using multiple data sources (interviews, documents, observation). Keyword: a single case / bounded system → case study (Yin, Stake).

Clinical Pearl: Discriminate by the core question — Grounded theory → builds a THEORY from data; Phenomenology → the ESSENCE of lived EXPERIENCE; Ethnography → a CULTURE/cultural group; Case study → one BOUNDED case. The tested skill is the match, so anchor to those four keywords: theory, experience, culture, case.