Grounded Theory

In school, you may have been taught about the scientific method, which traditionally goes something like this: ask a question, do background research, form a hypothesis, conduct tests, and then analyze your data to decide whether your hypothesis was proven or disproven. You may remember the feeling of formulating a hypothesis and then eagerly awaiting the results to see if you were right. 

Maybe your hypothesis was something as simple as “if I drop Mentos into this soda bottle, there will be an explosion,” or more complex, such as analyzing whether pet owners are more likely to follow a vegan diet. 

Are there other ways to structure research? Absolutely. When conducting qualitative research in the social sciences, it’s important to approach complex questions about the human experience with an open mind. Grounded theory is a systematic inductive approach where, instead of working off of an existing theory, new theories are derived from the data itself, and data collection and analysis are iterative.¹

Grounded theory almost always involves qualitative research, which requires an open-ended question. Let’s say, for example, if you wanted to study the impact of pets on people’s lives, a quantitative approach might ask: are pet owners more likely to be vegan? This can be tested through quantitative methods (e.g., surveys, experiments, etc.). Notice that this is a yes or no question. In contrast, a qualitative question might ask: how do pet owners feel about veganism? This question is more difficult to answer with a single experiment. Qualitative research allows for deeper and more nuanced answers and takes many forms, such as observational studies, interviews, focus groups, ethnographies, and media reviews.

Now, let’s break down what conducting grounded theory research actually looks like: 

First, determine the initial research questions. This is not the same as having a hypothesis. Instead, hone in on what specific phenomena, experiences, or narratives you’re trying to understand. This can be grounded in the existing literature on the topic or an attempt to address a gap in the literature. Your research question (or questions, as sometimes you may have 2-3 related questions) will be the guiding force for the rest of your research, helping you determine your methods of recruitment, data collection, and analysis.

Don’t be afraid to return to your research question early and often. Part of grounded theory involves adapting your research methods and maybe even the initial question as you progress. For example, if certain themes come up over and over as you’re conducting interviews, it may be worth asking if your research question should be adapted to address these prominent themes.

The second step involves recruiting and collecting data using theoretical sampling. Gather rich and detailed data through interviews, observations, documents, or other relevant sources, and choose participants based off of their relevance to the research question. This process is iterative and continues until theoretical saturation is achieved, where no new information alters the emerging theory​.

Once you have some data, such as the records from relevant social media posts or recordings from in-depth interviews, prepare that data for analysis by turning it into a codeable format, such as transcripts.

In grounded theory, coding begins with open coding, which involves going through data line-by-line to identify discrete pieces of information and assigning labels (codes) to these pieces based on their content and meaning​.² This phase is highly exploratory and open-ended, allowing new ideas to emerge​. 

Codes should be based on the trends in the data. Going back to the example of the research question about pets, you might notice that when people refer to their own pets they use words like “smart,” “bright,” or “brilliant.” If these words keep coming up within one participant’s interview, or if many participants mention their pet’s intelligence, it may be worth coding, and you could highlight these quotes with a code like “pet intelligence”. 

Next, organize the initial codes into categories and subcategories, looking for connections between codes to form broader themes​. Maybe you’ve also created a code for when people talk about the intelligence of farm animals. It’s important to note that everything within a category doesn’t have to have the same valence. Perhaps you record one person saying ‘dumb pig,’ while someone else noted ‘pigs are as smart as 3-year old humans.’ Although the sentiments are conflicting, they could both be categorized as ‘farm animal intelligence.’ Then, the ‘pet intelligence’ code and the ‘farm animal intelligence’ category could be grouped into a theme of ‘animal intelligence.’ 

From these larger groupings or categories, identify a core category that encapsulates the main theme of your research. This category should unify all other categories and provide a central framework for your theory​. Finally, connect the core category with the other categories to form a comprehensive theory, refining the connections and ensuring that all data fits into your theoretical framework​.

As you continue to develop your theory, engage with peers to review and ensure its credibility. Reflect on your own biases and be mindful that they haven’t unduly influenced the research​. This is known as reflexivity. Just like quantitative research, grounded theory will require finalizing a comprehensive report that includes the theory, the process of its development, and its implications. Like any good research, findings should be grounded in the data (refer to your codes to support any claims or conclusions!), accessible, and usable by other researchers​​.

• Open Coding: This is the initial step in grounded theory data analysis, where data (such as observation notes or interview and focus group transcripts) is broken down into discrete parts, and codes are assigned to these parts. Researchers comb through the data and identify recurring concepts or patterns, categorizing them into codes. Open coding is an inductive method of coding, where researchers use the data at hand to create the codes, rather than sorting the data into pre-existing codes.
• Axial Coding: Following open coding, axial coding involves identifying relationships among the codes. This step organizes codes into categories and subcategories, linking them to form a coherent set of concepts.
• Selective Coding: The final step in data analysis involves integrating and refining themes to form a "global" theme. While there are sometimes 2-3 universal themes that emerge, they should address the original research question, and all sub-themes and codes should fit within this global theme.
• Constant Comparative Method: This method involves continuously comparing new data with existing codes and themes to refine the emerging theory. This approach ensures that the theory remains grounded in the data throughout the research process​. Researchers consciously refer back to the research question and emerging themes to refine their methods as they move forward in data collection. Unlike the traditional scientific method, which separates data collection and analysis stages, grounded theory emphasizes an iterative process. Researchers go back to the field even after conducting some analysis, returning with different recruiting strategies and focuses of inquiry. This cyclical nature is a key aspect of grounded theory's revolutionary approach.²
• Theoretical Saturation: When additional data no longer contribute new insights. Although, as with all qualitative research, there is some subjectivity around when saturation takes place, this is basically when researchers aren’t learning anything new from additional focus groups or interviews, and thus data collection can stop.

*note that different researchers use the terms ‘concepts,’ ‘categories,’ ‘subcategories,’ and ‘themes’ differently (ex. Sometimes codes are grouped into concepts and then categories, sometimes vice versa). The best way to know which level of hierarchy a word is being used for is to consult the specific piece of research and see how they’ve defined it. 

Grounded theory was developed by sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in the mid-1960s. As we’ve seen, its creation marked a significant shift in qualitative research methods, emphasizing the generation of theory from empirical data rather than testing existing theories. 

Glaser and Strauss's collaborated on the “Awareness of Dying” study in 1965 highlighting the need for a systematic methodology to analyze qualitative data, and in 1967 they published "The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research," which laid out the principles and procedures we have built on today. ²

Over time, Glaser and Strauss developed differing views on the methodology of grounded theory, leading to a split in their approaches. This divergence is a significant aspect of the history of grounded theory. On one hand, Glaser remained committed to the original inductive approach, emphasizing the discovery of theory from data with minimal preconceived notions. In contrast, Strauss, along with Juliet Corbin, introduced more structured procedures for data analysis, incorporating axial coding and other detailed coding paradigms. They published "Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques" in 1990, which presented grounded theory with this more analytical and structured framework​.

In the 1990s, sociologist Kathy Charmaz introduced constructivist grounded theory, which emphasized the interpretive nature of data analysis. This approach recognized the researcher’s role in constructing meanings from the data, thus blending grounded theory with constructivist epistemology. Her work provided a more flexible and reflexive approach to grounded theory, making it more applicable to a wide range of research contexts​. Today, grounded theory continues to evolve, incorporating advances in qualitative data analysis techniques and software tools. It remains a popular methodology in fields such as sociology, nursing, education, and organizational studies.²

Grounded theory is incredibly important in understanding human behavior. Because it considers the environment and circumstances surrounding participants, it can provide a more holistic view of the research problem and captures the complexity of human experiences and behaviors. Interviews and focus groups allow researchers to explore the nuances of participants' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, while ethnographic studies immerse the researcher in the participants' environment. These qualitative methods  offer insights into cultural practices, social interactions, and environmental influences that quantitative methods might overlook, and as mentioned, grounded theory’s emphasis on flexibility ensures that research remains relevant and grounded in participants' true experiences.

In psychology and behavioral sciences, grounded theory is often used to investigate phenomena that haven’t previously been studied. This inductive approach allows researchers to develop theories based directly on participants' experiences and perspectives, without being constrained by existing theoretical frameworks. For example, researchers might use grounded theory to explore how people cope with a modern mental health issue, like internet addiction or the psychological impacts of social media use. By analyzing qualitative data from interviews or focus groups, they can identify common patterns and develop a theory explaining the coping mechanisms and influencing factors of these new issues. 

We’ve also seen grounded theory be particularly helpful in educational psychology, exploring how students learn, how teachers teach, and how educational environments impact all of the actors. Researchers can explore how students develop critical thinking skills in a problem-based learning environment, and with student interviews and classroom observations, they can generate theories about the key factors that facilitate critical thinking, such as specific teaching strategies, classroom dynamics, and student-teacher interactions​.²

Grounded theory, despite its wide application and influential status in qualitative research, has its shortcomings. Just like any other research method, there is always room for error, bias, and misrepresentation. The debates around grounded theory often revolve around methodological rigor, the split between the founders, and the challenges in applying the methodology consistently. 

Some critics argue that grounded theory can be overly flexible, leading to inconsistencies in how it’s applied. The iterative nature of data collection and analysis can result in varied interpretations of the same data, which may compromise the reliability and validity of the findings​. The open-ended nature of the methodology can lead to different researchers developing different theories from the same data, raising questions about the objectivity and replicability of the results​ (although this is sometimes remedied through recruiting multiple researchers to code the same data and then comparing, known as measuring inter coder reliability)​.

There are also a number of methodological splits; as mentioned, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss led two distinct approaches to grounded theory, each with their own set of procedures and philosophical underpinnings. Meanwhile, Kathy Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory emphasizes the researcher's role in interpreting data. While this approach acknowledges the subjective nature of research, it’s been criticized for potentially introducing bias and reducing the objectivity of the findings​. Traditionalists argue that grounded theory should remain as an objective method of theory generation.

In practice, applying grounded theory can be labor-intensive and time-consuming. The need for continuous data collection and analysis until theoretical saturation is reached can be costly and impractical, as can the coding and re-coding of data, particularly for novice researchers. This is also said to lead to inconsistent application of the methodology and less rigorous outcomes​. 

Grounded theory's roots in positivism have been critiqued by some qualitative researchers who argue that it doesn’t account for the subjective and constructed nature of social reality. These critics contend that grounded theory's emphasis on theory emergence from data assumes a level of objectivity that is not always present in social research​.

It’s important to note that when researchers hone in on particular themes or concepts, there is always room for error. Excluding data that is irrelevant to the research question is very different from excluding data that is contradictory to what the researcher wants to hear. The goal is to be as objective as possible, and for the researcher to draw conclusions that are, in fact, based off of the data. But, grounded theory, like any other tool used by humans, will never be perfect.

Ethnographic Study

Want to learn more about ethnography? A popular qualitative research method, ethnography is a way to tell stories about people’s lives. More specifically, it takes a first-person perspective, diving into their lives without influence from the observer. 

Focus Groups 

Another popular qualitative research method, focus groups are group interviews where people share ideas and information for research. During focus groups, an interviewer or researcher will ask questions and often guide the conversation. Participants are encouraged to chat with each other, share stories and react to what others say. The idea is to bring out diverse perspectives and detailed insights.

TDL Perspectives: Becoming an Applied Behavioral Scientist

Applied behavioral science is all about using the scientific method—abduction, deduction, induction—to find evidence-based solutions to the problems plaguing some kind of system. This article goes over the basics of what a career in applied behavioral science looks like.

1. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qualitative Sociology.
2. Delve, Ho, L., & Limpaecher, A. (2021, September 17). The Practical Guide to Grounded Theory. Practical Guide to Grounded Theory Research. https://delvetool.com/groundedtheory