Grounded theory definition professional#

Notice that the former is specifically situated in Britain, where as the latter might be applied more broadly.Īs another example, Glaser and Strauss examined expectations of dying in hospital wards.

The evolution of welfare states (formal theory).

The evolution of British welfare state in postwar years (substantive theory).

210).Įxamples provided by Ian Dey that show the difference between a “substantive” and “formal” theory include:

Thus a substantive theory has a particular subject (specified in time and space) while formal theories have general subjects, which at least to some extent escape spatial and temporal boundaries (p. …a substantive theory is not designed to explain phenomena at a lower level of generality rather, it is designed to account for a particular phenomenon where that particularity is defined in terms of time and space. Both types of theory may be considered as “middle-range.” That is, they fall between the “minor working hypotheses” of everyday life and the “all inclusive” grand theories (pp. By formal theory, we mean that developed for a formal, conceptual, area of sociological inquiry, such as stigma, deviant behavior, formal organization, socialization, status congruency, authority and power, reward systems or social mobility”.

Grounded theory definition professional#

They wrote:īy substantive theory we mean that developed for a substantive, empirical area of sociological inquiry, such as patient care, race relations, professional education, delinquency, or research organizations. Let’s look further at how theory is defined in relation to grounded theory.įirst, Glaser and Strauss (1967) distinguished between “substantive” and “formal” theory. In this blogpost, I’ll take a closer look at “theory” and how it is discussed in methodological writing about “grounded theory.” “Theory” and grounded theory For example, you will find explanations of grounded theory methods with and without axial coding constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) and grounded theory influenced by postmodernism (Clarke, 2005). To make things more complicated, there are multiple versions of grounded theory that outline different approaches. In my view, many qualitative studies apply the analytic procedures outlined in grounded theory methods texts (i.e., constant comparative methods), rather than developing “grounded theories”. Studies often involve larger numbers of participants than doctoral students typically recruit. As originally construed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967), a grounded theory study attends to theoretical sampling, along with simultaneous data collection and analysis.

Conducting a “true” grounded theory (if there such a thing) in which the researcher develops a “grounded theory” about a topic is very challenging.