Grounded Theory

History

The grounded theory method was introduced in the 1960s by two American sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, and has been further developed by them and others. Grounded theory was introduced to serve three purposes. First, it endeavored to close the gap between theory and empirical research by having theory emerge from the data. Second, it began to spell out the inductive logic involved in producing grounded theory. Finally, it provided a justification for the careful and rigorous use of qualitative research methods in sociology.

Deriving its theoretical underpinnings from the philosophy of American pragmatism and the related social theory, symbolic interactionism, grounded theory portrays research as a problem-solving endeavor concerned with understanding action from the perspective of the human agent. Strauss was heavily influenced by the University of Chicago tradition in qualitative social research, with its emphasis on the method of comparative analysis and the use of participant observation. Glaser was strongly influenced by the quantitative research tradition at Columbia University, and he brought to grounded theory important ideas from this tradition and translated them into qualitative terms.

Both Glaser and Strauss continued to develop the methodology of grounded theory, although in separate publications. From the 1980s onwards, their formulations of grounded theory diverged somewhat. Glaser sees himself as having remained true to the original conception of grounded theory, with its emphasis on studying basic social processes, the use of the constant comparison method, and the formulation of theories by letting abstract relationships between theoretical categories emerge from the data. Strauss, in association with Juliet Corbin, developed new methods of analysis in place of the strategy of constant comparative analysis, and they stressed the importance of verification of theory as well as its generation. Glaser has strongly objected that Strauss and Corbin's approach forces data and their analysis into preconceived categories instead of letting the categories emerge from the data. Although Strauss acknowledges that there are differences, he maintains that both he and Glaser advocate use of the same basic procedures for doing grounded theory research.

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