The Role of Theory in Qualitative Research
📌 The common perception that qualitative research does not use theory stems from the difference in how theory is positioned compared to quantitative research.
📌 Mainstream scientific writing, often quantitative, starts by testing an existing theory (deductive approach), formulating hypotheses, and generalizing results.
📌 Qualitative research (inductive approach) focuses on observing phenomena that are difficult to measure, such as subjective experiences, feelings, and understanding.
📌 The inductive process begins with observing reality or phenomena, gathering qualitative data (words/descriptions), and building a new construction or logic that may become a new contribution to theory.

Inductive Approach vs. Deductive Approach
📐 Deductive research (often quantitative) aims to test the truth of a theory and generalize findings, starting from established theoretical premises.
🔬 Inductive research (often qualitative) aims to explore a phenomenon deeply from the informants' perspectives, not to confirm a pre-existing theory.
💬 Qualitative data is associated with words (transcripts, descriptions) rather than numbers or measurable metrics.

Case Study: Religious Spirit and Accountability
📜 A study by Jayasinghe and Samaraweera (2009) examined accountability in Hindu and Buddhist religious organizations, focusing on the subjective reality of religious trust.
🧘‍♀️ The study found that formal accountability (meetings, financial reports) was practiced, but an underlying element called 'religious spirit' superseded deep questioning from the congregation.
✨ 'Religious spirit' is described as the sacred trust placed in religiously devout individuals, leading the community to believe these agents automatically adhere to principles like Dharma (doing good), Karma (consequences of actions), and Samsara (cycle of life/death).
🚫 This spiritual trust made the agents’ adherence to formal accountability less scrutinized, contrasting sharply with secular agency theory, which assumes agents act in self-interest.
💡 The contribution of this qualitative study was the creation of a new knowledge construction—'religious spirit accountability'—offering an alternative logic to established agency theory.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Qualitative research does not reject theory; it positions it differently, often contributing to theory development rather than testing existing ones.
➡️ The inductive method relies on deep observation of reality to build new, descriptive knowledge constructions where prior formal names or theories may not exist.
➡️ The case study demonstrated that in specific cultural and religious contexts, spiritual trust (religious spirit) can override rational, secular accountability mechanisms predicted by agency theory.
➡️ Qualitative designs utilize words and descriptions gathered from informants to construct this new knowledge base, making them distinct from quantitative, numerical designs.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Oct 09, 2025, 08:28 UTC