Grounded theory, a qualitative research method, relies on insight generated from the data. Unlike traditional research that begins from a preconceived framework of logically deduced hypotheses, grounded theory begins inductively by gathering data and posing hypotheses during analysis that can be confirmed or disconfirmed during subsequent data collection. Grounded theory is used to generate a theory about a research topic through the systematic and simultaneous collection and analysis of data. Developed in the 1960s by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss within the symbolic interactionist tradition of field studies in sociology and drawing also on principles of factor analysis and qualitative mathematics, it is now used widely in the social sciences; business and organizational studies; and, particularly, nursing.

As an exploratory method, grounded theory is particularly well ...

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