Anselm L. Strauss

Barney G. Glaser

This volume is directed toward closing the gap between theory and empirical research and improving social scientists' capacities for generating theory that is relevant and useful to their research. "Most writing on sociological method has been concerned with how accurate facts can be obtained and how theory can thereby be more rigorously tested. In this book we address ourselves to the equally important enterprise, of how the discovery of theory from data-systematically obtained and analyzed in social research--can be furthered. We believe that the discovery of theory from data--which we call grounded theory--is a major task confronting sociology today, for, as we shall show, such a theory fits empirical situations, and is understandable to sociologist and layman alike. Most important, it works--provides us with relevant predictions, explanations, interpretations and applications.... And so, we offer this book, which we conceive as a beginning venture in the development of improved methods for discovering grounded theory." From the introduction to The Discovery of Grounded Theory Authors: Barney G. Glaser, Anselm L. Strauss

Strategies for Qualitative Research

The Discovery of Grounded Theory

Anselm Strauss

Juliet Corbin

A landmark volume in the study of qualitative methods, the book presents methods that enable researchers to analyze and interpret their data, and ultimately build theory from it. Highly accessible in their approach, authors Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss (late of the University of San Francisco and co-creator of grounded theory) provide a step-by-step guide to the research act, from the formation of the research question through several approaches to coding and analysis, to reporting on the research. Significantly revised and full of definitions and illustrative examples, this highly accessible book concludes with chapters that present criteria for evaluating a study, as well as responses to common questions posed by students of qualitative research.

Basics of Qualitative Research

The French writer Arnold van Gennep first called attention to the phenomena of status passages in his Rites of Passage one hundred years ago. In Status Passage, first published in 1971, the movement of individuals and groups in contemporary society from one status to another is examined in the light of Gennep's original theory. Glaser and Strauss demonstrate that society emerges as a comparative order. In this order, every organized action, collective or individual, can be seen as a form of status passage.From one status to another-from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, from being single to being married, movement from one income group, social class or religion to another-there are passages that entail movement into different parts of a social structure and loss or gain in privileges. Types of status passage are described by their proper ties. The authors present a formal theory of status passage in the form of a running theoretical discussion.The concepts and categories discussed in Status Passage are illuminated by a large number of examples chosen from a wide range of human behavior, and the applicability of the theory to still other examples is made apparent. The result is a stimulating and provocative book that will interest a wide range of sociologists, social psychologists, and other social scientists, and will be useful in a variety of courses.

Status Passage

The authors of this volume point out that what is ordinarily termed the psychiatric hospital's "social structure" is principally derived from three sources: the number and kinds of professionals who work there; the treatment ideologies and professional identities of these professionals; and the relationships of the institution and its professionals to outside communities, both professional and lay. They describe hospitals as sites where ideological battles characterizing the mental health arena are being fought, implemented, critiqued, modified, and transformed. This classic monograph in medical sociology was originally published in the 1960s. The period studied was 1958 through 1963, when somatic and psychotherapeutic ideologies were flourishing—as now—and milieutherapy was just emerging. The research team was multidisciplinary: three sociologists, one psychologist, and one psychiatrist. Three distinct psychiatric environments were researched: two at the Chicago State Hospital—"chronic services" and "treatment services"—and one at a private hospital. What evolved were thoughtful comparative analyses of hospitals, wards, professionals, ideological positions, careers, and organizational and situational placements.

Psychiatric Ideologies and Institutions

Death, as a social ritual, is one of the great turning points in human existence, but prior to this classic work, it had been subjected to little scientific study. American perspectives on death seem strangely paradoxical - the brutal fact of death is confronted daily in our newspapers yet Americans are unwilling to talk openly about the process of dying itself. Awareness of Dying, using a highly original theory of awareness, examines the dying patient and those about him in social interaction. It gives readers a language and tools of analysis for understanding who knows what about dying, under what circumstances, and what difference it makes.

Awareness of Dying

"Our book is directed toward improving social scientists' capacities for generating theory that will be relevant to their research. Not everyone can be equally skilled at discovering theory, but neither do they need to be a genius to generate useful theory ... Although our emphasis is on generating theory rather than verifying it, we take special pains not to divorce those two activities, both necessary to the scientific enterprise."--Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Straus; Preface

Marlene Kramer

A Perspective on Work Environments

Nurses in Practice

Most writing on sociological method has been concerned with how accurate facts can be obtained and how theory can thereby be more rigorously tested. In The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss address the equally Important enterprise of how the discovery of theory from data—systematically obtained and analyzed in social research—can be furthered. The discovery of theory from data—grounded theory—is a major task confronting sociology, for such a theory fits empirical situations, and is understandable to sociologists and laymen alike. Most important, it provides relevant predictions, explanations, interpretations, and applications. In Part I of the book, "Generation Theory by Comparative Analysis," the authors present a strategy whereby sociologists can facilitate the discovery of grounded theory, both substantive and formal. This strategy involves the systematic choice and study of several comparison groups. In Part II, The Flexible Use of Data," the generation of theory from qualitative, especially documentary, and quantitative data Is considered. In Part III, "Implications of Grounded Theory," Glaser and Strauss examine the credibility of grounded theory. The Discovery of Grounded Theory is directed toward improving social scientists' capacity for generating theory that will be relevant to their research. While aimed primarily at sociologists, it will be useful to anyone Interested In studying social phenomena—political, educational, economic, industrial— especially If their studies are based on qualitative data.

Identity as a concept is as elusive as everyone's sense of his own personal identity. It is connected with appraisals made by oneself and by others. Each person sees himself mirrored in the judgments of others. The masks he presents to the world are fashioned upon his anticipations of judgments. In Mirrors and Masks, Anselm Strauss uses the notion of identity to organize materials and thoughts about certain aspects of problems traditionally intriguing to social psychologists.The problems Strauss considers to be intriguing traditionally are those encountered when studying group membership, motivation, personality development, and social interaction. The topics covered include: the basic importance of language for human action and identity; the perpetual indeterminacy of identities in constantly changing social contexts; the symbolic and developmental character of human interaction; the theme of identity as it affects adult behaviqr; relations between generations and their role in personality development; and the symbolic character of membership in groups.By focusing on symbolic behavior with an emphasis on social organization, Strauss presents a fruitful, systematic perspective from which to view traditional problems of social psychology. He opens up new areas of thought and associates matters that are not ordinarily considered to be related. Strauss believes that psychiatrists* and psychologists underestimate immensely the influence of social organization upon individual behavior and individual structure, and that sociologists, whose major concern is with social organization, should employ some kind of social psychology in their research. Mirrors and Masks shows that the fusion of theoretical approaches benefits the analyses of many scholars. This fascinating work should be read by sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists.

The Search for Identity

Mirrors and Masks

Images of the American City

The development of theory through qualitative analysis is emphasized in this instructional text for students & teachers engaged in research or teaching qualitative data analysis in the social sciences.

Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists

Originally published in 1989 as Appointment in Vienna, Esther Menaker's Misplaced Loyalties is a fascinating memoir covering five years of student life in Vienna during the early years of the psychoanalytic movement started by Sigmund Freud. It begins in 1930, when, full of high expectations, the author and her husband left their native America and eagerly embarked on an exhilarating journey that would take them to Austria, where they were to become candidates at the Psychoanalytic Institute.

History of Ideas

Misplaced Loyalties

In this volume the distinguished sociologist Anselm Strauss reflects on his self-professed, lifelong intention to create sociological awareness in his readers and students. Strauss democratizes sociology by making sure that relativities of status, power, and wealth are acknowledged in the conduct of everyday life, and by recognizing that all collective life is subject to negotiation, rearrangement, and reconstruction. Represented here are some ideas for which Strauss is best known. He addresses work, leisure, culture, illness, identity, and policy. These disparate topics are linked by Strauss' "web of negotiation" by which organizational arrangements can be changed. The volume concludes with discussion about problems of method, consultation, and teaching, affirming Strauss' commitment to passing along the sociological awareness reflected in this volume to a next generation. Squarely in the long tradition of the Chicago School of sociology, the work of Anselm Strauss represents the very best thinking in modern sociological and psychological analysis. Those interested in the origins of his major conceptual frameworks will find this an essential volume.

Collective Images and Symbolic Representations

Creating Sociological Awareness

Joseph R. Gusfield

This book contains a major statement by one of America's most preeminent sociologists on what remains an important problem in American history and social analysis: the nature and extent of movement within American society from one status to another. The most important images of mobility involve self-improvement by changing location (going to the frontier, coming to the big city), and by changing social class (second-generation immigrants). Almost all sociological and historical analysis has been limited to these themes. Strauss extends the concept to a wide range of ideologies, institutional contexts, and social movements; his analysis is based on a formal theory of status passage and develops a partial theory of mobility. Strauss addresses a theme that underscores much of one strand of his work: the changing articulation of individuals with their social structure and institutions. The book follows on from the theoretical presuppositions of Discovery of Grounded Theory and the formal theory presented in Status Passage. Strauss was continually concerned with American social and intellectual life in its historical and contemporary manifestations. No one else has looked at the important phenomenon of mobility in this broad a context and from this point of view. The book remains important to those concerned with the social history of America and with problems of social change. Anselm Strauss (1916-1996) was professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he also taught. He was a pioneer in bridging the gap between theory and data in sociology. Joseph Gusfield is Emeritus Professor in Sociology at University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and taught there, at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, at the University of Illinois before going to UCSD. Among his major works are Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement, and The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order. He has also taught and conducted research in India and Japan.

Anselm L. Strauss

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