Glaserian grounded theory in nursing research - Springer Publishing

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An Overview of Glaserian
Grounded Theory
BARBARA M. ARTINIAN
The grounded theory method was developed by Glaser and Strauss during
the 1960s. It was fi rst described by them in their 1967 book, The Discovery
of Grounded Theory, and was further explicated by Glaser in his
1978 book Theoretical Sensitivity. It is an inductive qualitative methodology
that allows the researcher to identify the main concern of a group
of subjects and the behaviors they use to resolve their main concern.
The researcher then expresses this understanding in a theory named by
a carefully chosen word or phrase that captures the subjects’ experience.
In this process, Glaser describes the main concern as the variable that
motivates the behaviors that attempt to resolve the main concern. For
example, in a study of elderly caregivers providing home care for their
spouses, the main concern was to keep the spouse out of institutionalized
care. The spouses were motivated to resolve their main concern
by strategizing ways to provide care and “Making it Work” (the core
category; Artinian, 2003). It is appropriate to use the grounded theory
method when there is no existing theory to guide the research process.
Glaser says that “grounded theory is the systematic generation of theory
from data acquired by a rigorous research method” and the product is
an “integrated set of hypotheses which account for much of the behavior
seen in the substantive area” (1998, p. 3). Stern (1985) states that the
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