Qualitative Research: Definition, Types, Methods, and Examples

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is used to collect and analyze non-numerical data ( e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand the concepts and experience. It can also be used for solving problems in-depth or creating and generating new ideas for research.

Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research, which is used for collecting and analyzing numeric data for business analytics.
It (Qualitative research) is basically used in the humanities and social sciences, in subjects like anthropology, sociology, education, health science, and history, and yes it can also be used for online surveys for businesses.

Types of qualitative research

1. Grounded Theory

It is also known as social processes. It is used to disclose such things as social relationships and the behavior of groups. The theory is “grounded” in real data. This means the analysis and development of theories appear after you have collected the data.

2. Ethnography Research

Researchers immerse themselves in businesses or businesses to recognize their cultures and aim to understand the challenges, motivations, and settings that occur. An ethnography research method is the most depth research method that studies people in their naturally occurring environment.

3. Action Research

In action research Researchers and participants link their theory to practice to drive social changes. The action research method is used in a number of areas like education, social sciences, and similar.

4. Phenomenological research

It is a qualitative research approach that investigates to understand and define the common aspect of phenomena.

5. Narrative Research

Narrative research may be described as amassing and analyzing the accounts people inform to explain reviews and provide an interpretation. Researchers study how testimonies are informed to apprehend how members understand and make feel in their reviews.

Methods of Qualitative Research

Every research involves using one or more data collection approaches. These are the most common approaches which are used in every research.

1. Observation: In this part, everything is noticed and noted in detail, like what you have seen and what you have heard.
2. Interviews: In this section, we ask directly face-to-face one-on-one questions.
3. Focus of groups: This is the most important research method using focus groups we collect the data from our targeted groups. Asking questions and generating or collecting data among the group of people.
4. Secondary research: Collecting existing data in the form of text, audio & video, recordings, etc.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

i. Lot of Information from a smaller Sample size
ii. Open-ended questions reveal abundant info
iii. You get Specific Insights
iv. Get reasoning behind user decisions
v. Research is Flexible
vi. Cost-Effective
vii. Helps Marketing and Creative Teams

Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

i. Relies on the knowledge of the researchers
ii. May required multiple sessions
iii. Researcher's bias may influence the results
iv. Data is difficult to represent
v. Data is subjective
vi. Data Analysis is time-consuming
vii. Lack of statistical representation

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