Qualitative Research: Definition, Approaches, Methods & Examples

If you are planning to conduct qualitative research and need some guidance, fear not! This article will navigate through the complexities of this research methodology and help you write a dissertation or other study properly. We will start with a detailed definition of a qualitative study, breaking down the key components and showing you how to apply qualitative research methods.  

To help you handle such studies, we’ll provide best practices for data collection and sampling here. To bring it all together, we've included several real-world examples of successful qualitative studies. So let’s get down to business!

Qualitative research is a research methodology used to explore and understand human behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. It is a non-numerical approach to research that focuses on collecting and analyzing non-numerical data such as text, images, audio recordings, and video.

The purpose of qualitative research is to gain a deep understanding of a particular phenomenon or issue, rather than to test a specific hypothesis or prediction. It’s often used to discover new aspects of problems, understand which factors influence them, and find general ways to solve them. 

Unlike quantitative research, which deals with numbers and percentages, the qualitative approach is non-numeric and mostly involves focusing on various qualities, particularly on naming, evaluating, and explaining them. It can help identify trends or behavior patterns. At this stage, you aren’t expected to calculate anything. Instead, you are trying to understand why certain things happen. 

Qualitative research is typically used for humanitarian disciplines such as psychology, sociology, or political science. Investigation of problems in these areas typically starts with the collection and analysis of non-numerical data, such as opinions and ideas.

Below we’ll explain the strategy behind using the qualitative research method for your specific topic.

>> Read more: Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

Qualitative research is performed when studying problems that don’t have clearly measurable parameters. Such non-measurable information is often obtained from people who have witnessed certain events or encountered problems. Let’s discuss how to gather and use such evidence with the help of qualitative methods.

Example of qualitative research design

>> Learn more: What Is a Research Design

When conducting qualitative studies, you need to gather information about your topic from the target groups you’ve selected. There are different ways to approach qualitative research, and each of them is recommended for a specific situation. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Qualitative research approaches

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Now let’s talk about qualitative research methods which can be used for collection and analysis of non-numerical data. Qualitative research methodology includes paying close attention to the specifics of your research problem so that the best way to obtain valuable knowledge about it could be selected.

Despite their differences, qualitative methods have some common traits:

So, the methodology for qualitative research mostly revolves around finding personal approaches to interpreting evidence from particular members of target groups.

The success and general quality of your research study are determined in part by the approach that you choose. Below is the list of most common types of qualitative research methods:

Each of these methods is explained in sections below. Several detailed examples of qualitative research methods are also given there.

Conducting personal interviews with people who can provide valuable evidence about the problem is one of the most popular qualitative research methods. It typically includes the following steps:

Experienced qualitative researchers can gather a lot of helpful information during such interviews. In addition to exploring the problem’s context, it helps to find out more about the target audience’s psychological traits and thus to evaluate the integrity of the evidence.

Such an approach can be used when you can target a number of witnesses who are ready to share their information. On the other hand, this qualitative method can be very time-consuming if the target group is big. If you need to interview hundreds of people, you’ll need more than a month to complete this task.

Example of using an interview in a qualitative study

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A huge target audience can be divided into smaller focus groups. Such subdivisions typically consist of 6 to 10 people with common traits. Depending on your problem’s specifics, you can define your groups based on age, ethnicity, sex, religion, political position, musical preferences, and so on. 

After the groups have been formed, evidence is collected by conducting interviews with every member. Considering a limited group as a proper representative of your target audience, you can treat the research results as applicable to all your subjects.

Compared to other qualitative methods of research, such an approach allows making assumptions about big masses of people. However, there is always some risk of making a mistake during the process of extrapolation. Researchers should be very careful when defining their focus groups. The difficulty of picking right candidates that would properly represent the respective population creates certain limitations for this qualitative research method.

Focus group in qualitative research example

Another qualitative research method that makes it easier to obtain evidence from big masses is conducting a survey. Instead of organizing personal interviews, you may publish a list of prepared questions and ask all members of your target audience to answer them. After some time, you’ll receive a lot of data that can be processed further.

This is one of the quickest methods of qualitative research. It can be very effective, especially when the target audience is incentivized to take the suggested survey. Its limitation is the lack of depth compared to face-to-face interviews. If every participant responds to the same list of questions, some specific insights may be lost.

Example of survey qualitative research method

A researcher often needs to learn more about its target group than can be obtained by asking them questions. Their usual activities and interactions with each other might provide additional information. Making direct observations on your subject is one of the most efficient approaches in qualitative methodology. And, of course, this research type is even more helpful when examining wildlife. Observing includes taking notes of subjects’ habits, reactions to usual and unusual events, actions under stress, interactions with each other, etc.

This qualitative research method can bring lots of valuable insights which aren’t possible to obtain otherwise. However, the results of observations are significantly affected by a researcher’s own bias or depth of understanding. This must be taken into account when analyzing such information.

Observation qualitative research method example

This method is typically used as a part of the grounded theory approach when an event or a trend is examined from different angles. Qualitative research can be performed by obtaining necessary information about the subject from existing sources. If it has already been examined by other researchers, you can use the data they’ve collected for your own research as long as you make proper references to their works.

In case some books or articles about your problem are available, it may be useful to obtain some insights from them. However, such data is often influenced by their authors’ bias. That’s why you should be careful when making assumptions based on such information.

Literature review qualitative method example

>> Read more: How to Do a Literature Review

Conducting case studies is another qualitative method of research that helps to obtain some valuable insights. You need access to in-depth information about a particular event or person in order to use this method. 

Such cases may be investigated in real-time or by reviewing recorded information, such as a video or audio record or interview results. A typical case study is limited to one subject. But it aims at getting information from different angles.

Investigation of such particular cases is often used in qualitative research methodologies. But, in order to accomplish that, a researcher needs to have access to real situations related to the subject.

Example of case study method

>> Learn more: How to Write a Case Study

After you have collected enough qualitative data, it is time to process it. As we’ve explained above, this shouldn’t include calculating percentages or finding statistical dependencies. When you analyze qualitative data, you’re dealing with non-numerical information.

Depending on types of qualitative data obtained during research, the following methods can be used:

Qualitative data analysis methods

As we can see, the qualitative research approach to analysis involves a number of special techniques to process non-numerical data. The general qualitative study design includes the following key steps:

After reviewing and explaining the qualitative research methods, we can discuss their strong and weak sides. Let’s start with the advantages of qualitative research:

When doing the qualitative research design, it is important to understand its flaws and limitations. Its results may help find new ideas or detect important changes. However, in order to obtain statistical data about your subject or to examine some trends in detail, you’ll need another approach to data collection and processing.

So, here are typical disadvantages of a qualitative research study:

We have discussed the specifics of qualitative research and explained its notion and the field of its usage: obtaining ideas and insights from non-numerical information. Key qualitative research methods and approaches have also been examined in detail, including their meaning, strengths, and limitations. We have provided a lot of helpful qualitative research examples to illustrate all these explanations as well.

Hopefully, this information would help you a lot with your own research. Feel free to use it as reference material when performing the analysis and composing your paper. If you need more help with your research, just let us know!