What Is qualitative Research?

Qualitative research relies on data obtained by the researcher from first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, participant-observation, recordings made in natural settings, documents, and artifacts. The data are generally nonnumerical.

Qualitative data can take the form of texts, photos, videos and audio. It usually involves working with interview transcripts, survey responses, fieldnotes, or recordings from natural settings. Qualitative research often tries to preserve the voice and perspective of participants and can be adjusted as new research questions arise.

Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research. Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research, which involves collecting and analyzing numerical data for statistical analysis.

Different qualitative Researches.

  • Focus group discussions

  • Focus group discussion (FDG) is usually used as a qualitative approach to realize an in-depth understanding about their perception’s attitudes, beliefs, opinion or ideas. A typical focus group involves the gathering of the people from similar backgrounds or expertise together to discuss a selected topic of interest.

    The method aims to get data from a purposely selected group of people instead of from a statistically stratified sample of a broader population. In FDG, the participants are liberal to exchange their thoughts with other group members; unlike other research methods it encourages discussions with other participants. It generally involves group interviewing during which a little group of usually 8 to 12 people.

  • In - depth Interviews

    In-depth interviewing is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a little number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a specific idea, program, or situation. In depth interviews are normally administered face to face in order that a rapport is often created with respondents. The design of the interview completely depends on the interviewer. Successful in-depth interviewers listen instead of talk.

    The interview is conducted employing a discussion guide which facilitates exploring the respondent’s views through open ended questioning. Projective techniques are often incorporated into the interview too.

  • Face-To-Face Interviews

    Face-to-face (F2F) interviewing is one among the oldest and most generally used methods of conducting primary research. F2F interviews are conducted by a researcher and a target respondent within the street, home, office, forum, etc. There are many advantages to using F2F interviews, like the utilization of visual aids and therefore the detection of social cues and visual communication. Also, with this sort of interview, the interviewer can gain a deeper insight to specific answers by treating the questionnaire sort of a meaningful discussion and deducing the validity of every response.