qualitative research approach definition

Qualitative research is a method of collecting and analyzing non-numerical data to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. Learn about different qualitative research approaches, methods, data analysis techniques, advantages, and disadvantages.

Qualitative research is a methodology that explores and understands people's beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and experiences through non-numerical data. It involves various methods, such as interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, text analysis, and more, and aims to uncover the meaning and significance of social phenomena.

This guide explains the focus, rigor, and relevance of qualitative research, highlighting its role in dissecting complex social phenomena and providing in-depth, human-centered insights.

Qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

Qualitative research is the naturalistic study of social meanings and processes, using interviews, observations, and the analysis of texts and images.

Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation.

Qualitative research is defined as an exploratory method that aims to understand complex phenomena, often within their natural settings, by examining subjective experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Learn more about qualitative research methods, types, examples and best practices.

Qualitative research can be defined as the study of the nature of phenomena and is especially appropriate for answering questions of why something is (not) observed, assessing complex multi-component interventions, and focussing on intervention improvement.

Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a concise explanation of four common qualitative approaches, case study, ethnography, narrative, and phenomenology, demonstrating how each approach is linked to specific types of data collection and analysis.

Qualitative research methods provide scientific tools for exploring and identifying the numerous contributing factors to an occurrence. Rather than establishing one or the other factor as more important, qualitative methods are open-ended, inductive (ground-up), and empirical.