The results of qualitative methods provide a deep understandings of how people perceive their social realities, and in consequence, how they act within the social world. There are different types of qualitative research methods including diary accounts, in-depth interviews, documents, focus groups, case study research, and ethnography. Methods (used to obtain qualitative data) It can be used to generate hypotheses and theory from the data. ‘why’ a particular phenomenon, or behavior, operates as it does in a particular context. Research following a qualitative approach is exploratory and seeks to explain ‘how’ and

Thus, people and groups, are studied in their natural setting. The aim of qualitative research is to understand the social reality of individuals, groups and cultures as nearly as possible as its participants feel it or live it. Exploring the experience of participants is known as a phenomenological approach (re: Humanism). Since psychologists study people, the traditional approach to science is not seen as an appropriate way of carrying out research, since it fails to capture the totality of human experience and the essence of what it is to be human. 2)Īn interest in qualitative data came about as the result of the dissatisfaction of some psychologists (e.g., Carl Rogers) with the scientific study of psychologists such as the behaviorists (e.g., Skinner). 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 multimethod in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This type of data can beĭiary accounts or in-depth interviews, and analyzed using grounded theory or thematic analysis. Qualitative data is defined as non-numerical data, such as text, video, photographs or audio recordings. Qualitative research can be used to understand how an individual subjectively perceives and gives meaning to their social reality. Qualitative research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data, such as language.

Quantitative tools for data analysis