What Is Qualitative Research

What Is Qualitative Research?
|
Methods & Examples
Published on June 19, 2020 by Pritha Bhandari. Revised on September 5, 2024.
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.
Qualitative research is commonly used in the humanities and social

sciences, in subjects such as anthropology, sociology, education,
health sciences, history, etc.
Qualitative research question examples
How does social media shape body image in

teenagers?
How do children and adults interpret healthy eating in
the UK?
What factors influence employee retention in a large
organization?
How is anxiety experienced around the world?
How can teachers integrate social issues into science
curriculums?
Note
methods (e.g., surveys). However, it’s important to use these
tools responsibly to avoid academic dishonesty. Your
university or institution may use a plagiarism checker or AI
detector to detect generative AI content.
Approaches to qualitative research

Qualitative research is used to understand how people experience
the world. While there are many approaches to qualitative
research, they tend to be flexible and focus on retaining rich
meaning when interpreting data.
Common approaches include grounded theory, ethnography,

action research, phenomenological research, and narrative
research. They share some similarities, but emphasize different
aims and perspectives.
Qualitative research approaches
Grounded theory
What does it involve?: Researchers collect rich data on a topic of

interest and develop theories inductively.
Ethnography
of contents
What does it involve?: Researchers immerse themselves in groups or
organizations to understand their cultures.
Action research
What does it involve?: Researchers and participants collaboratively

link theory to practice to drive social change.
Phenomenological research
What does it involve?: Researchers investigate a phenomenon or

event by describing and interpreting participants’ lived experiences.
Narrative research
What does it involve?: Researchers examine how stories are told to

understand how participants perceive and make sense of their
experiences.
Note that qualitative research is at risk for certain research biases

including the Hawthorne effect, observer bias, recall bias, and
social desirability bias. While not always totally avoidable,
awareness of potential biases as you collect and analyze your data
can prevent them from impacting your work too much.
Qualitative research methods
Each of the research approaches involve using one or more data
collection methods. These are some of the most common
qualitative methods:
Observations: recording what you have seen, heard, or

encountered in detailed field notes.
Interviews: personally asking people questions in one-on-one
conversations.
Focus groups: asking questions and generating discussion
among a group of people.
Surveys: distributing questionnaires with open-ended
questions.
Secondary research: collecting existing data in the form of
eings, etc.
Research example
To research the culture of a large tech company, you decide

to take an ethnographic approach. You work at the company
for several months and use various methods to gather data:
You take field notes with observations and reflect on

your own experiences of the company culture.
You distribute open-ended surveys to employees
across all the company’s offices by email to find out if
the culture varies across locations.
You conduct in-depth interviews with employees in
your office to learn about their experiences and
perspectives in greater detail.
Qualitative researchers often consider themselves “instruments” in

research because all observations, interpretations and analyses are
filtered through their own personal lens.
For this reason, when writing up your methodology for qualitative

research, it’s important to reflect on your approach and to
thoroughly explain the choices you made in collecting and
analyzing the data.
Qualitative data analysis

Qualitative data can take the form of texts, photos, videos and
audio. For example, you might be working with interview
transcripts, survey responses, fieldnotes, or recordings from
natural settings.
Most types of qualitative data analysis share the same five steps:
Prepare and organize your data. This may mean transcribing
Review and explore your data. Examine the data for patterns
or repeated ideas that emerge.
3. Develop a data coding system. Based on your initial ideas,
establish a set of codes that you can apply to categorize your
data.
4. Assign codes to the data. For example, in qualitative survey
analysis, this may mean going through each participant’s
responses and tagging them with codes in a spreadsheet. As
you go through your data, you can create new codes to add
to your system if necessary.
5. Identify recurring themes. Link codes together into cohesive,
overarching themes.
There are several specific approaches to analyzing qualitative data.

Although these methods share similar processes, they emphasize
different concepts.
Qualitative data analysis
Content analysis
When to use: To describe and categorize common words, phrases,

and ideas in qualitative data.
Example: A market researcher could perform content analysis to find

out what kind of language is used in descriptions of therapeutic apps.
Thematic analysis
When to use: To identify and interpret patterns and themes in

qualitative data.
Example: A psychologist could apply thematic analysis to travel blogs

to explore how tourism shapes self-identity.
Textual analysis
of contents
When to use: To examine the content, structure, and design of texts.
Example: A media researcher could use textual analysis to understand

how news coverage of celebrities has changed in the past decade.
Discourse analysis
When to use: To study communication and how language is used to

achieve effects in specific contexts.
Example: A political scientist could use discourse analysis to study

how politicians generate trust in election campaigns.
Advantages of qualitative research

Qualitative research often tries to preserve the voice and
perspective of participants and can be adjusted as new research
questions arise. Qualitative research is good for:
 Flexibility
The data collection and analysis process can be adapted as new

ideas or patterns emerge. They are not rigidly decided beforehand.
 Natural settings
Data collection occurs in real-world contexts or in naturalistic

ways.
 Meaningful insights
Detailed descriptions of people’s experiences, feelings and

perceptions can be used in designing, testing or improving systems
or products.
 Generation of new ideas

Open-ended responses mean that researchers can uncover novel
problems or opportunities that they wouldn’t have thought of
Disadvantages of qualitative research

Researchers must consider practical and theoretical limitations in
analyzing and interpreting their data. Qualitative research suffers
from:
 Unreliability
The real-world setting often makes qualitative research unreliable

because of uncontrolled factors that affect the data.
 Subjectivity
Due to the researcher’s primary role in analyzing and interpreting
data,
 Table qualitative research cannot be replicated. The researcher
of contents
decides what is important and what is irrelevant in data analysis,
so interpretations of the same data can vary greatly.
 Limited generalizability
Small samples are often used to gather detailed data about

specific contexts. Despite rigorous analysis procedures, it is
difficult to draw generalizable conclusions because the data may
be biased and unrepresentative of the wider population.
 Labor-intensive
Although software can be used to manage and record large

amounts of text, data analysis often has to be checked or
performed manually.
Mixed methods research
Non-probability sampling
Quantitative research
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
 Research bias
Rosenthal effect
Implicit bias
Cognitive bias
Selection bias
Negativity bias
Status quo bias
Frequently asked questions about

qualitative research
What’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative 
methods?
What are the main qualitative research approaches? 
What is data collection? 
How do you analyze qualitative data? 

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Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples.
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What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-

Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research, which

Qualitative research is commonly used in the humanities and social

Qualitative research question examples

How does social media shape body image in

Approaches to qualitative research

Common approaches include grounded theory, ethnography,

Qualitative research approaches

What does it involve?: Researchers collect rich data on a topic of

What does it involve?: Researchers and participants collaboratively

What does it involve?: Researchers investigate a phenomenon or

What does it involve?: Researchers examine how stories are told to

Note that qualitative research is at risk for certain research biases

Observations: recording what you have seen, heard, or

To research the culture of a large tech company, you decide

You take field notes with observations and reflect on

Qualitative researchers often consider themselves “instruments” in

For this reason, when writing up your methodology for qualitative

Qualitative data analysis

There are several specific approaches to analyzing qualitative data.

Qualitative data analysis

When to use: To describe and categorize common words, phrases,

Example: A market researcher could perform content analysis to find

When to use: To identify and interpret patterns and themes in

Example: A psychologist could apply thematic analysis to travel blogs

Example: A media researcher could use textual analysis to understand

When to use: To study communication and how language is used to

Example: A political scientist could use discourse analysis to study

Advantages of qualitative research

The data collection and analysis process can be adapted as new

Data collection occurs in real-world contexts or in naturalistic

Detailed descriptions of people’s experiences, feelings and

 Generation of new ideas

problems or opportunities that they wouldn’t have thought of

Disadvantages of qualitative research

The real-world setting often makes qualitative research unreliable

Small samples are often used to gather detailed data about

Although software can be used to manage and record large

Frequently asked questions about

What’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative 

What are the main qualitative research approaches? 

What is data collection? 

How do you analyze qualitative data? 

Bhandari, P. (2024, September 05). What Is

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