Qualitative Research Methods: Meaning, Types & Examples

Two types of research methods are used for research purposes. These two are known for complementary purposes in research. However, the purpose and uses of these two are different from one another. Quantitative research methods—the name itself suggests that they analyze numerical data to identify patterns and make predictions. On the other hand, qualitative research methods involve collecting non-numerical data to find answers to ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions.

If you are a student conducting research, ensure you clearly understand the difference between these two research methods. One thing you must know is that quantitative research methods are completely different from qualitative research methods. You are free to use these two in research. But make sure you know how to combine these for fruitful results.

This blog post from All Assignment Help aims to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of qualitative research methods. With a proper understanding of concepts, you can use purpose without getting confused.

What Are Qualitative Research Methods?

Qualitative research is defined as a research method that focuses on obtaining data through open-ended and conversational communication. Its main purpose is to explore and understand with thematic insights as an outcome. Interviews and focus groups are some tools that help in analyzing the underlying reasons for a better experience. It is used to understand people’s thinking, develop new ideas, study experience, and much more.

This method is not only about “what” people think but also “why” they think so.

Let’s understand it with an example……

“A convenience store aimed to boost patronage. Observation revealed more male visitors. To understand low female visits, in-depth interviews were conducted with randomly sampled female customers from nearby stores. It became evident that the store lacked sufficient women’s items, leading to fewer female visits due to a higher focus on male products. Personal interactions unveiled this insight.”

Hence, using qualitative research methodologies enables the interviewer or researcher to investigate and question individuals in greater detail based on their responses while also attempting to understand their purpose and feelings. We believe now you know the exact meaning of qualitative research.

Examples of Qualitative Research Methods

Examples are always a way to learn better. You can remember things longer when you read with the help of a real-life example. Many students understand their course concepts with the help of examples. Students who don’t study with examples may forget as they don’t get a clear grasp of concepts. In such a situation, writing assignments might be difficult. But they can always hire an assignment helper for it. Well-written assignments from professional experts will help you understand concepts better and increase your chances of scoring well.

Qualitative research methods examples are the best way to understand this term. Here are some examples of qualitative research methods.

Interviewing a group of students to explore their personal feelings about online learning. This is the best method to know about the challenges faced by them. Moreover, researchers can also find the reason why students are considering asking experts to take my online course for me. What could be the reason for seeking online class help?
One can focus on a group of students to discuss peer pressure and academic motivation.
You can take into account how students collaborate during group assignments and in fun activities. You can go on finding the reason behind the change.
A case study on a transfer student and their academic journey in a new school.
Analyzing how teachers address students during online classes to understand authority and engagement.
Studying first-generation college students to build a theory on academic resilience.
Analyzing student discussion boards to find out about the challenges of students.
Studying the campus life of international students at a university.
Studying how students experience stress during online exams. Why do students ask experts, can you take my online test for me? What is the reason that they trust online exam helpers more than themselves?

Types of Qualitative Research Methods

Of all the other research methods, qualitative research methods are the most popular. These help in analyzing human behavior, social interactions, beliefs, and emotions. Some of the common types of qualitative research methods are

Interview: The main purpose of this qualitative research is to explore the personal experience of individuals.
Focus group discussion: It is a way to explore different viewpoints and shared beliefs of a group of people.
Participant Observation: This is a great way to observe the behaviors and interactions of individuals. For this, you can take into account how students collaborate during group assignments and in fun activities.
Case study: It is used to explore unique or complex issues.
Ethnography: This is a qualitative research method where researchers closely study a culture or community by experiencing it themselves.
Narrative analysis: Narrative analysis analyzes the narrative or personal accounts of participants.
Grounded theory: This analyzes the communication skills, reflecting how language is used in texts.
Content analysis: This helps in identifying themes and patterns.
Discourse analysis: It analyzes power structures in spoken or written text.
Phenomenological research: Exploring participants’ lived experiences of individuals or groups of people.

Let us briefly discuss the different types of qualitative research methods with examples.

One-on-One Interview

Conducting in-depth interviews is one of the most common qualitative research methods.
It is a personal interview that is carried out with one respondent at a time.
This is purely a conversational method and invites opportunities to get details in depth from the respondent.
One of the advantages of this method is that it provides a great opportunity to gather precise data about what people believe and what their motivations are.

Example: Interviewing students to measure awareness of campus health services.

Focus Groups

A focus group is one of the most commonly used qualitative research methods. It is practiced in a focus group, usually involving a limited number of respondents from your target market.
The main aim of the focus group is to find answers to the why, what, and how questions.
One advantage of focus groups is that you don’t necessarily need to interact with the group in person. Nowadays, focus groups can be sent a survey online on various devices, and responses can be collected at the click of a button.
Focus groups are an expensive method compared to other qualitative research methods. Typically, they are used to explain complex processes. This method is very useful when it comes to market research on new products.

Example of this qualitative research method: Discussing the online learning platform experience of a group of students.

Ethnographic Research

It is the most in-depth observational method that studies people in their naturally occurring environment.
The main purpose of ethnographic research is to gain contextual understanding of one’s life.
This method requires the researchers to adapt to the target audiences’ environments, which could be anywhere from an organization to a city or any remote location. Here, geographical constraints can be an issue while collecting data.
This research design aims to understand the cultures, challenges, motivations, and settings that occur. Instead of relying on interviews and discussions, you experience the natural settings firsthand.

Example: A researcher spends six months in a rural village in Africa to study the female education of the tribal community.

Case Study Research

Case study methodology has evolved over the years and has developed into a valuable qualitative research method. As the name suggests, it is used to explain an organization or entity.
This type of research method is used within a number of areas, like education, social sciences, and similar.
This method may look difficult to operate. However, it is one of the simplest ways of conducting research, as it involves a deep dive and thorough understanding of the data collection methods and inferring the data.

Example: A case study on a high-performing school in a low-income neighborhood.

Narrative Research

The main focus of this qualitative research method is to focus on the lives and experiences of individuals.
It makes other people make sense of their life experiences.
To all students who want to understand the life paths of individuals, this research method is for you.
It helps researchers to understand personal transformation and resilience.

Example: Collecting life stories of individuals who took a career break and continued after a while. These research methods will help you analyze their point of view.

Discourse Analysis

This is a research method that analyzes the written or spoken language.
How language and beliefs are communicated through language is the main purpose of this discourse analysis.
This is useful for books and periodicals.
Discourse analysis is different from other qualitative research methods and mainly focuses on the rules of language usage.
It mainly studies large chunks of language rather than smaller texts.
Vocabulary, grammar, and genre are some things that are critically analyzed.
Gathering information, analyzing, and reviewing are some of the steps to conduct disclosure analysis.

Example: Compare and analyze the way a teacher communicates in an online and offline environment.

Content Analysis

The main purpose of this qualitative research method is to systematically analyze texts.
Researchers use this method to understand what is being communicated and why.
Conceptual analysis and relational analysis are the two types of it.
Open-ended questions and field research notes are the main sources for content analysis.
In other cases, interviews, conversations, and field research notes.

Example: Analyze the written feedback of a group of online students to understand their common challenges in online learning.

Grounded Theory

Grounded theory is also one of the qualitative research methods.
Theory development and inductive reasoning are the main features of grounded theory.
Collect, open, and axial are the first three steps of grounded theory. Selecting, developing, and comparing are the subsequent steps.
In comparison to the case study, grounded theory is suitable for individuals who want to discover patterns and generate new insights.
The structure explanation helps in finding the reason behind the issue.

Example: To research how online students try to stay focused and motivated in online classes

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Methods

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are the two main research methods. They are widely used in academic studies. From education to business to healthcare, this method is almost everywhere.

Numbers and graphs are used to represent quantitative research. It helps to verify theories and presumptions. Discovering general information about a subject can be accomplished through this kind of study. Experiments tally observations, and surveys with closed-ended questions are examples of common quantitative research methods.
Qualitative research is verbalized. It is applied to comprehend ideas, events, or concepts. You can learn detailed information on poorly understood subjects through this kind of study. Open-ended questions in interviews, verbal descriptions of observations, and literature studies that examine concepts and theories are all examples of common qualitative procedures.

Key Differences of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

We hope these research methods and their examples are clear to you. Students often get confused with these two, using them in the wrong context. Here we have briefly discussed the difference between these two.

Qualitative research uses content analysis. Quantitative research uses statistical analysis.
The main goal of qualitative research is to gain an understanding of individual or group behavior. On the other hand, quantitative examination of relationships between variables
Qualitative research discovers patterns of theories. Quantitative research helps in predicting outcomes.
In large-scale quantitative research, sample size can be in the thousands. While qualitative research inherently uses a smaller sample size because a large sample size makes it difficult for the researcher to probe respondents.
Quantitative research uses information-gathering methods that can be quantified and processed for statistical analysis techniques. Simply put, quantitative research is heavily dependent on “numbers”, data, and stats. On the other hand, qualitative research uses conversational methods to gather relevant information on a given subject.
Quantitative research uses a variety of statistical analysis methods to derive quantifiable research conclusions. Qualitative research depends on the interviewer to derive research conclusions based on qualitative conversations held with the respondents.
Qualitative research methods help in understanding the emotions of individuals. Quantitative does not do this.
Qualitative research methods are exploratory and flexible. While the latter is structured and focused.

These are the clear differences between these two research methods. In some cases, both quantitative and qualitative research methods are combined for a better process. This is called mixed methods research.

Why Qualitative Research Methods Are Useful?

Qualitative research methods are useful in various ways:

Develop hypotheses for further testing and for quantitative questionnaire development.
Understand the feelings, values, and perceptions that underlie and influence behaviour
Identify customer needs
Capture the language and imagery customers use to describe and relate to a product, service, brand, etc.
Perceptions of marketing/communication messages
Information obtained in a quantitative study and to better understand the context/meaning of the data
Generate ideas for improvements and/or extensions of a product, line, or brand
Uncover potential strategic directions for branding or communications programs
Understand how people perceive a marketing message or communication piece
Develop parameters (i.e., relevant questions, range of responses) for a quantitative study

When Should You Use Qualitative Research Methods?

Below is the list of ideas when you should use qualitative research methods:

New product idea generation and development
Investigating current or potential product/service/brand positioning and marketing strategy
Strengths and weaknesses of products/brands
Understanding the dynamics of purchase decisions dynamics
Studying reactions to advertising and public relations campaigns, other marketing communications, graphic identity/branding, package design, etc.
Exploring market segments, such as demographic and customer groups
Studying emotions and attitudes on societal and public affairs issues
Assessing the usability of websites or other interactive products or services
Understanding perceptions of a company, brand, category, and product
Determining consumer language as a preliminary step to developing a quantitative survey

Final Words

The fundamental aspects of qualitative research methods are paramount for any aspiring researcher or scholar. The essence of qualitative research lies in its intricate yet invaluable approach to exploring the depth and nuances of human experiences, behaviours, and perceptions. Understanding the philosophical underpinnings, data collection techniques, and analysis procedures discussed in the blog post is the dynamic landscape for qualitative methods. The emphasis is on reflexivity, subjectivity, and the iterative nature of the research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: What are qualitative research methods?

Answer: Quantitative research methods are the ones that analyze numerical data to identify patterns and make predictions.

Question 2: What are the different qualitative research methods?

Answer: Interviews, focus groups, case studies, grounded theory, and ethnography are the five different qualitative research methods.

Question 3: What are the qualitative research method steps?

Answer: Reviewing, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting the selected problem are the steps of qualitative research methods.

Question 4: What is the advantage of qualitative research methods?

Answer: It develops hypotheses for further testing and for quantitative questionnaire development.