Qualitative research

Examples of Qualitative research in the following topics:

• Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

  • Qualitative Research is the examination, analysis and interpretation of observations for the purpose of discovering underlying meanings and patterns of relationships, including classifications of types of phenomena and entities, in a manner that does not involve mathematical models.
  • For example, in the social sciences, qualitative research methods are often used to gain better understanding of such things as intentionality (from the speech response of the researchee) and meaning (why did this person/group say something and what did it mean to them?).
  • Unlike quantitative methods which are used to identify patterns and make predictions, qualitative research aims to explain behavior.
  • Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern it.
  • An example of a qualitative research interview at a facility where the respondents and interviewer can be seen from a 2-way mirror.

• Conducting Research

  • How you conduct research depends upon the topic you are researching.
  • The three methodologies most commonly used are applied, quantitative, and qualitative research.
  • Applied research is used to solve practical problems.
  • Qualitative research involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about what people do and say.
  • Methods of conducting qualitative research include conducting interviews and observing different social scenarios.

• Plan the Research Design

  • The research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project.
  • This process is guided by discussions with management and industry experts , case studies and simulations, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research, and pragmatic considerations.
  • A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project.
  • The research plan outlines sources of existing data and spells out the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments that researchers will use to gather data.
  • Describe the formulation of research design within the context of the marketing research process

• Determining the Research Design

  • One of the most intensive forms of qualitative research is participant observation.
  • Another distinction can be made between quantitative methods and qualitative methods.
  • Quantitative methods are generally useful when a researcher seeks to study large-scale patterns of behavior, while qualitative methods are often more effective when dealing with interactions and relationships in detail .
  • Qualitative sociological research is often associated with an interpretive framework, which is more descriptive or narrative in its findings.
  • These two researchers are debating the relative merits of using qualitative or quantitative methods to study social phenomena such as the learning processes of children.

• Measures of Variability of Qualitative and Ranked Data

  • Variability for qualitative data is measured in terms of how often observations differ from one another.
  • A discussion of the variability of qualitative--or categorical-- data can sometimes be absent.
  • In qualitative research, two responses differ if they are in different categories and are the same if they are in the same category.
  • An index of qualitative variation (IQV) is a measure of statistical dispersion in nominal distributions--or those dealing with qualitative data.
  • It is the simplest measure of qualitative variation.

• Quantitative or Qualitative Data?

  • Different statistical tests are used to test quantitative and qualitative data.
  • Qualitative (categorical) research, on the other hand, asks broad questions and collects word data from participants.
  • The researcher looks for themes and describes the information in themes and patterns exclusive to that set of participants.
  • Examples of qualitative variables are male/female, nationality, color, et cetera.
  • One of the most common statistical tests for qualitative data is the chi-square test (both the goodness of fit test and test of independence).

• Quantitative and Qualitative

  • Quantitative methods of sociological research approach social phenomena from the perspective that they can be measured and/or quantified.
  • Quantitative sociologists also utilize mathematical models capable of organizing social experiences into a rational order that may provide a necessary foundation for more in depth analyses of the natural world (importantly, this element of quantitative research often provides the initial or potential insights that guide much theoretical and qualitative analyses of patterns observed - numerically or otherwise - beyond the confines of mathematical models).
  • Qualitative methods of sociological research tend to approach social phenomena from the Verstehen perspective.
  • They view quantitative and qualitative approaches as complementary.
  • Similarly, qualitative patterns in society can reveal missing pieces in the mathematical models of quantitative research while quantitative patterns in society can guide more in-depth analysis of actual patterns in natural settings.

• Describing Qualitative Data

  • The Ground Theory Method (GTM) is an inductive approach to research, introduced by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, in which theories are generated solely from an examination of data rather than being derived deductively.
  • It is more sophisticated in qualitative data analysis.
  • Coding is the actual transformation of qualitative data into themes.
  • Each segment is labeled with a "code" – usually a word or short phrase that suggests how the associated data segments inform the research objectives.
  • Summarize the processes available to researchers that allow qualitative data to be analyzed similarly to quantitative data.

• Forecasting

  • Forecasting is the process of making statements about expected future events, based upon evidence, research, and experience.
  • The inherent problem with the qualitative approach is simple: subjectivity.
  • Generally this type of forecast will include the opinions of experts, upper management, and market research.
  • This flow chart compares quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods.
  • Qualitative forecasting relies more on opinions than data and can employ market research, sales-force input, or a jury of executives.

• Variables

  • When conducting research, experimenters often manipulate variables.
  • Qualitative variables are those that express a qualitative attribute such as hair color, eye color, religion, favorite movie, gender, and so on.
  • The values of a qualitative variable do not imply a numerical ordering.
  • Values of the variable "religion" differ qualitatively; no ordering of religions is implied.
  • Qualitative variables are sometimes referred to as categorical variables.