Qualitative research study approaches and methods

Qualitative research is type of research approaches which help and make full understanding

of the research phenomena with semi-structural open-ended questions and many other

methods, this method provides full insight with deep understanding to the world problems

by gathering participants experiences, perception toward the problem, and behavior with

attitudes changes or faced. In mixed method which consisted quantitative and qualitative

approaches can clarify more and in-depth analysis of the research problem with research

questions answered by many modalities which give the research more support and guidance

toward solving the issues.

In the qualitative method the participants express their feelings, thinking process, and their

experiences on an event, but the problem of this type of research is bias and the researchers

feeling may affect the data collection and interference on the analysis which can be solved

by certain criteria during data collection.

https://youtu.be/l4wdxqq1BQ0

Approaches of qualitative research:

There are many research approaches for qualitative research the research approaches

must be selected properly to enhance understanding about the research study, the

qualitative approaches were as follows:

1 -Historical study which explore extensively about the history of the past by observing

events, checking historical documents, and interviewing with observing peoples which

draw view and conclusion about the present and future based on history.

- Grounded theory is mode of generation of theory by experience and observing

participants of the research study with comprehensive analysis of their behavior,

attitude, and speech. The purpose is to develop theory specially related to social issue by

identifying problems and approaches how to deal with these problems with explaining of

how and why the problem or events appear.

-Phenomenology as it’s study of phenomena with investigation of the experience of

perspectives and careful examination by examining lived experiences and behaviors of

the participants from their perspectives and feelings. As the research outcomes described

from participants point of view and experiences.

-Ethnography is study of specific grouping from same culture which focused on social

and cultural anthropology with put eye on the participants environment with different

data collection methods which give comprehensive understanding with observing of the

social phenomena. This type of research approach makes the researcher to immerse

himself in to research population and draw conclusion with outcomes related to

behaviors, events, actions, etc.

-Case study which used to examine and investigate a person, group, or community used

as bounded theory approach that needed multiple source of data like interview,

observation, and document analysis. The participants must be in unifying factor directly

or indirectly in relation with research questions and solving research problems and the

data collected themes and subthemes can be extracted and analyzed.

-Narrative research is ability to tell story by details with description and putting quotes of

the participants and sequencing event exactly as described which strengthen the

qualitative research study.

The methods used for qualitative research:

There are many methods used for data collection in qualitative researches which are as follows:

-Interview which used in-depth, face-to-face interview that give insight and deep

understanding for their issues and experience.

-Focus group is another method for qualitative data collection which researcher will focus

on group of participants and interview them with observation.

-Observation is little complicated method which can cause bias to the research study and its

not direct method which need focus and attention from researcher to the participants

activities and behaviors to collect data.

-Document analysis by gathering data from printed or electronic documents that needs

careful analysis.

Function and trustworthiness of qualitative research:

The qualitative research work as combination with quantitative can be support

understanding of the research issues which can be solved by using quantitative research

methods and can help in generation of hypothesis and with qualitative method provide clear

view and understanding of research problem and answering research questions. The

qualitative research work as discrete or with quantitative research study. There are some

issues faced when providing qualitative research data which are validity, reliability, and

objectivity, but, credibility, transferability, confirmability, dependability are the related

concepts for the qualitative research study which the internal validity of research can be

seen by credibility, external validity can be checked by transferability, the dependability can

explain the reliability of qualitative research, and the objectivity can recognized by

confirmability.

Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research:

Advantages of qualitative research:

There were many advantages of qualitative research study which are: flexibility by adapted

the process of data collection, analysis, and new ideas, Natural setting been used in data

collection, generate new ideas when using semi-structural open -ended questions which

generate meaningful insight by describing participants experience, feeling, behaviours, and

perceptions.

Disadvantages of qualitative research:

The disadvantages of qualitative research study with considering limitations in practical and

theories when analyzing the data collected which can be unreliable, subjectivity, and limited

generalizability.

Conclusion:

The qualitative research study can have many dimensions and criteria’s to choose this

type of research study and this blogger explained the approaches, methods, advantages,

disadvantages, and functions with how to identify the trustworthiness of qualitative

research study as it’s the base and building blocks to know how to perform qualitative

research also their were many concepts must be understood as research paradigm, how

to create and understanding data collection, sampling, analysis, software used for data

analysis, developing themes and subthemes related to research question and solving

research problems which can be explained by next blogger.

References:

Bhandari, P. (2025). What is qualitative research? Methods & examples. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/

Hoover, L. (2021). 5 qualitative research designs and research methods. Grand Canyon University. https://www.gcu.edu/blog/doctoral-journey/5-qualitative-research-designs-and-research-methods

İpek, H. (2016). A Qualitative Study on Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 4(3), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.4c3s15

Teherani, A., Martimianakis, T., Stenfors-Hayes, T., Wadhwa, A., & Varpio, L. (2015). Choosing a Qualitative Research Approach. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 7(4), 669–670. NCBI. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00414.1

Tenny, S., Brannan, J., & Brannan, G. (2022). Qualitative study. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470395/