Qualitative research is a kind of research where a researcher from any discipline can inquire about various subject matters. The major goal of qualitative research is to obtain an in-depth understanding of the subject upon which a researcher is working.
Qualitative research in the field of psychology can be used to gain in-depth understanding about certain human behaviors. Qualitative research also helps in understanding the reasons of certain human behaviors and the prevalence of these behaviors. In order to understand certain human behaviors, qualitative research can be conducted by in-depth focus group study, contextual interviews, individual interviews, etc.
Qualitative research is very popular in social sciences like psychology. The reason that qualitative research is very popular is that qualitative research helps in answering many questions—and this is something that quantitative research cannot do. For example, in order to implement certain policies, qualitative research is very useful.
Qualitative research in the field of medical/nursing can be used in cases where there is a decision making problem due to insufficient information, or due to contradictory information. Consensus methods in medical and health services research are termed as qualitative research. There are basically two types of consensus methods or qualitative research. In this case, they are Delphi Process and the Nominal Group Technique.
Delphi Process in qualitative research is the process that collects and filters knowledge using questionnaires (made by experts), in order to obtain an appropriate and controlled feedback. Qualitative research by controlled feedback means that the feedback obtained is not contradicted.
Nominal Group Technique in qualitative research is the structured variation of small group discussion methods. This method in qualitative research generally involves ideas and views of a group of people, rather than that of an individual. This method in qualitative research generally encourages participation of more passive group members. The basic advantage of this group in qualitative research is that it encourages equal participation of all the group members.
Qualitative research is used extensively in the field of business, especially in market research. Whenever a new company plans to launch a new product, then it performs the pre-launch qualitative research, or a survey based upon the kind of attributes a customer would expect from the product. After launching the product, the company performs post-launch qualitative research, or a survey about the views of the consumers about the new product.
Researchers argue that the qualitative research mentioned above is quite artificial. Thus, more advanced kinds of techniques have been introduced—techniques that are other than qualitative research.
Suppose a company is launching new software and wants to know the market scenario for the product. In this case, the qualitative research involves telephone interviews of people, which in-turn requires the preparation of a questionnaire. The questionnaire involves questions such as the company’s turnover rate, the company’s budget on IT products, etc. Although, the qualitative research involves questions that are very sensitive (like the company’s turnover rate), the response received will depend greatly on the researcher, and how he/she frames the question.
There is a nonprofit association called the Qualitative Research Consultants Association that promotes all aspects of qualitative research. Through the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, one can have access to nearly 1000 qualitative research consultants. The qualitative research consultants include group moderators, facilitators, interviewers and planners. These qualitative research consultants are experts and professionals on focus groups, individual in-depth interviews, ethnography, observational research, usability research, idea generation, etc.
There is also an international association for qualitative research that revolves around the practice and study of qualitative research. The aim of this international association for qualitative research is to improve the theory involved in qualitative research and the usage of qualitative research across various disciplines of human sciences.
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