3 qualitative research titles

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131 Interesting Qualitative Research Topics For High Scoring Thesis

Qualitative research topics are undoubtedly not easy. While statistics enthralls some students, others don’t like the subject. That’s because qualitative assignments entail cognitive analysis, which complicates them. But apart from the hardships of completing the projects, selecting topics for qualitative research papers is also a challenge.

This article presents a list of 130-plus qualitative research topic ideas to help learners that struggle to get titles for their papers. It is helpful because many learners have difficulties picking titles that will make their essays impressive to educators. But before presenting the topics, this article defines qualitative research.

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is an investigative and innovative abstract data analysis. When writing a qualitative research paper, a learner analyzes intangible data. Qualitative researchers code the data after or during collection. Therefore, having top-notch research topics is necessary for a first-class essay.

Knowing how to write a qualitative research paper is vital because it helps the student deliver a copy that provides a clear picture of an event or situation. A researcher can achieve this via practical experience, reliable reporting, and conversations. Gathering raw data is the initial step in qualitative research. A researcher can gather raw data by conducting reviews, observations, and surveys. Also, researchers can use creative methods to collect data.

Best Examples Of Qualitative Research Topics

Qualitative research covers many things. Here are examples of topics that learners can explore in their qualitative study.

• What causes stigma around some health challenges?
• Stigma facing the people living with disabilities- What is the cause?
• Can Pro Bono legal assistance improve the criminal justice system?
• How the less privileged can benefit from Pro Bono services
• The educational challenges facing rural children- Are there ways to help them?
• Child labor causes- How to mitigate the practice
• Substance and drugs- What are young people abusing more?
• How alcohol affects college students
• Can food insecurity interfere with children’s performance in school?
• Food banks intricacies- Understanding the challenge in low-income areas
• Free education- Does it have socioeconomic benefits?
• Culture and female harm- What’s the connection?
• The impact of social media on physical and social engagement among teens in urban areas
• Using medication to treat depression- What are the health benefits?
• Investigating peer educators’ efficiency in creating awareness of health and social issues
• Gender-based violence- What causes it in rural areas, and how does it affect victims?
• Sexual reproductive health challenges of child brides- Are there ways to control it?
• Investigating the causes of school dropout among teenagers
• How to address school dropout among young adults
• Investigating the deteriorating academic pursuit in Third-World countries
• Social activities- Do they have benefits for depressed people?
• Investigating cerebral palsy and the stigma that people associate with it.
• Living with disabilities- Are there social implications?
• The impact of ableism on disabled people
• Exploring the promotion and benefits of feminist values
• Why should society promote free education in all learning environments?
• What causes food insecurities among low-income earners?
• Food and housing insecurity- What are the root causes?
• What are the effects of displacement- Investigating the homeless people’s mental health

These are good examples of qualitative research topics. However, a student that picks a title in this category should research it extensively to impress the educator with their work.

Qualitative Nursing Research Topics

Professors ask students to write about qualitative topics when pursuing nursing studies. Here are issues to consider in this category.

• How does the nurse-patient relationship affect health outcomes?
• How can nurses deal with complex patients?
• How can nurses provide culturally competent care?
• How do personal beliefs affect nursing practice?
• What is the impact of spirituality on nursing care?
• How does the nurse’s role change when working with terminally ill patients?
• What challenges do nurses face when providing end-of-life care?
• How can nurses best support families whose members have serious illnesses?
• What are the unique challenges of caring for elderly patients?
• How does the nurse’s role change when working in a hospice setting?
• Health outreach programs- What are the most effective ways to execute them?
• Effective methods of curbing drug abuse
• Effective ways to help rape survivors
• How can nurses administer care to female genital mutilation victims?
• How to care for special needs individuals
• Anxiety and depression symptoms
• Methods of administering care to Dyslexia patients
• How to help individuals dealing with mental disorders
• Signs of Alzheimer’s disease in older people
• How to provide primary patient care

These are good qualitative research topics for students pursuing nursing studies. Nevertheless, learners must research any of these titles before writing their papers.

Qualitative Research Topics In Education

Most topics spring up from the education niche despite fitting other specifications. Here are examples of qualitative research topics that include the education niche.

• Are guidance and counseling essential in schools?
• How computer literacy affects education
• Why governments in developing schools should encourage adult education
• Autistic children’s education- Which learning style suits them?
• Is mental health education relevant in the modern school curriculum?
• Exploring the learning conditions for kids in third world countries
• Child education and food insecurity- What is the connection?
• The impact of virtual learning on high school students
• How does alcoholism affect a student and their education?
• Homeschooling- What are its advantages and disadvantages?
• How do teachers’ beliefs about intelligence affect their teaching?
• What is the teacher’s role in developing a student’s self-concept?
• Does race or ethnicity play a role in how teachers treat their students?
• What are the teachers’ experiences with teaching students with special needs?
• What methods do effective teachers use to motivate their students?
• What are the most effective ways to teach reading and writing?
• How does technology use affect how teachers teach, and students learn?
• What are the challenges faced by teachers in rural areas?
• What are the challenges faced by teachers in urban areas?
• How do charter schools differ from traditional public schools?

Many topics and issues in the education system allow learners to find subjects to investigate and cover in their papers quickly. And this is not an exhaustive qualitative research topic list in this field. Nevertheless, it covers the most exciting ideas to explore.

Qualitative Research Topics In Public Health

Educators ask students to write academic papers while studying the public health sector. And this provides insights into crucial and relevant aspects of this sector. Here are qualitative research topics examples in this category.

• How does the public health sector manage epidemics?
• The role of public health in disaster management
• Evaluating the effectiveness of public health campaigns
• An analysis of the factors that hinder effective public health delivery
• Access to healthcare: A study of rural and urban populations
• Health needs assessment of refugees
• Mental health support within the public health sector
• The role of technology in public health
• Understanding and addressing health disparities
• Sexual and reproductive health rights in the public health discourse
• How immunization benefits people in rural areas
• What causes water-borne diseases, and how can society mitigate them?
• Symptoms of high blood pressure among young people
• How antenatal care helps pregnant women
• How to boost breast cancer awareness

These are excellent qualitative research paper topics in the public health sector. Nevertheless, learners need sufficient time and resources to investigate their preferred titles in this category to write winning papers.

Qualitative Research Topics In Project Management

Project management writing focuses on ways to achieve results and goals while basing the achievement on the process. This subject covers planning, structuring, proffering, and controlling ways to execute plans to accomplish desired goals. Here are research topics for qualitative research in project management.

• How effective communication strategies can impact the outcome of a project
• How different leadership styles affect team productivity during a project
• The role of conflict management in ensuring successful project outcomes
• Gender differences in the perception and understanding of project risk
• The impact of organizational culture on a project’s likelihood of success
• How different project management methodologies affect its outcome
• The effect of stakeholder involvement on project success
• How to manage virtual teams effectively to ensure successful project outcomes
• What motivates project managers to achieve successful results?
• How can project managers create a positive work environment that leads to successful outcomes?
• What challenges do project managers face when trying to achieve successful outcomes?
• How can project management be used to achieve social change?
• What are the ethical implications of project management?
• What are the global impacts of project management?
• Ways to achieve sustainable development through project management

These are topics to explore in project management. Nevertheless, learners need adequate time to investigate their chosen titles and write winning essays.

Qualitative Research Topics In Political Science

Qualitative research can also cover political science. Investigating this field enables people to understand it better and can be broad. Here are sample titles to consider in for your scientific thesis .

• How do social media affect the way people engage with politics?
• What motivates people to vote?
• How does voting behavior change over time?
• What are the consequences of gerrymandering?
• How does campaign finance influence elections?
• Interest groups- What is their role in politics?
• How do the media cover politics?
• What are the effects of political scandals?
• How does public opinion influence policymakers?
• How feminism enhanced the American politics
• The adverse effects of misrepresentation
• The American democracy- A look into its dimensions
• Colorism, racism, and classism- How the American ideologies differ
• What causes an election crisis?
• Two-party system- What challenges does it face in America?
• Black women’s inclusion in the American politics
• Should America have a multi-party system?
• Why mass media matters in politics’ scrutiny and promotion

While political science is a broad field, these narrow topics help learners handle their research effectively. Pick any of these ideas to write a winning essay.

Topics For Ethnography Qualitative Research

Ethnographic research entails studying and paying attention to society and describing it. Here are topics to consider for a research paper in this field.

• Studying a subculture: Reasons people join and stay in gangs
• How does social media use vary by culture?
• An ethnographic study of a homeless shelter or soup kitchen
• Understanding the lives of sex workers through ethnography
• The impact of religion on family life
• How does parenting vary between cultures?
• How do children learn and socialize in different cultures?
• What is the effect of migration on family life?
• What are the experiences of refugees?- An explorative case study
• What is the impact of poverty on family life?
• How do people in different cultures understand and experience mental illness?
• What is the role of the family in other cultures?
• What are the end-of-life experiences and beliefs around death in different cultures?

This article has presented easy qualitative research topics. However, some need time and resources to investigate and write quality papers. Therefore, pick your paper title carefully to write an essay that will earn you an excellent grade.

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Qualitative Research Topics & Ideas For Students

Do you have difficulty finding a qualitative research title for your project? If you are, you need not worry because you are not alone. However, there are many unique qualitative titles you can explore for your research. You just need a few qualitative research title examples to get you started. Qualitative research is focused on data obtained through a researcher’s first-hand observations, natural setting recording, artifacts, case studies, documents, questionnaires, and interviews. The findings in qualitative research are usually non-numerical. Also, it is common in humanities and social sciences. This post provides over 100 qualitative research topics you can consider.

• The Best Qualitative Research Topics That Impress the Teacher

Exceptional Qualitative Research Topics In Social Science

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An excellent research topic will help you earn a good grade. Consider any example of a qualitative research title from the following options:

• The impacts of social media on physical social engagement in society
• The benefits of treating mental disorders with medication
• The effects of Gender-Based Violence on women’s social lives in rural areas
• The decline of academic pursuit in third-world countries
• Sexual workers: the stigma they experience
• How has the promotion of feminist values influenced workplaces?
• Free education: its impact in third-world countries
• What is the correlation between education and success?
• Ableism: its effects on disabled people in society
• Food insecurity in third-world nations

The topic of your research paper can influence how easily you can conduct your study and draw conclusions.

Here are fantastic examples of qualitative research titles:

• Female harm: how it is influenced by culture
• The socioeconomic impacts of free education
• The link between food insecurity and poor performance in schools
• Alcoholism among college students: a critical study
• How to mitigate child labor in our society
• The root causes of child labor in Latin America
• The stigma of living with transmissive medical conditions
• The root cause of the stigma of people living with disabilities
• How to identify depression in small children
• Signs of autism in kids below two years old

Choosing a qualitative research topic is not a task you should take lightly because it can influence your performance. Here are some noteworthy qualitative research titles examples:

• Basic patient care policies in developing nations
• The impacts of alcoholism on education
• Adult learning: what does it entail?
• Homeschooling: Is it the latest trend after the pandemic?
• Does computer literacy influence the quality of education kids enjoy?
• How to effectively teach students with learning disabilities
• The relationship between poor education systems and crime rates in third-world countries
• Student bullying: the psychological impacts
• Should high school students go through university preparedness programs?
• research writing in high schools: its significance

Are you looking for qualitative research topic examples to start your study? Below are some creative examples to consider:

• Remote tests: are they as effective as in-class tests?
• The value of social activities in academic institutions
• Why should healthcare be free in all countries?
• The implications of racist laws on society
• The reception of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments
• What is the difference between foreign policies in first-world and third-world nations?
• Racism and Colorism: what is the difference?
• Dissecting the causes of low voter turnouts in the 21 st century
• The challenges of social media on kid’s brain development
• The inclusion of black women in American politics and its impacts

When competing with several brilliant minds, a good research topic can do you greatly. The following qualitative research examples titles are a great place to start:

• Should school uniforms be discarded for high schoolers?
• The need for equal representation in global politics
• The implications of police brutality on politics
• The role of parental care in foster kids
• The distinction between Islamic values and Christian values
• The correlation between political instability and migration
• Sex trafficking and violence against women: what is the link?
• How can global governments eradicate homelessness?
• Fraternities and sororities: are they still relevant?
• The role of literature in promoting societal changes

Qualitative research is popular in the education field and other social sciences. Choose a qualitative research title example on the subject of education from the following list:

• Effectively introducing foreign languages in the high school curriculum
• How can teachers help students with disabilities improve their learning?
• The link between social activities and comprehension among students
• Research writing in high schools: is it necessary?
• How has virtual learning influenced teacher-student relationships?
• The implications of allowing smartphones in classes
• Should all schools introduce sign language lessons in their curriculum?
• Student loans: their impacts on black students
• The impacts of race on college acceptance rates
• Poverty and education: what is the link?
• Ethnic and socioeconomic causes of poor school attendance in developing worlds
• Various teaching methods and their efficiency
• Efficient teaching methods for children below two years
• Why do students perform better in humanities than in sciences?
• The difference between college acceptance and completion in most nations
• Remote learning in developing countries
• What are the best ways of approaching bullying in schools?
• How do teachers promote inequality among students?
• Does social class influence academic performance negatively or positively?
• How do teachers shape their students’ personalities?

Coming up with a qualitative research title can be hard because of the numerous subject areas and the issue of uniqueness. Therefore, we have prepared the following qualitative title examples for you:

• How to promote oral learning in classrooms
• Political instability in developing countries: its economic impacts
• The impacts of weather on social activities
• Boredom and poor-decision making: the connection
• Exploring the connection between attachment types and love languages
• Socioeconomic impacts of instability on a country
• How does social media impact the perception of reality
• Reality TV shows: are they a true reflection of reality?
• How culture applies to different age groups
• Is social media influencing the loss of cultural values?

You can base your research topic on a specific region or nation, like the Philippines. A sample qualitative research title can get you started. You can pick a sample qualitative research title from the ideas below:

• Why are so many Philippines residents migrating to America?
• The impact of politics on migration in the Philippines
• How has violence led to food insecurity in rural areas in the Philippines?
• The Philippine education system: an overview
• How cultural norms influence social activities in the Philippines
• Gender roles in the Philippines society
• How popular Filipino cultures have served as agents of social change in the nation
• The link between male dominance and GBV in the Philippines
• Barriers to clean hygiene in health centers in the Philippines
• The spread of COVID in rural areas in the Philippines

Most top performers in research subjects attribute their success to choosing the best title for qualitative research. Here are some qualitative research topics about humanities and social science to promote good performance:

• The impact of poor market rivalry on supply and demand
• The role of parents in shaping kids’ morals
• Is social media the root cause of poor societal morals?
• How does alcohol impact a person’s normal behavior?
• How often should adults engage in sporting activities?
• Children’s eating habits and their influences
• Low socioeconomic backgrounds and their impacts on self-esteem
• The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world’s views on viral diseases
• How can school-going kids manage depression
• Causes of mental challenges among school-going kids

Finding a good topic for qualitative research is a critical task that requires a lot of thought and research. However, we have simplified the process with the following qualitative topic ideas:

• Pop music and erratic youth behavior: is there a link?
• How do public figures influence cultures?
• Ideas for improving healthcare in developing nations
• Possible solutions for alleviating the food crisis in developing nations
• New ways of mitigating viral diseases
• Social media trends among the elderly
• Quarantine as a mitigation approach for infectious diseases
• Promoting social justice in patriarchal societies
• Worrying trends among the young population
• Emerging marketing trends in 2023

Qualitative research for college and high school students helps improve reading, writing, and intellectual skills. Here are some qualitative research examples and topic ideas for students :

• How to detect and prevent natural disasters beforehand
• Can the whole world have the same education system?
• What is the most effective therapy for patients recuperating from brain surgery?
• Possible solutions for promoting ethical practices in telehealth
• Can addicts overcome addiction without therapy?
• The latest technology trends and their impacts?
• How can global governments promote mental health awareness?
• Have smartphones caused reduced attention spans among users?
• Sexual violence in rural areas
• The introduction of Islam in African nations

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Qualitative research is an investigative analysis of intangible or inexact data, mostly non-numerical. The title of qualitative research you choose will guide your entire research process and influence its conclusions. Do you need a paper or an example of a research title qualitative topic? Our expert team is ready to write it for you.

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Top 60 Examples of Qualitative Research Topics

Table of contents

• 1.1 Align your research topic with your field of interest
• 1.2 Make sure you have all the right research on the topic
• 1.3 Follow your university guidelines!
• 2 List of qualitative research topics examples
• 3 Conclusion

Qualitative research refers to the intuitive and creative analysis of intangible information you can use for writing a top-class college paper. Due to interacting with the data before and after the collection, having the best qualitative research topics is paramount to writing a research assignment that stands above the rest.

These topics can involve gathering key data from the most relevant sources to your assignment topics and are fundamental to your effort to collect first-hand information. Some of the major fields where qualitative research is performed include:

• Anthropology
• Political science
• Business management
• Social science

The main goal of qualitative research is to help you understand the topic of your assignment by identifying the most important aspects of your topic and gathering enough information to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic at hand and provide the answers to all the related questions. This type of research aims to identify and understand the general lifestyle, issues, and problems to provide solutions to a global problem. Since doing all the research on your own can turn out to be quite daunting, you can always resort to hiring an  affordable research paper writing service  to get professional assistance.

Tips on how to choose good qualitative research topics

Writing a research paper or a college assignment with success solely depends on your ability to choose suitable qualitative research topics. It’s essential to carefully examine and explore the field with all the challenges before you start writing to identify the key factors and aspects of your assignment. Here are a few tips on how to do that to get good research paper ideas.

Align your research topic with your field of interest

Your assignment topic should be something that interests you deeply so that you can completely get into it and make the most out of your efforts. More importantly, your topic should allow you to develop your personal skills and learn new things.

Make sure you have all the right research on the topic

If you choose a topic that has little to no supporting research available, you’ll end up getting stuck. You must properly research the topic before you start writing. This research will also help you shortlist unrelated topics and narrow down your scope so that you can focus on the information that matches your exact needs.

Follow your university guidelines!

Consulting with your professors and going through the assessment guidelines is paramount to writing a top-class paper. Follow your university guidelines to make sure your efforts get approved by your supervisor.

List of qualitative research topics examples

• Long-term planning methods for better project management
• How to deal with issues during a project implementation program
• The best practices for dealing with tight project deadlines
• Why time management is essential for goal setting
• Flexibility in management: How to improve decision-making as a manager
• Top professional techniques for developing management skills
• Healthcare in low-income societies: How to achieve affordable medical care
• Dealing with a loss and the process of recovery
• How to make eco-friendly facemasks
• Preventing flu during cold seasons: The most effective preventative methods
• The importance of developing community-based sanitization programs
• The best practices for quitting alcohol and cigarettes
• Helping the young manage their obesity: The most effective obesity management strategies
• Promoting healthcare during COVID-19: Strategies for expanding the health sector
• Guide to collecting resources for building a centralized community
• How academic and social practices can help uplift a society
• Professional practices for building a one-on-one relationship between teachers and students
• The science behind consumer motivations and appraisals
• Reshaping the traditional form of virtual ethnography
• Are homeschooling programs as efficient as they should be?
• The importance of developing healthy eating habits
• The best strategies for getting ahead of the prospective market
• How to track the dynamics of real estate investments
• How effective are modern newsgathering technologies?
• Developing introvert behavior and its key effects
• Can sharing help an individual overcome addictions?
• Guide to creating a one-people community
• The most effective methods for dealing with cyberbullying
• The best way to bringing social equity to patriarchal societies
• How quarantine prevents the spread of infectious diseases
• The aging populations and the trends they follow
• The latest digital media trends
• Methods for mitigating communicable diseases
• How governments work on protocol observance
• Practices for preventing the spread of the coronavirus in crowded places
• Alleviating pain during childbirth
• Maternal healthcare in developing countries
• Can pop music change erratic youth behavior?
• The best therapies for recovering from brain surgery
• How alcohol changes normal behavior
• Depression management among school-going children
• Strategies for avoiding a viral disease
• Ways to influence the eating habits of children
• How and when to engage in sporting activities
• How low socioeconomic background impacts self-esteem
• The importance of parenting for shaping children’s morals
• The impact of poor market completion on supply and demand
• Do children under four years need preschool education?
• Single-gender schools vs. mixed schools
• How the world would benefit from the same education system
• How virtual reality helps reshape the world
• The hottest destinations for traveling at the moment
• How fast does the ozone layer deplete?
• Is it possible to predict natural disasters before they occur?
• The effects of digital marketing on modern businesses
• Physical learning vs. online learning
• How related are Windows and Apple products?
• Study cases of bullying in schools
• The effect of stress on human behavior
• Patient behavior and the influence of social processes

If you’re looking for the best way to choose some of the most suitable qualitative research paper topics for your college assignment, these 60 topics should help you get ahead of your task and write an engaging paper. All topics above are for your personal education and motivation. If you still need help with your assignment, our professional paper writing services are available 24/7.

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18 Qualitative Research Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Qualitative research is an approach to scientific research that involves using observation to gather and analyze non-numerical, in-depth, and well-contextualized datasets.

It serves as an integral part of academic, professional, and even daily decision-making processes (Baxter & Jack, 2008).

Methods of qualitative research encompass a wide range of techniques, from in-depth personal encounters, like ethnographies (studying cultures in-depth) and autoethnographies (examining one’s own cultural experiences), to collection of diverse perspectives on topics through methods like interviewing focus groups (gatherings of individuals to discuss specific topics).

Qualitative Research Examples

1. ethnography.

Definition: Ethnography is a qualitative research design aimed at exploring cultural phenomena. Rooted in the discipline of anthropology , this research approach investigates the social interactions, behaviors, and perceptions within groups, communities, or organizations.

Ethnographic research is characterized by extended observation of the group, often through direct participation, in the participants’ environment. An ethnographer typically lives with the study group for extended periods, intricately observing their everyday lives (Khan, 2014).

It aims to present a complete, detailed and accurate picture of the observed social life, rituals, symbols, and values from the perspective of the study group.

Example of Ethnographic Research

Title: “ The Everyday Lives of Men: An Ethnographic Investigation of Young Adult Male Identity “

Citation: Evans, J. (2010). The Everyday Lives of Men: An Ethnographic Investigation of Young Adult Male Identity. Peter Lang.

Overview: This study by Evans (2010) provides a rich narrative of young adult male identity as experienced in everyday life. The author immersed himself among a group of young men, participating in their activities and cultivating a deep understanding of their lifestyle, values, and motivations. This research exemplified the ethnographic approach, revealing complexities of the subjects’ identities and societal roles, which could hardly be accessed through other qualitative research designs.

Read my Full Guide on Ethnography Here

2. Autoethnography

Definition: Autoethnography is an approach to qualitative research where the researcher uses their own personal experiences to extend the understanding of a certain group, culture, or setting. Essentially, it allows for the exploration of self within the context of social phenomena.

Unlike traditional ethnography, which focuses on the study of others, autoethnography turns the ethnographic gaze inward, allowing the researcher to use their personal experiences within a culture as rich qualitative data (Durham, 2019).

The objective is to critically appraise one’s personal experiences as they navigate and negotiate cultural, political, and social meanings. The researcher becomes both the observer and the participant, intertwining personal and cultural experiences in the research.

Example of Autoethnographic Research

Title: “ A Day In The Life Of An NHS Nurse “

Citation: Osben, J. (2019). A day in the life of a NHS nurse in 21st Century Britain: An auto-ethnography. The Journal of Autoethnography for Health & Social Care. 1(1).

Overview: This study presents an autoethnography of a day in the life of an NHS nurse (who, of course, is also the researcher). The author uses the research to achieve reflexivity, with the researcher concluding: “Scrutinising my practice and situating it within a wider contextual backdrop has compelled me to significantly increase my level of scrutiny into the driving forces that influence my practice.”

Read my Full Guide on Autoethnography Here

3. Semi-Structured Interviews

Definition: Semi-structured interviews stand as one of the most frequently used methods in qualitative research. These interviews are planned and utilize a set of pre-established questions, but also allow for the interviewer to steer the conversation in other directions based on the responses given by the interviewee.

In semi-structured interviews, the interviewer prepares a guide that outlines the focal points of the discussion. However, the interview is flexible, allowing for more in-depth probing if the interviewer deems it necessary (Qu, & Dumay, 2011). This style of interviewing strikes a balance between structured ones which might limit the discussion, and unstructured ones, which could lack focus.

Example of Semi-Structured Interview Research

Title: “ Factors influencing adherence to cancer treatment in older adults with cancer: a systematic review “

Citation: Puts, M., et al. (2014). Factors influencing adherence to cancer treatment in older adults with cancer: a systematic review. Annals of oncology, 25 (3), 564-577.

Overview: Puts et al. (2014) executed an extensive systematic review in which they conducted semi-structured interviews with older adults suffering from cancer to examine the factors influencing their adherence to cancer treatment. The findings suggested that various factors, including side effects, faith in healthcare professionals, and social support have substantial impacts on treatment adherence. This research demonstrates how semi-structured interviews can provide rich and profound insights into the subjective experiences of patients.

4. Focus Groups

Definition: Focus groups are a qualitative research method that involves organized discussion with a selected group of individuals to gain their perspectives on a specific concept, product, or phenomenon. Typically, these discussions are guided by a moderator.

During a focus group session, the moderator has a list of questions or topics to discuss, and participants are encouraged to interact with each other (Morgan, 2010). This interactivity can stimulate more information and provide a broader understanding of the issue under scrutiny. The open format allows participants to ask questions and respond freely, offering invaluable insights into attitudes, experiences, and group norms.

Example of Focus Group Research

Title: “ Perspectives of Older Adults on Aging Well: A Focus Group Study “

Citation: Halaweh, H., Dahlin-Ivanoff, S., Svantesson, U., & Willén, C. (2018). Perspectives of older adults on aging well: a focus group study. Journal of aging research .

Overview: This study aimed to explore what older adults (aged 60 years and older) perceived to be ‘aging well’. The researchers identified three major themes from their focus group interviews: a sense of well-being, having good physical health, and preserving good mental health. The findings highlight the importance of factors such as positive emotions, social engagement, physical activity, healthy eating habits, and maintaining independence in promoting aging well among older adults.

5. Phenomenology

Definition: Phenomenology, a qualitative research method, involves the examination of lived experiences to gain an in-depth understanding of the essence or underlying meanings of a phenomenon.

The focus of phenomenology lies in meticulously describing participants’ conscious experiences related to the chosen phenomenon (Padilla-Díaz, 2015).

In a phenomenological study, the researcher collects detailed, first-hand perspectives of the participants, typically via in-depth interviews, and then uses various strategies to interpret and structure these experiences, ultimately revealing essential themes (Creswell, 2013). This approach focuses on the perspective of individuals experiencing the phenomenon, seeking to explore, clarify, and understand the meanings they attach to those experiences.

Example of Phenomenology Research

Title: “ A phenomenological approach to experiences with technology: current state, promise, and future directions for research ”

Citation: Cilesiz, S. (2011). A phenomenological approach to experiences with technology: Current state, promise, and future directions for research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59 , 487-510.

Overview: A phenomenological approach to experiences with technology by Sebnem Cilesiz represents a good starting point for formulating a phenomenological study. With its focus on the ‘essence of experience’, this piece presents methodological, reliability, validity, and data analysis techniques that phenomenologists use to explain how people experience technology in their everyday lives.

6. Grounded Theory

Definition: Grounded theory is a systematic methodology in qualitative research that typically applies inductive reasoning . The primary aim is to develop a theoretical explanation or framework for a process, action, or interaction grounded in, and arising from, empirical data (Birks & Mills, 2015).

In grounded theory, data collection and analysis work together in a recursive process. The researcher collects data, analyses it, and then collects more data based on the evolving understanding of the research context. This ongoing process continues until a comprehensive theory that represents the data and the associated phenomenon emerges – a point known as theoretical saturation (Charmaz, 2014).

Example of Grounded Theory Research

Title: “ Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory “

Citation: Shernoff, D. J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Shneider, B., & Shernoff, E. S. (2003). Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. School Psychology Quarterly, 18 (2), 158–176.

Overview: Shernoff and colleagues (2003) used grounded theory to explore student engagement in high school classrooms. The researchers collected data through student self-reports, interviews, and observations. Key findings revealed that academic challenge, student autonomy, and teacher support emerged as the most significant factors influencing students’ engagement, demonstrating how grounded theory can illuminate complex dynamics within real-world contexts.

7. Narrative Research

Definition: Narrative research is a qualitative research method dedicated to storytelling and understanding how individuals experience the world. It focuses on studying an individual’s life and experiences as narrated by that individual (Polkinghorne, 2013).

In narrative research, the researcher collects data through methods such as interviews, observations , and document analysis. The emphasis is on the stories told by participants – narratives that reflect their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

These stories are then interpreted by the researcher, who attempts to understand the meaning the participant attributes to these experiences (Josselson, 2011).

Example of Narrative Research

Title: “Narrative Structures and the Language of the Self”

Citation: McAdams, D. P., Josselson, R., & Lieblich, A. (2006). Identity and story: Creating self in narrative . American Psychological Association.

Overview: In this innovative study, McAdams et al. (2006) employed narrative research to explore how individuals construct their identities through the stories they tell about themselves. By examining personal narratives, the researchers discerned patterns associated with characters, motivations, conflicts, and resolutions, contributing valuable insights about the relationship between narrative and individual identity.

8. Case Study Research

Definition: Case study research is a qualitative research method that involves an in-depth investigation of a single instance or event: a case. These ‘cases’ can range from individuals, groups, or entities to specific projects, programs, or strategies (Creswell, 2013).

The case study method typically uses multiple sources of information for comprehensive contextual analysis. It aims to explore and understand the complexity and uniqueness of a particular case in a real-world context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). This investigation could result in a detailed description of the case, a process for its development, or an exploration of a related issue or problem.

Example of Case Study Research

Title: “ Teacher’s Role in Fostering Preschoolers’ Computational Thinking: An Exploratory Case Study “

Citation: Wang, X. C., Choi, Y., Benson, K., Eggleston, C., & Weber, D. (2021). Teacher’s role in fostering preschoolers’ computational thinking: An exploratory case study. Early Education and Development , 32 (1), 26-48.

Overview: This study investigates the role of teachers in promoting computational thinking skills in preschoolers. The study utilized a qualitative case study methodology to examine the computational thinking scaffolding strategies employed by a teacher interacting with three preschoolers in a small group setting. The findings highlight the importance of teachers’ guidance in fostering computational thinking practices such as problem reformulation/decomposition, systematic testing, and debugging.

Read about some Famous Case Studies in Psychology Here

9. Participant Observation

Definition: Participant observation has the researcher immerse themselves in a group or community setting to observe the behavior of its members. It is similar to ethnography, but generally, the researcher isn’t embedded for a long period of time.

The researcher, being a participant, engages in daily activities, interactions, and events as a way of conducting a detailed study of a particular social phenomenon (Kawulich, 2005).

The method involves long-term engagement in the field, maintaining detailed records of observed events, informal interviews, direct participation, and reflexivity. This approach allows for a holistic view of the participants’ lived experiences, behaviours, and interactions within their everyday environment (Dewalt, 2011).

Example of Participant Observation Research

Title: Conflict in the boardroom: a participant observation study of supervisory board dynamics

Citation: Heemskerk, E. M., Heemskerk, K., & Wats, M. M. (2017). Conflict in the boardroom: a participant observation study of supervisory board dynamics. Journal of Management & Governance , 21 , 233-263.

Overview: This study examined how conflicts within corporate boards affect their performance. The researchers used a participant observation method, where they actively engaged with 11 supervisory boards and observed their dynamics. They found that having a shared understanding of the board’s role called a common framework, improved performance by reducing relationship conflicts, encouraging task conflicts, and minimizing conflicts between the board and CEO.

10. Non-Participant Observation

Definition: Non-participant observation is a qualitative research method in which the researcher observes the phenomena of interest without actively participating in the situation, setting, or community being studied.

This method allows the researcher to maintain a position of distance, as they are solely an observer and not a participant in the activities being observed (Kawulich, 2005).

During non-participant observation, the researcher typically records field notes on the actions, interactions, and behaviors observed , focusing on specific aspects of the situation deemed relevant to the research question.

This could include verbal and nonverbal communication , activities, interactions, and environmental contexts (Angrosino, 2007). They could also use video or audio recordings or other methods to collect data.

Example of Non-Participant Observation Research

Title: Mental Health Nurses’ attitudes towards mental illness and recovery-oriented practice in acute inpatient psychiatric units: A non-participant observation study

Citation: Sreeram, A., Cross, W. M., & Townsin, L. (2023). Mental Health Nurses’ attitudes towards mental illness and recovery‐oriented practice in acute inpatient psychiatric units: A non‐participant observation study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing .

Overview: This study investigated the attitudes of mental health nurses towards mental illness and recovery-oriented practice in acute inpatient psychiatric units. The researchers used a non-participant observation method, meaning they observed the nurses without directly participating in their activities. The findings shed light on the nurses’ perspectives and behaviors, providing valuable insights into their attitudes toward mental health and recovery-focused care in these settings.

11. Content Analysis

Definition: Content Analysis involves scrutinizing textual, visual, or spoken content to categorize and quantify information. The goal is to identify patterns, themes, biases, or other characteristics (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005).

Content Analysis is widely used in various disciplines for a multitude of purposes. Researchers typically use this method to distill large amounts of unstructured data, like interview transcripts, newspaper articles, or social media posts, into manageable and meaningful chunks.

When wielded appropriately, Content Analysis can illuminate the density and frequency of certain themes within a dataset, provide insights into how specific terms or concepts are applied contextually, and offer inferences about the meanings of their content and use (Duriau, Reger, & Pfarrer, 2007).

Example of Content Analysis

Title: Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news .

Citation: Semetko, H. A., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2000). Framing European politics: A content analysis of press and television news. Journal of Communication, 50 (2), 93-109.

Overview: This study analyzed press and television news articles about European politics using a method called content analysis. The researchers examined the prevalence of different “frames” in the news, which are ways of presenting information to shape audience perceptions. They found that the most common frames were attribution of responsibility, conflict, economic consequences, human interest, and morality.

Read my Full Guide on Content Analysis Here

12. Discourse Analysis

Definition: Discourse Analysis, a qualitative research method, interprets the meanings, functions, and coherence of certain languages in context.

Discourse analysis is typically understood through social constructionism, critical theory , and poststructuralism and used for understanding how language constructs social concepts (Cheek, 2004).

Discourse Analysis offers great breadth, providing tools to examine spoken or written language, often beyond the level of the sentence. It enables researchers to scrutinize how text and talk articulate social and political interactions and hierarchies.

Insight can be garnered from different conversations, institutional text, and media coverage to understand how topics are addressed or framed within a specific social context (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002).

Example of Discourse Analysis

Title: The construction of teacher identities in educational policy documents: A critical discourse analysis

Citation: Thomas, S. (2005). The construction of teacher identities in educational policy documents: A critical discourse analysis. Critical Studies in Education, 46 (2), 25-44.

Overview: The author examines how an education policy in one state of Australia positions teacher professionalism and teacher identities. While there are competing discourses about professional identity, the policy framework privileges a  narrative that frames the ‘good’ teacher as one that accepts ever-tightening control and regulation over their professional practice.

Read my Full Guide on Discourse Analysis Here

13. Action Research

Definition: Action Research is a qualitative research technique that is employed to bring about change while simultaneously studying the process and results of that change.

This method involves a cyclical process of fact-finding, action, evaluation, and reflection (Greenwood & Levin, 2016).

Typically, Action Research is used in the fields of education, social sciences , and community development. The process isn’t just about resolving an issue but also developing knowledge that can be used in the future to address similar or related problems.

The researcher plays an active role in the research process, which is normally broken down into four steps: 

• developing a plan to improve what is currently being done
• implementing the plan
• observing the effects of the plan, and
• reflecting upon these effects (Smith, 2010).

Example of Action Research

Title: Using Digital Sandbox Gaming to Improve Creativity Within Boys’ Writing

Citation: Ellison, M., & Drew, C. (2020). Using digital sandbox gaming to improve creativity within boys’ writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education , 34 (2), 277-287.

Overview: This was a research study one of my research students completed in his own classroom under my supervision. He implemented a digital game-based approach to literacy teaching with boys and interviewed his students to see if the use of games as stimuli for storytelling helped draw them into the learning experience.

Read my Full Guide on Action Research Here

14. Semiotic Analysis

Definition: Semiotic Analysis is a qualitative method of research that interprets signs and symbols in communication to understand sociocultural phenomena. It stems from semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation (Chandler, 2017).

In a Semiotic Analysis, signs (anything that represents something else) are interpreted based on their significance and the role they play in representing ideas.

This type of research often involves the examination of images, sounds, and word choice to uncover the embedded sociocultural meanings. For example, an advertisement for a car might be studied to learn more about societal views on masculinity or success (Berger, 2010).

Example of Semiotic Research

Title: Shielding the learned body: a semiotic analysis of school badges in New South Wales, Australia

Citation: Symes, C. (2023). Shielding the learned body: a semiotic analysis of school badges in New South Wales, Australia. Semiotica , 2023 (250), 167-190.

Overview: This study examines school badges in New South Wales, Australia, and explores their significance through a semiotic analysis. The badges, which are part of the school’s visual identity, are seen as symbolic representations that convey meanings. The analysis reveals that these badges often draw on heraldic models, incorporating elements like colors, names, motifs, and mottoes that reflect local culture and history, thus connecting students to their national identity. Additionally, the study highlights how some schools have shifted from traditional badges to modern logos and slogans, reflecting a more business-oriented approach.

15. Qualitative Longitudinal Studies

Definition: Qualitative Longitudinal Studies are a research method that involves repeated observation of the same items over an extended period of time.

Unlike a snapshot perspective, this method aims to piece together individual histories and examine the influences and impacts of change (Neale, 2019).

Qualitative Longitudinal Studies provide an in-depth understanding of change as it happens, including changes in people’s lives, their perceptions, and their behaviors.

For instance, this method could be used to follow a group of students through their schooling years to understand the evolution of their learning behaviors and attitudes towards education (Saldaña, 2003).

Example of Qualitative Longitudinal Research

Title: Patient and caregiver perspectives on managing pain in advanced cancer: a qualitative longitudinal study

Citation: Hackett, J., Godfrey, M., & Bennett, M. I. (2016). Patient and caregiver perspectives on managing pain in advanced cancer: a qualitative longitudinal study.  Palliative medicine ,  30 (8), 711-719.

Overview: This article examines how patients and their caregivers manage pain in advanced cancer through a qualitative longitudinal study. The researchers interviewed patients and caregivers at two different time points and collected audio diaries to gain insights into their experiences, making this study longitudinal.

Read my Full Guide on Longitudinal Research Here

16. Open-Ended Surveys

Definition: Open-Ended Surveys are a type of qualitative research method where respondents provide answers in their own words. Unlike closed-ended surveys, which limit responses to predefined options, open-ended surveys allow for expansive and unsolicited explanations (Fink, 2013).

Open-ended surveys are commonly used in a range of fields, from market research to social studies. As they don’t force respondents into predefined response categories, these surveys help to draw out rich, detailed data that might uncover new variables or ideas.

For example, an open-ended survey might be used to understand customer opinions about a new product or service (Lavrakas, 2008).

Contrast this to a quantitative closed-ended survey, like a Likert scale, which could theoretically help us to come up with generalizable data but is restricted by the questions on the questionnaire, meaning new and surprising data and insights can’t emerge from the survey results in the same way.

Example of Open-Ended Survey Research

Title: Advantages and disadvantages of technology in relationships: Findings from an open-ended survey

Citation: Hertlein, K. M., & Ancheta, K. (2014). Advantages and disadvantages of technology in relationships: Findings from an open-ended survey.  The Qualitative Report ,  19 (11), 1-11.

Overview: This article examines the advantages and disadvantages of technology in couple relationships through an open-ended survey method. Researchers analyzed responses from 410 undergraduate students to understand how technology affects relationships. They found that technology can contribute to relationship development, management, and enhancement, but it can also create challenges such as distancing, lack of clarity, and impaired trust.

17. Naturalistic Observation

Definition: Naturalistic Observation is a type of qualitative research method that involves observing individuals in their natural environments without interference or manipulation by the researcher.

Naturalistic observation is often used when conducting research on behaviors that cannot be controlled or manipulated in a laboratory setting (Kawulich, 2005).

It is frequently used in the fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology. For instance, to understand the social dynamics in a schoolyard, a researcher could spend time observing the children interact during their recess, noting their behaviors, interactions, and conflicts without imposing their presence on the children’s activities (Forsyth, 2010).

Example of Naturalistic Observation Research

Title: Dispositional mindfulness in daily life: A naturalistic observation study

Citation: Kaplan, D. M., Raison, C. L., Milek, A., Tackman, A. M., Pace, T. W., & Mehl, M. R. (2018). Dispositional mindfulness in daily life: A naturalistic observation study. PloS one , 13 (11), e0206029.

Overview: In this study, researchers conducted two studies: one exploring assumptions about mindfulness and behavior, and the other using naturalistic observation to examine actual behavioral manifestations of mindfulness. They found that trait mindfulness is associated with a heightened perceptual focus in conversations, suggesting that being mindful is expressed primarily through sharpened attention rather than observable behavioral or social differences.

Read my Full Guide on Naturalistic Observation Here

18. Photo-Elicitation

Definition: Photo-elicitation utilizes photographs as a means to trigger discussions and evoke responses during interviews. This strategy aids in bringing out topics of discussion that may not emerge through verbal prompting alone (Harper, 2002).

Traditionally, Photo-Elicitation has been useful in various fields such as education, psychology, and sociology. The method involves the researcher or participants taking photographs, which are then used as prompts for discussion.

For instance, a researcher studying urban environmental issues might invite participants to photograph areas in their neighborhood that they perceive as environmentally detrimental, and then discuss each photo in depth (Clark-Ibáñez, 2004).

Example of Photo-Elicitation Research

Title: Early adolescent food routines: A photo-elicitation study

Citation: Green, E. M., Spivak, C., & Dollahite, J. S. (2021). Early adolescent food routines: A photo-elicitation study. Appetite, 158 .

Overview: This study focused on early adolescents (ages 10-14) and their food routines. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews using a photo-elicitation approach, where participants took photos related to their food choices and experiences. Through analysis, the study identified various routines and three main themes: family, settings, and meals/foods consumed, revealing how early adolescents view and are influenced by their eating routines.

Features of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a research method focused on understanding the meaning individuals or groups attribute to a social or human problem (Creswell, 2013).

Some key features of this method include:

• Naturalistic Inquiry: Qualitative research happens in the natural setting of the phenomena, aiming to understand “real world” situations (Patton, 2015). This immersion in the field or subject allows the researcher to gather a deep understanding of the subject matter.
• Emphasis on Process: It aims to understand how events unfold over time rather than focusing solely on outcomes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). The process-oriented nature of qualitative research allows researchers to investigate sequences, timing, and changes.
• Interpretive: It involves interpreting and making sense of phenomena in terms of the meanings people assign to them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). This interpretive element allows for rich, nuanced insights into human behavior and experiences.
• Holistic Perspective: Qualitative research seeks to understand the whole phenomenon rather than focusing on individual components (Creswell, 2013). It emphasizes the complex interplay of factors, providing a richer, more nuanced view of the research subject.
• Prioritizes Depth over Breadth: Qualitative research favors depth of understanding over breadth, typically involving a smaller but more focused sample size (Hennink, Hutter, & Bailey, 2020). This enables detailed exploration of the phenomena of interest, often leading to rich and complex data.

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

Qualitative research centers on exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups attribute to a social or human problem (Creswell, 2013).

It involves an in-depth approach to the subject matter, aiming to capture the richness and complexity of human experience.

Examples include conducting interviews, observing behaviors, or analyzing text and images.

There are strengths inherent in this approach. In its focus on understanding subjective experiences and interpretations, qualitative research can yield rich and detailed data that quantitative research may overlook (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011).

Additionally, qualitative research is adaptive, allowing the researcher to respond to new directions and insights as they emerge during the research process.

However, there are also limitations. Because of the interpretive nature of this research, findings may not be generalizable to a broader population (Marshall & Rossman, 2014). Well-designed quantitative research, on the other hand, can be generalizable.

Moreover, the reliability and validity of qualitative data can be challenging to establish due to its subjective nature, unlike quantitative research, which is ideally more objective.

Compare Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methodologies in This Guide Here

In conclusion, qualitative research methods provide distinctive ways to explore social phenomena and understand nuances that quantitative approaches might overlook. Each method, from Ethnography to Photo-Elicitation, presents its strengths and weaknesses but they all offer valuable means of investigating complex, real-world situations. The goal for the researcher is not to find a definitive tool, but to employ the method best suited for their research questions and the context at hand (Almalki, 2016). Above all, these methods underscore the richness of human experience and deepen our understanding of the world around us.

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• What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples

What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples

Published on June 19, 2020 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on June 22, 2023.

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.

• 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?

Table of contents

Approaches to qualitative research, qualitative research methods, qualitative data analysis, advantages of qualitative research, disadvantages of qualitative research, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about 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.

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.

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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 texts, images, audio or video recordings, etc.
• 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 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 interviews or typing up fieldnotes.
• Review and explore your data. Examine the data for patterns or repeated ideas that emerge.
• Develop a data coding system. Based on your initial ideas, establish a set of codes that you can apply to categorize your data.
• 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.
• 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 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 otherwise.

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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, qualitative research cannot be replicated . The researcher 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.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Chi square goodness of fit test
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• 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

Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.

Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses . Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.

There are five common approaches to qualitative research :

• Grounded theory involves collecting data in order to develop new theories.
• Ethnography involves immersing yourself in a group or organization to understand its culture.
• Narrative research involves interpreting stories to understand how people make sense of their experiences and perceptions.
• Phenomenological research involves investigating phenomena through people’s lived experiences.
• Action research links theory and practice in several cycles to drive innovative changes.

Data collection is the systematic process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research. It is used in many different contexts by academics, governments, businesses, and other organizations.

There are various approaches to qualitative data analysis , but they all share five steps in common:

• Prepare and organize your data.
• Review and explore your data.
• Develop a data coding system.
• Assign codes to the data.
• Identify recurring themes.

The specifics of each step depend on the focus of the analysis. Some common approaches include textual analysis , thematic analysis , and discourse analysis .

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Chapter 1. Introduction

“Science is in danger, and for that reason it is becoming dangerous” -Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity

Why an Open Access Textbook on Qualitative Research Methods?

I have been teaching qualitative research methods to both undergraduates and graduate students for many years.  Although there are some excellent textbooks out there, they are often costly, and none of them, to my mind, properly introduces qualitative research methods to the beginning student (whether undergraduate or graduate student).  In contrast, this open-access textbook is designed as a (free) true introduction to the subject, with helpful, practical pointers on how to conduct research and how to access more advanced instruction.  

Textbooks are typically arranged in one of two ways: (1) by technique (each chapter covers one method used in qualitative research); or (2) by process (chapters advance from research design through publication).  But both of these approaches are necessary for the beginner student.  This textbook will have sections dedicated to the process as well as the techniques of qualitative research.  This is a true “comprehensive” book for the beginning student.  In addition to covering techniques of data collection and data analysis, it provides a road map of how to get started and how to keep going and where to go for advanced instruction.  It covers aspects of research design and research communication as well as methods employed.  Along the way, it includes examples from many different disciplines in the social sciences.

The primary goal has been to create a useful, accessible, engaging textbook for use across many disciplines.  And, let’s face it.  Textbooks can be boring.  I hope readers find this to be a little different.  I have tried to write in a practical and forthright manner, with many lively examples and references to good and intellectually creative qualitative research.  Woven throughout the text are short textual asides (in colored textboxes) by professional (academic) qualitative researchers in various disciplines.  These short accounts by practitioners should help inspire students.  So, let’s begin!

What is Research?

When we use the word research , what exactly do we mean by that?  This is one of those words that everyone thinks they understand, but it is worth beginning this textbook with a short explanation.  We use the term to refer to “empirical research,” which is actually a historically specific approach to understanding the world around us.  Think about how you know things about the world. [1] You might know your mother loves you because she’s told you she does.  Or because that is what “mothers” do by tradition.  Or you might know because you’ve looked for evidence that she does, like taking care of you when you are sick or reading to you in bed or working two jobs so you can have the things you need to do OK in life.  Maybe it seems churlish to look for evidence; you just take it “on faith” that you are loved.

Only one of the above comes close to what we mean by research.  Empirical research is research (investigation) based on evidence.  Conclusions can then be drawn from observable data.  This observable data can also be “tested” or checked.  If the data cannot be tested, that is a good indication that we are not doing research.  Note that we can never “prove” conclusively, through observable data, that our mothers love us.  We might have some “disconfirming evidence” (that time she didn’t show up to your graduation, for example) that could push you to question an original hypothesis , but no amount of “confirming evidence” will ever allow us to say with 100% certainty, “my mother loves me.”  Faith and tradition and authority work differently.  Our knowledge can be 100% certain using each of those alternative methods of knowledge, but our certainty in those cases will not be based on facts or evidence.

For many periods of history, those in power have been nervous about “science” because it uses evidence and facts as the primary source of understanding the world, and facts can be at odds with what power or authority or tradition want you to believe.  That is why I say that scientific empirical research is a historically specific approach to understand the world.  You are in college or university now partly to learn how to engage in this historically specific approach.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, there was a newfound respect for empirical research, some of which was seriously challenging to the established church.  Using observations and testing them, scientists found that the earth was not at the center of the universe, for example, but rather that it was but one planet of many which circled the sun. [2]   For the next two centuries, the science of astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry emerged and became disciplines taught in universities.  All used the scientific method of observation and testing to advance knowledge.  Knowledge about people , however, and social institutions, however, was still left to faith, tradition, and authority.  Historians and philosophers and poets wrote about the human condition, but none of them used research to do so. [3]

It was not until the nineteenth century that “social science” really emerged, using the scientific method (empirical observation) to understand people and social institutions.  New fields of sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology emerged.  The first sociologists, people like Auguste Comte and Karl Marx, sought specifically to apply the scientific method of research to understand society, Engels famously claiming that Marx had done for the social world what Darwin did for the natural world, tracings its laws of development.  Today we tend to take for granted the naturalness of science here, but it is actually a pretty recent and radical development.

To return to the question, “does your mother love you?”  Well, this is actually not really how a researcher would frame the question, as it is too specific to your case.  It doesn’t tell us much about the world at large, even if it does tell us something about you and your relationship with your mother.  A social science researcher might ask, “do mothers love their children?”  Or maybe they would be more interested in how this loving relationship might change over time (e.g., “do mothers love their children more now than they did in the 18th century when so many children died before reaching adulthood?”) or perhaps they might be interested in measuring quality of love across cultures or time periods, or even establishing “what love looks like” using the mother/child relationship as a site of exploration.  All of these make good research questions because we can use observable data to answer them.

What is Qualitative Research?

“All we know is how to learn. How to study, how to listen, how to talk, how to tell.  If we don’t tell the world, we don’t know the world.  We’re lost in it, we die.” -Ursula LeGuin, The Telling

At its simplest, qualitative research is research about the social world that does not use numbers in its analyses.  All those who fear statistics can breathe a sigh of relief – there are no mathematical formulae or regression models in this book! But this definition is less about what qualitative research can be and more about what it is not.  To be honest, any simple statement will fail to capture the power and depth of qualitative research.  One way of contrasting qualitative research to quantitative research is to note that the focus of qualitative research is less about explaining and predicting relationships between variables and more about understanding the social world.  To use our mother love example, the question about “what love looks like” is a good question for the qualitative researcher while all questions measuring love or comparing incidences of love (both of which require measurement) are good questions for quantitative researchers. Patton writes,

Qualitative data describe.  They take us, as readers, into the time and place of the observation so that we know what it was like to have been there.  They capture and communicate someone else’s experience of the world in his or her own words.  Qualitative data tell a story. ( Patton 2002:47 )

Qualitative researchers are asking different questions about the world than their quantitative colleagues.  Even when researchers are employed in “mixed methods” research ( both quantitative and qualitative), they are using different methods to address different questions of the study.  I do a lot of research about first-generation and working-college college students.  Where a quantitative researcher might ask, how many first-generation college students graduate from college within four years? Or does first-generation college status predict high student debt loads?  A qualitative researcher might ask, how does the college experience differ for first-generation college students?  What is it like to carry a lot of debt, and how does this impact the ability to complete college on time?  Both sets of questions are important, but they can only be answered using specific tools tailored to those questions.  For the former, you need large numbers to make adequate comparisons.  For the latter, you need to talk to people, find out what they are thinking and feeling, and try to inhabit their shoes for a little while so you can make sense of their experiences and beliefs.

Examples of Qualitative Research

You have probably seen examples of qualitative research before, but you might not have paid particular attention to how they were produced or realized that the accounts you were reading were the result of hours, months, even years of research “in the field.”  A good qualitative researcher will present the product of their hours of work in such a way that it seems natural, even obvious, to the reader.  Because we are trying to convey what it is like answers, qualitative research is often presented as stories – stories about how people live their lives, go to work, raise their children, interact with one another.  In some ways, this can seem like reading particularly insightful novels.  But, unlike novels, there are very specific rules and guidelines that qualitative researchers follow to ensure that the “story” they are telling is accurate , a truthful rendition of what life is like for the people being studied.  Most of this textbook will be spent conveying those rules and guidelines.  Let’s take a look, first, however, at three examples of what the end product looks like.  I have chosen these three examples to showcase very different approaches to qualitative research, and I will return to these five examples throughout the book.  They were all published as whole books (not chapters or articles), and they are worth the long read, if you have the time.  I will also provide some information on how these books came to be and the length of time it takes to get them into book version.  It is important you know about this process, and the rest of this textbook will help explain why it takes so long to conduct good qualitative research!

Example 1 : The End Game (ethnography + interviews)

Corey Abramson is a sociologist who teaches at the University of Arizona.   In 2015 he published The End Game: How Inequality Shapes our Final Years ( 2015 ). This book was based on the research he did for his dissertation at the University of California-Berkeley in 2012.  Actually, the dissertation was completed in 2012 but the work that was produced that took several years.  The dissertation was entitled, “This is How We Live, This is How We Die: Social Stratification, Aging, and Health in Urban America” ( 2012 ).  You can see how the book version, which was written for a more general audience, has a more engaging sound to it, but that the dissertation version, which is what academic faculty read and evaluate, has a more descriptive title.  You can read the title and know that this is a study about aging and health and that the focus is going to be inequality and that the context (place) is going to be “urban America.”  It’s a study about “how” people do something – in this case, how they deal with aging and death.  This is the very first sentence of the dissertation, “From our first breath in the hospital to the day we die, we live in a society characterized by unequal opportunities for maintaining health and taking care of ourselves when ill.  These disparities reflect persistent racial, socio-economic, and gender-based inequalities and contribute to their persistence over time” ( 1 ).  What follows is a truthful account of how that is so.

Cory Abramson spent three years conducting his research in four different urban neighborhoods.  We call the type of research he conducted “comparative ethnographic” because he designed his study to compare groups of seniors as they went about their everyday business.  It’s comparative because he is comparing different groups (based on race, class, gender) and ethnographic because he is studying the culture/way of life of a group. [4]   He had an educated guess, rooted in what previous research had shown and what social theory would suggest, that people’s experiences of aging differ by race, class, and gender.  So, he set up a research design that would allow him to observe differences.  He chose two primarily middle-class (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly White) and two primarily poor neighborhoods (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly African American).  He hung out in senior centers and other places seniors congregated, watched them as they took the bus to get prescriptions filled, sat in doctor’s offices with them, and listened to their conversations with each other.  He also conducted more formal conversations, what we call in-depth interviews, with sixty seniors from each of the four neighborhoods.  As with a lot of fieldwork , as he got closer to the people involved, he both expanded and deepened his reach –

By the end of the project, I expanded my pool of general observations to include various settings frequented by seniors: apartment building common rooms, doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, pharmacies, senior centers, bars, parks, corner stores, shopping centers, pool halls, hair salons, coffee shops, and discount stores. Over the course of the three years of fieldwork, I observed hundreds of elders, and developed close relationships with a number of them. ( 2012:10 )

When Abramson rewrote the dissertation for a general audience and published his book in 2015, it got a lot of attention.  It is a beautifully written book and it provided insight into a common human experience that we surprisingly know very little about.  It won the Outstanding Publication Award by the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course and was featured in the New York Times .  The book was about aging, and specifically how inequality shapes the aging process, but it was also about much more than that.  It helped show how inequality affects people’s everyday lives.  For example, by observing the difficulties the poor had in setting up appointments and getting to them using public transportation and then being made to wait to see a doctor, sometimes in standing-room-only situations, when they are unwell, and then being treated dismissively by hospital staff, Abramson allowed readers to feel the material reality of being poor in the US.  Comparing these examples with seniors with adequate supplemental insurance who have the resources to hire car services or have others assist them in arranging care when they need it, jolts the reader to understand and appreciate the difference money makes in the lives and circumstances of us all, and in a way that is different than simply reading a statistic (“80% of the poor do not keep regular doctor’s appointments”) does.  Qualitative research can reach into spaces and places that often go unexamined and then reports back to the rest of us what it is like in those spaces and places.

Example 2: Racing for Innocence (Interviews + Content Analysis + Fictional Stories)

Jennifer Pierce is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.  Trained as a sociologist, she has written a number of books about gender, race, and power.  Her very first book, Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, published in 1995, is a brilliant look at gender dynamics within two law firms.  Pierce was a participant observer, working as a paralegal, and she observed how female lawyers and female paralegals struggled to obtain parity with their male colleagues.

Fifteen years later, she reexamined the context of the law firm to include an examination of racial dynamics, particularly how elite white men working in these spaces created and maintained a culture that made it difficult for both female attorneys and attorneys of color to thrive. Her book, Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action , published in 2012, is an interesting and creative blending of interviews with attorneys, content analyses of popular films during this period, and fictional accounts of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.  The law firm she chose to study had come under an affirmative action order and was in the process of implementing equitable policies and programs.  She wanted to understand how recipients of white privilege (the elite white male attorneys) come to deny the role they play in reproducing inequality.  Through interviews with attorneys who were present both before and during the affirmative action order, she creates a historical record of the “bad behavior” that necessitated new policies and procedures, but also, and more importantly , probed the participants ’ understanding of this behavior.  It should come as no surprise that most (but not all) of the white male attorneys saw little need for change, and that almost everyone else had accounts that were different if not sometimes downright harrowing.

I’ve used Pierce’s book in my qualitative research methods courses as an example of an interesting blend of techniques and presentation styles.  My students often have a very difficult time with the fictional accounts she includes.  But they serve an important communicative purpose here.  They are her attempts at presenting “both sides” to an objective reality – something happens (Pierce writes this something so it is very clear what it is), and the two participants to the thing that happened have very different understandings of what this means.  By including these stories, Pierce presents one of her key findings – people remember things differently and these different memories tend to support their own ideological positions.  I wonder what Pierce would have written had she studied the murder of George Floyd or the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 or any number of other historic events whose observers and participants record very different happenings.

This is not to say that qualitative researchers write fictional accounts.  In fact, the use of fiction in our work remains controversial.  When used, it must be clearly identified as a presentation device, as Pierce did.  I include Racing for Innocence here as an example of the multiple uses of methods and techniques and the way that these work together to produce better understandings by us, the readers, of what Pierce studied.  We readers come away with a better grasp of how and why advantaged people understate their own involvement in situations and structures that advantage them.  This is normal human behavior , in other words.  This case may have been about elite white men in law firms, but the general insights here can be transposed to other settings.  Indeed, Pierce argues that more research needs to be done about the role elites play in the reproduction of inequality in the workplace in general.

Example 3: Amplified Advantage (Mixed Methods: Survey Interviews + Focus Groups + Archives)

The final example comes from my own work with college students, particularly the ways in which class background affects the experience of college and outcomes for graduates.  I include it here as an example of mixed methods, and for the use of supplementary archival research.  I’ve done a lot of research over the years on first-generation, low-income, and working-class college students.  I am curious (and skeptical) about the possibility of social mobility today, particularly with the rising cost of college and growing inequality in general.  As one of the few people in my family to go to college, I didn’t grow up with a lot of examples of what college was like or how to make the most of it.  And when I entered graduate school, I realized with dismay that there were very few people like me there.  I worried about becoming too different from my family and friends back home.  And I wasn’t at all sure that I would ever be able to pay back the huge load of debt I was taking on.  And so I wrote my dissertation and first two books about working-class college students.  These books focused on experiences in college and the difficulties of navigating between family and school ( Hurst 2010a, 2012 ).  But even after all that research, I kept coming back to wondering if working-class students who made it through college had an equal chance at finding good jobs and happy lives,

What happens to students after college?  Do working-class students fare as well as their peers?  I knew from my own experience that barriers continued through graduate school and beyond, and that my debtload was higher than that of my peers, constraining some of the choices I made when I graduated.  To answer these questions, I designed a study of students attending small liberal arts colleges, the type of college that tried to equalize the experience of students by requiring all students to live on campus and offering small classes with lots of interaction with faculty.  These private colleges tend to have more money and resources so they can provide financial aid to low-income students.  They also attract some very wealthy students.  Because they enroll students across the class spectrum, I would be able to draw comparisons.  I ended up spending about four years collecting data, both a survey of more than 2000 students (which formed the basis for quantitative analyses) and qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, archival research, and participant observation).  This is what we call a “mixed methods” approach because we use both quantitative and qualitative data.  The survey gave me a large enough number of students that I could make comparisons of the how many kind, and to be able to say with some authority that there were in fact significant differences in experience and outcome by class (e.g., wealthier students earned more money and had little debt; working-class students often found jobs that were not in their chosen careers and were very affected by debt, upper-middle-class students were more likely to go to graduate school).  But the survey analyses could not explain why these differences existed.  For that, I needed to talk to people and ask them about their motivations and aspirations.  I needed to understand their perceptions of the world, and it is very hard to do this through a survey.

By interviewing students and recent graduates, I was able to discern particular patterns and pathways through college and beyond.  Specifically, I identified three versions of gameplay.  Upper-middle-class students, whose parents were themselves professionals (academics, lawyers, managers of non-profits), saw college as the first stage of their education and took classes and declared majors that would prepare them for graduate school.  They also spent a lot of time building their resumes, taking advantage of opportunities to help professors with their research, or study abroad.  This helped them gain admission to highly-ranked graduate schools and interesting jobs in the public sector.  In contrast, upper-class students, whose parents were wealthy and more likely to be engaged in business (as CEOs or other high-level directors), prioritized building social capital.  They did this by joining fraternities and sororities and playing club sports.  This helped them when they graduated as they called on friends and parents of friends to find them well-paying jobs.  Finally, low-income, first-generation, and working-class students were often adrift.  They took the classes that were recommended to them but without the knowledge of how to connect them to life beyond college.  They spent time working and studying rather than partying or building their resumes.  All three sets of students thought they were “doing college” the right way, the way that one was supposed to do college.   But these three versions of gameplay led to distinct outcomes that advantaged some students over others.  I titled my work “Amplified Advantage” to highlight this process.

These three examples, Cory Abramson’s The End Game , Jennifer Peirce’s Racing for Innocence, and my own Amplified Advantage, demonstrate the range of approaches and tools available to the qualitative researcher.  They also help explain why qualitative research is so important.  Numbers can tell us some things about the world, but they cannot get at the hearts and minds, motivations and beliefs of the people who make up the social worlds we inhabit.  For that, we need tools that allow us to listen and make sense of what people tell us and show us.  That is what good qualitative research offers us.

How Is This Book Organized?

This textbook is organized as a comprehensive introduction to the use of qualitative research methods.  The first half covers general topics (e.g., approaches to qualitative research, ethics) and research design (necessary steps for building a successful qualitative research study).  The second half reviews various data collection and data analysis techniques.  Of course, building a successful qualitative research study requires some knowledge of data collection and data analysis so the chapters in the first half and the chapters in the second half should be read in conversation with each other.  That said, each chapter can be read on its own for assistance with a particular narrow topic.  In addition to the chapters, a helpful glossary can be found in the back of the book.  Rummage around in the text as needed.

Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Research Design Process.  How does one begin a study? What is an appropriate research question?  How is the study to be done – with what methods ?  Involving what people and sites?  Although qualitative research studies can and often do change and develop over the course of data collection, it is important to have a good idea of what the aims and goals of your study are at the outset and a good plan of how to achieve those aims and goals.  Chapter 2 provides a road map of the process.

Chapter 3 describes and explains various ways of knowing the (social) world.  What is it possible for us to know about how other people think or why they behave the way they do?  What does it mean to say something is a “fact” or that it is “well-known” and understood?  Qualitative researchers are particularly interested in these questions because of the types of research questions we are interested in answering (the how questions rather than the how many questions of quantitative research).  Qualitative researchers have adopted various epistemological approaches.  Chapter 3 will explore these approaches, highlighting interpretivist approaches that acknowledge the subjective aspect of reality – in other words, reality and knowledge are not objective but rather influenced by (interpreted through) people.

Chapter 4 focuses on the practical matter of developing a research question and finding the right approach to data collection.  In any given study (think of Cory Abramson’s study of aging, for example), there may be years of collected data, thousands of observations , hundreds of pages of notes to read and review and make sense of.  If all you had was a general interest area (“aging”), it would be very difficult, nearly impossible, to make sense of all of that data.  The research question provides a helpful lens to refine and clarify (and simplify) everything you find and collect.  For that reason, it is important to pull out that lens (articulate the research question) before you get started.  In the case of the aging study, Cory Abramson was interested in how inequalities affected understandings and responses to aging.  It is for this reason he designed a study that would allow him to compare different groups of seniors (some middle-class, some poor).  Inevitably, he saw much more in the three years in the field than what made it into his book (or dissertation), but he was able to narrow down the complexity of the social world to provide us with this rich account linked to the original research question.  Developing a good research question is thus crucial to effective design and a successful outcome.  Chapter 4 will provide pointers on how to do this.  Chapter 4 also provides an overview of general approaches taken to doing qualitative research and various “traditions of inquiry.”

Chapter 5 explores sampling .  After you have developed a research question and have a general idea of how you will collect data (Observations?  Interviews?), how do you go about actually finding people and sites to study?  Although there is no “correct number” of people to interview , the sample should follow the research question and research design.  Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research involves nonprobability sampling.  Chapter 5 explains why this is so and what qualities instead make a good sample for qualitative research.

Chapter 6 addresses the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research.  Related to epistemological issues of how we know anything about the social world, qualitative researchers understand that we the researchers can never be truly neutral or outside the study we are conducting.  As observers, we see things that make sense to us and may entirely miss what is either too obvious to note or too different to comprehend.  As interviewers, as much as we would like to ask questions neutrally and remain in the background, interviews are a form of conversation, and the persons we interview are responding to us .  Therefore, it is important to reflect upon our social positions and the knowledges and expectations we bring to our work and to work through any blind spots that we may have.  Chapter 6 provides some examples of reflexivity in practice and exercises for thinking through one’s own biases.

Chapter 7 is a very important chapter and should not be overlooked.  As a practical matter, it should also be read closely with chapters 6 and 8.  Because qualitative researchers deal with people and the social world, it is imperative they develop and adhere to a strong ethical code for conducting research in a way that does not harm.  There are legal requirements and guidelines for doing so (see chapter 8), but these requirements should not be considered synonymous with the ethical code required of us.   Each researcher must constantly interrogate every aspect of their research, from research question to design to sample through analysis and presentation, to ensure that a minimum of harm (ideally, zero harm) is caused.  Because each research project is unique, the standards of care for each study are unique.  Part of being a professional researcher is carrying this code in one’s heart, being constantly attentive to what is required under particular circumstances.  Chapter 7 provides various research scenarios and asks readers to weigh in on the suitability and appropriateness of the research.  If done in a class setting, it will become obvious fairly quickly that there are often no absolutely correct answers, as different people find different aspects of the scenarios of greatest importance.  Minimizing the harm in one area may require possible harm in another.  Being attentive to all the ethical aspects of one’s research and making the best judgments one can, clearly and consciously, is an integral part of being a good researcher.

Chapter 8 , best to be read in conjunction with chapter 7, explains the role and importance of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) .  Under federal guidelines, an IRB is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects .  Every institution that receives funding from the federal government has an IRB.  IRBs have the authority to approve, require modifications to (to secure approval), or disapprove research.  This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects.  Chapter 8 reviews the history of IRBs and the work they do but also argues that IRBs’ review of qualitative research is often both over-inclusive and under-inclusive.  Some aspects of qualitative research are not well understood by IRBs, given that they were developed to prevent abuses in biomedical research.  Thus, it is important not to rely on IRBs to identify all the potential ethical issues that emerge in our research (see chapter 7).

Chapter 9 provides help for getting started on formulating a research question based on gaps in the pre-existing literature.  Research is conducted as part of a community, even if particular studies are done by single individuals (or small teams).  What any of us finds and reports back becomes part of a much larger body of knowledge.  Thus, it is important that we look at the larger body of knowledge before we actually start our bit to see how we can best contribute.  When I first began interviewing working-class college students, there was only one other similar study I could find, and it hadn’t been published (it was a dissertation of students from poor backgrounds).  But there had been a lot published by professors who had grown up working class and made it through college despite the odds.  These accounts by “working-class academics” became an important inspiration for my study and helped me frame the questions I asked the students I interviewed.  Chapter 9 will provide some pointers on how to search for relevant literature and how to use this to refine your research question.

Chapter 10 serves as a bridge between the two parts of the textbook, by introducing techniques of data collection.  Qualitative research is often characterized by the form of data collection – for example, an ethnographic study is one that employs primarily observational data collection for the purpose of documenting and presenting a particular culture or ethnos.  Techniques can be effectively combined, depending on the research question and the aims and goals of the study.   Chapter 10 provides a general overview of all the various techniques and how they can be combined.

The second part of the textbook moves into the doing part of qualitative research once the research question has been articulated and the study designed.  Chapters 11 through 17 cover various data collection techniques and approaches.  Chapters 18 and 19 provide a very simple overview of basic data analysis.  Chapter 20 covers communication of the data to various audiences, and in various formats.

Chapter 11 begins our overview of data collection techniques with a focus on interviewing , the true heart of qualitative research.  This technique can serve as the primary and exclusive form of data collection, or it can be used to supplement other forms (observation, archival).  An interview is distinct from a survey, where questions are asked in a specific order and often with a range of predetermined responses available.  Interviews can be conversational and unstructured or, more conventionally, semistructured , where a general set of interview questions “guides” the conversation.  Chapter 11 covers the basics of interviews: how to create interview guides, how many people to interview, where to conduct the interview, what to watch out for (how to prepare against things going wrong), and how to get the most out of your interviews.

Chapter 12 covers an important variant of interviewing, the focus group.  Focus groups are semistructured interviews with a group of people moderated by a facilitator (the researcher or researcher’s assistant).  Focus groups explicitly use group interaction to assist in the data collection.  They are best used to collect data on a specific topic that is non-personal and shared among the group.  For example, asking a group of college students about a common experience such as taking classes by remote delivery during the pandemic year of 2020.  Chapter 12 covers the basics of focus groups: when to use them, how to create interview guides for them, and how to run them effectively.

Chapter 13 moves away from interviewing to the second major form of data collection unique to qualitative researchers – observation .  Qualitative research that employs observation can best be understood as falling on a continuum of “fly on the wall” observation (e.g., observing how strangers interact in a doctor’s waiting room) to “participant” observation, where the researcher is also an active participant of the activity being observed.  For example, an activist in the Black Lives Matter movement might want to study the movement, using her inside position to gain access to observe key meetings and interactions.  Chapter  13 covers the basics of participant observation studies: advantages and disadvantages, gaining access, ethical concerns related to insider/outsider status and entanglement, and recording techniques.

Chapter 14 takes a closer look at “deep ethnography” – immersion in the field of a particularly long duration for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of a particular culture or social world.  Clifford Geertz called this “deep hanging out.”  Whereas participant observation is often combined with semistructured interview techniques, deep ethnography’s commitment to “living the life” or experiencing the situation as it really is demands more conversational and natural interactions with people.  These interactions and conversations may take place over months or even years.  As can be expected, there are some costs to this technique, as well as some very large rewards when done competently.  Chapter 14 provides some examples of deep ethnographies that will inspire some beginning researchers and intimidate others.

Chapter 15 moves in the opposite direction of deep ethnography, a technique that is the least positivist of all those discussed here, to mixed methods , a set of techniques that is arguably the most positivist .  A mixed methods approach combines both qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection, commonly by combining a survey that is analyzed statistically (e.g., cross-tabs or regression analyses of large number probability samples) with semi-structured interviews.  Although it is somewhat unconventional to discuss mixed methods in textbooks on qualitative research, I think it is important to recognize this often-employed approach here.  There are several advantages and some disadvantages to taking this route.  Chapter 16 will describe those advantages and disadvantages and provide some particular guidance on how to design a mixed methods study for maximum effectiveness.

Chapter 16 covers data collection that does not involve live human subjects at all – archival and historical research (chapter 17 will also cover data that does not involve interacting with human subjects).  Sometimes people are unavailable to us, either because they do not wish to be interviewed or observed (as is the case with many “elites”) or because they are too far away, in both place and time.  Fortunately, humans leave many traces and we can often answer questions we have by examining those traces.  Special collections and archives can be goldmines for social science research.  This chapter will explain how to access these places, for what purposes, and how to begin to make sense of what you find.

Chapter 17 covers another data collection area that does not involve face-to-face interaction with humans: content analysis .  Although content analysis may be understood more properly as a data analysis technique, the term is often used for the entire approach, which will be the case here.  Content analysis involves interpreting meaning from a body of text.  This body of text might be something found in historical records (see chapter 16) or something collected by the researcher, as in the case of comment posts on a popular blog post.  I once used the stories told by student loan debtors on the website studentloanjustice.org as the content I analyzed.  Content analysis is particularly useful when attempting to define and understand prevalent stories or communication about a topic of interest.  In other words, when we are less interested in what particular people (our defined sample) are doing or believing and more interested in what general narratives exist about a particular topic or issue.  This chapter will explore different approaches to content analysis and provide helpful tips on how to collect data, how to turn that data into codes for analysis, and how to go about presenting what is found through analysis.

Where chapter 17 has pushed us towards data analysis, chapters 18 and 19 are all about what to do with the data collected, whether that data be in the form of interview transcripts or fieldnotes from observations.  Chapter 18 introduces the basics of coding , the iterative process of assigning meaning to the data in order to both simplify and identify patterns.  What is a code and how does it work?  What are the different ways of coding data, and when should you use them?  What is a codebook, and why do you need one?  What does the process of data analysis look like?

Chapter 19 goes further into detail on codes and how to use them, particularly the later stages of coding in which our codes are refined, simplified, combined, and organized.  These later rounds of coding are essential to getting the most out of the data we’ve collected.  As students are often overwhelmed with the amount of data (a corpus of interview transcripts typically runs into the hundreds of pages; fieldnotes can easily top that), this chapter will also address time management and provide suggestions for dealing with chaos and reminders that feeling overwhelmed at the analysis stage is part of the process.  By the end of the chapter, you should understand how “findings” are actually found.

The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to the effective presentation of data results.  Chapter 20 covers the many ways that researchers communicate their studies to various audiences (academic, personal, political), what elements must be included in these various publications, and the hallmarks of excellent qualitative research that various audiences will be expecting.  Because qualitative researchers are motivated by understanding and conveying meaning , effective communication is not only an essential skill but a fundamental facet of the entire research project.  Ethnographers must be able to convey a certain sense of verisimilitude , the appearance of true reality.  Those employing interviews must faithfully depict the key meanings of the people they interviewed in a way that rings true to those people, even if the end result surprises them.  And all researchers must strive for clarity in their publications so that various audiences can understand what was found and why it is important.

The book concludes with a short chapter ( chapter 21 ) discussing the value of qualitative research. At the very end of this book, you will find a glossary of terms. I recommend you make frequent use of the glossary and add to each entry as you find examples. Although the entries are meant to be simple and clear, you may also want to paraphrase the definition—make it “make sense” to you, in other words. In addition to the standard reference list (all works cited here), you will find various recommendations for further reading at the end of many chapters. Some of these recommendations will be examples of excellent qualitative research, indicated with an asterisk (*) at the end of the entry. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example of qualitative research can teach you more about conducting research than any textbook can (this one included). I highly recommend you select one to three examples from these lists and read them along with the textbook.

A final note on the choice of examples – you will note that many of the examples used in the text come from research on college students.  This is for two reasons.  First, as most of my research falls in this area, I am most familiar with this literature and have contacts with those who do research here and can call upon them to share their stories with you.  Second, and more importantly, my hope is that this textbook reaches a wide audience of beginning researchers who study widely and deeply across the range of what can be known about the social world (from marine resources management to public policy to nursing to political science to sexuality studies and beyond).  It is sometimes difficult to find examples that speak to all those research interests, however. A focus on college students is something that all readers can understand and, hopefully, appreciate, as we are all now or have been at some point a college student.

Recommended Reading: Other Qualitative Research Textbooks

I’ve included a brief list of some of my favorite qualitative research textbooks and guidebooks if you need more than what you will find in this introductory text.  For each, I’ve also indicated if these are for “beginning” or “advanced” (graduate-level) readers.  Many of these books have several editions that do not significantly vary; the edition recommended is merely the edition I have used in teaching and to whose page numbers any specific references made in the text agree.

Barbour, Rosaline. 2014. Introducing Qualitative Research: A Student’s Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  A good introduction to qualitative research, with abundant examples (often from the discipline of health care) and clear definitions.  Includes quick summaries at the ends of each chapter.  However, some US students might find the British context distracting and can be a bit advanced in some places.  Beginning .

Bloomberg, Linda Dale, and Marie F. Volpe. 2012. Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Specifically designed to guide graduate students through the research process. Advanced .

Creswell, John W., and Cheryl Poth. 2018 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions .  4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a classic and one of the go-to books I used myself as a graduate student.  One of the best things about this text is its clear presentation of five distinct traditions in qualitative research.  Despite the title, this reasonably sized book is about more than research design, including both data analysis and how to write about qualitative research.  Advanced .

Lareau, Annette. 2021. Listening to People: A Practical Guide to Interviewing, Participant Observation, Data Analysis, and Writing It All Up .  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A readable and personal account of conducting qualitative research by an eminent sociologist, with a heavy emphasis on the kinds of participant-observation research conducted by the author.  Despite its reader-friendliness, this is really a book targeted to graduate students learning the craft.  Advanced .

Lune, Howard, and Bruce L. Berg. 2018. 9th edition.  Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences.  Pearson . Although a good introduction to qualitative methods, the authors favor symbolic interactionist and dramaturgical approaches, which limits the appeal primarily to sociologists.  Beginning .

Marshall, Catherine, and Gretchen B. Rossman. 2016. 6th edition. Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Very readable and accessible guide to research design by two educational scholars.  Although the presentation is sometimes fairly dry, personal vignettes and illustrations enliven the text.  Beginning .

Maxwell, Joseph A. 2013. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach .  3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. A short and accessible introduction to qualitative research design, particularly helpful for graduate students contemplating theses and dissertations. This has been a standard textbook in my graduate-level courses for years.  Advanced .

Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a comprehensive text that served as my “go-to” reference when I was a graduate student.  It is particularly helpful for those involved in program evaluation and other forms of evaluation studies and uses examples from a wide range of disciplines.  Advanced .

Rubin, Ashley T. 2021. Rocking Qualitative Social Science: An Irreverent Guide to Rigorous Research. Stanford : Stanford University Press.  A delightful and personal read.  Rubin uses rock climbing as an extended metaphor for learning how to conduct qualitative research.  A bit slanted toward ethnographic and archival methods of data collection, with frequent examples from her own studies in criminology. Beginning .

Weis, Lois, and Michelle Fine. 2000. Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research . New York: Teachers College Press.  Readable and accessibly written in a quasi-conversational style.  Particularly strong in its discussion of ethical issues throughout the qualitative research process.  Not comprehensive, however, and very much tied to ethnographic research.  Although designed for graduate students, this is a recommended read for students of all levels.  Beginning .

Patton’s Ten Suggestions for Doing Qualitative Research

The following ten suggestions were made by Michael Quinn Patton in his massive textbooks Qualitative Research and Evaluations Methods . This book is highly recommended for those of you who want more than an introduction to qualitative methods. It is the book I relied on heavily when I was a graduate student, although it is much easier to “dip into” when necessary than to read through as a whole. Patton is asked for “just one bit of advice” for a graduate student considering using qualitative research methods for their dissertation.  Here are his top ten responses, in short form, heavily paraphrased, and with additional comments and emphases from me:

• Make sure that a qualitative approach fits the research question. The following are the kinds of questions that call out for qualitative methods or where qualitative methods are particularly appropriate: questions about people’s experiences or how they make sense of those experiences; studying a person in their natural environment; researching a phenomenon so unknown that it would be impossible to study it with standardized instruments or other forms of quantitative data collection.
• Study qualitative research by going to the original sources for the design and analysis appropriate to the particular approach you want to take (e.g., read Glaser and Straus if you are using grounded theory )
• Find a dissertation adviser who understands or at least who will support your use of qualitative research methods. You are asking for trouble if your entire committee is populated by quantitative researchers, even if they are all very knowledgeable about the subject or focus of your study (maybe even more so if they are!)
• Really work on design. Doing qualitative research effectively takes a lot of planning.  Even if things are more flexible than in quantitative research, a good design is absolutely essential when starting out.
• Practice data collection techniques, particularly interviewing and observing. There is definitely a set of learned skills here!  Do not expect your first interview to be perfect.  You will continue to grow as a researcher the more interviews you conduct, and you will probably come to understand yourself a bit more in the process, too.  This is not easy, despite what others who don’t work with qualitative methods may assume (and tell you!)
• Have a plan for analysis before you begin data collection. This is often a requirement in IRB protocols , although you can get away with writing something fairly simple.  And even if you are taking an approach, such as grounded theory, that pushes you to remain fairly open-minded during the data collection process, you still want to know what you will be doing with all the data collected – creating a codebook? Writing analytical memos? Comparing cases?  Having a plan in hand will also help prevent you from collecting too much extraneous data.
• Be prepared to confront controversies both within the qualitative research community and between qualitative research and quantitative research. Don’t be naïve about this – qualitative research, particularly some approaches, will be derided by many more “positivist” researchers and audiences.  For example, is an “n” of 1 really sufficient?  Yes!  But not everyone will agree.
• Do not make the mistake of using qualitative research methods because someone told you it was easier, or because you are intimidated by the math required of statistical analyses. Qualitative research is difficult in its own way (and many would claim much more time-consuming than quantitative research).  Do it because you are convinced it is right for your goals, aims, and research questions.
• Find a good support network. This could be a research mentor, or it could be a group of friends or colleagues who are also using qualitative research, or it could be just someone who will listen to you work through all of the issues you will confront out in the field and during the writing process.  Even though qualitative research often involves human subjects, it can be pretty lonely.  A lot of times you will feel like you are working without a net.  You have to create one for yourself.  Take care of yourself.
• And, finally, in the words of Patton, “Prepare to be changed. Looking deeply at other people’s lives will force you to look deeply at yourself.”
• We will actually spend an entire chapter ( chapter 3 ) looking at this question in much more detail! ↵
• Note that this might have been news to Europeans at the time, but many other societies around the world had also come to this conclusion through observation.  There is often a tendency to equate “the scientific revolution” with the European world in which it took place, but this is somewhat misleading. ↵
• Historians are a special case here.  Historians have scrupulously and rigorously investigated the social world, but not for the purpose of understanding general laws about how things work, which is the point of scientific empirical research.  History is often referred to as an idiographic field of study, meaning that it studies things that happened or are happening in themselves and not for general observations or conclusions. ↵
• Don’t worry, we’ll spend more time later in this book unpacking the meaning of ethnography and other terms that are important here.  Note the available glossary ↵

An approach to research that is “multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter.  This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.  Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials – case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts – that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives." ( Denzin and Lincoln 2005:2 ). Contrast with quantitative research .

In contrast to methodology, methods are more simply the practices and tools used to collect and analyze data.  Examples of common methods in qualitative research are interviews , observations , and documentary analysis .  One’s methodology should connect to one’s choice of methods, of course, but they are distinguishable terms.  See also methodology .

A proposed explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.  The positing of a hypothesis is often the first step in quantitative research but not in qualitative research.  Even when qualitative researchers offer possible explanations in advance of conducting research, they will tend to not use the word “hypothesis” as it conjures up the kind of positivist research they are not conducting.

The foundational question to be addressed by the research study.  This will form the anchor of the research design, collection, and analysis.  Note that in qualitative research, the research question may, and probably will, alter or develop during the course of the research.

An approach to research that collects and analyzes numerical data for the purpose of finding patterns and averages, making predictions, testing causal relationships, and generalizing results to wider populations.  Contrast with qualitative research .

Data collection that takes place in real-world settings, referred to as “the field;” a key component of much Grounded Theory and ethnographic research.  Patton ( 2002 ) calls fieldwork “the central activity of qualitative inquiry” where “‘going into the field’ means having direct and personal contact with people under study in their own environments – getting close to people and situations being studied to personally understand the realities of minutiae of daily life” (48).

The people who are the subjects of a qualitative study.  In interview-based studies, they may be the respondents to the interviewer; for purposes of IRBs, they are often referred to as the human subjects of the research.

The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge.  For researchers, it is important to recognize and adopt one of the many distinguishing epistemological perspectives as part of our understanding of what questions research can address or fully answer.  See, e.g., constructivism , subjectivism, and  objectivism .

An approach that refutes the possibility of neutrality in social science research.  All research is “guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 13).  In contrast to positivism , interpretivism recognizes the social constructedness of reality, and researchers adopting this approach focus on capturing interpretations and understandings people have about the world rather than “the world” as it is (which is a chimera).

The cluster of data-collection tools and techniques that involve observing interactions between people, the behaviors, and practices of individuals (sometimes in contrast to what they say about how they act and behave), and cultures in context.  Observational methods are the key tools employed by ethnographers and Grounded Theory .

Research based on data collected and analyzed by the research (in contrast to secondary “library” research).

The process of selecting people or other units of analysis to represent a larger population. In quantitative research, this representation is taken quite literally, as statistically representative.  In qualitative research, in contrast, sample selection is often made based on potential to generate insight about a particular topic or phenomenon.

A method of data collection in which the researcher asks the participant questions; the answers to these questions are often recorded and transcribed verbatim. There are many different kinds of interviews - see also semistructured interview , structured interview , and unstructured interview .

The specific group of individuals that you will collect data from.  Contrast population.

The practice of being conscious of and reflective upon one’s own social location and presence when conducting research.  Because qualitative research often requires interaction with live humans, failing to take into account how one’s presence and prior expectations and social location affect the data collected and how analyzed may limit the reliability of the findings.  This remains true even when dealing with historical archives and other content.  Who we are matters when asking questions about how people experience the world because we, too, are a part of that world.

The science and practice of right conduct; in research, it is also the delineation of moral obligations towards research participants, communities to which we belong, and communities in which we conduct our research.

An administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution with which it is affiliated. The IRB is charged with the responsibility of reviewing all research involving human participants. The IRB is concerned with protecting the welfare, rights, and privacy of human subjects. The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, monitor, and require modifications in all research activities that fall within its jurisdiction as specified by both the federal regulations and institutional policy.

Research, according to US federal guidelines, that involves “a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research:  (1) Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or  (2) Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.”

One of the primary methodological traditions of inquiry in qualitative research, ethnography is the study of a group or group culture, largely through observational fieldwork supplemented by interviews. It is a form of fieldwork that may include participant-observation data collection. See chapter 14 for a discussion of deep ethnography. 

A form of interview that follows a standard guide of questions asked, although the order of the questions may change to match the particular needs of each individual interview subject, and probing “follow-up” questions are often added during the course of the interview.  The semi-structured interview is the primary form of interviewing used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences.  It is sometimes referred to as an “in-depth” interview.  See also interview and  interview guide .

A method of observational data collection taking place in a natural setting; a form of fieldwork .  The term encompasses a continuum of relative participation by the researcher (from full participant to “fly-on-the-wall” observer).  This is also sometimes referred to as ethnography , although the latter is characterized by a greater focus on the culture under observation.

A research design that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, as in the case of a survey supplemented by interviews.

An epistemological perspective that posits the existence of reality through sensory experience similar to empiricism but goes further in denying any non-sensory basis of thought or consciousness.  In the social sciences, the term has roots in the proto-sociologist August Comte, who believed he could discern “laws” of society similar to the laws of natural science (e.g., gravity).  The term has come to mean the kinds of measurable and verifiable science conducted by quantitative researchers and is thus used pejoratively by some qualitative researchers interested in interpretation, consciousness, and human understanding.  Calling someone a “positivist” is often intended as an insult.  See also empiricism and objectivism.

A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest; most universities have an archive of material related to the university’s history, as well as other “special collections” that may be of interest to members of the community.

A method of both data collection and data analysis in which a given content (textual, visual, graphic) is examined systematically and rigorously to identify meanings, themes, patterns and assumptions.  Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is concerned with gathering and interpreting an existing body of material.    

A word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data (Saldaña 2021:5).

Usually a verbatim written record of an interview or focus group discussion.

The primary form of data for fieldwork , participant observation , and ethnography .  These notes, taken by the researcher either during the course of fieldwork or at day’s end, should include as many details as possible on what was observed and what was said.  They should include clear identifiers of date, time, setting, and names (or identifying characteristics) of participants.

The process of labeling and organizing qualitative data to identify different themes and the relationships between them; a way of simplifying data to allow better management and retrieval of key themes and illustrative passages.  See coding frame and  codebook.

A methodological tradition of inquiry and approach to analyzing qualitative data in which theories emerge from a rigorous and systematic process of induction.  This approach was pioneered by the sociologists Glaser and Strauss (1967).  The elements of theory generated from comparative analysis of data are, first, conceptual categories and their properties and, second, hypotheses or generalized relations among the categories and their properties – “The constant comparing of many groups draws the [researcher’s] attention to their many similarities and differences.  Considering these leads [the researcher] to generate abstract categories and their properties, which, since they emerge from the data, will clearly be important to a theory explaining the kind of behavior under observation.” (36).

A detailed description of any proposed research that involves human subjects for review by IRB.  The protocol serves as the recipe for the conduct of the research activity.  It includes the scientific rationale to justify the conduct of the study, the information necessary to conduct the study, the plan for managing and analyzing the data, and a discussion of the research ethical issues relevant to the research.  Protocols for qualitative research often include interview guides, all documents related to recruitment, informed consent forms, very clear guidelines on the safekeeping of materials collected, and plans for de-identifying transcripts or other data that include personal identifying information.

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods Copyright © 2023 by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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100 Qualitative Research topics to impress your teacher

Updated 27 Jun 2024

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in various academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. This type of research is designed to provide a deep understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. Unlike quantitative research which focuses on numbers and statistical analysis, qualitative research delves into the experiences, perspectives, and narratives of individuals, aiming to comprehend the 'why' and 'how' of decision making.

The core of qualitative research lies in its ability to explore complex phenomena from a subjective angle. Researchers gather non-numerical data through methods such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and content analysis. This approach allows for a more detailed and rich exploration of issues, providing insights that are often missed by quantitative approaches. The aim is not to generalize the findings to the entire population, but to gain a more nuanced understanding of a particular group or issue.

Qualitative research is inherently adaptive, with study designs that are often flexible and evolving. Researchers in this field are not just passive collectors of information, but active participants in the construction of knowledge. They interpret the data through a process of coding and thematic analysis, often resulting in the identification of patterns or themes that provide a foundation for further research or action. This interpretive aspect of qualitative research underscores its unique contribution to evidence-based practice and policy-making, where the depth of understanding can lead to more effective interventions and strategies.

How to choose good qualitative research topics

Choosing a good qualitative research topic is a critical step in the research process, as it sets the direction for the entire project. A well-chosen topic not only sparks the researcher's passion but also meets the criteria of academic rigor and contributes new insights to the field. The first step in selecting a qualitative research topic is to identify an area of interest that is both significant and under-explored. This often involves extensive literature reviews to understand what has already been studied and where gaps in knowledge exist. The ideal topic should be one that can provide a fresh perspective or challenge existing assumptions within a specific domain.

When narrowing down potential topics, it's important to consider the feasibility of the research. This includes thinking about the accessibility of participants, the ethical implications of the study, and the resources available, such as time and funding. A good qualitative research topic should be specific enough to be manageable, yet broad enough to allow for the exploratory nature of qualitative inquiry. It should also be complex enough to warrant in-depth investigation, providing a rich field for data collection. For example, instead of a broad topic like "health," a more focused question could be "the experiences of community health workers in urban slums."

Additionally, a good qualitative research topic should align with the researcher's expertise and interests, as this will sustain motivation over the course of the study. It should also have a clear purpose, whether it's to inform policy, improve practice, contribute to theory, or address a social issue. The topic should lend itself to the development of research questions that are open-ended and flexible, allowing the researcher to explore the depth and complexity of the subject matter. Ultimately, the chosen topic should aim to add value to the field, whether by filling knowledge gaps, offering new theoretical insights, or providing practical solutions to real-world problems. Finding unique qualitative research topics can be challenging, but if you need assistance, there are professionals who write essays for money that can help you develop and refine your ideas.

List of qualitative research topics examples

Social and cultural issues:.

• The role of social media in shaping body image perceptions among teenagers.
• The impact of gentrification on long-term residents in urban neighborhoods.
• Cultural adaptation processes among immigrants in a new country.
• The influence of language on identity within bilingual communities.
• The social effects of income inequality in urban settings.
• The role of community organizations in fostering urban resilience.
• The cultural significance of traditional festivals in modern society.
• The impact of globalization on indigenous practices and rituals.
• The role of public art in community identity and cohesion.
• The effects of social policies on homeless populations.
• The changing dynamics of family structures in the 21st century.
• The role of religious institutions in contemporary social life.
• The impact of digital nomad lifestyles on local communities.
• The influence of pop culture on youth political engagement.
• The role of social movements in shaping policy change.
• The experiences of refugees integrating into different cultural contexts.
• The impact of eco-tourism on local cultural practices.
• The role of social entrepreneurship in addressing community issues.
• The cultural implications of language extinction.
• The social integration challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community.

Health and Well-being:

• The lived experiences of patients with chronic pain.
• The role of peer support in addiction recovery.
• Mental health challenges among university students.
• The impact of telemedicine on patient-doctor relationships.
• The experiences of families with children having rare diseases.
• The role of cultural beliefs in health-seeking behaviors.
• The impact of diet culture on eating habits and self-esteem.
• The experiences of healthcare workers during a public health crisis.
• The role of community health initiatives in improving urban health.
• The impact of social stigma on mental health treatment.
• The coping strategies of parents with children on the autism spectrum.
• The role of spirituality in end-of-life care.
• The experiences of women undergoing postpartum depression.
• The impact of workplace wellness programs on employee health.
• The challenges of implementing mental health programs in rural areas.
• The role of traditional medicine in contemporary healthcare.
• The experiences of transgender individuals in the healthcare system.
• The impact of health insurance policies on patient care.
• The role of art therapy in mental health rehabilitation.
• The experiences of veterans with PTSD in accessing healthcare services.

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• The impact of remote learning on student engagement.
• The experiences of first-generation college students.
• The role of technology in personalized learning.
• The impact of standardized testing on teaching practices.
• The experiences of minority students in predominantly white institutions.
• The role of extracurricular activities in student development.
• The challenges of bilingual education in public schools.
• The impact of teacher-student relationships on learning outcomes.
• The role of parental involvement in early childhood education.
• The experiences of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms.
• The impact of school culture on bullying behaviors.
• The role of mentorship programs in professional development for teachers.
• The experiences of international students adapting to new educational systems.
• The impact of socio-economic status on educational attainment.
• The role of educational policies in addressing the achievement gap.
• The experiences of educators in high-needs schools.
• The impact of arts education on academic performance.
• The role of school leadership in fostering innovation.
• The experiences of LGBTQ+ students in school environments.
• The impact of community involvement in school governance.

Organizational and Work:

• The role of organizational culture in employee satisfaction.
• The impact of leadership styles on team performance.
• The experiences of women in male-dominated industries.
• The role of communication in organizational change.
• The impact of remote work on work-life balance.
• The experiences of employees during corporate restructuring.
• The role of employee engagement in retention rates.
• The impact of diversity and inclusion initiatives on company culture.
• The experiences of gig economy workers.
• The role of corporate social responsibility in consumer perception.
• The impact of workplace design on productivity.
• The role of feedback culture in employee development.
• The experiences of minority employees in career advancement.
• The impact of technology on job roles and skills.
• The role of work autonomy in job satisfaction.
• The experiences of returning to work after parental leave.
• The impact of job insecurity on mental health.
• The role of interdepartmental collaboration in project success.
• The experiences of whistleblowers in organizations.
• The impact of organizational ethics on employee behavior.

Media and Communication:

• The role of social media in shaping political discourse.
• The impact of digital advertising on consumer behavior.
• The experiences of journalists in conflict zones.
• The role of public relations in crisis management.
• The impact of streaming services on traditional television.
• The experiences of influencers on social media platforms.
• The role of media literacy in combating misinformation.
• The impact of communication technology on family relationships.
• The role of podcasts in contemporary media consumption.
• The experiences of consumers with targeted advertising.
• The role of media representation in shaping cultural identities.
• The impact of mobile technology on news consumption.
• The role of citizen journalism in social activism.
• The experiences of censorship among content creators.
• The impact of virtual reality on media experiences.
• The role of language in cross-cultural communication.
• The experiences of minority groups in media portrayals.
• The impact of social media on celebrity culture.
• The role of communication strategies in non-profit organizations.
• The experiences of disconnecting from social media.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, the breadth and depth of qualitative research topics across various thematic categories showcase the versatility and profound potential of qualitative inquiry. Whether it's exploring the intricate dynamics of social and cultural issues, delving into the personal narratives within health and well-being, understanding the evolving landscapes of education, examining the complexities of organizational structures, or decoding the influential power of media and communication, qualitative research offers a rich tapestry of perspectives that quantitative methods alone cannot provide. Each topic presents an opportunity to uncover new insights, challenge conventional wisdom, and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the world around us.

For researchers, students, academics, or professionals looking to embark on a qualitative research journey, the topics listed above serve as a springboard for inquiry. They are invitations to engage with the world in a meaningful way, to listen to stories yet untold, and to give voice to those often unheard. If any of these topics resonate with you, or if you're inspired to craft a research question that could illuminate the corners of human experience, we encourage you to take the next step. Dive into the literature, formulate your questions, and begin the fascinating process of qualitative exploration. Should you need guidance, support, or resources to embark on this journey, do not hesitate to reach out to academic mentors or professional services that can assist in shaping and refining your research endeavors. Your unique perspective is invaluable, and your contribution to the field awaits. Take that step, and let the journey of discovery begin.

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What is Qualitative Research? Methods, Types, Approaches and Examples

Qualitative research is a type of method that researchers use depending on their study requirements. Research can be conducted using several methods, but before starting the process, researchers should understand the different methods available to decide the best one for their study type. The type of research method needed depends on a few important criteria, such as the research question, study type, time, costs, data availability, and availability of respondents. The two main types of methods are qualitative research and quantitative research. Sometimes, researchers may find it difficult to decide which type of method is most suitable for their study. Keeping in mind a simple rule of thumb could help you make the correct decision. Quantitative research should be used to validate or test a theory or hypothesis and qualitative research should be used to understand a subject or event or identify reasons for observed patterns.  

Qualitative research methods are based on principles of social sciences from several disciplines like psychology, sociology, and anthropology. In this method, researchers try to understand the feelings and motivation of their respondents, which would have prompted them to select or give a particular response to a question. Here are two qualitative research examples :  

• Two brands (A & B) of the same medicine are available at a pharmacy. However, Brand A is more popular and has higher sales. In qualitative research , the interviewers would ideally visit a few stores in different areas and ask customers their reason for selecting either brand. Respondents may have different reasons that motivate them to select one brand over the other, such as brand loyalty, cost, feedback from friends, doctor’s suggestion, etc. Once the reasons are known, companies could then address challenges in that specific area to increase their product’s sales.  
• A company organizes a focus group meeting with a random sample of its product’s consumers to understand their opinion on a new product being launched.  

Table of Contents

What is qualitative research? 1

Qualitative research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data. The findings of qualitative research are expressed in words and help in understanding individuals’ subjective perceptions about an event, condition, or subject. This type of research is exploratory and is used to generate hypotheses or theories from data. Qualitative data are usually in the form of text, videos, photographs, and audio recordings. There are multiple qualitative research types , which will be discussed later.  

Qualitative research methods 2

Researchers can choose from several qualitative research methods depending on the study type, research question, the researcher’s role, data to be collected, etc.  

The following table lists the common qualitative research approaches with their purpose and examples, although there may be an overlap between some.  

Types of qualitative research 3,4

The data collection methods in qualitative research are designed to assess and understand the perceptions, motivations, and feelings of the respondents about the subject being studied. The different qualitative research types include the following:  

• In-depth or one-on-one interviews : This is one of the most common qualitative research methods and helps the interviewers understand a respondent’s subjective opinion and experience pertaining to a specific topic or event. These interviews are usually conversational and encourage the respondents to express their opinions freely. Semi-structured interviews, which have open-ended questions (where the respondents can answer more than just “yes” or “no”), are commonly used. Such interviews can be either face-to-face or telephonic, and the duration can vary depending on the subject or the interviewer. Asking the right questions is essential in this method so that the interview can be led in the suitable direction. Face-to-face interviews also help interviewers observe the respondents’ body language, which could help in confirming whether the responses match.  
• Document study/Literature review/Record keeping : Researchers’ review of already existing written materials such as archives, annual reports, research articles, guidelines, policy documents, etc.  
• Focus groups : Usually include a small sample of about 6-10 people and a moderator, to understand the participants’ opinion on a given topic. Focus groups ensure constructive discussions to understand the why, what, and, how about the topic. These group meetings need not always be in-person. In recent times, online meetings are also encouraged, and online surveys could also be administered with the option to “write” subjective answers as well. However, this method is expensive and is mostly used for new products and ideas.  
• Qualitative observation : In this method, researchers collect data using their five senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. This method doesn’t include any measurements but only the subjective observation. For example, “The dessert served at the bakery was creamy with sweet buttercream frosting”; this observation is based on the taste perception.  

Qualitative research : Data collection and analysis

• Qualitative data collection is the process by which observations or measurements are gathered in research.  
• The data collected are usually non-numeric and subjective and could be recorded in various methods, for instance, in case of one-to-one interviews, the responses may be recorded using handwritten notes, and audio and video recordings, depending on the interviewer and the setting or duration.  
• Once the data are collected, they should be transcribed into meaningful or useful interpretations. An experienced researcher could take about 8-10 hours to transcribe an interview’s recordings. All such notes and recordings should be maintained properly for later reference.  
• Some interviewers make use of “field notes.” These are not exactly the respondents’ answers but rather some observations the interviewer may have made while asking questions and may include non-verbal cues or any information about the setting or the environment. These notes are usually informal and help verify respondents’ answers.  

2. Qualitative data analysis 

• This process involves analyzing all the data obtained from the qualitative research methods in the form of text (notes), audio-video recordings, and pictures.  
• Text analysis is a common form of qualitative data analysis in which researchers examine the social lives of the participants and analyze their words, actions, etc. in specific contexts. Social media platforms are now playing an important role in this method with researchers analyzing all information shared online.   

There are usually five steps in the qualitative data analysis process: 5

• Prepare and organize the data  
• Transcribe interviews  
• Collect and document field notes and other material  
• Review and explore the data  
• Examine the data for patterns or important observations  
• Develop a data coding system  
• Create codes to categorize and connect the data  
• Assign these codes to the data or responses  
• Review the codes  
• Identify recurring themes, opinions, patterns, etc.  
• Present the findings  
• Use the best possible method to present your observations  

The following table 6 lists some common qualitative data analysis methods used by companies to make important decisions, with examples and when to use each. The methods may be similar and can overlap.  

Characteristics of qualitative research methods 4

• Unstructured raw data : Qualitative research methods use unstructured, non-numerical data , which are analyzed to generate subjective conclusions about specific subjects, usually presented descriptively, instead of using statistical data.  
• Site-specific data collection : In qualitative research methods , data are collected at specific areas where the respondents or researchers are either facing a challenge or have a need to explore. The process is conducted in a real-world setting and participants do not need to leave their original geographical setting to be able to participate.  
• Researchers’ importance : Researchers play an instrumental role because, in qualitative research , communication with respondents is an essential part of data collection and analysis. In addition, researchers need to rely on their own observation and listening skills during an interaction and use and interpret that data appropriately.  
• Multiple methods : Researchers collect data through various methods, as listed earlier, instead of relying on a single source. Although there may be some overlap between the qualitative research methods , each method has its own significance.  
• Solving complex issues : These methods help in breaking down complex problems into more useful and interpretable inferences, which can be easily understood by everyone.  
• Unbiased responses : Qualitative research methods rely on open communication where the participants are allowed to freely express their views. In such cases, the participants trust the interviewer, resulting in unbiased and truthful responses.  
• Flexible : The qualitative research method can be changed at any stage of the research. The data analysis is not confined to being done at the end of the research but can be done in tandem with data collection. Consequently, based on preliminary analysis and new ideas, researchers have the liberty to change the method to suit their objective.  

When to use qualitative research   4

The following points will give you an idea about when to use qualitative research .  

• When the objective of a research study is to understand behaviors and patterns of respondents, then qualitative research is the most suitable method because it gives a clear insight into the reasons for the occurrence of an event.  
• A few use cases for qualitative research methods include:  
• New product development or idea generation  
• Strengthening a product’s marketing strategy  
• Conducting a SWOT analysis of product or services portfolios to help take important strategic decisions  
• Understanding purchasing behavior of consumers  
• Understanding reactions of target market to ad campaigns  
• Understanding market demographics and conducting competitor analysis  
• Understanding the effectiveness of a new treatment method in a particular section of society  

A qualitative research method case study to understand when to use qualitative research 7

Context : A high school in the US underwent a turnaround or conservatorship process and consequently experienced a below average teacher retention rate. Researchers conducted qualitative research to understand teachers’ experiences and perceptions of how the turnaround may have influenced the teachers’ morale and how this, in turn, would have affected teachers’ retention.  

Method : Purposive sampling was used to select eight teachers who were employed with the school before the conservatorship process and who were subsequently retained. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with these teachers. The questions addressed teachers’ perspectives of morale and their views on the conservatorship process.  

Results : The study generated six factors that may have been influencing teachers’ perspectives: powerlessness, excessive visitations, loss of confidence, ineffective instructional practices, stress and burnout, and ineffective professional development opportunities. Based on these factors, four recommendations were made to increase teacher retention by boosting their morale.  

Advantages of qualitative research 1

• Reflects real-world settings , and therefore allows for ambiguities in data, as well as the flexibility to change the method based on new developments.  
• Helps in understanding the feelings or beliefs of the respondents rather than relying only on quantitative data.  
• Uses a descriptive and narrative style of presentation, which may be easier to understand for people from all backgrounds.  
• Some topics involving sensitive or controversial content could be difficult to quantify and so qualitative research helps in analyzing such content.  
• The availability of multiple data sources and research methods helps give a holistic picture.  
• There’s more involvement of participants, which gives them an assurance that their opinion matters, possibly leading to unbiased responses.   

Disadvantages of qualitative research 1

• Large-scale data sets cannot be included because of time and cost constraints.  
• Ensuring validity and reliability may be a challenge because of the subjective nature of the data, so drawing definite conclusions could be difficult.  
• Replication by other researchers may be difficult for the same contexts or situations.  
• Generalization to a wider context or to other populations or settings is not possible.  
• Data collection and analysis may be time consuming.  
• Researcher’s interpretation may alter the results causing an unintended bias.  

Differences between qualitative research and quantitative research 1

Frequently asked questions on qualitative research  

Q: how do i know if qualitative research is appropriate for my study  .

A: Here’s a simple checklist you could use:  

• Not much is known about the subject being studied.  
• There is a need to understand or simplify a complex problem or situation.  
• Participants’ experiences/beliefs/feelings are required for analysis.  
• There’s no existing hypothesis to begin with, rather a theory would need to be created after analysis.  
• You need to gather in-depth understanding of an event or subject, which may not need to be supported by numeric data.  

Q: How do I ensure the reliability and validity of my qualitative research findings?  

A: To ensure the validity of your qualitative research findings you should explicitly state your objective and describe clearly why you have interpreted the data in a particular way. Another method could be to connect your data in different ways or from different perspectives to see if you reach a similar, unbiased conclusion.   

To ensure reliability, always create an audit trail of your qualitative research by describing your steps and reasons for every interpretation, so that if required, another researcher could trace your steps to corroborate your (or their own) findings. In addition, always look for patterns or consistencies in the data collected through different methods.  

Q: Are there any sampling strategies or techniques for qualitative research ?   

A: Yes, the following are few common sampling strategies used in qualitative research :  

1. Convenience sampling  

Selects participants who are most easily accessible to researchers due to geographical proximity, availability at a particular time, etc.  

2. Purposive sampling  

Participants are grouped according to predefined criteria based on a specific research question. Sample sizes are often determined based on theoretical saturation (when new data no longer provide additional insights).  

3. Snowball sampling  

Already selected participants use their social networks to refer the researcher to other potential participants.  

4. Quota sampling  

While designing the study, the researchers decide how many people with which characteristics to include as participants. The characteristics help in choosing people most likely to provide insights into the subject.  

Q: What ethical standards need to be followed with qualitative research ?  

A: The following ethical standards should be considered in qualitative research:  

• Anonymity : The participants should never be identified in the study and researchers should ensure that no identifying information is mentioned even indirectly.  
• Confidentiality : To protect participants’ confidentiality, ensure that all related documents, transcripts, notes are stored safely.  
• Informed consent : Researchers should clearly communicate the objective of the study and how the participants’ responses will be used prior to engaging with the participants.  

Q: How do I address bias in my qualitative research ?  

  A: You could use the following points to ensure an unbiased approach to your qualitative research :  

• Check your interpretations of the findings with others’ interpretations to identify consistencies.  
• If possible, you could ask your participants if your interpretations convey their beliefs to a significant extent.  
• Data triangulation is a way of using multiple data sources to see if all methods consistently support your interpretations.  
• Contemplate other possible explanations for your findings or interpretations and try ruling them out if possible.  
• Conduct a peer review of your findings to identify any gaps that may not have been visible to you.  
• Frame context-appropriate questions to ensure there is no researcher or participant bias.

We hope this article has given you answers to the question “ what is qualitative research ” and given you an in-depth understanding of the various aspects of qualitative research , including the definition, types, and approaches, when to use this method, and advantages and disadvantages, so that the next time you undertake a study you would know which type of research design to adopt.  

References:  

• McLeod, S. A. Qualitative vs. quantitative research. Simply Psychology [Accessed January 17, 2023]. www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html    
• Omniconvert website [Accessed January 18, 2023]. https://www.omniconvert.com/blog/qualitative-research-definition-methodology-limitation-examples/  
• Busetto L., Wick W., Gumbinger C. How to use and assess qualitative research methods. Neurological Research and Practice [Accessed January 19, 2023] https://neurolrespract.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42466-020-00059  
• QuestionPro website. Qualitative research methods: Types & examples [Accessed January 16, 2023]. https://www.questionpro.com/blog/qualitative-research-methods/  
• Campuslabs website. How to analyze qualitative data [Accessed January 18, 2023]. https://baselinesupport.campuslabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204305675-How-to-analyze-qualitative-data  
• Thematic website. Qualitative data analysis: Step-by-guide [Accessed January 20, 2023]. https://getthematic.com/insights/qualitative-data-analysis/  
• Lane L. J., Jones D., Penny G. R. Qualitative case study of teachers’ morale in a turnaround school. Research in Higher Education Journal . https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1233111.pdf  
• Meetingsnet website. 7 FAQs about qualitative research and CME [Accessed January 21, 2023]. https://www.meetingsnet.com/cme-design/7-faqs-about-qualitative-research-and-cme     
• Qualitative research methods: A data collector’s field guide. Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Northeastern University. https://course.ccs.neu.edu/is4800sp12/resources/qualmethods.pdf  

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Qualitative research: methods and examples

Last updated

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Qualitative research involves gathering and evaluating non-numerical information to comprehend concepts, perspectives, and experiences. It’s also helpful for obtaining in-depth insights into a certain subject or generating new research ideas. 

As a result, qualitative research is practical if you want to try anything new or produce new ideas.

There are various ways you can conduct qualitative research. In this article, you'll learn more about qualitative research methodologies, including when you should use them.

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• What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is a broad term describing various research types that rely on asking open-ended questions. Qualitative research investigates “how” or “why” certain phenomena occur. It is about discovering the inherent nature of something.

The primary objective of qualitative research is to understand an individual's ideas, points of view, and feelings. In this way, collecting in-depth knowledge of a specific topic is possible. Knowing your audience's feelings about a particular subject is important for making reasonable research conclusions.

Unlike quantitative research , this approach does not involve collecting numerical, objective data for statistical analysis. Qualitative research is used extensively in education, sociology, health science, history, and anthropology.

• Types of qualitative research methodology

Typically, qualitative research aims at uncovering the attitudes and behavior of the target audience concerning a specific topic. For example,  “How would you describe your experience as a new Dovetail user?”

Some of the methods for conducting qualitative analysis include:

Focus groups

Hosting a focus group is a popular qualitative research method. It involves obtaining qualitative data from a limited sample of participants. In a moderated version of a focus group, the moderator asks participants a series of predefined questions. They aim to interact and build a group discussion that reveals their preferences, candid thoughts, and experiences.

Unmoderated, online focus groups are increasingly popular because they eliminate the need to interact with people face to face.

Focus groups can be more cost-effective than 1:1 interviews or studying a group in a natural setting and reporting one’s observations.

Focus groups make it possible to gather multiple points of view quickly and efficiently, making them an excellent choice for testing new concepts or conducting market research on a new product.

However, there are some potential drawbacks to this method. It may be unsuitable for sensitive or controversial topics. Participants might be reluctant to disclose their true feelings or respond falsely to conform to what they believe is the socially acceptable answer (known as response bias).

Case study research

A case study is an in-depth evaluation of a specific person, incident, organization, or society. This type of qualitative research has evolved into a broadly applied research method in education, law, business, and the social sciences.

Even though case study research may appear challenging to implement, it is one of the most direct research methods. It requires detailed analysis, broad-ranging data collection methodologies, and a degree of existing knowledge about the subject area under investigation.

Historical model

The historical approach is a distinct research method that deeply examines previous events to better understand the present and forecast future occurrences of the same phenomena. Its primary goal is to evaluate the impacts of history on the present and hence discover comparable patterns in the present to predict future outcomes.

Oral history

This qualitative data collection method involves gathering verbal testimonials from individuals about their personal experiences. It is widely used in historical disciplines to offer counterpoints to established historical facts and narratives. The most common methods of gathering oral history are audio recordings, analysis of auto-biographical text, videos, and interviews.

Qualitative observation

One of the most fundamental, oldest research methods, qualitative observation , is the process through which a researcher collects data using their senses of sight, smell, hearing, etc. It is used to observe the properties of the subject being studied. For example, “What does it look like?” As research methods go, it is subjective and depends on researchers’ first-hand experiences to obtain information, so it is prone to bias. However, it is an excellent way to start a broad line of inquiry like, “What is going on here?”

Record keeping and review

Record keeping uses existing documents and relevant data sources that can be employed for future studies. It is equivalent to visiting the library and going through publications or any other reference material to gather important facts that will likely be used in the research.

Grounded theory approach

The grounded theory approach is a commonly used research method employed across a variety of different studies. It offers a unique way to gather, interpret, and analyze. With this approach, data is gathered and analyzed simultaneously.  Existing analysis frames and codes are disregarded, and data is analyzed inductively, with new codes and frames generated from the research.

Ethnographic research

Ethnography  is a descriptive form of a qualitative study of people and their cultures. Its primary goal is to study people's behavior in their natural environment. This method necessitates that the researcher adapts to their target audience's setting. 

Thereby, you will be able to understand their motivation, lifestyle, ambitions, traditions, and culture in situ. But, the researcher must be prepared to deal with geographical constraints while collecting data i.e., audiences can’t be studied in a laboratory or research facility.

This study can last from a couple of days to several years. Thus, it is time-consuming and complicated, requiring you to have both the time to gather the relevant data as well as the expertise in analyzing, observing, and interpreting data to draw meaningful conclusions.

Narrative framework

A narrative framework is a qualitative research approach that relies on people's written text or visual images. It entails people analyzing these events or narratives to determine certain topics or issues. With this approach, you can understand how people represent themselves and their experiences to a larger audience.

Phenomenological approach

The phenomenological study seeks to investigate the experiences of a particular phenomenon within a group of individuals or communities. It analyzes a certain event through interviews with persons who have witnessed it to determine the connections between their views. Even though this method relies heavily on interviews, other data sources (recorded notes), and observations could be employed to enhance the findings.

• Qualitative research methods (tools)

Some of the instruments involved in qualitative research include:

Document research: Also known as document analysis because it involves evaluating written documents. These can include personal and non-personal materials like archives, policy publications, yearly reports, diaries, or letters.

Focus groups:  This is where a researcher poses questions and generates conversation among a group of people. The major goal of focus groups is to examine participants' experiences and knowledge, including research into how and why individuals act in various ways.

Secondary study: Involves acquiring existing information from texts, images, audio, or video recordings.

Observations:   This requires thorough field notes on everything you see, hear, or experience. Compared to reported conduct or opinion, this study method can assist you in getting insights into a specific situation and observable behaviors.

Structured interviews :  In this approach, you will directly engage people one-on-one. Interviews are ideal for learning about a person's subjective beliefs, motivations, and encounters.

Surveys:  This is when you distribute questionnaires containing open-ended questions

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• What are common examples of qualitative research?

Everyday examples of qualitative research include:

Conducting a demographic analysis of a business

For instance, suppose you own a business such as a grocery store (or any store) and believe it caters to a broad customer base, but after conducting a demographic analysis, you discover that most of your customers are men.

You could do 1:1 interviews with female customers to learn why they don't shop at your store.

In this case, interviewing potential female customers should clarify why they don't find your shop appealing. It could be because of the products you sell or a need for greater brand awareness, among other possible reasons.

Launching or testing a new product

Suppose you are the product manager at a SaaS company looking to introduce a new product. Focus groups can be an excellent way to determine whether your product is marketable.

In this instance, you could hold a focus group with a sample group drawn from your intended audience. The group will explore the product based on its new features while you ensure adequate data on how users react to the new features. The data you collect will be key to making sales and marketing decisions.

Conducting studies to explain buyers' behaviors

You can also use qualitative research to understand existing buyer behavior better. Marketers analyze historical information linked to their businesses and industries to see when purchasers buy more.

Qualitative research can help you determine when to target new clients and peak seasons to boost sales by investigating the reason behind these behaviors.

• Qualitative research: data collection

Data collection is gathering information on predetermined variables to gain appropriate answers, test hypotheses, and analyze results. Researchers will collect non-numerical data for qualitative data collection to obtain detailed explanations and draw conclusions.

To get valid findings and achieve a conclusion in qualitative research, researchers must collect comprehensive and multifaceted data.

Qualitative data is usually gathered through interviews or focus groups with videotapes or handwritten notes. If there are recordings, they are transcribed before the data analysis process. Researchers keep separate folders for the recordings acquired from each focus group when collecting qualitative research data to categorize the data.

• Qualitative research: data analysis

Qualitative data analysis is organizing, examining, and interpreting qualitative data. Its main objective is identifying trends and patterns, responding to research questions, and recommending actions based on the findings. Textual analysis is a popular method for analyzing qualitative data.

Textual analysis differs from other qualitative research approaches in that researchers consider the social circumstances of study participants to decode their words, behaviors, and broader meaning. 

Learn more about qualitative research data analysis software

• When to use qualitative research

Qualitative research is helpful in various situations, particularly when a researcher wants to capture accurate, in-depth insights. 

Here are some instances when qualitative research can be valuable:

Examining your product or service to improve your marketing approach

When researching market segments, demographics, and customer service teams

Identifying client language when you want to design a quantitative survey

When attempting to comprehend your or someone else's strengths and weaknesses

Assessing feelings and beliefs about societal and public policy matters

Collecting information about a business or product's perception

Analyzing your target audience's reactions to marketing efforts

When launching a new product or coming up with a new idea

When seeking to evaluate buyers' purchasing patterns

• Qualitative research methods vs. quantitative research methods

Qualitative research examines people's ideas and what influences their perception, whereas quantitative research draws conclusions based on numbers and measurements.

Qualitative research is descriptive, and its primary goal is to comprehensively understand people's attitudes, behaviors, and ideas.

In contrast, quantitative research is more restrictive because it relies on numerical data and analyzes statistical data to make decisions. This research method assists researchers in gaining an initial grasp of the subject, which deals with numbers. For instance, the number of customers likely to purchase your products or use your services.

What is the most important feature of qualitative research?

A distinguishing feature of qualitative research is that it’s conducted in a real-world setting instead of a simulated environment. The researcher is examining actual phenomena instead of experimenting with different variables to see what outcomes (data) might result.

Can I use qualitative and quantitative approaches together in a study?

Yes, combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches happens all the time and is known as mixed methods research. For example, you could study individuals’ perceived risk in a certain scenario, such as how people rate the safety or riskiness of a given neighborhood. Simultaneously, you could analyze historical data objectively, indicating how safe or dangerous that area has been in the last year. To get the most out of mixed-method research, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of each methodology, so you can create a thoughtfully designed study that will yield compelling results.

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150+ Qualitative Research Topics

Even the most successful students sometimes have no clue what topic to choose for their qualitative research or how to organize the process correctly. If you’re facing this problem, our writing ideas generator and post is just what you need. Our qualitative research ideas will be useful to you if you’re searching for something to knock your teacher’s socks off. But before we proceed to the topics themselves, let’s figure out what “qualitative research projects” are.

What are qualitative research projects?

Qualitative research projects are projects that are based on research that involves the collection and analysis of data collected from primary sources. The most common qualitative research methods are focus groups and in-depth interviews. They are aimed at identifying the qualitative, rather than the quantitative, characteristics of people’s behavior. If quantitative research answers the question “How much?”, then using qualitative research we are able to answer the question “Why?” Qualitative research allows you to collect different opinions related to the issue that you’re studying, whether it’s an eating disorder essay , an essay about basketball , or an essay about soccer .

Qualitative research is considered well done when the researchers manage to collect a broad range of existing opinions, even uncommon ones. 

Ideas for qualitative research in psychology

• What life values do young people pursue in modern society?
• Dreams and their meanings.
• Eating disorders and anorexia.
• The influence of colors on the human brain.
• The psychological characteristics of adolescence.
• Anxiety problem. How does anxiety affect a person’s life?
• The influence of color on a person’s mood.
• The effect of noise on the human body.
• Bullying and its impact on the socialization of students.
• The influence of temperament on the choice of profession in high school.
• Teenage delinquency.
• Conflict. Types and methods of conflict resolution.
• Optics and fine arts.
• Personality types.
• Causes of stress and their impact on students’ lives.
• The meaning of deviant behavior in young children.
• Education based around sensory perception.
• Enneagram – the path to personality knowledge.
• Formation of communication skills in adolescents through sports.
• Collective creative activity as a form of organizing leisure activities for middle-aged people.
• The causes of smiling.
• Interpersonal conflicts among schoolchildren: methods of resolution.
• Causes and forms of deviant behavior among adolescents.
• High school students’ perception of love.
• Flexibility of thinking and ways to develop it.
• What does handwriting say about a person?
• Experience of loneliness in adolescence.
• The influence of the family on the formation of the child’s personality.
• The manifestation of aggressiveness in adolescence.
• Exams as a stress factor for students.
• Anthropomorphism of domestic animals.
• Psychogeometry at school.
• Twins: the likelihood of commonalities and differences.
• Television advertising and children.
• The influence of color on the performance of schoolchildren.

Examples of qualitative research topics in social science

• Personalized learning: new technologies for individual development of students.
• Nations and how they arose.
• The influence of social networks on teenagers.
• Problems of the modern family and ways to overcome them.
• The influence of advertising on consumer preferences of television viewers.
• Bank cards in modern society.
• Internet in the life of a high school student: pros and cons.
• Problems and prospects of youth in the modern world.
• Is it possible to accurately predict developments in international relations?
• Juvenile crime.
• Children’s bank cards.
• What will help young people overcome bad habits?
• The current most in-demand professions.
• Problems of modern families in the USA.
• Internet in the life of a teenager: pros and cons.
• The influence of a computer on child development.
• Subcultures in modern society.
• Education in the 21 st century.

How advertising influences people. (You might also want to investigate some finance research topics to get deeper into the issue.)

The role of patriotic education in the formation of the values system of youth.

• The meaning of life – how does it vary based on socioeconomic status?
• The “punk” subculture.
• Intergenerational conflicts and ways to resolve them.
• Family closeness compared in urban and rural environments.
• Moral foundations of family life.
• Political activity of French citizens.
• Internet bullying.
• Causes of juvenile delinquency.
• The threat of terrorism in the 21st century.
• Is an army necessary in the modern world?
• Demographic situation in modern China.
• Values of modern teenagers.
• The role and place of the middle child.
• The usefulness of social advertising in school.
• Rights of a teenager in modern society.
• The influence of the media on teenagers.
• The influence of audiovisual media on the formation of public opinion of middle-aged and older people.
• Women in government.
• The problem of choosing a profession.
• Current problems of economic security of the USA.
• Paying taxes – oppression or citizen duty?
• The problem of homeless animals in the USA.
• The power of habit.
• Past and present: Olympic Games.
• The role of diasporas in the political, economic and cultural life of the state.
• Nanotechnology – a springboard into the great future of humanity.
• Historical literacy of youth.
• Is the modern teenager a savvy consumer?

If wondering how to write and structure an essay on education topics, please check a cheerleading research paper sample from our authors.

Qualitative research topics in educatio n

• The inner world of a modern schoolchild.
• Educational potential of epic texts in developing interest in the history of the motherland.
• Educational functions of the media.
• Educational potential of folk tales.
• Self-knowledge and self-education.
• Games’ power in childhood.
• The art of living with dignity: the life path and pedagogical creativity of a teacher.
• The importance of books in the self-education of an individual.
• Family history’s role in the formation of cultural identity.
• History of my school: events, teachers, pupils.
• My ideal teacher.
• Youth and the city.
• My school: reality and dream.
• On the waves of childhood memories.
• Folk traditions in education.
• Moral ideals of a modern school graduate.
• The lifestyle of a modern high school student.
• The image of American teachers in fiction.
• The image of a teacher in the history of American education.
• The image of a teacher through the eyes of modern students.
• Social activities of high school students as a path to profession.
• Features of the image of a “good” and “difficult”.
• Features of creative imagination in primary schoolchildren.
• Features of artistic creativity in the modern teenager.
• Pedagogy around us: the civic formation of a growing person in the space of family and school.
• Problems of national education in the domestic historical and pedagogical heritage.
• The path to yourself: self-knowledge is the key to self-education.
• A heart given to children: teachers’ destinies.
• Values systems of students and their role in openness to new ideas.
• Modern childhood and how it differs from our ancestors’ childhood.
• Socialization of children outside the family home.
• Social and psychological portrait of a young writer.
• The theme of home in the memory of older generations.
• Cultural traditions in the family (based on fiction and autobiographical literature).
• My first teacher.
• Teacher dynasties are a way of interconnecting generations.
• Formation of cultural identity and tolerance based on the traditions of the region.
• The values of childhood in fiction and poetry (classic and modern).
• Values of family and childhood in folk pedagogy.
• School is a warm and bright second home.
• School of the future.
• School brotherhood in memoirs.
• “School years”: nostalgia vs reality.
• Aesthetic education and how it influences career opportunities.
• Ethical code of a teacher: based on the example of the personality of outstanding teachers.

Qualitative research topics examples in English and Literature

• Nickname as a special type of modern anthroponyms.
• Secrets of global communication.
• Abbreviation as a linguistic feature of on-line communication.
• Abbreviation in e-mail and on-line games.
• Abbreviation in English computer slang.
• Alfred the Great and his contribution to the development of the English language.
• American English – new trends.
• Analysis of print media headlines.
• English vocabulary related to church and religion.
• English as a global language of communication.
• English language as a reflection of the history and identity of the English people.
• Biography and creativity of A. Milne.
• Biography and work of William Shakespeare.
• Biography and work of Lewis Carroll.
• Letters of the English alphabet. 
• The influence of J. Byron’s work on classical literature.
• Globalization of the English language and its influence on other languages.

How to choose a qualitative research topic

Student life is a time of discovery and experimentation. This also applies to academic tasks, in particular choosing topics for qualitative research. Who said that all research papers should be tied to familiar and standard qualitative research topic examples? When you address research papers for sale , you can see the unique approach to choosing a topic. Reputable research paper writing services don’t limit themselves to standard subjects and issues to cover in essays they craft for students. Choosing an unusual topic can be your chance to stand out from the rest and show your ability to think outside the box.

Unusual and good qualitative research topics are an opportunity not only to demonstrate originality of thinking, but also to attract the attention of the teacher, and perhaps the entire academic community. They can stimulate your intellectual abilities and make you more interested in research work because you won’t feel limited by traditional approaches.

However, choosing such a topic can be challenging, especially if you collaborate with a research proposal writing service on it and need to decide whether their proposed topic is relevant enough to fit your needs. How does one find a balance between originality and scientific relevance? What qualitative research problems would be interesting but not too difficult to research? In this article, we tried to answer these questions by providing you with a list of unusual topics in various fields.

Once you decide to buy research paper online , you can offer any of them to your assigned writer and ask them to cover it inside and out in the final draft.

Tips for choosing an unusual topic

Choosing an unusual topic among qualitative research titles is a great way to stand out and add a fresh touch to your studies. However, before you dive headfirst, it is important to make sure that the chosen topic is acceptable and feasible. Here are some tips to help you with this:

• Assess your interests and knowledge. Remember that the most important thing in working on a paper is your personal interest in the topic. If the topic does not appeal to you, the process will be difficult and tedious. Choose a topic that piques your curiosity and desire to study it.
• Check your access to sources. Before you finalize your topic, make sure you have access to enough information. Conduct a preliminary search of sources: books, scientific articles, expert interviews, and so on. Also, you might want to review it via an AI essay checker to ensure it doesn’t sound too superficial and artificial.
• Consult with your instructor. Before you begin work on your paper, discuss your chosen topic with your instructor. They can give you valuable advice and help you evaluate the feasibility of your topic
• Break your topic down into subtopics. This will help you organize your research better and make it easier to deal with large amounts of work. Each subtopic can become a separate section in your paper.

Choosing an unusual topic can be a great experience that will expand your knowledge and help develop your research skills. Don’t be afraid to experiment and look for new approaches to learning the material!

If writing your paper doesn’t bring you joy, get help on EssayShark. Here, you can pay for a research paper anytime as our writers are able to write the best qualitative research papers fast. Prior to writing, they will conduct thorough research on your topic. Our writers demonstrate that it is possible to write high-quality papers by deadline. They never refuse to help students with whatever writing problems they have.

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Home Market Research

Qualitative Research Methods: Types, Analysis + Examples

Qualitative research is based on the disciplines of social sciences like psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Therefore, the qualitative research methods allow for in-depth and further probing and questioning of respondents based on their responses. The interviewer/researcher also tries to understand their motivation and feelings. Understanding how your audience makes decisions can help derive conclusions in market research.

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is defined as a market research method that focuses on obtaining data through open-ended and conversational communication .

This method is about “what” people think and “why” they think so. For example, consider a convenience store looking to improve its patronage. A systematic observation concludes that more men are visiting this store. One good method to determine why women were not visiting the store is conducting an in-depth interview method with potential customers.

For example, after successfully interviewing female customers and visiting nearby stores and malls, the researchers selected participants through random sampling . As a result, it was discovered that the store didn’t have enough items for women.

So fewer women were visiting the store, which was understood only by personally interacting with them and understanding why they didn’t visit the store because there were more male products than female ones.

Gather research insights

Types of qualitative research methods with examples

Qualitative research methods are designed in a manner that helps reveal the behavior and perception of a target audience with reference to a particular topic. There are different types of qualitative research methods, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, content analysis, and case study research that are usually used.

The results of qualitative methods are more descriptive, and the inferences can be drawn quite easily from the obtained data .

Qualitative research methods originated in the social and behavioral research sciences. Today, our world is more complicated, and it is difficult to understand what people think and perceive. Online research methods make it easier to understand that as it is a more communicative and descriptive analysis .

The following are the qualitative research methods that are frequently used. Also, read about qualitative research examples :

1. 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 their motivations . If the researcher is well experienced, asking the right questions can help him/her collect meaningful data. If they should need more information, the researchers should ask such follow-up questions that will help them collect more information.

These interviews can be performed face-to-face or on the phone and usually can last between half an hour to two hours or even more. When the in-depth interview is conducted face to face, it gives a better opportunity to read the respondents’ body language and match the responses.

2. Focus groups

A focus group is also a commonly used qualitative research method used in data collection. A focus group usually includes a limited number of respondents (6-10) from within 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 you don’t necessarily need to interact with the group in person. Nowadays, focus groups can be sent an online survey on various devices, and responses can be collected at the click of a button.

Focus groups are an expensive method as compared to other online qualitative research methods. Typically, they are used to explain complex processes. This method is very useful for market research on new products and testing new concepts.

3. Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research is the most in-depth observational research method that studies people in their naturally occurring environment.

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.

This type of research method can last from a few days to a few years, as it involves in-depth observation and collecting data on those grounds. It’s a challenging and time-consuming method and solely depends on the researcher’s expertise to analyze, observe, and infer the data.

4. Case study research

T he case study method has evolved over the past few years and developed into a valuable quality research method. As the name suggests, it is used for explaining an organization or an 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.

5. Record keeping

This method makes use of the already existing reliable documents and similar sources of information as the data source. This data can be used in new research. This is similar to going to a library. There, one can go over books and other reference material to collect relevant data that can likely be used in the research.

6. Process of observation

Qualitative Observation is a process of research that uses subjective methodologies to gather systematic information or data. Since the focus on qualitative observation is the research process of using subjective methodologies to gather information or data. Qualitative observation is primarily used to equate quality differences.

Qualitative observation deals with the 5 major sensory organs and their functioning – sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. This doesn’t involve measurements or numbers but instead characteristics.

Explore Insightfully Contextual Inquiry in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research: data collection and analysis

A. qualitative data collection.

Qualitative data collection allows collecting data that is non-numeric and helps us to explore how decisions are made and provide us with detailed insight. For reaching such conclusions the data that is collected should be holistic, rich, and nuanced and findings to emerge through careful analysis.

• Whatever method a researcher chooses for collecting qualitative data, one aspect is very clear the process will generate a large amount of data. In addition to the variety of methods available, there are also different methods of collecting and recording the data.

For example, if the qualitative data is collected through a focus group or one-to-one discussion, there will be handwritten notes or video recorded tapes. If there are recording they should be transcribed and before the process of data analysis can begin.

• As a rough guide, it can take a seasoned researcher 8-10 hours to transcribe the recordings of an interview, which can generate roughly 20-30 pages of dialogues. Many researchers also like to maintain separate folders to maintain the recording collected from the different focus group. This helps them compartmentalize the data collected.
• In case there are running notes taken, which are also known as field notes, they are helpful in maintaining comments, environmental contexts, environmental analysis , nonverbal cues etc. These filed notes are helpful and can be compared while transcribing audio recorded data. Such notes are usually informal but should be secured in a similar manner as the video recordings or the audio tapes.

B. Qualitative data analysis

Qualitative data analysis such as notes, videos, audio recordings images, and text documents. One of the most used methods for qualitative data analysis is text analysis.

Text analysis is a  data analysis method that is distinctly different from all other qualitative research methods, where researchers analyze the social life of the participants in the research study and decode the words, actions, etc. 

There are images also that are used in this research study and the researchers analyze the context in which the images are used and draw inferences from them. In the last decade, text analysis through what is shared on social media platforms has gained supreme popularity.

Characteristics of qualitative research methods

• Qualitative research methods usually collect data at the sight, where the participants are experiencing issues or research problems . These are real-time data and rarely bring the participants out of the geographic locations to collect information.
• Qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data, such as interviews, observations, and documents, rather than rely on a single data source .
• This type of research method works towards solving complex issues by breaking down into meaningful inferences, that is easily readable and understood by all.
• Since it’s a more communicative method, people can build their trust on the researcher and the information thus obtained is raw and unadulterated.

Qualitative research method case study

Let’s take the example of a bookstore owner who is looking for ways to improve their sales and customer outreach. An online community of members who were loyal patrons of the bookstore were interviewed and related questions were asked and the questions were answered by them.

At the end of the interview, it was realized that most of the books in the stores were suitable for adults and there were not enough options for children or teenagers.

By conducting this qualitative research the bookstore owner realized what the shortcomings were and what were the feelings of the readers. Through this research now the bookstore owner can now keep books for different age categories and can improve his sales and customer outreach.

Such qualitative research method examples can serve as the basis to indulge in further quantitative research , which provides remedies.

When to use qualitative research

Researchers make use of qualitative research techniques when they need to capture accurate, in-depth insights. It is very useful to capture “factual data”. Here are some examples of when to use qualitative research.

• Developing a new product or generating an idea.
• Studying your product/brand or service to strengthen your marketing strategy.
• To understand your strengths and weaknesses.
• Understanding purchase behavior.
• To study the reactions of your audience to marketing campaigns and other communications.
• Exploring market demographics, segments, and customer care groups.
• Gathering perception data of a brand, company, or product.

LEARN ABOUT: Steps in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research methods vs quantitative research methods

The basic differences between qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods are simple and straightforward. They differ in:

• Their analytical objectives
• Types of questions asked
• Types of data collection instruments
• Forms of data they produce
• Degree of flexibility

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Home » Qualitative Research – Methods, Analysis Types and Guide

Qualitative Research – Methods, Analysis Types and Guide

Table of Contents

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a type of research methodology that focuses on exploring and understanding people’s beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and experiences through the collection and analysis of non-numerical data. It seeks to answer research questions through the examination of subjective data, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and textual analysis.

Qualitative research aims to uncover the meaning and significance of social phenomena, and it typically involves a more flexible and iterative approach to data collection and analysis compared to quantitative research. Qualitative research is often used in fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, and education.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative Research Methods are as follows:

One-to-One Interview

This method involves conducting an interview with a single participant to gain a detailed understanding of their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. One-to-one interviews can be conducted in-person, over the phone, or through video conferencing. The interviewer typically uses open-ended questions to encourage the participant to share their thoughts and feelings. One-to-one interviews are useful for gaining detailed insights into individual experiences.

Focus Groups

This method involves bringing together a group of people to discuss a specific topic in a structured setting. The focus group is led by a moderator who guides the discussion and encourages participants to share their thoughts and opinions. Focus groups are useful for generating ideas and insights, exploring social norms and attitudes, and understanding group dynamics.

Ethnographic Studies

This method involves immersing oneself in a culture or community to gain a deep understanding of its norms, beliefs, and practices. Ethnographic studies typically involve long-term fieldwork and observation, as well as interviews and document analysis. Ethnographic studies are useful for understanding the cultural context of social phenomena and for gaining a holistic understanding of complex social processes.

Text Analysis

This method involves analyzing written or spoken language to identify patterns and themes. Text analysis can be quantitative or qualitative. Qualitative text analysis involves close reading and interpretation of texts to identify recurring themes, concepts, and patterns. Text analysis is useful for understanding media messages, public discourse, and cultural trends.

This method involves an in-depth examination of a single person, group, or event to gain an understanding of complex phenomena. Case studies typically involve a combination of data collection methods, such as interviews, observations, and document analysis, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the case. Case studies are useful for exploring unique or rare cases, and for generating hypotheses for further research.

Process of Observation

This method involves systematically observing and recording behaviors and interactions in natural settings. The observer may take notes, use audio or video recordings, or use other methods to document what they see. Process of observation is useful for understanding social interactions, cultural practices, and the context in which behaviors occur.

Record Keeping

This method involves keeping detailed records of observations, interviews, and other data collected during the research process. Record keeping is essential for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data, and for providing a basis for analysis and interpretation.

This method involves collecting data from a large sample of participants through a structured questionnaire. Surveys can be conducted in person, over the phone, through mail, or online. Surveys are useful for collecting data on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and for identifying patterns and trends in a population.

Qualitative data analysis is a process of turning unstructured data into meaningful insights. It involves extracting and organizing information from sources like interviews, focus groups, and surveys. The goal is to understand people’s attitudes, behaviors, and motivations

Qualitative Research Analysis Methods

Qualitative Research analysis methods involve a systematic approach to interpreting and making sense of the data collected in qualitative research. Here are some common qualitative data analysis methods:

Thematic Analysis

This method involves identifying patterns or themes in the data that are relevant to the research question. The researcher reviews the data, identifies keywords or phrases, and groups them into categories or themes. Thematic analysis is useful for identifying patterns across multiple data sources and for generating new insights into the research topic.

Content Analysis

This method involves analyzing the content of written or spoken language to identify key themes or concepts. Content analysis can be quantitative or qualitative. Qualitative content analysis involves close reading and interpretation of texts to identify recurring themes, concepts, and patterns. Content analysis is useful for identifying patterns in media messages, public discourse, and cultural trends.

Discourse Analysis

This method involves analyzing language to understand how it constructs meaning and shapes social interactions. Discourse analysis can involve a variety of methods, such as conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. Discourse analysis is useful for understanding how language shapes social interactions, cultural norms, and power relationships.

Grounded Theory Analysis

This method involves developing a theory or explanation based on the data collected. Grounded theory analysis starts with the data and uses an iterative process of coding and analysis to identify patterns and themes in the data. The theory or explanation that emerges is grounded in the data, rather than preconceived hypotheses. Grounded theory analysis is useful for understanding complex social phenomena and for generating new theoretical insights.

Narrative Analysis

This method involves analyzing the stories or narratives that participants share to gain insights into their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. Narrative analysis can involve a variety of methods, such as structural analysis, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis. Narrative analysis is useful for understanding how individuals construct their identities, make sense of their experiences, and communicate their values and beliefs.

Phenomenological Analysis

This method involves analyzing how individuals make sense of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them. Phenomenological analysis typically involves in-depth interviews with participants to explore their experiences in detail. Phenomenological analysis is useful for understanding subjective experiences and for developing a rich understanding of human consciousness.

Comparative Analysis

This method involves comparing and contrasting data across different cases or groups to identify similarities and differences. Comparative analysis can be used to identify patterns or themes that are common across multiple cases, as well as to identify unique or distinctive features of individual cases. Comparative analysis is useful for understanding how social phenomena vary across different contexts and groups.

Applications of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research has many applications across different fields and industries. Here are some examples of how qualitative research is used:

• Market Research: Qualitative research is often used in market research to understand consumer attitudes, behaviors, and preferences. Researchers conduct focus groups and one-on-one interviews with consumers to gather insights into their experiences and perceptions of products and services.
• Health Care: Qualitative research is used in health care to explore patient experiences and perspectives on health and illness. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with patients and their families to gather information on their experiences with different health care providers and treatments.
• Education: Qualitative research is used in education to understand student experiences and to develop effective teaching strategies. Researchers conduct classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers to gather insights into classroom dynamics and instructional practices.
• Social Work : Qualitative research is used in social work to explore social problems and to develop interventions to address them. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with individuals and families to understand their experiences with poverty, discrimination, and other social problems.
• Anthropology : Qualitative research is used in anthropology to understand different cultures and societies. Researchers conduct ethnographic studies and observe and interview members of different cultural groups to gain insights into their beliefs, practices, and social structures.
• Psychology : Qualitative research is used in psychology to understand human behavior and mental processes. Researchers conduct in-depth interviews with individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Public Policy : Qualitative research is used in public policy to explore public attitudes and to inform policy decisions. Researchers conduct focus groups and one-on-one interviews with members of the public to gather insights into their perspectives on different policy issues.

How to Conduct Qualitative Research

Here are some general steps for conducting qualitative research:

• Identify your research question: Qualitative research starts with a research question or set of questions that you want to explore. This question should be focused and specific, but also broad enough to allow for exploration and discovery.
• Select your research design: There are different types of qualitative research designs, including ethnography, case study, grounded theory, and phenomenology. You should select a design that aligns with your research question and that will allow you to gather the data you need to answer your research question.
• Recruit participants: Once you have your research question and design, you need to recruit participants. The number of participants you need will depend on your research design and the scope of your research. You can recruit participants through advertisements, social media, or through personal networks.
• Collect data: There are different methods for collecting qualitative data, including interviews, focus groups, observation, and document analysis. You should select the method or methods that align with your research design and that will allow you to gather the data you need to answer your research question.
• Analyze data: Once you have collected your data, you need to analyze it. This involves reviewing your data, identifying patterns and themes, and developing codes to organize your data. You can use different software programs to help you analyze your data, or you can do it manually.
• Interpret data: Once you have analyzed your data, you need to interpret it. This involves making sense of the patterns and themes you have identified, and developing insights and conclusions that answer your research question. You should be guided by your research question and use your data to support your conclusions.
• Communicate results: Once you have interpreted your data, you need to communicate your results. This can be done through academic papers, presentations, or reports. You should be clear and concise in your communication, and use examples and quotes from your data to support your findings.

Examples of Qualitative Research

Here are some real-time examples of qualitative research:

• Customer Feedback: A company may conduct qualitative research to understand the feedback and experiences of its customers. This may involve conducting focus groups or one-on-one interviews with customers to gather insights into their attitudes, behaviors, and preferences.
• Healthcare : A healthcare provider may conduct qualitative research to explore patient experiences and perspectives on health and illness. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with patients and their families to gather information on their experiences with different health care providers and treatments.
• Education : An educational institution may conduct qualitative research to understand student experiences and to develop effective teaching strategies. This may involve conducting classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers to gather insights into classroom dynamics and instructional practices.
• Social Work: A social worker may conduct qualitative research to explore social problems and to develop interventions to address them. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with individuals and families to understand their experiences with poverty, discrimination, and other social problems.
• Anthropology : An anthropologist may conduct qualitative research to understand different cultures and societies. This may involve conducting ethnographic studies and observing and interviewing members of different cultural groups to gain insights into their beliefs, practices, and social structures.
• Psychology : A psychologist may conduct qualitative research to understand human behavior and mental processes. This may involve conducting in-depth interviews with individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Public Policy: A government agency or non-profit organization may conduct qualitative research to explore public attitudes and to inform policy decisions. This may involve conducting focus groups and one-on-one interviews with members of the public to gather insights into their perspectives on different policy issues.

Purpose of Qualitative Research

The purpose of qualitative research is to explore and understand the subjective experiences, behaviors, and perspectives of individuals or groups in a particular context. Unlike quantitative research, which focuses on numerical data and statistical analysis, qualitative research aims to provide in-depth, descriptive information that can help researchers develop insights and theories about complex social phenomena.

Qualitative research can serve multiple purposes, including:

• Exploring new or emerging phenomena : Qualitative research can be useful for exploring new or emerging phenomena, such as new technologies or social trends. This type of research can help researchers develop a deeper understanding of these phenomena and identify potential areas for further study.
• Understanding complex social phenomena : Qualitative research can be useful for exploring complex social phenomena, such as cultural beliefs, social norms, or political processes. This type of research can help researchers develop a more nuanced understanding of these phenomena and identify factors that may influence them.
• Generating new theories or hypotheses: Qualitative research can be useful for generating new theories or hypotheses about social phenomena. By gathering rich, detailed data about individuals’ experiences and perspectives, researchers can develop insights that may challenge existing theories or lead to new lines of inquiry.
• Providing context for quantitative data: Qualitative research can be useful for providing context for quantitative data. By gathering qualitative data alongside quantitative data, researchers can develop a more complete understanding of complex social phenomena and identify potential explanations for quantitative findings.

When to use Qualitative Research

Here are some situations where qualitative research may be appropriate:

• Exploring a new area: If little is known about a particular topic, qualitative research can help to identify key issues, generate hypotheses, and develop new theories.
• Understanding complex phenomena: Qualitative research can be used to investigate complex social, cultural, or organizational phenomena that are difficult to measure quantitatively.
• Investigating subjective experiences: Qualitative research is particularly useful for investigating the subjective experiences of individuals or groups, such as their attitudes, beliefs, values, or emotions.
• Conducting formative research: Qualitative research can be used in the early stages of a research project to develop research questions, identify potential research participants, and refine research methods.
• Evaluating interventions or programs: Qualitative research can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions or programs by collecting data on participants’ experiences, attitudes, and behaviors.

Characteristics of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is characterized by several key features, including:

• Focus on subjective experience: Qualitative research is concerned with understanding the subjective experiences, beliefs, and perspectives of individuals or groups in a particular context. Researchers aim to explore the meanings that people attach to their experiences and to understand the social and cultural factors that shape these meanings.
• Use of open-ended questions: Qualitative research relies on open-ended questions that allow participants to provide detailed, in-depth responses. Researchers seek to elicit rich, descriptive data that can provide insights into participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Sampling-based on purpose and diversity: Qualitative research often involves purposive sampling, in which participants are selected based on specific criteria related to the research question. Researchers may also seek to include participants with diverse experiences and perspectives to capture a range of viewpoints.
• Data collection through multiple methods: Qualitative research typically involves the use of multiple data collection methods, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observation. This allows researchers to gather rich, detailed data from multiple sources, which can provide a more complete picture of participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Inductive data analysis: Qualitative research relies on inductive data analysis, in which researchers develop theories and insights based on the data rather than testing pre-existing hypotheses. Researchers use coding and thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes in the data and to develop theories and explanations based on these patterns.
• Emphasis on researcher reflexivity: Qualitative research recognizes the importance of the researcher’s role in shaping the research process and outcomes. Researchers are encouraged to reflect on their own biases and assumptions and to be transparent about their role in the research process.

Advantages of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research offers several advantages over other research methods, including:

• Depth and detail: Qualitative research allows researchers to gather rich, detailed data that provides a deeper understanding of complex social phenomena. Through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observation, researchers can gather detailed information about participants’ experiences and perspectives that may be missed by other research methods.
• Flexibility : Qualitative research is a flexible approach that allows researchers to adapt their methods to the research question and context. Researchers can adjust their research methods in real-time to gather more information or explore unexpected findings.
• Contextual understanding: Qualitative research is well-suited to exploring the social and cultural context in which individuals or groups are situated. Researchers can gather information about cultural norms, social structures, and historical events that may influence participants’ experiences and perspectives.
• Participant perspective : Qualitative research prioritizes the perspective of participants, allowing researchers to explore subjective experiences and understand the meanings that participants attach to their experiences.
• Theory development: Qualitative research can contribute to the development of new theories and insights about complex social phenomena. By gathering rich, detailed data and using inductive data analysis, researchers can develop new theories and explanations that may challenge existing understandings.
• Validity : Qualitative research can offer high validity by using multiple data collection methods, purposive and diverse sampling, and researcher reflexivity. This can help ensure that findings are credible and trustworthy.

Limitations of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research also has some limitations, including:

• Subjectivity : Qualitative research relies on the subjective interpretation of researchers, which can introduce bias into the research process. The researcher’s perspective, beliefs, and experiences can influence the way data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted.
• Limited generalizability: Qualitative research typically involves small, purposive samples that may not be representative of larger populations. This limits the generalizability of findings to other contexts or populations.
• Time-consuming: Qualitative research can be a time-consuming process, requiring significant resources for data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Resource-intensive: Qualitative research may require more resources than other research methods, including specialized training for researchers, specialized software for data analysis, and transcription services.
• Limited reliability: Qualitative research may be less reliable than quantitative research, as it relies on the subjective interpretation of researchers. This can make it difficult to replicate findings or compare results across different studies.
• Ethics and confidentiality: Qualitative research involves collecting sensitive information from participants, which raises ethical concerns about confidentiality and informed consent. Researchers must take care to protect the privacy and confidentiality of participants and obtain informed consent.

Also see Research Methods

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Qualitative research seeks to gain insights and understand people’s experiences and perspectives by studying social organizations and human behavior. Data in qualitative studies focuses on people’s beliefs and emotional responses. Qualitative data is especially helpful when a company wants to know how customers feel about a product or service, such as in user experience (UX) design or marketing . 

In this guide, we’ll go over:

Qualitative Research Definition

Qualitative research methods and examples, advantages and disadvantages of qualitative approaches, qualitative vs. quantitative research, showing qualitative research skills on resumes.

Researchers use qualitative approaches to “determine answers to research questions on human behavior and the cultural values that drive our thinking and behavior,” says Margaret J. King, director at The Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis in Philadelphia.

Data in qualitative research typically can’t be assessed mathematically — the data is not sets of numbers or quantifiable information. Rather, it’s collections of images, words, notes on behaviors, descriptions of emotions, and historical context. Data is collected through observations, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and secondary research. 

However, a qualitative study needs a “clear research question at its base,” notes King, and the research needs to be “observed, categorized, compared, and evaluated (along a scale or by a typology chart) by reference to a baseline in order to determine an outcome with value as new and reliable information.”

Who Uses Qualitative Research?

Researchers in social sciences and humanities often use qualitative research methods, especially in specific areas of study like anthropology, history, education, and sociology. 

Qualitative methods are also applicable in business, technology , and marketing spaces. For example, product managers use qualitative research to understand how target audiences respond to their products. They may use focus groups to gain insights from potential customers on product prototypes and improvements or surveys from existing customers to understand what changes users want to see. 

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Grounded Theory

Grounded theory is an inductive approach to theory development. In many forms of research, you begin with a hypothesis and then test it to see if you’re correct. In grounded theory, though, you go in without any assumptions and rely on the data you collect to form theories. You start with an open question about a phenomenon you are studying and collect and analyze data until you can form a fully-fledged theory from the information. 

Example: A company wants to improve its brand and marketing strategies. The company performs a grounded theory approach to solving this problem by conducting interviews and surveys with past, current, and prospective customers. The information gathered from these methods helps the company understand what type of branding and marketing their customer-base likes and dislikes, allowing the team to inductively craft a new brand and marketing strategy from the data. 

Action Research

Action research is one part study and one part problem-solving. Through action research, analysts investigate a problem or weakness and develop practical solutions. The process of action research is cyclical —- researchers assess solutions for efficiency and effectiveness and create further solutions to correct any issues found. 

Example: A manager notices her employees struggle to cooperate on group projects. She carefully reviews how team members interact with each other and asks them all to respond to a survey about communication. Through the survey and study, she finds that guidelines for group projects are unclear. After changing the guidelines, she reviews her team again to see if there are any changes to their behavior.  

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Phenomenological Research

Phenomenological research investigates a phenomenon in depth, looking at people’s experiences and understanding of the situation. This sort of study is primarily descriptive and seeks to broaden understanding around a specific incident and the people involved. Researchers in phenomenological studies must be careful to set aside any biases or assumptions because the information used should be entirely from the subjects themselves. 

Example : A researcher wants to better understand the lived experience of college students with jobs. The purpose of this research is to gain insights into the pressures of college students who balance studying and working at the same time. The researcher conducts a series of interviews with several college students, learning about their past and current situations. Through the first few interviews, the researcher builds a relationship with the students. Later discussions are more targeted, with questions prompting the students to discuss their emotions surrounding both work and school and the difficulties and benefits arising from their situation. The researcher then analyzes these interviews, and identifies shared themes to contextualize the experiences of the students. 

Ethnography

Ethnography is an immersive study of a particular culture or community. Through ethnographic research, analysts aim to learn about a group’s conventions, social dynamics, and cultural norms. Some researchers use active observation methods, finding ways to integrate themselves into the culture as much as possible. Others use passive observation, watching closely from the outside but not fully immersing themselves. 

Example: A company hires an external researcher to learn what their company’s culture is actually like. The researcher studies the social dynamics of the employees and may even look at how these employees interact with clients and with each other outside of the office. The goal is to deliver a comprehensive report of the company’s culture and the social dynamics of its employees. 

Case Studies

A case study is a type of in-depth analysis of a situation. Case studies can focus on an organization, belief system, event, person, or action. The goal of a case study is to understand the phenomenon and put it in a real-world context. Case studies are also commonly used in marketing and sales to highlight the benefits of a company’s products or services. 

Example: A business performs a case study of its competitors’ strategies. This case study aims to show why the company should adopt a specific business strategy. The study looks at each competitor’s business structure, marketing campaigns, product offerings, and historical growth trends. Then, using this data on other businesses, the researcher can theorize how that strategy would benefit their company. 

>>MORE: Learn how companies use case study interviews to assess candidates’ research and problem-solving skills. 

Qualitative research methods are great for generating new ideas. The exploratory nature of qualitative research means uncovering unexpected information, which often leads to new theories and further research topics. Additionally, qualitative findings feel meaningful. These studies focus on people, emotions, and societies and may feel closer to their communities than quantitative research that relies on more mathematical and logical data. 

However, qualitative research can be unreliable at times. It’s difficult to replicate qualitative studies since people’s opinions and emotions can change quickly. For example, a focus group has a lot of variables that can affect the outcome, and that same group, asked the same questions a year later, may have entirely different responses. The data collection can also be difficult and time-consuming with qualitative research. Ultimately, interviewing people, reviewing surveys, and understanding and explaining human emotions can be incredibly complex. 

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While qualitative research deals with data that isn’t easily manipulated by mathematics, quantitative research almost exclusively involves numbers and numerical data. Quantitative studies aim to find concrete details, like units of time, percentages, or statistics. 

Besides the types of data used, a core difference between quantitative and qualitative research is the idea of control and replication. 

“Qualitative is less subject to control (as in lab studies) and, therefore, less statistically measurable than quantitative approaches,” says King.

One person’s interview about a specific topic can have completely different responses than every other person’s interview since there are so many variables in qualitative research. On the other hand, quantitative studies can often be replicated. For instance, when testing the effects of a new medication, quantifiable data, like blood test results, can be repeated. Qualitative data, though, like how people feel about the medication, may differ from person to person and from moment to moment. 

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You can show your experience with qualitative research on your resume in your skills or work experience sections and your cover letter . 

In your skills section, you can list types of qualitative research you are skilled at, like conducting interviews, performing grounded theory research, or crafting case studies. 

You can highlight specific examples in the description of your past work or internship experiences. For example, you can talk about a time you used action research to solve a complex issue at your last job. 

Your cover letter is an excellent place to discuss in-depth qualitative research projects you’ve completed. For instance, say you spent a summer conducting ethnographic research or a whole semester running focus groups to get feedback on a product. You can talk about these experiences in your cover letter and note how these skills make you a great fit for the job. 

Grow your skills and explore your career options with Forage’s free job simulations . 

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The Guide to Qualitative Research: Methods, Types, and Examples

Daniel Ndukwu

Qualitative research is an important part of any project. It gives you insights that quantitative research can’t hope to match.

To receive the benefits that qualitative research can bring to the table, it’s essential to do it properly. That’s easier said than done.

This in-depth guide will give you a better understanding of qualitative research, how it can be used, the methods for carrying it out, and its limitations.

Table of Contents

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is the process of gathering non-numerical data that helps you understand the deeper meaning behind a topic. It can help you decipher the motivations, thought processes, and opinions of people who are experiencing the problem or situation.

For example, an entrepreneur wants to start a shoe brand targeted at a younger demographic. They know younger people spend more money on name-brand basketball shoes. Qualitative research will help them understand the motivations and thought processes behind why those shoes are appealing.

With the help of capable marketing teams and mentors , they can use this data to craft communication plans that will resonate with their audience.

The data gained helps develop better hypotheses, confirm or disprove theories, and informs quantitative research studies. There are multiple quantitative research methods that are ideal for certain situations and this guide delves deeper into those data collection processes .

Keep in mind that qualitative research gives you descriptive data that must then be analyzed and interpreted. This process is much more difficult than a quantitative analysis which is why many organizations opt to skip it entirely.

What’s the purpose of qualitative research?

Qualitative research was popularized by psychologists and sociologists who were unhappy with the scientific method in use.

In the legal industry, understanding qualitative insights can significantly enhance strategies for law firm SEO , helping firms to better align their services with client needs.

Traditional scientific methods were only able to tell what was happening but failed to understand why.

Qualitative research, on the other hand, seeks to find the deeper meaning behind actions and situations. For example, you may realize a relationship between two things exist like poverty and lower literacy rates. It’s qualitative data that can help you understand why this relationship exists.

In the diverse landscape of qualitative research its application extends beyond conventional fields offering valuable insights in specialized areas take for instance the legal sector where understanding nuanced human experiences is crucial a cerebral palsy lawyer leveraging qualitative research delves deeper into the multifaceted experiences of individuals and families impacted by cerebral palsy this methodical approach aids in comprehending the broader social emotional and economic ramifications thereby guiding more compassionate and effective legal representation.

When should qualitative research be used

There’s a simple stress test to understand whether qualitative research or quantitative research should be used. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you have a clear understanding of the problem? If not, use it;
• Do you understand the reasons that contribute to the problem or situation? If not, use it;
• Are the attitudes of the people who experience or display the behavior clear to you? If not, use it;
• Have you already analyzed first-person accounts or research related to the topic? If not, use it.

Qualitative research vs quantitative research

There’s a big difference between the two types of research. For the most part, qualitative research is exploratory. You’re trying to figure out the reasons behind situations and form a clearer hypothesis. Those hypotheses are then tested with further qualitative or quantitative research.

Quantitative research focuses on collecting numerical data that can be used to quantify the magnitude of a situation. The data gained can be organized and statistical analysis carried out.

For example, qualitative research may tell you that people in lower-income areas drop out of school and have lower literacy rates. Quantitative research can tell you the percentage of people that end up dropping out of school within a given population.

As you can see, they work together to give you a holistic understanding of a market or problem.

Qualitative research data collection Methods

We’ve written an in-depth guide about the data collection methods you can use for both quantitative and qualitative research. This section will give you a quick overview of the data collection methods available.

The first data collection method and the most common are surveys. More specifically, surveys with open-ended questions . These give your respondents the opportunity to explain things with their own words.

Another benefit of surveys, especially with online survey tools like KyLeads is that you can quickly distribute your survey to a huge audience. This can cut down on your costs while still giving you the insights you need.

There are two problems with surveys. The first one is that you’re unable to ask relevant clarifying questions. Some of the data you collect may be unclear and lead you to the wrong conclusions.

The second problem is that respondents, unless adequately incentivized, may abandon the survey or give inadequate answers. This is known as survey fatigue and is a challenge when you have longer surveys. You can mitigate the effects by placing the most important questions first.

Focus groups

A focus group involves 3 – 10 people and a specialized moderator. Groups larger than ten should be broken up and those fewer than three won’t be able to deliver the insights you need.

The benefits of a focus group come from the ability to recreate specific situations or test scenarios before they happen. To get the most out of the focus group, it’s important to carefully select the participants based on their demographic and psychographic profiles .

The advantage of a focus group is that the information is insightful and comes from multiple people within your target market. The disadvantage is that groupthink can be a real problem.

You can prevent groupthink by having people write their opinions down before voicing them and even assigning one person to play devil’s advocate. Don’t discourage divergent opinions or perspectives.

Another challenge is that focus groups are expensive compared to other methods listed here. The participants are usually paid for their time and it requires things like meeting space and specialized staff.

Interviews are an old staple of qualitative research and are almost as common as surveys. Interviews can be conducted over the phone, in person, or even through a video conference. The important part is that they’re real-time and you can ask clarifying questions so you don’t draw the wrong conclusions.

There are multiple types of interviews. You can use structured interviews, unstructured interviews, or semi-structured interviews. Keep in mind that the structured interview may not be the best option if you’re doing exploratory =research.

Observation/immersion

This is the process of observing the ongoing behavior of an individual or group. It’s most prevalent in social sciences and marketing applications. This data collection method is the most passive and may not be ideal when doing initial exploratory research. You may be drawing conclusions on incomplete information.

There is an option of participating actively in what you’re observing. Keep in mind that this is frowned upon because the researcher may accidentally introduce biases. The biggest disadvantage is that some things simply can’t be observed by a researcher without interaction.

Try to use team collaboration to cut down on the biases that will be introduced. Compare notes and, as much as possible, look at things objectively. A teammate is invaluable for this kind of exercise.

Pros and cons of qualitative research

Qualitative research is powerful and has many benefits but it also has multiple disadvantages you should be aware of before jumping in.

• Get a deep understanding of the behaviors and attitudes of your target group
• You can get those insights from smaller samples sizes
• As long as you choose the right aspects to focus on and groups to work with, the insights can have much wider applications.
• Helps reduce biases because you’re doing exploratory research to get a baseline of information
• Most qualitative research is fluid meaning it adapts to the inputs to get a better understanding of the overall situation
• The data itself is subjective because it’s based on the experiences and biases of the respondents
• It’s more expensive than quantitative research
• It can take much longer to go through the more involved data collection methods like focus groups and interviews
• It’s more difficult to analyze and often requires people with specialized skills
• It’s nonnumerical in nature so statistical analysis cannot be applied to the data
• Results can’t be easily replicated following the scientific method

Qualitative research can be a powerful tool in your arsenal but there are many things to take into consideration. It tends to take longer to collect the data and analyze it. It’s also more expensive than most quantitative research methods.

Before diving into a qualitative research strategy, define clear goals, a timeframe for completion, and the kind of information you need to solve your problem.

Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to share.

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300 Qualitative Research Topics For Easy Academic Victory

You are on the right page if you are looking for a perfect qualitative research topic and have difficulty finding it. 

Writing a qualitative research paper is not a piece of cake. Let alone the research and writing; the first and most significant challenge is finding the qualitative research topic that is a perfect fit for you. You have to be sure about a handful of things to decide the best topic for you, and you can ace it. First and most important, you must choose a topic that you find appealing and motivating. If you are not interested in a topic, not only will it tire you, but it will make your research dull and exhausting as well. Two, choose a relevant topic that adds value to the academia. Last but not least, there must be enough data about the theme that you are about to choose. In case of any confusion, concerns, or questions, you can consult for paper writing help from Paper Perk . 

Table of Contents

Qualitative Research Topics: Psych, Education, Health, Medicine & More

Wandering around the internet looking for qualitative research topics can be exhausting. We are writing this article to make it a one-stop solution for you. There is enough inspiration to come up with the most suitable topic for you, no matter your academic area.

Psychological Qualitative Research Topics

• Emotional Intelligence: Can it be an excellent alternative to IQ?
• Oxytocin in autistic children.
• Meditation: A means to control emotions
• Emotional dependency during pregnancy
• Schizophrenia: Causes and treatment
• Post-traumatic stress disorder: Causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
• Psychology of physical attraction in opposite sexes
• What is a borderline personality disorder? Facts and myths
• Psychological elements in electronic media: Marketing, persuasion, and propaganda
• Psychology in public relations
• Psychology in international relations
• Causes of depression and what to do to avoid it?
• Detailed analysis of speech disorders
• Criminal psychology and the origin of serial killers
• Psychological aspects of the aging process
• The character of NGOs regarding awareness about mental health
• How to prevent child abuse with the help of psychology?
• Aspects of criminal psychology
• Emotional imbalance: Causes, symptoms, and treatment
• Memory loss? Is it a neural problem or a psychological problem?
• The secrets to well-being
• Mental disorders in teens

Read More:  Psychology Research Paper Topics

Political Qualitative Research Topics

• What role did masons’ living conditions have in forming  workers’ political movements ?
• How do presidential elections matter?
• Political compass: A critical analysis
• Is a representative democracy genuinely democratic?
• How has Europe evolved in terms of democracy?
• Democratic evolution in the United States in the last three centuries
• Is democracy a myth or a reality?
• Why is voter abstention a danger to democracy?
• Role of minorities in the United States politics
• Freedom of expression in developing countries
• Freedom of expression under Islamist regimes
• Misconduct on television: Awareness and Legislation

Read More:  Political Science Research Topics

Qualitative Research Topics for Art and Culture

• Is history a universally shared concept?
• Can a man be indifferent to art?
• How do we articulate the link between science and technology?
• What is the purpose of art?
• What does the artist show us? Expression and symbolism
• What is an artist? What does an artist do?
• What is an artist?
• Is art always transgressive?
• Work of art: The proof of the freedom of the spirit
• Can art compete with nature?
• Does art only have the function of freeing us from our passions?
• Passion and emotion in art
• Absurd surrealism 
• Grotesque surrealism
• Different movements in art
• Progress and evolution of art
• The art of the middle ages
• The art of the renaissance
• Is the work of art necessarily beautiful?
• Does art change our relationship with reality?
• Does the critic able to regard something as art or not?
• Does the experience of beauty necessarily pass through the work of art?
• Things that art teaches us, artists, as a technician
• Importance of meaning in a work of art
• Meaningless art and absurdist existentialism
• The need for a model in the production of art
• Can we conceive of a society without art?
• Different aspects of society are defined and differentiated by art
• The fear of industrial production among the artists
• Dystopian art: The ability to predict the future among artists
• Elements that distinguish the work of art from any object
• Why the artists deserve a special place in the world
• Rules and regulations in art
• Reproduction of art: Plagiarism in art and harm of repetition
• Art and escapism
• Anachronistic art and the element of satire
• Should the artist seek to please the audience
• Can we blame a work of art for not being worth anything?
• Does every human being understand and appreciate art?
• Do you think that, according to Aristotle’s formula, art is an “imitation of nature”?
• Why does what we dislike in life please us in a work of art?
• Does art seem to be a “revolt against the tyranny of desire”?
• Why do we apply the term “creation” to artistic activity?
• Sacrosanctity of art and human duty to uphold it

Read More:  Music Research Topics

Qualitative Research Topics Involving Environment Issues

• Advantages and disadvantages of technology for the environment
• Benefits of environmental education in children
• Methods to make modern society aware of the environment
• Alternative energies
• Nuclear energy production: An alternative to the planet’s growing energy demand
• X degree care for the environment
• Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of renewable energy
• Need to develop environmentally friendly products 
• Documentation of experience: Protection of nature
• Elements involved in environmental deterioration
• Environment and strategies for sustainability
• Environmental activism in adolescents and young people
• Sustainability and security for environmental justice
• Raising awareness about the protection of the environment through sports, literature, and culture
• Environment influenced by collective and individual actions
• Awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of technologies
• Effects and causes of acid rain and groundwater
• Ways to live sustainably or focus on a specific aspect of sustainability
• Recent disasters caused by global warming
• Greenhouse effect and melting ice
• Importance of renewable energy
• Wildlife and endangered species
• Air quality and pollution
• Water quality in underdeveloped countries
• Famines caused by environmental changes
• Various recycling programs: Which one is the most effective
• Awareness to participate in the initiatives about the protection of the environment
• How deforestation has affected animals or how it is related to climate change
• Importance of the coral reef, the dangers of its destruction, or preservation strategies

Read More:  Best Legal Research Paper Topics

Qualitative Research Topics on Public Relations

• Public Relations and socio-productive activity
• Organizational Communication and Public Relations
• Ethics in the practice of Public Relations
• Epistemological foundations of Public Relations.
• Factors that limit the practice of Public Relations.
• Public Relations is a strategic factor of the company.
• Relationship workers and professional practice in the United States
• Corporate image and Public Relations
• Corporate identity and Public Relations.
• Public Relations and social enterprise
• Public Relations as an integration factor.
• Profile of the teacher of Public Relations.
• Legislation of Public Relations in Europe
• The free exercise of Public Relations
• Public Relations and the labor market
• Public Relations and digital communication
• History of Public Relations in Europe
• History of Public Relations in the United States
• History of Public Relations in Canada
• Semiology and Public Relations
• Linguistics and Public Relations
• Indicators to evaluate Public Relations programs
• Planning of Public Relations in organizations
• Public Relations through radio and television
• University teaching in Public Relations

Read More:  Criminal Justice Research Paper Topics

Qualitative Research Topics for High School Students

• How has technological development helped hospitals?
• Benefits of technological advances in the classroom
• Advantages and disadvantages of technology in children
• How and why are fun activities different during every stage of the educational period, Montessori, school, college, and university?
• Most dangerous challenges that must be avoided as students
• Challenges made by celebrities: How do future career choices and jobs look for you in the next decade?
• The pros and cons of viral challenges from Tiktok and reels
• How/what do social networks help?
• Disadvantages of social networks
• Problems of social network in adolescents
• What is the most suitable age for children to have a social media presence?
• Toxic behaviors accompanied by social media: Prevention and Solution

Read More:  Chemistry Research Topics

Educational Qualitative Research Topics

• History of education
• How education has changed over time in one place
• Importance of sports and games in early childhood education
• Possible results of adding playtime to education
• Pros and cons of a grading system
• Most effective grading methods
• How tests affect the success or mental health of students
• Assessment methods: Such as standardized tests or open tests
• Investigate how dress codes affect student performance
• Different schools of learning
• Qualities that effective teachers possess
• Effects of teaching and lesson planning
• Different approaches of public and private schools
• Pros or cons of a charter school systems
• How class size and number of students affect student performance
• Qualities of an Effective Teacher
• The length of the school day, or the length of breaks, and how the durations affect the progress of the students
• How the start time of school affects performance

Read More:  Biology Research Paper Topics

Qualitative Research Topics for Business and Economy

• The chartered accountant and the client: what relationship today?
• How does the arrival of the low-cost accountant change differentiation practices in accounting?
• Law and accounting: how do the new laws impact the profession of a chartered accountant?
• Accountants, why are they so difficult to recruit?
• How does accounting make it possible to assess the state of health of a company?
• Accounting and new technologies: the future or the end of the accountant?
• Can inequalities be reduced with new technologies?
• What distribution of wealth in France (or other)?
• Why do companies relocate?
• Protectionism or free trade?
• Has the organization of work changed after the pandemic?
• Do flexibility and home-working reduce unemployment?
• Should we be afraid of financial bubbles?
• Financial crises, similar cogs? Are we headed to a new recession?
• What is money, and who creates it?
• The stock market against growth?
• How does economic growth lead to sustainable development?
• What is the impact of innovation on growth?
• What role does investment play?
• What are the keys to productivity?
• Is it possible to measure economic growth?
• Why do stock markets crash?

Read More  Law / Legal Research Paper Topics

Medical Qualitative Research Topics

• Current situation of palliative care in health institutions in the United States
• Complications of acute diarrheal disease in children under five years of age
• Nutritional status of surgical oncology patients and its relationship with postoperative complications
• Cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening strategies in California
• Thyroid cancer and risk factors in patients treated at San Jose Hospital
• Communicative processes in American ancestral medicine
• Seronegative rheumatoid arthritis in a patient with a pulmonary septic complication
• Telemedicine and Tele-health of the inhabitants of Massachusetts
• Feasibility study and technical, infrastructure and human sustainability for the implementation of the care model
• Epidemiological profile of the general surgery outpatient service 
• Physical activity and sport as determinants of health
• Cost of treatment and follow-up of people with the  human immunodeficiency virus  (HIV) 
• National Health System for the formal introduction of the family doctor
• How is the social security system in France unsustainable?
• Comparative study of health systems in the United States and Europe?
• Allergies and intolerances, what are the differences for lactose?
• Is gluten intolerance an actual disease?
• Social inequalities in health in rural countries
• Public health policy or health policy
• Public health at the European level, what public policies
• Public health in developing countries
• Public health and environmental issues through the prism of red meat consumption
• Communication of medicines when advertising is prohibited

Related:  Medical research paper writing services

Qualitative Research Topics for Law and Crime

• Consequences of the death penalty.
• Capital offenses: Law, persecution, and penalties
• Classic methods used in the death penalty
• Arguments for or against this punishment
• The stipulation for others and the promise of a stronghold
• Consumer protection in the American Law
• The social attributions of the captain of the ship
• Recent developments in the constitutional justice
• Reframing the civil code
• Critical analysis of the scope of the principle of free justice
• Institutions of the criminal records
• Equality of the creditors in collective proceedings
• Risk management in expertise
• The repressive jurisdiction of the court of peace in the event of insufficiency of the judges
• Labor law and the rights of workers
• Secularism and labor law: Question of religion in business
• The Management of transit migration
• The legal framework of bank credit
• Legal regime of intellectual rights
• Compensation for moral damage
• Family criminal law in the relation between parents and children
• Unilateral termination of the contract
• Role of the military in public prosecution
• Critical analysis of the pre-jurisdictional procedure regarding human rights
• The fault of the administration in land matters
• The subsequent attitude of the victim and compensation for the damages
• Action for retrocession in the event of excessive liberalities
• The exploitation of child labor under Labor Law
• Reflection on the introduction of the system of the dematerialization of bearer shares
• Study on the feasibility of a structure for the amicable settlement of consumer disputes
• The life insurance contract
• Legal liability of the community pharmacist
• The legal age of marriage: legislative, jurisprudential, and doctrinal approach
• Protection of the unpaid seller in the event of insolvency of the buyer
• The renewal of the employment contract
• The regulatory framework for outdoor advertising, signs, and pre-sign
• Extra-judicial resolution of land disputes

Read More:  Research Paper Topics

Qualitative Research Topics Concerning Drug Abuse

• Drug use in adolescents
• Consequences of excessive drug use
• Legal and illegal addictive substances
• Effects of drugs on the brain
• Effects of alcohol and tobacco
• Social science research on drugs
• Psychological research on drugs
• Biomedical research in the field of drugs
• Drug addiction treatment
• Cannabis in Europe: a study of social research
• Drug expectations
• Dynamics of drug cartels: Perception, politics, and markets
• Sources and uses of methamphetamine
• Sensation seeking
• Contribution of research in psychology on drugs
• Drug research: recent developments
• in the field of psychology
• Places of cannabis consumption
• Drug prevention for the most vulnerable young people
• Cannabis retail markets
• Cultivation of cannabis at home
• Cannabis Dependence and the Strength of Marijuana
• Cannabis and youth
• Cannabis and schizophrenia

Read More:  Social Work Research Topics

Women Issues and Rights Qualitative Research Topics

• How to educate teens about pregnancy
• Women’s rights violations in the middle east
• Forced-Hijab conflict in Iran
• How to live a healthy pregnancy period
• Access to health is a fundamental right: what role can parliaments play in ensuring health for women and children?
• The wave of feminist movements in the Middle East
• The situation of women and children in times of conflict
• The role of women parliamentarians in the prevention of national and international terrorism and in the promotion of peace
• Promoting women’s participation and gender equality in multilateral negotiations
• The contribution of women to the establishment of a new global financial and economic model
• Feminism in Egypt
• Impact of the media on the status of women and image of women politicians in the media
• Poverty and extreme poverty: women as victims of this phenomenon and as key actors in the fight to eradicate it
• Complementarity of women’s rights and children’s rights
• Health and well-being of older people, especially women
• Women in Armed Conflict
• Feminism in the South Asian Subcontinent 
• Violence against women
• Role of women in ensuring environmental protection within the framework of development
• Women in the informal economic sector and their access to microcredits
• Women in economic life and the world of work
• Impact of women on the democratic process
• Women in the political process
• Women’s rights violations in Africa
• Financing women’s electoral campaigns
• Women’s political and electoral training
• Women in political parties
• United Nations Initiatives for Women’s Education and the role of Malala Yousafzai
• Women in national parliaments
• The partnership between men and women in politics

Still feel the need to know more? It is noble to be insatiable about knowledge, so here are  402 More Research Paper Topics  for you.

As we said in the beginning, writing a qualitative research paper is not a piece of cake. But after reading all these topics above, you now know that it is not rocket science either. All you need is a little commitment and a pint of inspiration potion that we have above 300 research paper topics. 

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StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-.

StatPearls [Internet].

Qualitative study.

Steven Tenny ; Janelle M. Brannan ; Grace D. Brannan .

Affiliations

Last Update: September 18, 2022 .

• Introduction

Qualitative research is a type of research that explores and provides deeper insights into real-world problems. [1] Instead of collecting numerical data points or intervening or introducing treatments just like in quantitative research, qualitative research helps generate hypothenar to further investigate and understand quantitative data. Qualitative research gathers participants' experiences, perceptions, and behavior. It answers the hows and whys instead of how many or how much. It could be structured as a standalone study, purely relying on qualitative data, or part of mixed-methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative data. This review introduces the readers to some basic concepts, definitions, terminology, and applications of qualitative research.

Qualitative research, at its core, asks open-ended questions whose answers are not easily put into numbers, such as "how" and "why." [2] Due to the open-ended nature of the research questions, qualitative research design is often not linear like quantitative design. [2] One of the strengths of qualitative research is its ability to explain processes and patterns of human behavior that can be difficult to quantify. [3] Phenomena such as experiences, attitudes, and behaviors can be complex to capture accurately and quantitatively. In contrast, a qualitative approach allows participants themselves to explain how, why, or what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing at a particular time or during an event of interest. Quantifying qualitative data certainly is possible, but at its core, qualitative data is looking for themes and patterns that can be difficult to quantify, and it is essential to ensure that the context and narrative of qualitative work are not lost by trying to quantify something that is not meant to be quantified.

However, while qualitative research is sometimes placed in opposition to quantitative research, where they are necessarily opposites and therefore "compete" against each other and the philosophical paradigms associated with each other, qualitative and quantitative work are neither necessarily opposites, nor are they incompatible. [4] While qualitative and quantitative approaches are different, they are not necessarily opposites and certainly not mutually exclusive. For instance, qualitative research can help expand and deepen understanding of data or results obtained from quantitative analysis. For example, say a quantitative analysis has determined a correlation between length of stay and level of patient satisfaction, but why does this correlation exist? This dual-focus scenario shows one way in which qualitative and quantitative research could be integrated.

Qualitative Research Approaches

Ethnography

Ethnography as a research design originates in social and cultural anthropology and involves the researcher being directly immersed in the participant’s environment. [2] Through this immersion, the ethnographer can use a variety of data collection techniques to produce a comprehensive account of the social phenomena that occurred during the research period. [2] That is to say, the researcher’s aim with ethnography is to immerse themselves into the research population and come out of it with accounts of actions, behaviors, events, etc, through the eyes of someone involved in the population. Direct involvement of the researcher with the target population is one benefit of ethnographic research because it can then be possible to find data that is otherwise very difficult to extract and record.

Grounded theory

Grounded Theory is the "generation of a theoretical model through the experience of observing a study population and developing a comparative analysis of their speech and behavior." [5] Unlike quantitative research, which is deductive and tests or verifies an existing theory, grounded theory research is inductive and, therefore, lends itself to research aimed at social interactions or experiences. [3] [2] In essence, Grounded Theory’s goal is to explain how and why an event occurs or how and why people might behave a certain way. Through observing the population, a researcher using the Grounded Theory approach can then develop a theory to explain the phenomena of interest.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is the "study of the meaning of phenomena or the study of the particular.” [5] At first glance, it might seem that Grounded Theory and Phenomenology are pretty similar, but the differences can be seen upon careful examination. At its core, phenomenology looks to investigate experiences from the individual's perspective. [2] Phenomenology is essentially looking into the "lived experiences" of the participants and aims to examine how and why participants behaved a certain way from their perspective. Herein lies one of the main differences between Grounded Theory and Phenomenology. Grounded Theory aims to develop a theory for social phenomena through an examination of various data sources. In contrast, Phenomenology focuses on describing and explaining an event or phenomenon from the perspective of those who have experienced it.

Narrative research

One of qualitative research’s strengths lies in its ability to tell a story, often from the perspective of those directly involved in it. Reporting on qualitative research involves including details and descriptions of the setting involved and quotes from participants. This detail is called a "thick" or "rich" description and is a strength of qualitative research. Narrative research is rife with the possibilities of "thick" description as this approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or two individuals, hoping to create a cohesive story or narrative. [2] While it might seem like a waste of time to focus on such a specific, individual level, understanding one or two people’s narratives for an event or phenomenon can help to inform researchers about the influences that helped shape that narrative. The tension or conflict of differing narratives can be "opportunities for innovation." [2]

Research Paradigm

Research paradigms are the assumptions, norms, and standards underpinning different research approaches. Essentially, research paradigms are the "worldviews" that inform research. [4] It is valuable for qualitative and quantitative researchers to understand what paradigm they are working within because understanding the theoretical basis of research paradigms allows researchers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the approach being used and adjust accordingly. Different paradigms have different ontologies and epistemologies. Ontology is defined as the "assumptions about the nature of reality,” whereas epistemology is defined as the "assumptions about the nature of knowledge" that inform researchers' work. [2] It is essential to understand the ontological and epistemological foundations of the research paradigm researchers are working within to allow for a complete understanding of the approach being used and the assumptions that underpin the approach as a whole. Further, researchers must understand their own ontological and epistemological assumptions about the world in general because their assumptions about the world will necessarily impact how they interact with research. A discussion of the research paradigm is not complete without describing positivist, postpositivist, and constructivist philosophies.

Positivist versus postpositivist

To further understand qualitative research, we must discuss positivist and postpositivist frameworks. Positivism is a philosophy that the scientific method can and should be applied to social and natural sciences. [4] Essentially, positivist thinking insists that the social sciences should use natural science methods in their research. It stems from positivist ontology, that there is an objective reality that exists that is wholly independent of our perception of the world as individuals. Quantitative research is rooted in positivist philosophy, which can be seen in the value it places on concepts such as causality, generalizability, and replicability.

Conversely, postpositivists argue that social reality can never be one hundred percent explained, but could be approximated. [4] Indeed, qualitative researchers have been insisting that there are “fundamental limits to the extent to which the methods and procedures of the natural sciences could be applied to the social world,” and therefore, postpositivist philosophy is often associated with qualitative research. [4] An example of positivist versus postpositivist values in research might be that positivist philosophies value hypothesis-testing, whereas postpositivist philosophies value the ability to formulate a substantive theory.

Constructivist

Constructivism is a subcategory of postpositivism. Most researchers invested in postpositivist research are also constructivist, meaning they think there is no objective external reality that exists but instead that reality is constructed. Constructivism is a theoretical lens that emphasizes the dynamic nature of our world. "Constructivism contends that individuals' views are directly influenced by their experiences, and it is these individual experiences and views that shape their perspective of reality.” [6]  constructivist thought focuses on how "reality" is not a fixed certainty and how experiences, interactions, and backgrounds give people a unique view of the world. Constructivism contends, unlike positivist views, that there is not necessarily an "objective"reality we all experience. This is the ‘relativist’ ontological view that reality and our world are dynamic and socially constructed. Therefore, qualitative scientific knowledge can be inductive as well as deductive.” [4]

So why is it important to understand the differences in assumptions that different philosophies and approaches to research have? Fundamentally, the assumptions underpinning the research tools a researcher selects provide an overall base for the assumptions the rest of the research will have. It can even change the role of the researchers. [2] For example, is the researcher an "objective" observer, such as in positivist quantitative work? Or is the researcher an active participant in the research, as in postpositivist qualitative work? Understanding the philosophical base of the study undertaken allows researchers to fully understand the implications of their work and their role within the research and reflect on their positionality and bias as it pertains to the research they are conducting.

Data Sampling 

The better the sample represents the intended study population, the more likely the researcher is to encompass the varying factors. The following are examples of participant sampling and selection: [7]

• Purposive sampling- selection based on the researcher’s rationale for being the most informative.
• Criterion sampling selection based on pre-identified factors.
• Convenience sampling- selection based on availability.
• Snowball sampling- the selection is by referral from other participants or people who know potential participants.
• Extreme case sampling- targeted selection of rare cases.
• Typical case sampling selection based on regular or average participants. 

Data Collection and Analysis

Qualitative research uses several techniques, including interviews, focus groups, and observation. [1] [2] [3] Interviews may be unstructured, with open-ended questions on a topic, and the interviewer adapts to the responses. Structured interviews have a predetermined number of questions that every participant is asked. It is usually one-on-one and appropriate for sensitive topics or topics needing an in-depth exploration. Focus groups are often held with 8-12 target participants and are used when group dynamics and collective views on a topic are desired. Researchers can be participant-observers to share the experiences of the subject or non-participants or detached observers.

While quantitative research design prescribes a controlled environment for data collection, qualitative data collection may be in a central location or the participants' environment, depending on the study goals and design. Qualitative research could amount to a large amount of data. Data is transcribed, which may then be coded manually or using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software or CAQDAS such as ATLAS.ti or NVivo. [8] [9] [10]

After the coding process, qualitative research results could be in various formats. It could be a synthesis and interpretation presented with excerpts from the data. [11] Results could also be in the form of themes and theory or model development.

Dissemination

The healthcare team can use two reporting standards to standardize and facilitate the dissemination of qualitative research outcomes. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research or COREQ is a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. [12] The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) is a checklist covering a more comprehensive range of qualitative research. [13]

Applications

Many times, a research question will start with qualitative research. The qualitative research will help generate the research hypothesis, which can be tested with quantitative methods. After the data is collected and analyzed with quantitative methods, a set of qualitative methods can be used to dive deeper into the data to better understand what the numbers truly mean and their implications. The qualitative techniques can then help clarify the quantitative data and also help refine the hypothesis for future research. Furthermore, with qualitative research, researchers can explore poorly studied subjects with quantitative methods. These include opinions, individual actions, and social science research.

An excellent qualitative study design starts with a goal or objective. This should be clearly defined or stated. The target population needs to be specified. A method for obtaining information from the study population must be carefully detailed to ensure no omissions of part of the target population. A proper collection method should be selected that will help obtain the desired information without overly limiting the collected data because, often, the information sought is not well categorized or obtained. Finally, the design should ensure adequate methods for analyzing the data. An example may help better clarify some of the various aspects of qualitative research.

A researcher wants to decrease the number of teenagers who smoke in their community. The researcher could begin by asking current teen smokers why they started smoking through structured or unstructured interviews (qualitative research). The researcher can also get together a group of current teenage smokers and conduct a focus group to help brainstorm factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke (qualitative research).

In this example, the researcher has used qualitative research methods (interviews and focus groups) to generate a list of ideas of why teens start to smoke and factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke. Next, the researcher compiles this data. The research found that, hypothetically, peer pressure, health issues, cost, being considered "cool," and rebellious behavior all might increase or decrease the likelihood of teens starting to smoke.

The researcher creates a survey asking teen participants to rank how important each of the above factors is in either starting smoking (for current smokers) or not smoking (for current nonsmokers). This survey provides specific numbers (ranked importance of each factor) and is thus a quantitative research tool.

The researcher can use the survey results to focus efforts on the one or two highest-ranked factors. Let us say the researcher found that health was the primary factor that keeps teens from starting to smoke, and peer pressure was the primary factor that contributed to teens starting smoking. The researcher can go back to qualitative research methods to dive deeper into these for more information. The researcher wants to focus on keeping teens from starting to smoke, so they focus on the peer pressure aspect.

The researcher can conduct interviews and focus groups (qualitative research) about what types and forms of peer pressure are commonly encountered, where the peer pressure comes from, and where smoking starts. The researcher hypothetically finds that peer pressure often occurs after school at the local teen hangouts, mostly in the local park. The researcher also hypothetically finds that peer pressure comes from older, current smokers who provide the cigarettes.

The researcher could further explore this observation made at the local teen hangouts (qualitative research) and take notes regarding who is smoking, who is not, and what observable factors are at play for peer pressure to smoke. The researcher finds a local park where many local teenagers hang out and sees that the smokers tend to hang out in a shady, overgrown area of the park. The researcher notes that smoking teenagers buy their cigarettes from a local convenience store adjacent to the park, where the clerk does not check identification before selling cigarettes. These observations fall under qualitative research.

If the researcher returns to the park and counts how many individuals smoke in each region, this numerical data would be quantitative research. Based on the researcher's efforts thus far, they conclude that local teen smoking and teenagers who start to smoke may decrease if there are fewer overgrown areas of the park and the local convenience store does not sell cigarettes to underage individuals.

The researcher could try to have the parks department reassess the shady areas to make them less conducive to smokers or identify how to limit the sales of cigarettes to underage individuals by the convenience store. The researcher would then cycle back to qualitative methods of asking at-risk populations their perceptions of the changes and what factors are still at play, and quantitative research that includes teen smoking rates in the community and the incidence of new teen smokers, among others. [14] [15]

Qualitative research functions as a standalone research design or combined with quantitative research to enhance our understanding of the world. Qualitative research uses techniques including structured and unstructured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation not only to help generate hypotheses that can be more rigorously tested with quantitative research but also to help researchers delve deeper into the quantitative research numbers, understand what they mean, and understand what the implications are. Qualitative research allows researchers to understand what is going on, especially when things are not easily categorized. [16]

• Issues of Concern

As discussed in the sections above, quantitative and qualitative work differ in many ways, including the evaluation criteria. There are four well-established criteria for evaluating quantitative data: internal validity, external validity, reliability, and objectivity. Credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability are the correlating concepts in qualitative research. [4] [11] The corresponding quantitative and qualitative concepts can be seen below, with the quantitative concept on the left and the qualitative concept on the right:

• Internal validity: Credibility
• External validity: Transferability
• Reliability: Dependability
• Objectivity: Confirmability

In conducting qualitative research, ensuring these concepts are satisfied and well thought out can mitigate potential issues from arising. For example, just as a researcher will ensure that their quantitative study is internally valid, qualitative researchers should ensure that their work has credibility. 

Indicators such as triangulation and peer examination can help evaluate the credibility of qualitative work.

• Triangulation: Triangulation involves using multiple data collection methods to increase the likelihood of getting a reliable and accurate result. In our above magic example, the result would be more reliable if we interviewed the magician, backstage hand, and the person who "vanished." In qualitative research, triangulation can include telephone surveys, in-person surveys, focus groups, and interviews and surveying an adequate cross-section of the target demographic.
• Peer examination: A peer can review results to ensure the data is consistent with the findings.

A "thick" or "rich" description can be used to evaluate the transferability of qualitative research, whereas an indicator such as an audit trail might help evaluate the dependability and confirmability.

• Thick or rich description:  This is a detailed and thorough description of details, the setting, and quotes from participants in the research. [5] Thick descriptions will include a detailed explanation of how the study was conducted. Thick descriptions are detailed enough to allow readers to draw conclusions and interpret the data, which can help with transferability and replicability.
• Audit trail: An audit trail provides a documented set of steps of how the participants were selected and the data was collected. The original information records should also be kept (eg, surveys, notes, recordings).

One issue of concern that qualitative researchers should consider is observation bias. Here are a few examples:

• Hawthorne effect: The effect is the change in participant behavior when they know they are being observed. Suppose a researcher wanted to identify factors that contribute to employee theft and tell the employees they will watch them to see what factors affect employee theft. In that case, one would suspect employee behavior would change when they know they are being protected.
• Observer-expectancy effect: Some participants change their behavior or responses to satisfy the researcher's desired effect. This happens unconsciously for the participant, so it is essential to eliminate or limit the transmission of the researcher's views.
• Artificial scenario effect: Some qualitative research occurs in contrived scenarios with preset goals. In such situations, the information may not be accurate because of the artificial nature of the scenario. The preset goals may limit the qualitative information obtained.
• Clinical Significance

Qualitative or quantitative research helps healthcare providers understand patients and the impact and challenges of the care they deliver. Qualitative research provides an opportunity to generate and refine hypotheses and delve deeper into the data generated by quantitative research. Qualitative research is not an island apart from quantitative research but an integral part of research methods to understand the world around us. [17]

• Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes

Qualitative research is essential for all healthcare team members as all are affected by qualitative research. Qualitative research may help develop a theory or a model for health research that can be further explored by quantitative research. Much of the qualitative research data acquisition is completed by numerous team members, including social workers, scientists, nurses, etc. Within each area of the medical field, there is copious ongoing qualitative research, including physician-patient interactions, nursing-patient interactions, patient-environment interactions, healthcare team function, patient information delivery, etc. 

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Disclosure: Steven Tenny declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Janelle Brannan declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Grace Brannan declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits others to distribute the work, provided that the article is not altered or used commercially. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.

• Cite this Page Tenny S, Brannan JM, Brannan GD. Qualitative Study. [Updated 2022 Sep 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-.

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3 Qualitative Research Methods You Should Know

Imagine that you want to understand why your mother loves making pancakes for breakfast. You could sneak around the kitchen, tracking when and how she makes pancakes, or you could just sit down and have a chat with her. Most people would agree that the chat will give a much better answer.

If you want to understand people’s beliefs or thoughts, numbers (i.e. quantitative research) don’t always give the full picture. Interactions or conversations with people (i.e. qualitative research) often help researchers gain deeper insights into why people do what they do.

What is qualitative research?

“Conversations with people” isn’t very specific, so let’s go a little deeper. By definition, qualitative research is an inquiry into the way people interpret a certain social condition around them. It usually involves interviews or conversations, which produce non-numerical data. An example of qualitative research is identifying how effective a government welfare program is by talking to the people directly affected by it.

Qualitative research is often time intensive, primarily because it requires collecting data by interacting with people over long periods of time. Then, after collecting data, analyzing conversations and bringing out insights is also time consuming.

Qualitative research is useful in two situations:

• When research questions need to be sharpened: In the beginning of any study, researchers may only have a rough idea what they want to collect data on and how they can collect that data. Using qualitative research can help researchers understand their problem, zero in on their hypothesis, and create a design for further research (either qualitative or quantitative) as the study unfolds.
• When you need detailed description of an issue: For complex issues, simple statistics may show what is happening, but not why it’s happening. In these scenario, qualitative research is helpful for exploring social conditions and explaining them in detail. For example, quantitative data may show how many girls drop out of school, but qualitative data can help researchers understanding the barriers that stop parents from sending girls to school.

There are several different qualitative research methods. Which method you should use depends on what you’re trying to achieve. However, the three most commonly used qualitative research methods are in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and observation.

Method 1: In-depth interviews

What is an in-depth interview.

One-to-one interviews are the most commonly used qualitative research method. They are semi-structured, which means that the questions to be asked and issues to be addressed are fluid and take shape as the interview unfolds.

How long do in-depth interviews take?

An in-depth interview may last 60–90 minutes and is conducted face to face.

Do participants need to give their permission?

Yes. Participation must be voluntary, and each person must give informed consent before they participate in an interview.

When are in-depth interviews useful?

In-depth interviews are ideal in situations where:

• The research topic is complex. (For example, what factors affect whether men of a certain strata use contraceptives?)
• The research topic is sensitive. (For example, understanding the prevalence of alcoholism among a group of people.)
• The study requires detailed information.

In-depth interviews can be used at any stage of research. For example, they can be conducted in the beginning of a program to explore hypotheses and set the research plan, in the middle to benchmark the program’s progress, or at the end to understand the effectiveness of a program’s implementation.

Who should interview participants?

Highly skilled interviewers are important for effective in-depth interviews. It is critical that interviewers are sensitive, empathic, and able to establish a comfortable environment for interviewees.

Interviewers should also have a deep understanding of both the topic under study and the research objectives, so they can ask questions that provide relevant and actionable insights. Poor interviewing skills, poor phrasing of questions, or inadequate knowledge of the subject’s culture or frame of reference may result in data that isn’t accurate or useful.

While selecting interviewers, researchers may also need to weigh personal characteristics that will make interviewees more comfortable with interviewers. For example, age, sex and profession may be important characteristics.

How should researchers prepare for in-depth interviews?

In-depth interviews typically start with open-ended questions , then interviewers use further questions to probe into different topics. The interviewer should have a guide prepared with a list of issues that are to be explored along with some suitable questions or probes for each issue.

How should researchers collect data during in-depth interviews?

The interview should be recorded. Preferably, it should also be transcribed immediately so that invisible information such as body language and expressions are not lost in the annals of time.

Advantages of in-depth interviews

• Yield rich data and new insights
• Allow face-to-face interaction
• Allow in-depth conversation about the topic being studied
• Can capture both affective and cognitive aspects
• Give the interviewer the opportunity to clarify or explain the question/topic for better responses

Limitations of in-depth interviews

• Costly and time-consuming
• Require highly trained interviewers
• May obtain a massive amount of information, which makes transcription and data analysis difficult
• Create exploratory, not conclusive, results. This means that their findings usually cannot be generalized for the entire population.

Method 2: Focus group discussions (FGDs)

What is a fgd.

Focus group discussions are another common qualitative research method. In a focus group discussion, an interviewer talks to a group of people about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards an idea, concept, service, product, etc. The participants are usually a group of people who are similar in some way, such as their income, education, or occupation. This helps the participants feel more comfortable with one another.

How many people are involved in an FGD?

A typical focus group has anywhere between 6 to 12 participants, and it’s usually best to carry out at least 3 FGDs. Talking with multiple groups leads to more in-depth or diverse information.

How long do FGDs take?

An FGD should be 60–90 minutes. If the FGD is shorter than 60 minutes, it is often difficult to fully explore the discussion topic. If the FGD is longer than 90 minutes, the discussion can become unproductive (as participants get weary) and the discussion can start to impose on participants’ time.

Yes. Researchers must get informed consent for all participants. Participation should be voluntary, though it can be incentivized.

When are FGDs useful?

Focus groups are most useful for:

• Identifying and defining problems
• Pre-testing topics or ideas to sharpen the research questions
• Identifying program strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations
• Interpreting quantitative findings
• Learning people’s thoughts on project outcomes and impacts
• Generating new ideas

In a FGD, the researcher is not trying to make the group reach a consensus. Rather, their goal is to explore different people’s opinions on the topic. Hence, the results of an FGD are exploratory, not conclusive.

Who should conduct an FGD?

A successful FGD requires a skilled moderator. As a moderator, it is important to ensure that all participants are comfortable and engaged with the discussion, and that their opinions are being heard. The following techniques are helpful:

• Remain neutral to ensure that everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinion. No nodding or shaking your head, raising eyebrows, agreeing or disagreeing with comments, or praising or denigrating participants.
• Elicit further information from shy participants with comments like “Can you tell me more about that?”, “Help me understand what you mean”, or “Can you give an example?”
• Deal with dominant participants by acknowledging their opinion and soliciting other opinions. Sentences like “Thank you. What do other people think?” can be helpful.
• Paraphrase or summarize long, unclear comments by participants. This shows participants that the moderator is actively listening, and it helps the moderator to ensure he or she has understood the participant’s statement.
• Act spontaneously if needed. If the conversation goes in an unexpected, but productive direction, go with it and ask questions that were not on the initial questionnaire. Probe deeper into new topics and ideas, as long as the information being gained is valuable.

Like with in-depth interviews, digital recorders (either audio or video) are a great way to record data during FGDs. The record should be transcribed immediately so its nuances aren’t lost over time.

Advantages of FGDs

• Focus groups can often get at perceptions, attitudes, and experiences better than a quantitative survey.
• They allows in-depth conversation about the topic
• Unlike a paper survey, FGDs gives researchers the opportunity to clarify or explain the question or topic for better responses.
• When participants discuss a topic with one another, they can become more active and engaged, which leads to more data. However, the moderator plays a key role in probing and ensuring participation.

Limitations of FGDs

It is important to realize that there are two key limitations to FGDs:

• Since FGD data is qualitative, it cannot necessarily be generalized to the population. This is because qualitative data is often context-specific.
• Moderators must ensure that they don’t show any bias. This will veer the trajectory of the conversation. Moderators must also be be active in ensuring that active participants do not overpower subdued participants during the discussion.

Looking to conduct an FGD? Keep reading for more information on how to make it successful.

Method 3: Observations

What is observation.

Observation is a qualitative research method where researchers gather data by observing people’s behavior or events in their natural setting.

There are 2 main types of observation:

• Covert : No one knows they are being observed and the observer is concealed. For example, a researcher trying to understand the rituals and ceremonies of Hindu weddings may conceal himself as a guest to observe what’s happening.
• Overt : Everyone knows they are being observed. For example, a researcher on Hindu weddings may explain his study to the wedding party and use a video camera to record the wedding.

Usually, overt observations are preferable, because observing people without their knowledge or permission can raise ethical problems.

Covert vs. overt aren’t the only types of observation. There’s also direct vs. indirect, simple vs. behavioral, and participant vs. non-participant. Learn more about each type here.

For overt observation, informed consent must be obtained from participants before any observational data is gathered.

When is observation useful?

Observations are most useful when:

• You are trying to understand an ongoing process or situation.
• You are gathering data on individual behaviors or interactions between people.
• Collecting data from people is not realistic. If respondents are unwilling or unable to provide data through questionnaires or interviews, observation is a method that requires little from participants.

How should researchers prepare for observation?

The research questions or processes being observed must be well structured — that is, the parameters to be observed must be clearly defined. For example, a researcher observing students in class should have precise things to observe, like the number of students asleep within the first five minutes or students’ level of engagement throughout the class. Selecting specific focus areas or questions helps make the collected data more accurate and relevant to the research question.

In addition, it is critical that to schedule observations so they overlap with whatever is being observed. For example, if you’re trying to observe noon music classes at a school, observations shouldn’t be scheduled for 2 pm. This requires advance planning.

Who should conduct observation?

Observers must be well-trained on the data collection process, and must be focused on producing effective, useful and unbiased insights. Observers can be the researchers themselves, or researchers can train other people (such as students, interns, research assistants or stakeholders) to act as observers.

How should researchers collect data during observation?

The right data collection technique depends on what information is being collected. Here are a few ways to collect data through observation.

• Recording sheets and checklists: a list of both pre-set questions and responses. They are the most standardized way of collecting observation data.
• Observation guides: lists of the interactions, processes, or behaviors to be observed, with space to record open-ended narrative data.
• Field notes: open-ended narrative data that can be written (on paper or digitally) or dictated (on a tape recorder). This is the least standardized way of collecting observation data, since it doesn’t include preset questions or responses.

Using digital tools (such as a data collection app, tape recorder, laptop, camera, or video camera) can make it much easier and quicker to collect observational data.

Advantages of observation

• It allows researchers to collect first-hand data from where the activity is happening.
• Researchers can get answers from groups that don’t have the time or willingness to answer questions.

Limitations of observation

• The insights are susceptible to researcher bias .
• Observation can be expensive and time consuming.
• Overt observation may lead to the Hawthorne effect, where people tend to behave better when they know they’re being observed. In covert observation, this may not be the case.

Planning to do observations? Learn more about when and how to collect observational data.

Summing it up

Qualitative research is one of the best tools to identify behaviors and patterns governing social conditions. It goes a step beyond quantitative data by providing the reasons and rationale behind a phenomenon, which often cannot be explored quantitatively.

The qualitative research methods above (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observation) are most commonly used for collecting qualitative data. However, lesser-known qualitative research methods include literature and document review of existing material on the research topic. These can be helpful for identifying if the research questions have been partly or fully answered in the past.

Image credits:  Rawpixel ,  Samule Sun ,  Antenna , and  The Climate Reality Project

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Qualitative research helps in capturing data from hidden place but the researchers should have extensive knowledge on the issues to be investigated and skills on keeping the discussion interesting for both respondents and researchers.

Very useful for research

Useful and practical guidance. Thank you.

The information is very important for the researchers. It clearly states how researchers conduct qualitative studies. I would be happy if you send me a few typical phases in conducting qualitative case studies in classroom situations.

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100 Qualitative Research Titles For High School Students

Are you brainstorming for excellent qualitative research titles for your high school curriculum? If yes, then this blog is for you! Academic life throws a lot of thesis and qualitative research papers and essays at you. Although thesis and essays may not be much of a hassle. However, when it comes to your research paper title, you must ensure that it is qualitative, and not quantitative. 

Qualitative research is primarily focused on obtaining data through case studies, artifacts, interviews, documentaries, and other first-hand observations. It focuses more on these natural settings rather than statistics and numbers. If you are finding it difficult to find a topic, then worry not because the high schooler has this blog post curated for you with 100 qualitative research titles that can help you get started!

Qualitative research prompts for high schoolers

Qualitative research papers are written by gathering and analyzing non-numerical data. Generally, teachers allot a list of topics that you can choose from. However, if you aren’t given the list, you need to search for a topic for yourself.

Qualitative research topics mostly deal with the happenings in society and nature. There are endless topics that you can choose from. We have curated a list of 100 qualitative research titles for you to choose from. Read on and pick the one that best aligns with your interests!

• Why is there a pressing need for wildlife conservation?
• Discuss the impacts of climate change on future generations. 
• Discuss the impact of overpopulation on sustainable resources.
• Discuss the factors considered while establishing the first 10 engineering universities in the world.
• What is the contribution of AI to emotional intelligence? Explain. 
• List out the effective methods to reduce the occurrences of fraud through cybercrimes.
• With case studies, discuss some of the greatest movements in history leading to independence. 
• Discuss real-life scenarios of gender-based discrimination. 
• Discuss disparities in income and opportunities in developing nations. 
• How to deal with those dealing with ADHD?
• Describe how life was before the invention of the air conditioner. 
• Explain the increasing applications of clinical psychology. 
• What is psychology? Explain the career opportunities it brings forth for youngsters.
• Covid lockdown: Is homeschooling the new way to school children?
• What is the role of army dogs? How are they trained for the role?
• What is feminism to you? Mention a feminist and his/her contributions to making the world a better place for women.  
• What is true leadership quality according to you? Explain with a case study of a famous personality you admire for their leadership skills. 
• Is wearing a mask effective in preventing covid-19? Explain the other practices that can help one prevent covid-19. 
• Explain how teachers play an important role in helping students with disabilities improve their learning.
• Is ‘E business’ taking over traditional methods of carrying out business?
• What are the implications of allowing high schoolers to use smartphones in classes?
• Does stress have an effect on human behavior?
• Explain the link between poverty and education. 
• With case studies, explain the political instability in developing nations.
• Are ‘reality television shows’ scripted or do they showcase reality?
• Online vs Offline teaching: which method is more effective and how?
• Does there exist an underlying correlation between education and success? Explain with case studies.
• Explain the social stigma associated with menstruation. 
• Are OTT entertainment platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime beneficial in any other way?
• Does being physically active help reverse type 2 diabetes?
• Does pop culture influence today’s youth and their behavior?
• ‘A friend in need is a friend in deed.’ Explain with case studies of famous personalities. 
• Do books have greater importance in the lives of children from weaker economic backgrounds? Explain in detail.
• Give an overview of the rise of spoken arts. 
• Explain the problem of food insecurity in developing nations.
• How related are Windows and Apple products?
• Explore the methods used in schools to promote cultural diversity. 
• Has social media replaced the physical social engagement of children in society?
• Give an overview of allopathic medicine in treating mental disorders. 
• Explain if and how willpower plays a role in overcoming difficulties in life. 
• Are third-world countries seeing a decline in academic pursuit? Explain with real-life scenarios. 
• Can animals predict earthquakes in advance? Explain which animals have this ability and how they do it. 
• Discuss if the education system in America needs to improve. If yes, list out how this can be achieved.
• Discuss democracy as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’
• Discuss the increasing rate of attention deficit disorder among children.
• Explain fun games that can help boost the morale of kids with dyslexia. 
• Explain the causes of youth unemployment.
• Explain some of the ways you think might help in making differently-abled students feel inclusive in the mainstream.
• Explain in detail the challenges faced by students with special needs to feel included when it comes to accessibility to education.
• Discuss the inefficiency of the healthcare system brought about by the covid-19 pandemic. 
• Does living in hostels instill better life skills among students than those who are brought up at home? Explain in detail. 
• What is Advanced Traffic Management? Explain the success cases of countries that have deployed it.  
• Elaborate on the ethnic and socioeconomic reasons leading to poor school attendance in third-world nations.
• Do preschoolers benefit from being read to by their parents? Discuss in detail.
• What is the significance of oral learning in classrooms?
• Does computer literacy promise a brighter future? Analyze. 
• What people skills are enhanced in a high school classroom?
• Discuss in detail the education system in place of a developing nation. Highlight the measures you think are impressive and those that you think need a change. 
• Apart from the drawbacks of UV rays on the human body, explain how it has proven to be beneficial in treating diseases.  
• Discuss why or why not wearing school uniforms can make students feel included in the school environment. 
• What are the effective ways that have been proven to mitigate child labor in society? 
• Explain the contributions of arts and literature to the evolving world. 
• How do healthcare organizations cope with patients living with transmissive medical conditions?
• Why do people with special abilities still face hardships when it comes to accessibility to healthcare and education?
• What are the prevailing signs of depression in small children?
• How to identify the occurrences and onset of autism in kids below three years of age?
• Explain how SWOT and PESTLE analysis is important for a business.
• Why is it necessary to include mental health education in the school curriculum?
• What is adult learning and does it have any proven benefits?
• What is the importance of having access to libraries in high school?
• Discuss the need for including research writing in school curriculums. 
• Explain some of the greatest non-violent movements of ancient history. 
• Explain the reasons why some of the species of wildlife are critically endangered today. 
• How is the growing emission of co2 bringing an unprecedented change in the environment?
• What are the consequences of an increasing population in developing nations like India? Discuss in detail. 
• Are remote tests as effective as in-class tests? 
• Explain how sports play a vital role in schools. 
• What do you understand about social activities in academic institutions? Explain how they pose as a necessity for students. 
• Are there countries providing free healthcare? How are they faring in terms of their economy? Discuss in detail. 
• State case studies of human lives lost due to racist laws present in society.
• Discuss the effect of COVID-19 vaccines in curbing the novel coronavirus.
• State what according to you is more effective: e-learning or classroom-based educational systems.
• What changes were brought into the e-commerce industry by the COVID-19 pandemic?
• Name a personality regarded as a youth icon. Explain his or her contributions in detail.
• Discuss why more and more people are relying on freelancing as a prospective career. 
• Does virtual learning imply lesser opportunities? What is your take?
• Curbing obesity through exercise: Analyze.
• Discuss the need and importance of health outreach programs.
• Discuss in detail how the upcoming generation of youngsters can do its bit and contribute to afforestation.
• Discuss the 2020 budget allocation of the United States. 
• Discuss some of the historic ‘rags to riches’ stories.
• What according to you is the role of nurses in the healthcare industry?
• Will AI actually replace humans and eat up their jobs? Discuss your view and also explain the sector that will benefit the most from AI replacing humans. 
• Is digital media taking over print media? Explain with case studies. 
• Why is there an increasing number of senior citizens in the elderly homes? 
• Are health insurances really beneficial? 
• How important are soft skills? What role do they play in recruitment? 
• Has the keto diet been effective in weight loss? Explain the merits and demerits. 
• Is swimming a good physical activity to curb obesity? 
• Is work from home as effective as work from office? Explain your take. 

Tips to write excellent qualitative research papers

Now that you have scrolled through this section, we trust that you have picked up a topic for yourself from our list of 100 brilliant qualitative research titles for high school students. Deciding on a topic is the very first step. The next step is to figure out ways how you can ensure that your qualitative research paper can help you grab top scores. 

Once you have decided on the title, you are halfway there. However, deciding on a topic signals the next step, which is the process of writing your qualitative paper. This poses a real challenge! 

To help you with it, here are a few tips that will help you accumulate data irrespective of the topic you have chosen. Follow these four simple steps and you will be able to do justice to the topic you have chosen!

• Create an outline based on the topic. Jot down the sub-topics you would like to include. 
• Refer to as many sources as you can – documentaries, books, news articles, case studies, interviews, etc. Make a note of the facts and phrases you would like to include in your research paper. 
• Write the body. Start adding qualitative data. 
• Re-read and revise your paper. Make it comprehensible. Check for plagiarism, and proofread your research paper. Try your best and leave no scope for mistakes. 

Wrapping it up!

To wrap up, writing a qualitative research paper is almost the same as writing other research papers such as argumentative research papers , English research papers , Biology research papers , and more. Writing a paper on qualitative research titles promotes analytical and critical thinking skills among students. Moreover,  it also helps improve data interpretation and writing ability, which are essential for students going ahead.

Having a 10+ years of experience in teaching little budding learners, I am now working as a soft skills and IELTS trainers. Having spent my share of time with high schoolers, I understand their fears about the future. At the same time, my experience has helped me foster plenty of strategies that can make their 4 years of high school blissful. Furthermore, I have worked intensely on helping these young adults bloom into successful adults by training them for their dream colleges. Through my blogs, I intend to help parents, educators and students in making these years joyful and prosperous.

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• Open access
• Published: 25 June 2024

Qualitative study on the perception of good death in patients with end-stage cancer in oncology nurses

• Wei-dan Wu 1 , 2 , 3   na1 ,
• Yi Wang 1 , 2 , 3   na1 ,
• Xin-yu Fu 4   na1 ,
• Jin-hua Zhang 1 ,
• Chen-yang Zhang 4 ,
• Xin-Li Mao 1 , 2 , 3 &
• Shao-wei Li 1 , 2 , 3  

BMC Nursing volume  23 , Article number:  431 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

151 Accesses

Metrics details

To explore the perception of good death of patients with end-stage cancer by nurses in the oncology department.

In the study we used a phenomenological approach and semi-structured interviews. A total of 11 nurses from the oncology department of a Grade A hospital in Taizhou were interviewed on the cognition of good death from July 1 to September 30, 2022. Colaizzi’s analysis method was used to analyse the interview data. This study followed the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ).

Four themes were identified: a strong sense of responsibility and mission; To sustain hope and faith; The important role of family members; Improve patients’ quality of life.

The nurses in the department of oncology have a low level of knowledge about the “good death”, and the correct understanding and view of the “good death” is the premise of the realization of " good death”. The ability of nursing staff to improve the “good death”, attention, and meet the needs and wishes of individuals and families, is the guarantee of the realization of “good death”.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

The 2020 Global Cancer Statistics, published by the American Cancer Society shows that there were 10 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2020, and the global cancer burden is projected to reach 28.4 million by 2040, a 47% increase over 2020 [ 1 ]. Our country leads the world in cancer incidence and mortality [ 1 ], and the health damage caused by cancer is almost twice the world average [ 2 , 3 ].

Patients with end-stage cancer are defined as those who have no hope of a cure in modern medicine and are expected to survive for 3–6 months [ 4 , 5 ]. The terminal cancer patient’s condition can not be reversed, and has not yet effectively alleviated the pain, and the use of life support measures such as breathing machines to some extent prolonged the pain, resulting in patients can not die in comfort and dignity [ 6 ]. Death represents a significant and inevitable stage in the cycle of life, marking its final chapter for all living beings. It is a profound and crucial period that holds tremendous significance in the grand scheme of existence [ 7 ]. Hospice care is a holistic approach aimed at addressing the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs of individuals with a terminal illness and their family members. It provides comprehensive support and services to ensure comfort, dignity, and quality of life during this challenging time [ 8 ]. There is substantial evidence demonstrating the positive impacts of hospice care. It has been shown to enhance the quality of end-of-life (EoL) care, reduce medical costs, align with individuals’ preferences for comfort-focused care, and minimize the use of burdensome therapies. These findings support the value and effectiveness of hospice care in providing appropriate and compassionate support to patients and their families during the terminal stages of illness [ 9 , 10 ].

Hospice care in China is still in its early stages compared to certain Western countries. Efforts are being made to expand access to hospice services, raise awareness about the benefits of palliative care, and improve the quality of care provided to individuals with life-limiting illnesses in China [ 11 ]. As the concept of “eugenics” and “optimal parenting” gains popularity, the idea of a “good death” is gradually being brought to the forefront. It not only reflects the respect for life but also signifies the progress of society and civilization. The hospice concept was introduced in China in the 1980s. The concept and characteristics of a “good death” originated from early end-of-life care, with the ultimate goal of advocating for people’s support in the field of end-of-life care and drawing attention to the well-being of terminally ill patients. In 1998, Emanuel et al. proposed the framework for a good death, providing a comprehensive explanation of the multidimensional personal experience encompassed by death. Researchers divided the process of death into four key components: the inherent characteristics of the patient, the variable factors within the patient’s experience, the interventions by the healthcare system, and the outcomes. A “good death” can be described as one that occurs without the knowledge of the exact time of death, enables the individual to bid farewell to loved ones, avoids unnecessary interventions, allows the person to have some control over the place of death, minimizes distress and suffering, respects the patient’s and their family’s wishes, and aligns reasonably with clinical, cultural, and ethical standards. This comprehensive definition encompasses multiple aspects that contribute to a positive and meaningful end-of-life experience for both the individual and their loved ones [ 12 , 13 ].

Across different cultures, certain attributes of a good death are often emphasized. These include maintaining a pain-free status through effective pain management, providing emotional comfort and support to the person and their loved ones, and ensuring that individuals are prepared for the inevitability of death through open communication and appropriate end-of-life planning. These attributes are recognized as important factors in promoting a more peaceful and dignified transition at the end of life, regardless of cultural backgrounds [ 14 , 15 ]. Nurses who have a good understanding of the concept of a “good death” are better equipped to provide more effective end-of-life care to patients [ 16 ]. When providing care to individuals who are dying, nurses may experience a range of emotions, including anger, despair, distress, and guilt [ 17 , 18 ]. Understanding the concept of a good death and accepting the inevitability of death can aid nurses in coping with these complex emotions. However, it is worth noting that the acceptance of hospice care in Chinese society has been relatively slow, despite its introduction to mainland China as early as 1988 [ 19 ]. With the aging population, there is an increasing demand for end-of-life care. To measure this demand, an index system can be used, taking into account factors such as the burden caused by diseases, the dependency ratio of the elderly population, and the speed of aging [ 20 ]. In China, the objective demand for end-of-life care is indeed increasing. However, traditional cultural influences often make discussions about death taboo, and the concept of a “good death” is not widely accepted by most people [ 19 ].

Good Death (GD) is one of the core objectives of hospice care [ 21 , 22 ]. This study conducted in-depth interviews with nurses in the department of oncology to understand the current implementation of good death technology, the cognitive status of medical staff on good death, and the clinical coping strategies for patients with end-stage cancer, to determine the cognitive deficiencies of medical staff in good death and the aspects of continuous learning. The study mentioned focused on oncology inpatient unit nurses because they are frequently involved in providing end-of-life care. As patients with cancer often face end-of-life issues, it is important to understand the experiences and perspectives of nurses working in this specific setting.

Study design

We used phenomenological qualitative research and face-to-face semi-structured interviews to explore the perception of good death of patients with end-stage cancer by nurses in the oncology department in Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province from July 1 to September 30, 2022. In qualitative research, phenomenological methods focus on describing common experiences shared by the entirepopulation, which also helps researchers to engage with participants from an in-depth perspective and to understand their experiences. Our research team has extensive experience in qualitative research.

Participants and ethical considerations

Purposive sampling was employed to select the participants who were eligible and could provide rich information about the research question.

Inclusion criteria: (1) Nurses with a license to practice nursing; (2) Oncology nurses with a minimum of 6 months of clinical nursing experience; (3) Providing care services to terminally ill cancer patients, and have work experience in hospice; (4) Ability to clearly articulate their views; (5) Providing informed consent and voluntary participation in this study. Exclusion criteria: (1) Nurses who withdrew from the interview process; (2) Nurses who were on leave or engaged in training, resulting in an absence from their position for more than 3 months; (3) Nurses who were unwilling to discuss their experiences in caring for terminally ill cancer patients.

In this study, the report will replace each participant with a code, and the interviewee’s identity, contact information will not be disclosed to others. Sound content is also used only in this study. The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Taizhou Hospital, Zhejiang Province, China (approval number: K20220789).

The qualitative data collection method employed for this study involved semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Prior to the start of each interview, all nurses were provided with written informed consent to participate in the research. All interviews were digitally recorded, assigned pseudonyms, and transcribed verbatim. We took measures to ensure that the participants understood the purpose and process of the study, and we emphasized the privacy of the interview environment and the confidentiality of the data. The interviews will take place within the confines of the hospital’s designated conversational chambers, ensuring utmost privacy for the participants. Saturation was considered to be reached when no new themes emerged from the inductive content analysis. In total, we conducted interviews with 11 members of the oncology nursing team (See Table  1 ).

Data collection

During the interview, subjects were also given the opportunity to read the consent form, confirm understanding, and ask questions. Verbal consent was obtained to preserve the anonymity of the subjects. During the interviews, participants were offered explanations for any inquiries they had. Additionally, participants had the option to refuse further interviews and withdraw from the study for any reason. In addition, two oncology nurses were selected for a pre-interview prior to data collection to ensure the clarity of the questions and to identify any potential problems. The data from preliminary interviews was not included in this study but was utilized to modify the interview structure based on the preliminary findings. The preinterviews were treated as tests and were excluded from the analysis. The final interview used in this study included the items are listed in Table  2 . Interviews were conducted in a quiet consultation room at the hospital between July 1 and September 30, 2022. Each person was interviewed one time, and each interview lasted approximately 30–50 min. All the interviews were conducted by a nurse with master who was trained in qualitative research. A research assistant played an auxiliary role which included recording the interviews.

The investigator audio recorded with permission, and participants’ responses, including nonverbal cues and body language during the interviews, were noted. The results will be returned to each participant within 24 h of each interview, to verify the interview details, thus ensuring the accuracy and credibility of the analysis. Before this interview, investigators were trained in interview and communication skills, including effective listening and giving positive feedback, establishing good relationships with interviewees, maintaining eye contact, not interrupting interviewees, not judging their views, etc.

Data analysis

Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and checked for accuracy by repeated listening within 24 h of the interviews. After the interview, the data were analysed separately and immediately by two researchers with skilled analysis experience. Interview data was analysed using Nvivo12.0, a computer-assisted qualitative data management software. Colaizzi’s phenomenological seven-stepmethod was used for data analysis to complete theextraction of themes and sub-themes regarding the perception of good death of patients with end-stage cancer among oncology nurses (see Table  3 ). Any disagreement between researchers was resolved by making decisions through discussion until a consensus was reached. The final transcribed data, as well as the extracted themesand sub-themes, were sent to the participants simultaneously, and all participants agreed to be contacted again. This study met the criteria of Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies (COREQ).

Rigor and trustworthiness

To ensure the study’s dependability, the methods and analyses used were described in detail. The study interviewer was a master’s degree student in nursing. The interviewer received systematic qualitative training to master qualitative research methods, was experienced in oncology practices, and established a good relationship with the participants before the interviews commenced. This facilitated the acquisition of real information. The researcher maintained a neutral attitude during the interview, did not lead or hint, did not interrupt the interviewee at will, and only asked timely follow-up questions, rhetorical questions, and clarifications until no new information emerged. Therefore, credibility was ensured. The collection, analysis, and interpretation of data were continually reviewed and detailed to ensure its dependability. The data extracted from the survey results were described in detail to achieve confirmability. Regarding transferability, this study described in detail the inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, and demographic characteristics involved. Simultaneously, the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was used to report the findings (See Appendix I for details).

Characteristics of the 11 participants are shown in Table  1 . All eleven participants were female. The shortest term of employment as a Registered Nurse was one and a half years, and the longest was 17 years (Fig.  1 ). Four distinct themes emerged from analysis of the interview data: (1) A strong sense of responsibility and mission; (2) Sustaining hope and faith; (3) The important role of family members; and (4) Improving patients’ quality of life. Each theme included three–four subthemes (see Table  4 ).

A visual analysis of the working years of the 11 participants included

Theme one: a strong sense of responsibility and mission

Most respondents said that when they realized that a patient was dying, their presence was more important than ever, triggering a strong sense of responsibility and mission. “End-stage patients will leave at any time, when in the dying patient evaluation period, I will often ward, observe the patient’s vital signs, keep the comfort of family members, at this time of the patients and family members are in great need of medical personnel to accompany and support, especially families, at this point the heart is very fragile, especially need a psychological support.” (A5, female, 28 y.o) “For the families of the patients whose death is imminent, I will tell them to tell the patients as soon as possible if there is anything they need to tell them. If there is anything that needs the help of our doctors and nurses, they can tell us at any time. We will do our best to help.” (A7, female, 39 y.o).

Theme two: sustaining hope and faith

Patient confidentiality.

Under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, when patients enter the terminal stage of cancer, considering the patients’ physical and psychological conditions and psychological acceptance of the disease, medical staff needs to inform the patients’ families and seek treatment advice, whether to conceal the true condition of patients [ 23 ], whether to continue treatment or give up treatment and so on so that the whole family is faced with a major choice. In this interview, the interviewees discussed their views on the confidentiality of the patient’s condition from the point of view of good death, and the nurses had better cognition of the confidentiality of the patient’s condition. “We have a lot of family members who are concerned about the patient’s ability to cope. They tell us in advance not to discuss the patient’s condition in front of the patient, and they ask us to keep it confidential when the patient asks. We usually comply with their request at this time. “(A9, female, 32 y.o).

“A lot of family members ask for the patient’s condition to be kept confidential. Our doctors and nurses usually communicate on how to settle accounts with patients in a unified way. “(A3, female, 42 y.o).

Moral support

Patients and family members experience a complex range of emotions after being informed of a cancer diagnosis, and how to make patients and family members accept the reality that cancer is incurable is a challenge for healthcare professionals [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. In the interview, the interviewees mentioned the importance of spiritual support for cancer families. “Many patients have no faith. I have seen many patients who have been in a period of anger after learning that they have cancer. They think why they are so unlucky. They have this disease and have no interest in doing anything. They think that the world is unfair and cruel to them. If we can help them to seek their faith, such as religion, it may have some spiritual comfort for them. " (A8, female, 37 y.o) “I met a retired civil servant in my work who, after learning that he had cancer, organized his years of Work Records and compiled a memoir by year. I think he would review his experiences and values when he read these memoirs, and his heart would be at peace for a while. I got an idea from him that I could use a similar approach to help other patients and their families find value in their lives and live more peacefully in the final stages of their lives. " (A6, female, 29 y.o).

Theme three: the important role of family members

The accompanying role of family members.

Influenced by our traditional culture, most terminal cancer patients want their closest family members to be with them at the end of their lives. Most of the interviewees indicated that the accompany of family members is a comfort to the patients, which makes them feel that they are loved and meets their psychological needs [ 28 ]. “Patients at this stage are more psychologically vulnerable than those with other diseases. At the end of their lives, the company of their family members is a great psychological comfort to them. Although I can’t have a lot of company during an epidemic, I usually ask one of the family members to stay here to accompany the patient. “(A2, female, 36 y.o) “At this time, the family member will stay by the patient’s side. Even if they don’t do anything or say anything, the patient will feel that they are cared for by someone and feel that they are still loved. “(A10, female, 30 y.o).

The communication role of family members

Under the influence of the Chinese traditional concept of life and death, there are still some difficulties in implementing and promoting euthanasia, especially for cancer patients, whose families often choose to hide the true situation from them, medical staff can only discuss it with their families [ 29 , 30 ]. The nurses mentioned that most of the family members lack the methods of psychological care and the experience of taking care of terminal cancer patients, do not know the psychological needs of the terminal cancer patients, and can not do the psychological work of the patients in time and effectively. “During the work process, some patients’ psychological needs are very high, but the family members accompanying them don’t understand the patients’ psychological needs. The two of them can’t chat together and have nothing to say for a whole day. “(A4, female, 26 y.o).

The caregiving role of family members

Family members accompany patients for a long time, know the daily living habits of patients best, can provide wholehearted care, and can timely detect and feedback on the symptoms of patients and changes in their condition, the care of family members for patients is an important component of the medical staff to evaluate the patient’s good death. “Many patients at this stage due to pain and other effects, the ability to move limited, and many daily activities need family care.” (A11, female, 25 y.o) “Terminally ill patients, ECG monitoring everyday detection of vital signs, we usually also one hour patrol, family members beside can pay attention to the patient’s vital signs changes. " (A1, female, 33 y.o).

Theme four: improving patients’ quality of life

Symptom control.

Most interviewees believed that end-stage patients should focus on symptom control and pain relief. “In the end, the most uncomfortable thing for many patients is the cancer pain, which makes them unable to move when they turn over. Taking painkillers and injecting painkillers can no longer control the pain. If it can reduce their pain, it is very meaningful for good death.” (A8, female, 37 y.o) “When patients enter the terminal stage, some other treatments are meaningless and try not to disturb them, so that patients can quietly go through the final stage of life.” (A7, female, 39 y.o).

Palliative care

During the interview, most interviewees expressed that they should try their best to meet the reasonable requirements of patients, reduce invasive operations on patients, listen to the voice of patients and their families more, improve the comfort level of patients, and give more tolerance and understanding to patients and their families. “During the epidemic, patients and their families are required to reduce going out and order meals in the department. However, patients with advanced stage do have a poor appetite. Some of their families will prepare meals and send them to the first floor of the hospital building. (A9, female, 32 y.o) “When I perform a blood gas analysis or an infusion on this type of patient, if I feel that I cannot successfully puncture the vein on the first try, I will seek assistance from other colleagues to avoid subjecting the patient to the pain of a second puncture.” (A1, female, 33 y.o).

The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of oncology nurses regarding end-of-life care for patients with advanced-stage cancer in China. The interviews conducted in this study revealed that oncology nurses have generated numerous ideas and understandings about end-of-life care for patients. This demonstrates their strong concern for end-of-life care issues and their utmost efforts to help patients achieve a good death. The cognition of healthcare professionals regarding a good death is influenced by traditional cultural factors, and their ability to assist patients in achieving a good death is also limited by their level of knowledge and skills.

In contemporary times, the majority of individuals pass away within the confines of a hospital setting, necessitating the presence of nurses during their final days. As patients approach the end of their lives, nurses provide companionship and support throughout this significant transition [ 31 ]. The attitudes exhibited by nurses play a pivotal role in shaping the quality of end-of-life care. A positive attitude towards death can signify that nurses possess a more effective adaptation to the practices related to end-of-life care. This also implies that they are better equipped to provide compassionate and supportive care to patients during this sensitive stage [ 32 , 33 ]. By fostering positive attitudes towards the dying, nurses can overcome their own fears of death. This allows them to create a safe and supportive environment where patients can experience a peaceful and dignified process of dying. Such an atmosphere fosters a sense of respect and enables patients to feel valued as individuals during this vulnerable time [ 34 ]. The research conducted by Ceyhan et al. revealed a positive correlation between the perception of a good death and the attitudes of intensive care nurses towards providing care for patients in their final moments. These nurses exhibited favorable attitudes towards end-of-life care and possessed a strong belief in the concept of a good death. The study suggests that nurses in the intensive care setting are more inclined to embrace and prioritize the well-being and comfort of dying patients [ 35 ].

The correct understanding and view of “good death” is the premise to realize “good death”

This is similar to the findings of Hilal Türkben Polat and others [ 34 ]. The concept of death often evokes negative emotions in patients, patient relatives, and nurses. Consequently, it is typically avoided and sometimes even considered a taboo in certain regions. Patients in Eastern countries encounter unique challenges when it comes to preparing for death. This is primarily due to lower frequencies of receiving bad news, such as diagnoses and prognoses, as well as cultural practices that discourage discussions about death. Moreover, stronger taboos surrounding death discussions exist in Eastern countries compared to Western countries [ 36 ]. In western countries, the disclosure of diagnoses is regarded as a fundamental patient right and an essential practice. Within the western ethical tradition, there is significant emphasis on providing patients with truthful information. Medical practitioners have a responsibility to respond to patients’ questions regarding their diagnosis in an honest and forthright manner [ 37 ].

Under the influence of Eastern philosophy, the challenges related to diagnosis disclosure are further magnified in Eastern countries. Traditional Eastern philosophical beliefs, such as the emphasis on harmony, collective well-being, and the idea of protecting patients from distress, can create barriers to open and direct communication about diagnoses. Balancing the values of truthfulness and preserving emotional well-being becomes a particular challenge within the Eastern cultural context [ 38 ]. In China, it is common for family members to withhold cancer diagnoses from the patient, as they believe it may help protect the patient from potential emotional distress and depression. This practice stems from a desire to shield loved ones from the potentially negative impact of such news. However, it is important to note that this approach may differ from the Western emphasis on patient autonomy and the right to access complete information about one’s own health condition [ 26 ]. As highlighted by Jiang Yu et al., the decision to withhold cancer diagnoses in China is often a collective consensus among family members. This collective decision-making process is influenced by cultural norms, where the family plays a central role in matters of health and well-being. In such cases, the family members believe that keeping the diagnosis concealed is in the best interest of the patient, aiming to maintain emotional well-being and alleviate potential distress. It is important to recognize and respect these cultural differences and the role of familial decision-making in the context of healthcare practices [ 39 ].

The concept of “Avoid death” in our traditional culture will affect the expression of the needs of terminal cancer patients. Compared with patients, their families have more difficulty accepting the concept of good death, which they believe means giving up treatment, waiting for death, and being difficult to accept psychologically [ 40 ]. The medical personnel should strengthen the family members’ correct understanding of good death and make them realize the importance of respecting the patient’s right to know and independent decision-making to realize good death, it is suggested that family decision-making should be gradually changed into a way of discussion between patients and their families, to lighten the psychological burden of both sides and let patients realize their wishes. Fully pay attention to the needs of end-stage patients and their families, and take targeted measures to help patients to achieve good death [ 41 ].

The good death ability of nursing staff needs to be improved

The attitude of professional nurses to death greatly influences the treatment decision of terminal cancer patients and affects the quality of patients’ death. The more skilled the nursing skills, the better the communication skills, and the terminal attitude of terminal cancer patients, the better the quality of life of the patients.

Based on the interview results, it is evident that nurses have insufficient competency in implementing end-of-life care. They make efforts to help patients manage clinical symptoms and enhance the caregiving abilities of family members through their own capabilities, aiming to assist patients in a better end-of-life experience. However, the nurses’ level of competence directly affects the patient’s experience of end-of-life care. They have limited opportunities for formal end-of-life care training and education, resulting in a relative lack of knowledge in this area. The end-of-life experience is unique and personal for each individual, with most people desiring to avoid pain during this period, while others may prioritize prolonging life at any cost. End-of-life care may be provided by doctors, physicians, nurses, emergency personnel, or volunteers. However, nurses play a significant role and bear primary responsibilities in this regard [ 14 ]. A study indicated that nurses, as moral agents, possess a profound commitment to upholding the moral integrity of end-of-life care, particularly when it involves assisted death. This suggests that nurses play a crucial role in ensuring that ethical principles and values are upheld throughout the process. Their dedication to promoting the well-being and dignity of patients in these complex situations highlights their ethical and moral responsibility in providing compassionate and supportive end-of-life care [ 15 ]. In addition, another research study highlighted the indispensable role of nurses in providing compassionate care to patients in their final stages of life [ 16 ]. Nurses are entrusted with the responsibility to deliver exceptional care to terminally ill patients and their families. Insufficient knowledge has been identified as a major obstacle in providing optimal care for individuals nearing the end of their lives [ 18 ]. A lack of education and training in end-of-life care has been recognized as a significant contributing factor to insufficient recognition and management of symptoms, as well as challenges in effective communication with patients and their families [ 17 ].

At present, the level of knowledge and skills of our palliative care is not high, and they lack the skills of psychological, social, and spiritual support and are difficult to implement skillfully [ 42 ]. The limited awareness of hospice care in Mainland China can be attributed to various factors, such as the absence of systematic policy support, limited public educational campaigns, and the lack of comprehensive academic and practical curricula and training programs on hospice care. These factors have collectively contributed to the insufficient understanding and recognition of hospice care among the general public and healthcare professionals in Mainland China [ 43 ].

Healthcare professionals need professional knowledge and skills should use a variety of ways to educate professionals, and guide them not only care about patient survival rate, and quality of life, at the same time, we should also pay attention to the physical and psychological needs of incurable patients [ 44 ], educate patients with end-stage cancer and their families, provide a suitable environment and the necessary help, improve the quality of patient’s death, and meeting the needs of patients who are nearing the end of life. By enhancing the medical curriculum to include comprehensive education on hospice care and establishing hospice care programs within hospitals, opportunities can be increased for physicians, nurses, patients, and their family members to enhance their awareness and utilization of hospice care services. This would ultimately contribute to improving end-of-life care and ensuring that individuals receive the support and comfort they need during this crucial time [ 45 ]. In addition, the whole society should widely carry out life education and Death Education, guide people to look at life and death correctly, a planned, leisurely life with, a good start, and a good finish.

Paying attention to and meeting the needs and wishes of individuals and families is the guarantee of achieving “good death”

In the Chinese cultural context, there is a strong emphasis on the centrality of the family and social relationships [ 12 ]. Family dynamics are considered crucial for a good death, and Asian populations, influenced by Confucian teachings, place great importance on the cohesion of the family and the significance of familial relationships [ 46 ]. Nurses take care of terminal cancer patients for a long time, and they are familiar with the patients and their families. Clinical nurses should play an active role as a good communication bridge, which can help them communicate their needs or promote communication among themselves, at the same time, teach family members to play a better role in family support to meet the needs of patients with end-stage cancer to receive family warmth and care [ 47 , 48 , 49 ].

This study still has some limitations. Primarily, the participants were confined exclusively to a solitary tertiary hospital, thereby potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings. To augment representativeness, future investigations could contemplate sampling participants from nontertiary hospitals. Furthermore, the inclusion of solely female nurses in the analysis neglects male nurses, thus introducing a predisposed bias into the results. Within the targeted population of this inquiry, the dearth of male nurses serving escalates the complexity of ameliorating this bias. Secondly, the study lacked the amalgamation of quantitative research, impeding the determination of specific domains and the magnitude of improvement required in nurses’ competencies. To rectify this, future research endeavors should endeavor to broaden the sample size and scope, employing quantitative research methods to scrutinize the precise cognitive facets and knowledge modules necessitating enhancement in nurses. Additionally, there exists a demand for further exploration of culturally tailored competency models in the Chinese context. This would assist in confronting and resolving the challenges impeding the current competency development process. Furthermore, interviews were conducted in Chinese and subsequently analyzed and translated into English. Despite efforts by professional English editors to guarantee accurate translation, there remains a small risk that the translation process may have influenced the study outcomes. Lastly, further exploration is still required to ascertain the appropriate cultural backdrop of our model, and to refine and address the prevailing complications encountered in the euthanasia procedure.

This study explored the general cognition of nurses in the oncology department about good death from the perspective of Chinese nurses. The results showed that nurses in the oncology department had a low level of knowledge about good death, and had a correct understanding and view of “good death”. Indeed, strengthening hospice education is crucial to improve public awareness and acceptance of hospice care, leading to better quality end-of-life care. To enhance public education on hospice care, it is essential to develop and implement culturally appropriate educational programs systematically. By tailoring these programs to the specific cultural context, we can effectively address the barriers and taboos surrounding discussions about death and promote understanding and acceptance of hospice care [ 50 ]. It is the premise of realizing “good death”, and the ability of nurses should be improved. It is the guarantee of realizing “good death” to pay attention to and satisfy the needs and wishes of individuals and families.

Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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This work was supported in part by Medical Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (2024KY1788), Major Research Program of Taizhou Enze Medical Center Grant (19EZZDA2), Program of Taizhou Enze Medical Center Grant (22EZD06), Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Minimally Invasive Techniques & Rapid Rehabilitation of Digestive System Tumor of Zhejiang Province (21SZDSYS01), Program of Taizhou Science and Technology Grant (23ywa33).

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Wei-dan Wu, Yi Wang and Xin-yu Fu contributed equally to this work.

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Department of Gastroenterology, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China

Wei-dan Wu, Yi Wang, Jin-hua Zhang, Xin-Li Mao & Shao-wei Li

Key Laboratory of Minimally Invasive Techniques & Rapid Rehabilitation of Digestive System Tumor of Zhejiang Province, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China

Wei-dan Wu, Yi Wang, Xin-Li Mao & Shao-wei Li

Institute of Digestive Disease, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China

Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Linhai, Zhejiang Province, China

Xin-yu Fu & Chen-yang Zhang

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W-D W, W Y, X-L M and S-W L identified the research topic and designed the research process; W-D W, W Y, X-Y F were involved in writing the article; W-D W, J-H Z, X-Y F, W Y and C-Y Z were involved in interviewing and summarizing; W-D W, X-Y F, X-L M and S-W L were involved in correcting and revising the article.

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Wu, Wd., Wang, Y., Fu, Xy. et al. Qualitative study on the perception of good death in patients with end-stage cancer in oncology nurses. BMC Nurs 23 , 431 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02081-x

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3 Exercises to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence, According to Research

• Emma Seppälä

Small actions can have a big impact on self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive connections.

Everyone struggles to manage their emotions at times. It’s normal to have negative feelings and we can’t expect ourselves – or others – to leave those behind just because we’re at work. But those negative emotions can be detrimental to our relationships, performance, focus, and overall well-being. So it’s worthwhile to hone our emotional intelligence skills that help us handle negative feelings. The author shares three simple approaches to enhance three specific aspects of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive connections. These exercises include: assessment of bodily sensations, cognitive load, and emotional states; strategic breathing exercises; and authentic, intentional acts of kindness and understanding.

Have you ever reacted to a situation at work in a way you weren’t proud of? Or sent an email when you were upset that you later regretted? No matter how successful or accomplished we may be, we all struggle with managing our emotions at times — and suffer the consequences afterward.

• Emma Seppälä , PhD, is a faculty member at the Yale School of Management, faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program and bestselling author of SOVEREIGN (2024) and The Happiness Track (2017). She is also science director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education . Follow her work at emmaseppala.com , http://www.iamsov.com or on Instagram . emmaseppala

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Exploring medical students' experience of the learning environment: a mixed methods study in Saudi medical college

• Mohammed Almansour 1 ,
• Noura Abouammoh 2 ,
• Reem Bin Idris 3 ,
• Omar Abdullatif Alsuliman 3 ,
• Renad Abdulrahman Alhomaidi 3 ,
• Mohammed Hamad Alhumud 3 &
• Hani A. Alghamdi 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  723 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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In medical education, the learning environment (LE) significantly impacts students' professionalism and academic performance. Positive LE perceptions are linked to better academic outcomes. Our study, which was conducted 15 years after curriculum reform at King Saud University's College of Medicine, aimed to explore students' perspectives on their LE and identify areas for improvement. By understanding their experiences, we strive to enhance LE and promote academic success.

This mixed-method study employed an explanatory sequential approach in which a cross-sectional analytical survey phase was collected first using the Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale (JHLES), followed by qualitative focus groups. Findings from quantitative and qualitative methods were integrated using joint display.

A total of 653 medical students completed the JHLES. The total average score was 81 out of 140 (16.8), and the average subscale scores ranged from 2.27 (0.95) for inclusion and safety to 3.37 (0.91) for community of peers. The qualitative approach encompasses both inductive and deductive analyses, identifying overarching themes comprising proudness, high expectations and competition, and views about the curriculum. The integration of results emphasizes the need for continued efforts to create a supportive and inclusive LE that positively influences students' experiences and academic success.

This research offers valuable insights for educational institutions seeking to enhance medical education quality and support systems. Recommendations include faculty development, the cultivation of supportive environments, curriculum revision, improved mentorship programs, and initiatives to promote inclusivity and gender equity. Future research should explore longitudinal and comparative studies, innovative mixed methods approaches, and interventions to further optimize medical education experiences. Overall, this study contributes to the ongoing dialog on medical education, offering a nuanced understanding of the complex factors influencing students' perceptions and suggesting actionable strategies for improvement.

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The learning environment of medical students plays a significant role in shaping qualified, well-rounded physicians. It can also impact students' professionalism, ethics, and morals. As these students graduate and begin their professional practice, their competency can be a direct reflection of the medical institutes from which they graduated. The learning environment (LE) is a term used to describe the physical, cultural, and psychosocial climate in which learning takes place [ 1 ]. Students' skills, knowledge, and attitudes are influenced by the teaching and learning environment of their educational institutes. The interactions they have with their peers, faculty members, and administrators play a role in their learning environment. The curriculum that is taught to students is part of this environment, and the curriculum's design is a vital component [ 2 ].

The impact of LE on the academic performance of medical students is significant. Therefore, it is crucial to provide a supportive environment that positively influences students' perceptions of their LE. Research has consistently shown that students who perceive their LE to be positive and supportive are more likely to perform well academically [ 3 ]. Conversely, students who perceive their LE to be negative may experience adverse effects on their academic performance [ 3 ].

A student-centered curriculum of outstanding standards must be provided, and evaluation of the educational setting at both academic and clinical sites is essential [ 4 ]. King Saud University's College of Medicine program is seven years long, starting with a preparatory year, followed by two basic sciences (preclinical) years, then three clinical-practice years, and a one-year internship. The program employs a combination of problem-based learning and interactive lecturing to teach medical and healthcare-related sciences, emphasizing critical thinking and self-directed learning. Clinical training programs provide hands-on experience, with the goal of producing skilled and compassionate healthcare professionals.

Two studies were conducted at the College of Medicine at King Saud University (COM-KSU). The first study was conducted in 2008, prior to the college's curriculum reform in 2009, which transitioned from a traditional to a system-oriented hybrid curriculum [ 5 ]. Researchers utilized the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) scale to evaluate the learning environment (LE), and the results indicated that first-year students had significantly higher scores than other students [ 5 ]. Additionally, preclinical students had significantly greater scores than did clinical students, and gender was not a statistically significant factor [ 5 ].

The second study was conducted in 2014, where fifth-year medical students were evaluated using the DREEM scale to assess their perception of the LE [ 6 ]. The study revealed that the students' perception of the educational environment was satisfactory [ 6 ].

The Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale (JHLES) was created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to evaluate the quality of the learning environment for residents and medical students [ 7 ]. The 28-item scale helps medical educators identify areas of improvement by assessing seven factors or subscales, comprising community of peers, faculty relationships, academic climate, meaningful engagement, mentoring, inclusion and safety, and physical space [ 7 ].

The aim of our study was to investigate the perceptions of medical students regarding their LE at the COM-KSU 15 years after the curriculum was reformed. We seek to understand the experiences of students in this particular LE and gain insights into the factors that influence their perceptions of the LE. By exploring the students' perspectives, we aim to identify areas where improvements can be made to enhance LE and ensure that it is conducive to learning and promotes academic success.

Aim, design, and setting

This mixed-method study aimed to investigate students’ perceptions of the LE at COM-KSU 15 year proceeding a curriculum change, followed by an exploration of their perspectives aiming to identify areas of improvement of the LE. This study employed an explanatory sequential approach in which a cross-sectional analytical survey phase collected first, followed by qualitative focus groups. The research was carried out between November 2022 and March 2023 within the College of Medicine at King Saud University (COM-KSU), which is the pioneering medical education institution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is located in the capital city of Riyadh.

Participants and sampling

All the COM-KSU undergraduate students and interns were invited to participate in the study, with a total of 1471 students and 268 interns. The total number of enumeration techniques over the period of the study was used. Convenient sampling was employed in this study. The decision to employ convenient sampling was based on practical considerations of the accessibility and availability of participants. Consequently, a total of 653 individuals voluntarily participated in the first phase of the study, and the research team initiated the participant recruitment process by extending invitations to all undergraduate students and interns enrolled in the COM-KSU. The invitations were disseminated via multiple channels, including email, WhatsApp groups, and personal visits to each classroom within the college.

The data collection process comprised two distinct online surveys, each serving a specific purpose. The first survey focused on the quantitative phase and included questions related to demographic information and the Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale (JHLES). The second survey, designed for registration in the qualitative phase, included demographic inquiries along with a means of contact and the provision of available time slots. Subsequently, the research team communicated with the registered participants and arranged for focused group discussions (FGDs) to be conducted. Two FGDs were needed (5 and 7 participants) based on the theory of data saturation. Each FGD lasted approximately 70 min and was held at the College of Medicine. The discussions were facilitated by one of the authors, who is a qualitative methodologist and a faculty member at the same college, and the participants were comfortable discussing negative views as they were discussing positive views.

In the quantitative study phase, an online survey encompassing various components was developed. This survey collected demographic data, including information on gender, age, academic year, GPA, employment status, marital status, and residence type. Additionally, the Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale (JHLES), a validated tool used for assessing undergraduate medical school learning environments, was used. The JHLES consists of 28 items distributed across seven domains, and its use for this study was conducted without the need for direct permission, as it is publicly available.

In the qualitative study phase, students and interns were actively engaged in Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), aimed at eliciting their perspectives on the learning environment (LE). The FGDs employed a topic guide comprising open-ended questions aligned with the LE domains delineated by the JHLES. These questions included inquiries such as "How would you characterize your relationships with your peers?" and "To what extent does the college environment support collaboration with fellow students from the same college?" Furthermore, participants were asked to share their opinions regarding the faculty and provide insights into their perceptions of the curriculum. The FGDs were complemented with probing questions and follow-up queries to delve deeper into participants' experiences and perspectives.

Statistical analysis

For the first phase in this study, sociodemographic data were presented using descriptive statistics. The mean and standard deviation (SD) for the total score and the seven domains of the JHLES were calculated. Cross-tabulation was used to explore the relationships between the JHLES scores and the sociodemographic variables, and tests of significance through chi-square tests and ANOVA were performed. All analyses were performed using R (version 4.2.2), [ 8 ].

Qualitative data collection

The questions in the topic guide included probing questions and encompassed domains and questions from the JHLES. As open-ended questions were used to collect data, themes included deductive and inductive analysis. Inductive analysis was based on a priori themes based on the JHLES domains.

Qualitative analysis

Thematic analysis was adopted for qualitative analysis. This approach was proposed by Ritchie and Spencer (1994) to be helpful in providing a sequential structure for data analysis. This was conducted using NVivo software version 11.4.2. Using software increases the efficiency of data organization and retrieval. Familiarization, descriptive coding, basic analysis, and interpretation are the steps followed in the data analysis, and quotes from the participants were used to support the themes. Analyzing the data and identifying common descriptive themes were tasks shared with the team. The team agreed on a coding frame. The analysis was conducted independently, and the results are presented in comparison to the quantitative findings in Table  5 .

Mixed methods integration

Findings from quantitative and qualitative methods were integrated using joint display. The outcomes of the JHLES and FGDs were compared side-by-side. Integrating findings can create a holistic understanding of the learning environment of the College of Medicine, leading to a conclusion where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Joint display of the data provided visual means of presenting qualitative and quantitative findings granting the ability to associate reasoning with different item score. Qualitative findings complement the quantitative findings in providing meaning to the score and explored in students’ perspective reasons for these scores. The qualitative findings also explained how students’ pride and perception about their own status reflect on the JHLES score. Students’ needs and preferences were expressed explicitly during the FGDs.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by King Saud University’s Institutional Review Board (KSU IRB) with the approval number E-22–7298. Electronic informed consent was obtained from all participants in the quantitative arm, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants in the qualitative arm prior to their participation in the study.

Quantitative results

Sociodemographic characteristics.

Table 1 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of all participants. The total number of medical students and interns included in this phase of the study was 653. Of those studied, there was an almost equal gender distribution, with males making up slightly more than half (59%). There were relatively varied numbers of academic years, with less than average representation coming from the intern level at a participation rate of only 4%, while the highest engagement occurred during fourth-year studies at approximately 26%. Most individuals boasted high academic records, achieving an above-average GPA of 4.50–5.00 (65.7%). Of those who participated, a small fraction had lower grades below a GPA of 4 (11.5%). The majority of the participants were unemployed (96.2%), while less than 4% were either employed (full- or part-time) or freelancers (1.5%). Regarding personal life traits, most of the participants were single (98.5%) and lived with their families residing in Riyadh (93%).

As shown in Table  2 , the overall mean score for student experience was 81 ( SD  = 16.76). Among the specific subscales, the highest mean score was observed for physical space (3.52; SD  = 0.95), and the lowest mean score was found for inclusion and safety (2.27; SD  = 0.95).

Sociodemographic variables and overall and domain scores of the JHLES (mean and SD)

Associations between sociodemographic variables and the different domains of the JHLES as well as the overall score are represented in Table  3 . Male students reported a higher mean overall score than females did (83.4 ± 17.1 and 77.5 ± 15.7, respectively). As the number of academic years increased, the first-year students reported a greater average score than did the senior-year students, with a mean overall score for first-year medical students of 87.6 ( SD  = 16.9), whereas the average score for senior-year students (fifth-year) was 74.8 ± 18.2. Students who possessed higher GPAs (4.50–5.00) achieved the highest mean score of 82.2 ± 16, while those with GPAs less than 4.00 reported the lowest average score of 73.3 ( SD  = 15). Employment status was another variable impacting students' individual perceptions of this survey total score, where employed students generally outperformed unemployed students, with higher scores (88.6 ± 18.6) than unemployed students (80.7 ± 16.7). A significant association was observed between the overall JHELS score and gender, academic year, and GPA at the 0.05 level.

There was a notable difference in scores between males and females, with males reporting higher scores for all domains except “inclusion and safety”. Intriguingly, both genders reflected a similar pattern for reporting the highest score for physical space and the lowest for inclusion and safety. However, four domains showed statistically significant associations at the 0.05 level: peer community, faculty relationships, academic climate, and meaningful engagement.

Among the different academic year levels, first-year students reported the highest score for community of peers (3.64 ± 0.88) and the lowest for inclusion and safety (1.82 ± 0.90). Similarly, second- to fourth-year students reported the highest scores for physical space and the lowest scores for inclusion and safety. As the academic year progressed, fifth-year students and interns obtained the lowest scores in meaningful engagement (2.26 ± 0.94 and 2.18 ± 0.95, respectively), but the highest score was given for physical space among 5th-year students (3.42 ± 0.93) and communities of peers for interns (3.43 ± 0.87). There were statistically significant associations with all subscales except physical space ( P value = 0.33).

Students with high GPA (4.50–5.0) recorded higher results across all domains than did their peers who earned a lower GPA (i.e., less than 4.00), with the exception of inclusion and safety. It is interesting to note that the physical space domain stood out as the highest scorer for all groups, while the scores for inclusion and safety fell short among all groups according to GPA. There was a statistically significant association with the first three domains only, community of peers, faculty relationships, and academic climate.

Employed students reported higher scores on measures related to community engagement reflected in the community of peers (3.70 ± 0.63), while unemployed and freelance students had the highest scores for physical space (3.52 ± 0.95 and 3.65 ± 1.13, respectively). The inclusion and safety subscale scores were the lowest for unemployed and employed students (2.25 ± 0.95 and 2.49 ± 1.20, respectively), while freelancers reported the lowest score for the academic climate subscale (2.36 ± 0.61). Employment status was significantly associated with only the mentoring subscale ( P value = 0.02).

Students who were single attained the highest average score of 3.37 ± 0.91 on the physical space domain, while inclusion and safety presented a challenging component (2.26 ± 0.95). Conversely, those who were married or engaged garnered the highest community of peer ratings, averaging 3.53 ± 0.78, and the lowest for faculty relationships, with a mean value of 2.72 ± 0.92. Students residing with family or in private accommodations, as well as those with families living in Riyadh or outside Riyadh, reported the highest scores in the physical space domain and the lowest scores in inclusion and safety. However, the association was not statistically significant between all groups or across all subscales ( P value > 0.05) .

Qualitative results

Participants of both genders, senior and junior years, represented the FGDs (Table  4 ). One participant was employed, and all were living with their families.

As open-ended questions were used to collect data, themes were derived from deductive and inductive analysis. Inductive analysis was based on a priori themes based on the JHLES domains. Table 5 shows the domains in which participants’ perceptions were compared with the quantitative findings. Some qualitative findings aligned with the quantitative findings, while others contradicted or explained them.

Evaluating the learning environment for medical students is essential for improving their professional standards, knowledge, and skills. This mixed methods study explored medical students' perceptions about the learning environment at the College of Medicine, a well-known university in Saudi Arabia, King Saud University. This study is two-pronged, first, to quantitatively assess students’ perceptions of the COM-KSU learning environment and, second, to qualitatively explore their experience in the same medical school.

Our study yielded an overall average score of 81 out of 140 on the JHLES. Notably, there was no predefined threshold for a passing or positive score on this tool. Compared to the original study where the scale was first used and validated, the average score in our study was lower (107 vs 81, respectively) [ 7 ]. This discrepancy might be related to the original study's single-institute design affects the generalizability of its results, and the differences in student characteristics due to the U.S. requiring a bachelor’s degree for medical school admission, unlike KSA, where students enter directly after high school, play a role. Additionally, the original study did not focus on the "hidden curriculum" influenced by organizational culture and structure, which may explain the discrepancy given the distinct social, organizational, and learning cultures between our context and the American one. However, our results were consistent with those of other studies that were conducted in other medical schools in different countries, including Malaysia, India and Pakistan, ranging from 81.1 to 86 [ 9 , 10 , 11 ].

Two previously published studies in the same setting, COM-KSU (2008 and 2017), utilized the DREEM survey and revealed that medical students reported different average scores (89.9 out of 200 and 171.57 out of 250, respectively) [ 5 , 6 ]. Compared to the current study utilizing the JHLES, we may compare the findings based on a significant correlation between the two measures that support the use of the JHLES in the assessment of the same construct [ 11 ]. This comparison yielded reassuring results that the perceptions of medical students are still positive, with variations in the domains of LE, as described below. The added value of the qualitative component of the current study elicits more depth in understanding LE in the COM-KSU.

Although there was no difference among male and female students in the DREEM overall average score in a previous study that was conducted at the same college in 2017, our study revealed a higher overall average score among males (83.4) than females (77.5). The lower recorded score among females might be explained by their tendency to have higher expectations of a learning environment that was not achieved as their counterpart expected [ 12 , 13 ]. For explanations, male students had higher scores in different domains related to their relationships with the faculty and peers, including mentorship, peer support, and the academic climate. Nevertheless, both genders perceived a negative view where they expressed potential gender discrimination in the focus group interviews. Male students felt that they were treated differently than females, while their counterparts believed that males had more opportunities to build relationships with the faculty and gain more experience accordingly.

In terms of academic years, the domains and overall average scores decreased as the students progressed from the first year to their internships, with an exceptional decrease in the third year followed by the recovery of scores afterward. Nevertheless, students in the first year had higher average scores than interns, possibly due to the new environment and the support provided during their first year. Qualitative group interviews elaborated more on this variation, where medical students in the first year felt a sense of pride and honor upon being accepted in the COM-KSU. They believe that this was a validation of their social status.

Although the relationship between medical students’ feelings of pride in belonging to their college and the learning environment is complex and multifaceted [ 14 ], a positive and supportive learning environment that fosters a sense of belonging can enhance medical students’ feelings of pride and affiliation with their college [ 15 , 16 ], which is evident among first-year medical students. In contrast, a negative learning environment that lacks support and inclusivity can detrimentally impact medical students’ feelings of pride and belonging [ 17 ]. Nevertheless, first-year students still experienced negative emotional effects that were not captured by the quantitative questionnaire due to the lack of professional identification they encountered when they moved from the preparatory year to medical school.

However, the decrease in the average score during the third year could be explained by engagement in clinical rotations and practical applications instead of merely learning basic science. This perception was explained during focus group interviews where students explained the third year as the most challenging due to the preparation for their actual medical practice. This included starting to see patients, taking medical history, and performing physical examinations. Interestingly, this result was consistent with other studies that were conducted in different medical schools, although different assessment tools were used, including MSLES, DREEM, and the same tool used in this study (i.e., JHLES) [ 3 , 7 , 10 ]. In contrast, other studies have shown that medical students feel more satisfied with clinical practice than with basic science during the first and second years [ 12 , 18 , 19 ].

This paradox might be explained by the difficulty students faced at the beginning of the clinical year, after which it decreased or diminished after they gained confidence in their practice under the supervision of well-trained faculty [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Hence, higher average scores in the following years could be explained by the maturity of the medical students and their ability to overcome early difficulties after they have more experience during clinical rotations. In the COM-KSU, medical students in their fifth year are prepared to experience life as physicians where they have pure clinical experience joining medical teams, attending rounds, clinics and doing procedures under the supervision of trained faculty and senior doctors. Hence, when mentoring was assessed among medical students, their perception reflected by the average score given to this domain increased as the number of academic years increased, with the highest score occurring during the internship. Mentorship plays an important role in the learning environment, as described in other studies [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The importance of the student‒faculty relationship and the enhancement of faculty influence on students are supported by the qualitative findings, which demonstrate that students' perceptions of faculty support vary, which is congruent with other studies [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. However, a study revealed that the majority of faculty members are not prepared to provide the kind of support that has been shown to be most effective for students [ 29 ].

Furthermore, the meaningful engagement of students declines as the academic year progresses, as expressed by students’ responses to this domain in the JHLES. The qualitative approach elaborated more when students complained about the lack of support provided by the student council, which the COM-KSU perceived as the hub where medical students can engage and obtain the required support. From the students’ perspective, the student council was not able to provide effective support or bring about significant changes for students facing challenges related to their medical study needs. The qualitative study participants agreed with the findings of other local studies, highlighting the absence of a supportive environment for students in our local colleges [ 12 , 30 , 31 ]. On the other hand, the majority of students reflected positively on peer support, where they found it to have a positive impact on them. They identified college friends and colleagues as the main sources of support, which was congruent with other studies that explained the same attitude [ 32 , 33 , 34 ].

According to the students’ performance measured by their GPA, students with higher GPA had higher JHLES scores, both overall and domain average scores. High-achieving students tend to have more positive perceptions of the learning environment than do students with lower GPAs [ 10 , 11 , 21 , 22 , 35 ]. This could suggest a positive association between academic achievement and students’ perceptions of the educational setting [ 18 , 19 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. However, students experienced positive consequences from high competition in the learning environment due to family and physician expectations that were captured during the focus group discussion. Similar results were found in another study that was conducted in the medical school of the University of Valladolid [ 39 ].

Inclusion and safety were negatively perceived in this study among medical students at all levels, regardless of their gender, academic year, or performance, which was reflected in their GPAs. This finding was consistent with other studies measuring the same domain average score of Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS), Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College (NRSMC), and College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital (CMSDH) [ 9 , 11 ]; however, this finding was in contrast to that of PUGSOM [ 40 ]. A possible explanation might be related to the aforementioned reasons, which were associated with students’ perceptions of gender discrimination, stress in the first year due to the new environment and in the third year due to engagement in clinical practice, and their achievements, which elevated stress when they had lower GPAs. Previous studies have shown that the prevalence of stress is greater during the first three years of medical education, which is consistent with our findings [ 35 ].

In contrast, the physical space domain in our study received the highest score, where we believe that physical space has improved as a result of the college's 2018 expansion [ 41 ].

Strengths and limitations

One key strength of this study is the employment of a comprehensive mixed methods approach to gain an understanding of how students perceive their learning environment. This approach collects numerical data, delves deeply into the students’ experiences and feelings, and provides valuable insights through the integration of findings from both approaches. Another strength of this study is the large number of participants from different academic years, which allows for a diverse range of perspectives from both new and experienced students.

Nevertheless, convenience sampling may not fully represent the student population and limits the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, focusing on one institution may not capture the experiences of students across different settings, cultures, or cities, potentially limiting the applicability of any recommendations to other medical colleges or regions. However, the large sample size, the diversity of data and the integration of results may enhance the transferability of the findings.

Recommendations for educational institutions

Enhance faculty development: Address the issues of perceived neutrality and reported negative interactions with faculty by investing in faculty development programs. These programs should focus on improving communication skills and mentoring abilities and cultivating more supportive and encouraging faculty‒student relationships. Creating opportunities for regular feedback from students can also aid in faculty improvement. This is important as students showed high tendency to be influenced by advice from faculty member.

Cultivate Supportive Environments: Foster a less stressful academic climate by promoting a culture of mutual respect and collaboration within the institution. Encourage open dialog between students and faculty, where questions and concerns can be raised without judgment. Stress management and well-being programs should be implemented to help students cope with academic pressures.

Revise Curriculum and Mentorship Programs: Address curriculum concerns by engaging students in the curriculum development process. Consider their suggestions for better organization, logical flow, and references. Additionally, structured mentorship programs that connect students with experienced doctors who can provide guidance, share experiences, and serve as positive role models should be established.

Evaluate and Improve Support Services: Reevaluate the effectiveness of support services such as the students' council and academic support departments. These services are responsive to students' needs and have the authority to enact meaningful changes. Regularly solicit feedback from students to gauge the impact of these services.

Promote Inclusivity and Gender Equity: as FGDs showed that both genders feel discriminated against, creating initiatives to address perceptions of discrimination and gender bias within the learning environment is important. This may involve raising awareness, offering training on gender sensitivity, and implementing policies that promote inclusivity and equal opportunities for all students, regardless of gender.

Recommendations for further research:

Longitudinal studies should be conducted to track the changes in students’ perceptions and experiences. This will help us identify emerging trends and understand the long-term effects of interventions and policy changes.

This research can be expanded by including studies with medical schools or institutions to validate our findings and assess how applicable they are in diverse educational settings.

The use of mixed methods research in the field of education should be further explored. Investigate approaches that combine qualitative and deductive methods to gain deeper insights into students’ educational experiences.

Dive deeper into specific areas highlighted in this research, such as mentoring programs and concerns related to the curriculum. Explore ways to enhance mentoring effectiveness and develop strategies for improving the curriculum to create a learning environment.

Interventions targeted at addressing identified areas should be implemented for improvement while thoroughly evaluating their impact. This will enable institutions to assess the effectiveness of these interventions based on data-driven decisions leading to the enhancement of education.

This study was the first to assess the learning environment of medical students at COM-KSU through quantitative and qualitative approaches. The overall average JHLES score indicated room for improvement, in line with global trends. Gender disparities, challenges in different academic years, and the critical role of mentorship were identified. Academic performance correlated positively with students' perceptions, while inclusion and safety were areas of concern. The physical space domain received the highest score, reflecting investments in infrastructure. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to address gender disparities, enhance mentorship, improve student engagement, and ensure inclusivity and safety, ultimately enhancing the educational experience of COM-KSU medical students.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available for request from the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

• Learning environment

Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale

College of Medicine at King Saud University

Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure

Focused group discussions

Medical School Learning Environment Survey

Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences

Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College

College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital

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Almansour, M., Abouammoh, N., Idris, R.B. et al. Exploring medical students' experience of the learning environment: a mixed methods study in Saudi medical college. BMC Med Educ 24 , 723 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05716-4

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First qualitative research study conducted in Turkmenistan focuses on HPV vaccination

Within the framework of a WHO–European Union joint project on immunization in central Asia, the WHO Country Office in Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan jointly conducted the country’s first qualitative research study.

The project aimed at identifying factors influencing parents' decisions related to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for their children. Consisting of focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews, the research provided an understanding of parents’ attitudes and beliefs about HPV as well as barriers to HPV vaccination.

The results of the research conducted over 3 weeks in late 2023 will serve as the basis for activities to increase public awareness about HPV and sustain confidence in HPV vaccination in the future.

HPV vaccination in Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan included the HPV vaccine in its routine immunization schedule starting in 2016, for boys and girls at 9 years of age. Although national vaccination coverage remains high, a slight downward trend has been observed in both urban and rural areas: from 99.2% in 2021 to 98.5% in 2023.

With a relatively young population increasingly turning to the internet for information, it is important that evidence-based answers to potential questions about vaccination are readily available. However, official online information about vaccines remains limited, creating an opportunity for misinformation to spread with the potential to decrease vaccination uptake in the coming years.

The Ministry asked WHO to conduct a qualitative research study to identify what parents know about HPV, the diseases it can cause, the effectiveness of vaccination in preventing these diseases, and especially what questions or concerns they have on HPV vaccination that need to be addressed in a transparent and accessible manner.

The study, conducted jointly by experts from the Ministry and WHO, aimed to develop targeted interventions to better inform the public and health-care workers about HPV vaccines. Focus groups and in-depth interviews with health-care providers, parents and staff of public organizations were conducted to identify participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural determinants for uptake of HPV vaccine and childhood vaccines in general.

The study was conducted in cities, including the capital, as well as in rural sites in 2 regions. Data collection and analysis were conducted using the COM-B framework, which looks at 3 key components: capability, opportunity and motivation for behaviour change.

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Study findings revealed that attitudes toward HPV were generally positive, partially due to positive attitudes toward vaccination in general but also due to preparatory steps taken by health authorities prior to introducing the HPV vaccine in 2016.

These steps included informing and training health workers to administer and answer questions about the vaccine and to inform parents and children about the benefits of HPV vaccination in preventing HPV infection, emphasizing its role in preventing the spread of the virus rather than only in preventing cervical cancer.

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NATO Seen Favorably in Member States; Confidence in Zelenskyy Down in Europe, U.S.

3. views of russia and putin, table of contents.

• Views of NATO have changed in several countries
• Confidence in Zelenskyy varies across Europe – and has declined in some places
• Little consensus on support for Ukraine
• Views of Russia, Putin have warmed in some places
• Country spotlight: Turkey
• Country spotlight: Poland
• Country spotlight: Sweden
• Importance of NATO membership
• Views of aid to Ukraine
• Favorability of Russia
• Confidence in Putin
• Acknowledgments
• About Pew Research Center’s Spring 2024 Global Attitudes Survey
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology
• Appendix A: Views of NATO, Russia and Putin over time
• Appendix B: Political categorization
• Classifying parties as populist
• Classifying parties as left, right or center

Here are key takeaways about global views of Russia and Putin in the 35 countries we surveyed:

• Opinions of Russia are broadly negative, with majorities in more than half of the surveyed countries holding an unfavorable view.
• Confidence in Putin remains low across the surveyed countries, though relatively large shares in the Asia-Pacific region and sub-Saharan Africa have confidence in him.
• In some places, views of Russia and Putin have warmed slightly since reaching historic lows in 2022 amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Overall, a median of 65% of adults in the surveyed countries have an unfavorable view of Russia, while 28% have a favorable view.

  Related: Overall opinion of Russia in 2023

Views of Russia are particularly negative in some countries. At least three-quarters of adults in Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. – as well as in many European countries – have an unfavorable view of Russia. In many high-income countries surveyed, majorities have a very unfavorable view of Russia.

Malaysia is the only country where a majority express a favorable opinion of Russia, with nearly six-in-ten Malaysians saying this. Opinion is more mixed in other middle-income countries: Roughly half hold a favorable view of Russia in Bangladesh, Peru, Thailand and Tunisia. In some middle-income countries, however, about a quarter of respondents or more do not offer an opinion.

How opinion of Russia has changed over time

Although views of Russia generally remain negative, ratings have improved slightly in several countries since last year. For example, the share of Argentines with a favorable opinion of Russia reached an all-time low of 17% in 2023. This year, the share has risen by 11 points to 28%.

The rise in favorable views of Russia is less pronounced in other countries, including Germany, Mexico and South Korea. In each, the share of adults with a positive opinion has increased by 5 points since last year. The share holding a positive view has also grown in Malaysia and Singapore, where we last surveyed in 2022, immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In some countries we last surveyed before the invasion of Ukraine, the share of people with a positive opinion of Russia is significantly lower today. For example, in Chile, favorable views of Russia are now at an all-time low, with only 20% saying they have a positive view of the country. In 2017, by comparison, 34% of Chileans had a positive view of Russia. Similarly, in the Philippines, the share of people who express a favorable opinion of Russia has dropped 10 points since 2017 (from 56% to 46%).

(For more on views of Russia over time, read Appendix A .)

How opinion of Russia varies within countries

In most of the surveyed countries, younger adults are more likely than older people to have a favorable opinion of Russia. Previous Pew Research Center surveys have found a similar pattern .

In most countries, the gap between younger and older adults is 10 percentage points or more. For example, in Peru, 63% of adults under 35 have a positive opinion of Russia, compared with 31% of adults 50 and older (though older Peruvians are less likely to provide a response).

Views also vary by political ideology in a few places. In Hungary, people on the ideological right are 24 points more likely than those on the left to have a favorable view of Russia (38% vs. 14%).

In Israel, the reverse is true: 33% of those on the left express a positive opinion of Russia, compared with only 6% of those on the right.

Most people in the countries we surveyed have little or no confidence in Putin to do the right thing regarding world affairs. A median of 73% express not too much or no confidence at all in him.

Views are overwhelmingly negative in Europe, with sizable majorities in every surveyed country expressing a negative view of Putin. Greece is the only European nation polled where more than one-quarter of adults have confidence in Putin.

Views are more varied outside Europe. Malaysia and the Philippines are the only two countries surveyed where majorities express confidence in Putin, including about two-in-ten in each country who have a lot of confidence in the Russian president.

In the four countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – views of Putin are somewhat more negative than positive.

Confidence in Putin also remains low in Latin America. In fact, majorities in Chile (61%) and Brazil (62%) say they have no confidence at all in the Russian president.

In some middle-income countries, sizable shares do not offer an opinion on Putin. This is the case for two-in-ten or more in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

How confidence in Putin has changed over time

In most places, confidence in Putin has remained relatively stable since last year. In some countries, views have even warmed slightly following the historic lows seen in 2022 and 2023. For example, in Argentina and Germany, confidence in Putin is up by 9 points since last year, with around two-in-ten in each country saying they have at least some confidence in him.

In countries where we have not surveyed since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, confidence in Putin is down slightly today. For example, confidence in the Russian president is down by 8 points in Chile, dropping from 20% in 2017 to 12% this year – a new low.

(For more on views of Putin over time, read Appendix A .)

How confidence in Putin varies within countries

Ratings of Putin vary by political ideology in some countries. Adults who place themselves on the right are more likely than those on the left to express confidence in the Russian president. This ideological gap is widest in Hungary, where those on the right are 26 points more likely than those on the left to express confidence in Putin (34% vs. 7%). There is a similar pattern in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Turkey and the U.S.

In Israel, however, this pattern is reversed. Roughly a quarter of Israelis on the ideological left (26%) have confidence in the Russian president, compared with only 6% of those on the right. We see a similar pattern in Japan.

As observed in previous surveys , confidence in Putin among Europeans can also vary based on support for right-wing populist parties in their country. Those who have a favorable view of right-wing populist parties in their country are often more likely to have confidence in the Russian president. For example, 45% of Germans who support Alternative for Democracy (AfD) express confidence in Putin, while only 10% of nonsupporters agree. Rising shares of right-wing populists are confident in Putin in several countries, including France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. (For more information on how we categorize populist party support, read Appendix C .)

In some middle-income countries, people with more education are also more likely to have confidence in Putin than their counterparts with less education. For example, in Bangladesh, 70% of adults with more education express confidence in Putin, compared with fewer than half (45%) of those with less education. A similar pattern exists in some Asia-Pacific countries – including India, Thailand and Sri Lanka – as well as in Ghana, Peru, Tunisia and South Africa. Adults with less education in these places are also often less likely to offer an opinion.

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