Qualitative research facts for kids

Qualitative research is a way to study and understand people's lives and experiences. Instead of using numbers and statistics, it focuses on words, stories, and observations. It helps us learn about people's feelings, beliefs, and what motivates them.

Researchers often use in-depth interviews, group discussions (called focus groups), or by watching people (observations). This helps them collect detailed information. Qualitative research is great for exploring tricky topics. It helps us understand why people do what they do. It also shows how people see the world around them.

Some methods used are ethnography (studying cultures), grounded theory (building ideas from data), and discourse analysis (looking at language). This type of research is used in many fields. These include sociology, anthropology, psychology, and educational research.

What is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research helps us understand human life. It looks at things like culture, how people express themselves, and their beliefs. It also explores morality, stress, and imagination. This research helps us see the world through other people's eyes.

How Researchers Study Things

Researchers use non-numerical information as data. This means they use words, pictures, or videos, not just numbers. This method is growing in many areas. These include learning sciences and developmental psychology.

Ways of Thinking

Different ways of thinking guide qualitative research.

• Phenomenology studies how people experience things. It looks at what it feels like to be a person.
• Social constructionism looks at how our ideas are shaped by society. It shows how researchers and participants both influence the study.
• Symbolic interactionism explores how people understand the world. It focuses on how we use symbols and language.
• Positivism tries to understand the social world in a very objective way.

Where Data Comes From

Qualitative researchers use many types of information. These are called "data sources." They include:

• Notes from interviews
• Videos of people interacting
• Personal notes
• Things like books or art

The case study method is a good example. It focuses on getting deep details about one person or group. Researchers also use triangulation. This means using different data sources to check information. Autoethnography is when a researcher studies themselves. They use their own experiences to understand a topic.

Other methods include:

• Grounded theory: Building ideas directly from the data collected.
• Thematic analysis: Finding patterns and main ideas in the data.
• Conversation analysis: Studying how people talk to each other.
• Biographical research: Recreating life stories from interviews and documents.
• Narrative inquiry: Looking at the stories people tell about their lives.

Collecting Information

Qualitative researchers gather information in several ways. They might:

• Watch people (observations)
• Take detailed notes
• Talk to people one-on-one (interviews)
• Talk to groups of people (focus groups)
• Look at documents and other items

Interviews

Interviews are a key way to collect data. A researcher asks questions to a person (the interviewee). This is usually a back-and-forth conversation. Interviews allow for a very personal connection. People often share private information. This can bring up many feelings and experiences for those being interviewed.

Participant Observation

In participant observation, researchers join the group they are studying. They take part in the activities. This helps them truly understand a culture. For example, a researcher might train as an EMT. This lets them experience the lives of EMTs firsthand. They can then study how EMTs handle stress.

Changing the Plan

In qualitative research, the plan can change. This is called recursivity. Unlike strict experiments, qualitative researchers can change their study design. They can do this even while they are collecting data.

This means researchers can collect data, look at it, and then decide to collect more. They might even change what they are focusing on. This is different from experiments, where the plan is usually set from the start. Qualitative researchers believe this flexibility helps them find new and unexpected things.

Things to Consider

A screenshot of a user coding text on NVivo

Trustworthiness

A big part of qualitative research is trustworthiness. This is also called credibility. It means making sure the findings are believable. Researchers use many ways to do this. They might check with the people they interviewed. They might also have other researchers review their work. Using different data sources (triangulation) also helps.

Limitations

Qualitative research has some limits.

• Participant reactivity: People might act differently when they know they are being watched.
• Over-identifying: A researcher might become too sympathetic to the people they are studying. They might then see more good qualities than are really there.
• Cause-effect: It's hard to prove that one thing causes another using only qualitative research. Experiments are better for this.

It's also important to know that observation is always selective. Researchers always have some ideas or goals in mind. It's impossible to do research without any prior expectations.

In Psychology

Community Psychology

Community psychology uses qualitative methods. For example, researchers have collected life stories from community psychologists. This helps understand their experiences.

Educational Psychology

Researchers have used qualitative methods in educational psychology. They have studied the social lives of high school students. This includes students who are struggling and those who are doing well.

Health Psychology

Qualitative methods are used more and more in health psychology. They help understand health and illness. They also show how health is shaped by daily life. Methods like discourse analysis and thematic analysis are used here.

Work Psychology

In industrial and organizational psychology, qualitative research is common. It helps when designing things like:

• Changes in a company
• Training programs
• Plans for employee development

Occupational Health Psychology

Occupational health psychology (OHP) also uses qualitative methods. This can help researchers:

• Develop new ideas and questions
• Create surveys and interview questions
• Find new causes of stress and ways to cope
• Understand difficult research findings
• Learn why some stress-reduction programs work and others don't
• Get rich details about people's work lives

Some OHP researchers combine qualitative and quantitative methods. For example, they might use qualitative methods to find job stressors. Then they use quantitative methods to measure coping and mood.

See also

In Spanish: Investigación cualitativa para niños

• Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)
• Hermeneutics
• Methodological dualism
• Participatory action research
• Process tracing
• Qualitative psychological research
• Quantitative research
• Real world data