Methods, Qualitative

Qualitative methods are the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyze data related to some research question or hypothesis in social research to interpret the meanings people make of their lives. Qualitative researchers may use different methods for gathering information or collecting data. Qualitative methods assume that understandings and theories grow “inductively” out of what is studied. The qualitative methods may include participating in the setting, observing directly, interviewing, conducting focus groups, and analyzing documents and materials. Qualitative methods are useful in exploring new issues, investigating hard-to-study groups, and determining the meaning people give to their lives and actions. Qualitative methods for data collection can be used to understand the processes involved in creating people's perceptions of their well-being and shaping how they describe their lives.

The major features of qualitative research include observations of natural behavior that capture social life as experienced by participants, the role of the social context and interconnections between social phenomena, the importance of human subjectivity and meanings, and the subjective role of the researcher. Reflexivity is an important part of qualitative methods. Geoff Payne and Judy Payne define reflexivity as “the practice of researchers being self-aware of their own beliefs, values and attitudes, and their personal effects on the setting they have studied, and self-critical about their research methods and how they have been applied, so that the evaluation and understanding of their research findings, both by themselves and their audience, may be facilitated and enhanced.” In this way, the researcher is part of what is being studied. [Page 615]Qualitative methods refer to several distinctive research designs: participant and direct observation, interviews, and focus groups.