Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research  is used to  understand a behavior in a natural setting. Qualitative research can also be used by using written documents and through case studies. Qualitative research is mostly gathered from observations, interviews, focus groups, and non-statistical. These techniques are great to use to do research in public places where you don't want the participants to know that they are involved so you can get more truthful results.


Observations is when you look at what is happening rather than asking participants questions directly. This method helps you to better understand behaviors and is helpful to understand populations better. An example is when you sit on the quad and observe how many people are wearing greek letters and from that observation come to the conclusion how many students are in greek life on campus and which sorority or fraternity on campus brothers or sisters wear their letters the most.


Interviews are used to provide detailed data from the participants about their specific experiences and opinions. They are usually open ended questions to make the participants have a more in depth answer. 


Focus Groups are usually 8 to 12 people that are randomly selected but share the same experience or characteristic relevant to the evaluation. They are used to gain insight used to create ideas, solve problems. They are usually asked open-ended questions or topics to cause discussion among the group.  An example of a focus group is when 8 to 10 women ages 20 to 25 are brought to a room and discuss what their favorite type of lipstick is and why they buy a certain. They always discuss what they dislike and what they would change in certain advertisements to make them buy a certain product. The results will be used to create an ad by a certain make up company to better target that age group.