Qualitative Research
What is Qualitative Research?
Qualitative research is a methodology focused on collecting and analyzing descriptive, non-numerical data to understand complex human behavior, experiences, and social phenomena. This approach utilizes techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and observations to explore the underlying reasons, motivations, and meanings behind actions and decisions. Unlike quantitative research, which focuses on measuring and quantifying data, qualitative research delves into the 'why' and 'how' of human behavior, providing rich, contextual insights that reveal deeper patterns and relationships.
The Basic Idea
Ever heard of the saying “quality over quantity”? Well, some researchers feel the same way!
Imagine you are conducting a study looking at consumer behavior for buying potato chips. You’re interested in seeing which factors influence a customer’s choice between purchasing Doritos and Pringles. While you could conduct quantitative research and measure the number of bags purchased, this data alone wouldn’t explain why consumers choose one chip brand over the other; it would just tell you what they are purchasing. To gather more meaningful data, you may conduct interviews or surveys, asking people about their chip preferences and what draws them to one brand over another. Is it the taste of the chips? The font or color of the bag? This qualitative approach dives deeper to uncover why one potato chip is more popular than the other and can help companies make the adjustments that count.
Qualitative research, as seen in the example above, can provide greater insight into behavior, going beyond numbers to understand people’s experiences, attitudes, and perceptions. It helps us to grasp the meaning behind decisions, rather than just describing them. As human behavior is often difficult to qualify, qualitative research is a useful tool for solving complex problems or as a starting point to generate new ideas for research. Qualitative methods are used across all types of research—from consumer behavior to education, healthcare, behavioral science, and everywhere in between!
At its core, qualitative research is exploratory—rather than coming up with a hypothesis and gathering numerical data to support it, qualitative research begins with open-ended questions. Instead of asking “Which chip brand do consumers buy more frequently?”, qualitative research asks “Why do consumers choose one chip brand over another?”. Common methods to obtain qualitative data include focus groups, unstructured interviews, and surveys. From the data gathered, researchers then can make hypotheses and move on to investigating them.
It’s important to note that qualitative and quantitative research are not two opposing methods, but rather two halves of a whole. Most of the best studies leverage both kinds of research by collecting objective, quantitative data, and using qualitative research to gain greater insight into what the numbers reveal.
You may have heard the world is made up of atoms and molecules, but it’s really made up of stories. When you sit with an individual that’s been here, you can give quantitative data a qualitative overlay.
– William Turner, 16th century British scientist1
About the Author
Emilie Rose Jones
Emilie currently works in Marketing & Communications for a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her Masters of English Literature at UBC in 2021, where she focused on Indigenous and Canadian Literature. Emilie has a passion for writing and behavioural psychology and is always looking for opportunities to make knowledge more accessible.
