Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation.
Some of the features of focus-group discussions include each member's participation, a number of consecutive meetings, common characteristics of members with respect to interests, the collection of qualitative data, and discussion that is focused on a topic that is determined by the purposes of the research. [7]
An interview in qualitative research is a conversation where questions are asked to elicit information. The interviewer is usually a professional or paid researcher, sometimes trained, who poses questions to the interviewee , in an alternating series of usually brief questions and answers.
One of the characteristics of artistic research is that it must accept subjectivity as opposed to the classical scientific methods. As such, it is similar to the social sciences in using qualitative research and intersubjectivity as tools to apply measurement and critical analysis. [15]
A fundamental difficulty with focus groups (and other forms of qualitative research) is the issue of observer dependency: the results obtained are influenced by the researcher or his or her reading of the group's discussion, thus raising questions of the validity of the research (see experimenter's bias).
Coding reliability [4] [2] approaches have the longest history and are often little different from qualitative content analysis. As the name suggests they prioritise the measurement of coding reliability through the use of structured and fixed code books, the use of multiple coders who work independently to apply the code book to the data, the measurement of inter-rater reliability or inter ...
The characteristics of the research itself are equal to those in qualitative methods overall. However, the characteristics as they relate to criminology relate most closely to the research's applicability. Generally, qualitative methods are used to supplement quantitative data – particularly by establishing background and/or applicability. [2]
Qualitative research is often exploratory and descriptive, emphasizing the importance of subjectivity, reflexivity, and interpretation. While qualitative methods are often viewed as opposite to quantitative methods, there is an increased emphasis in geography on mixed methods approaches that employ both.