Qualitative research is used to explore and understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and interactions. It generates descriptive, non-numerical data. Qualitative research methods include:
- Documents - the study of documentary accounts of events, such as minutes of meetings
- Passive observation - the systematic watching and recording of behaviour
- Participant observation – here, the researcher also occupies a role or part in the setting, in addition to observing
- In-depth interview - a face-to-face conversation to explore issues or topics in detail
- Focus group - method of group interview which explicitly includes and makes use of the group interaction to generate data.