research techniques-qualitative research

1.1Qualitative research ivestigates the how and the why not just the others 3W's ( where what when) it is a good way of producing various amounts of methods such as;
   

• observations
• field notes
• reflective journals
• structured interviews 
• semi structured interviews

Observations are good because they can reveal more information when you are directly there it also puts it in context so you understand the topic you are talking about. The disadvantages of observing are that you miss something, your vision is obscured, or you forget something. Structured observations are that the people of person know that they are being observed but don't know the exact reason why or what for. Unstructured observations are that the people or the person knows that they are being observed and know what for. The researcher is trying to discover an aspect of the topic that they don't know. The aim for unstructured is to observe in its full context.

In field notes the advantages is that you can describe what you are seeing in full detail straight away, but the down side is that if you spend to much time on one thing then you will miss something else. You also need to supply your self with enough detail that you don't end up guessing what you have observed this is why you need to practice writing notes. Another disadvantage about writing is that you only get one chance in doing it depending on your topic. As you know it is impossible to document everything you see so observing and writing isn't a really good option.

Reflective journals are something that you have documented, learnt, and seen over a period of time. Reflective journals gives you the ability to record events you have seen that gives you help in the future.

Structured interviews in qualitative research is usually best suited in focus groups studies this would be helpful to look for a difference between to or more things in order to answer a research question. Structured interviews allow the interviewee to freely, an example would be for an interviewer to ask a question and the interviewee unable or refuse to answer. The disadvantages of this is that the participants might not be honest and the information may not be true due to the change in the amount of questions that have been answer and the closed questions. The advantages of this are that it is reliable and a limited amount of detail is generated.

Semi structured interviews are open which allows the interviewer to bring up new topics or issues as a result of what the interviewee has said. The advantages of semi-structured interviews are that it producing a large amount of detail and sometimes the amount generated is reliable and really easy to analyze.