Qualitative Data: GCSE Psychology Definition

What is Qualitative Data?

Qualitative data is data expressed in words. It is collected via any medium that allows the participant to freely express their thoughts and feelings. The feelings, attitudes, ideas, or beliefs of the participant may be discussed in an unstructured interview, written about in a diary or journal, depicted in a painting or image, discussed in a focus group or shared in a naturalistic observation focusing on both verbal and non-verbal language.

Qualitative data allows researchers to gain insight into the nature of individual experience and meaning; it does not attempt to generalise findings beyond the immediate participant/sample or to find general trends/patterns in behaviour. Unlike quantitative data, it does not restrict the ways in which a participant responds to a question or a prompt, e.g., the use of open rather than closed questions.

Qualitative data can be analysed using content analysis, which produces quantitative results, or thematic analysis, which produces qualitative results. Qualitative data is rich and insightful as it draws from personal experience and subjective meaning.

Qualitative Data Revision Resources to Ace Your Exams

You can use the Save My Exams revision notes to revise qualitative data and research methods to further your understanding of how psychologists carry out research.

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