What are the common types of qualitative research methods?

The choice highlighting interviews, focus groups, ethnography, and content analysis accurately reflects common qualitative research methods. Each of these methods is designed to gather in-depth insights into human behavior, experiences, and the meanings individuals attach to their interactions and contexts.

Interviews are personal, often unstructured or semi-structured conversations that allow researchers to explore a participant's thoughts and feelings in a detailed manner. Focus groups, on the other hand, involve guided discussions with small groups, enabling researchers to observe the dynamics of group interactions and gather a range of perspectives on a particular topic. Ethnography entails the immersive observation of people in their natural environments, providing rich contextual data and a deep understanding of cultural practices and social interactions. Content analysis allows for the examination of various forms of communication, such as texts, media, or discourse, to identify patterns and themes.

These qualitative methods prioritize the richness and depth of information rather than numerical data, which aligns with the overarching goals of qualitative research: to understand and interpret human experiences and social phenomena in context. Other answer choices involve methods that either pertain to quantitative research or are unsuitable for capturing the nuances typically investigated in qualitative studies.