Imagine that a researcher wants to test the hypothesis that getting married increases happiness. he finds 100 people who are married and 100 people who are unmarried. he then has them report on their levels of happiness, and he compares the average happiness score of the married group to the average happiness score of the unmarried group. he discovers that the average happiness score of the married group is higher. what research design is this?

This is a qualitative research design.

A qualitative research design is usually used when one wants to understand people’s experiences, that are not usually quantifiable.

This research design does not aim to build a model and predict values. Rather, it’s aim is to explore and understand existing experiences.  

In a qualitative research design, the researcher decides the hypothesis that needs to be tested even before collecting the data. The researcher then collects the data, analyses it and interprets the results himself.

qualitative research design  

Explanation: this kind of research, where the result of both social possibilities are available and comparable is known as qualitative research design. This kind generally based on a social constructivism perspective. The major objective of qualitative research design is studying human behavior, opinions, themes and motivations. Moreover in this research, detailed answers are required by the targeted sample audience. This kind of research is more expensive as compared to quantitative research and more time consuming as well.

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