Qualitative research is generally associated with:

Qualitative research is generally associated with an inductive approach to theory.

It builds theory from data gathered in natural settings and participants' meanings.

The deductive approach tests preset hypotheses and pairs with quantitative work.

Positivism is the epistemology underlying quantitative, not qualitative, research.

Objectivism holds that social phenomena exist independently of social actors.

Qualitative inquiry favours interpretivism and constructionist assumptions.