Which qualitative analysis techniques are most effective at identifying key trends? Why?

Qualitative methods are flexible; they allow more unaffectedness and adaptation for the interface and collaboration between the researcher and the individual participating, and involves a thorough analysis of human experience and human behavior (Rosenthal, 2016).

This can lead to a better understanding of the participate perspective of behavior through the study.

The most effective techniques used to identify key trends are interviews and focus-groups. Interviews provide a better understanding of social phenomena than what would be gathered from other methods, such as questionnaires (Rosenthal, 2016).

Focus group can provide trustworthy naturalistic data that also lead to important insights about human behaviors by allowing all the participants to speak freely (Rosenthal, 2016). They can both be used to gather sociodemographic information, that can effectively show key trends, but the interviewer should be alert to both non-verbal and verbal cues.

However, it is important for the researcher to have carefully considered which data collection approach will provide the best information to answer the research question being studied.

Rosenthal, M. (2016). Qualitative research methods: Why, when, and how to conduct interviews and focus groups in pharmacy research. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 8(4), 509 - 516.