Objectives:
The aim of this article is to explain the essence of qualitative research in terms of its wider application, among others, in security sciences.

Material and methods:
In the process of developing the article, the authors assumed that their research problem was to explain what is the essence of using qualitative research? To explain the problem, the method of examining the content of the literature on the subject and dialectical reasoning were mainly used, which were sufficient to explain the adopted problem and achieve the purpose.

Results:
The authors put forward the thesis that a comprehensive explanation of a specific problem in security sciences requires the use of mixed research methodology, adequate to the problem being explained, the research goal being achieved, the subject being researched and the hypotheses being verified. The authors argue that in the research process we do not test specific cognitive-theoretic assumptions, but through the diversity of their application we strive to achieve the most probable result.

Conclusions:
The conclusions from the research indicate that some researchers in security sciences avoid conducting qualitative research as the main methodological assumptions, but use qualitative research methodology as a complementary one along with other approaches to obtaining facts. Even though researchers in security sciences refer to the research bases of neopositivism, reflectivism, rationalism, constructivism, and postmodernism, they do not notice or cannot justify their qualitative research results, forgetting that all knowledge of reality begins in Popper's third world and ends there by modifying the existing theory or creating an alternative one based on other paradigms.