Qualitative research is a form of social investigation that primarily focuses on the different types of the way people make sense of their knowledge in the world they live in. It also involves the interpretation of their experiences in their daily life. We live in a world where the different races of human beings exist side by side without any problem. We might ask what are the attributes, differences or similarities to make this comparison. In this scenario, qualitative research plays a major role in answering all of our doubts.
According to a study by Coghan in 2014, there is an involvement of personal experiences in each stage of qualitative research. Quantitative research is defined as an act of investigation or inquiry of real-life proceedings.
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
Various characteristics of qualitative research are as follows.
- Helps in interpretation and understanding of human behavior through data analysis
- The powerful and active method of data collection by asking questions through interviews, surveys, and questionnaires
- Some multiple methods and approaches allow the researcher to plan for the study. It is a multiple method research study
- Several specific ideas that lead to the conclusion or generalization of the data
- Contextualization of the situation in the life of an individual
- Collection of diversified data in natural and real-life settings
- Representation of view of the people in a video, drawing, picture or graphs
- Proper examination of the data yielded due to internal attributes of the subject
Advantages of the Qualitative Research
Now let us check in detail the advantages of qualitative research in real life. They are described below.
- Quantitative research implements an approach that is completely natural to the subject matter.
- The framework for research is based on available and incoming data. Also, the subject materials are evaluated in greater detail along with discussions.
- The collected data in qualitative research includes a predictive quality in it. It mainly operates within the fluid structures.
- The complexities of the data in qualitative research can be incorporated into the generated conclusions.
- Promotes a detailed understanding of the human personality and behavior traits in their natural surroundings.
- It is very efficient in bringing positive changes in society
- The qualitative research maintains respect for the individuality of different people.
- The research is the most effective way to interpret and understand the interactions in society.
- Enhances the interest of the researcher on a particular subject.
- Qualitative research offers multiple and innovative ways of examining and acquiring data about a study.
- Qualitative research unveils the feelings, perceptions, and attitudes of a particular topic.
- It also stimulates the interpersonal and interdependence of the relationships among human beings.
- All the information is reliable and precise, as qualitative research promotes the collaboration of the researchers as well.
- It also provides an in-depth and detailed idea about a subject by analyzing the ranks and counts of the feelings, attitudes, and behavior.
- It also can explain why a particular response was given against the questions in an interview.
How can Qualitative Research Help Mankind?
Qualitative data can help mankind in many different ways. Let us have a brief look at it below:
- Development of hypothesis for the development of a quantitative questionnaire and further testing processes.
- Identification of the needs of the consumers
- Making perceptions of the communication and marketing messages
- Generation of the ideas for the extension or improvement of the products, services or brands
- Understanding the people’s perspective on marketing or a communication piece
- Understanding of the values, perceptions, and feelings that influences and underlie in the behavior
- Capturing the languages of the imagery clients to relate or describe to a service, product or brand
- Understanding of the better meaning of the data obtained through quantitative research
- Unhidden the direction of the potential strategies for the communication or branding programs
- Designing of parameters like responses range of relevant questions for the study of quantitative research
Implementation of Qualitative research in Real Life Situations
Below are some of the real-life circumstances where qualitative research is often used. They are:
- Investigation of the potential or current products services or position of a brand through the marketing strategies.
- Understanding the dynamics of the purchasing decision.
- Exploring market sections like a specific group of people, demographics, age and many more.
- Accessing the website usability or various other interactive services or products.
- Determining the language of the customer as the most important step to create a quantitative survey.
- Development and generation of an idea of a new product.
- Weaknesses and strengths of the brands or products
- Studying the attitudes and emotions of the public and social affair related issues
- Complete understanding of the company’s perception of a specific brand, product, or category
The Pros of the Qualitative Research
With experts from WriteMyPaperHub you will write your research paper – but let us take a quick sneak peek into the pros of qualitative research. They are the following
- The approach of qualitative research is not bounded by quantitative methods. If the responses do not fit the expectations of the researchers, then qualitative research might explain something that numbers itself cannot explain alone.
- Qualitative research allows the researchers to be more speculative about which segments they need and how to investigate. It allows prompt data capture according to the instinctive or gut feelings of the researcher where good information can be revealed.
- Qualitative research captures the evolving attitudes of the target group like service or product for the consumers, or attitudes of the employees in the office.
- Qualitative research offers an approach that is more flexible in nature. If the insights are not useful, then the researchers can adapt questions to change the settings or variables and improve the responses.
- Qualitative research is more targeted and covers different areas of organizations. It includes the entire process, parts, and participants that are needed to be accounted for.
- Qualitative research speeds up the procedure for data capturing and keeping the costs of the data collection low.
Conclusion
Any type of research be it qualitative or quantitative, both the approaches have pros and cons. In the case of qualitative research, its value is undeniably linked to the numbers of quantitative data. Thus we can conclude that qualitative research is far more focused, experimental and concentrated in capturing the views and feelings of the participants.
