The Web Wide World of Jon Hoevenaars

Consider the old adage: quality versus quantity. When I’m hungry, I choose the latter every day. I don’t particularly need to know what’s in the food. I don’t care what goes into me so long as it fills me up.

But sometimes it’s important to consider what we’re consuming rather than simply how much. Qualitative research is a technique that does exactly this. For the benefit of simplicity, from now on I’ll refer to qualitative research as QR.

It seems to me QR is a very thorough and integrated method of assessing a subject. It doesn’t just find out answers, it finds out the reasons for the answers and what inspires them. QR doesn’t just observe and record behaviour, it goes the extra step to find out what provokes that behaviour. Where quantitative research accounts for what, where and when, QR goes a step further to deduce why and how something happens.

QR uses the following four methods to gather information:

1. Participation in the setting;
2. Direct observation;
3. In-depth interviews; and
4. Analysis of documents and material

My friend Wikipedia tells me that one way QR can be distinguished from quantitative research is by its objectives. Quantitative research seeks to come to a conclusion or find a concrete answer to its question. Its mission is to state a problem and have that resolved by the end of the research process.

QR, on the other hand, is far more exploratory. It allows for digressions, diversions and unanticipated movements. It’s multi-faceted unlike its cousin and cannot be measured, counted or displayed in a graph.

It appears there is an Association for Qualitative Research (AQR). I’m not sure I’d like to work for them. In a sentence, this is what the AQR has to say about QR.

Qualitative research provides often an unparalleled understanding of the motivations behind human behaviour, desires and needs.

Seems to make something very complex sound very simple. I hope I can do the same.