Purpose
The purpose of qualitative research is to gather non-numerical data to help explain or develop a theory about a relationship. Methods used to gain qualitative information include surveys, observation, case studies, and interviews and the information derived from these means can be combined into a story like description of what is happening or what has happened in the past. For example, to better understand variables that are difficult to quantify, such as attitudes, religious beliefs, or political opinions, qualitative research could be used to draw a picture about a specific population or group of people. Qualitative research is often also used as a pilot study in order to gather information that may later lead to a quantitative study.
Read more about this topic: Quantitative Psychological Research
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“What if we fail to stop the erosion of cities by automobiles?... In that case America will hardly need to ponder a mystery that has troubled men for millennia: What is the purpose of life? For us, the answer will be clear, established and for all practical purposes indisputable: The purpose of life is to produce and consume automobiles.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“Certain books seem to have been written not for the purpose that we learn something from them but that we know that the author was a knowledgeable person.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment’s sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)