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Qualitative surveys gather data through open-ended questions to understand why and how people behave and think. They are conducted on a representative cross-section of the population and are used to generate hypotheses for further research. Qualitative data is difficult to analyze due to the breadth of responses.
Qualitative surveys contain a set of predetermined questions that people are asked for the purpose of gathering data. Qualitative surveys differ from quantitative surveys which concern, for example, ‘how many’ people exhibit certain characteristics rather than ‘why’ they are exhibiting them. They are performed on a cross section of the population in order to collect descriptions and opinions on variables such as reasons and motivations behind people’s behaviours.
Surveys involving qualitative research look at why and how people behave and think the way they do, as opposed to quantitative research which looks at how many people have particular characteristics. Research of a qualitative nature does not deal with “how many”, but with generating hypotheses on the reasons behind actions and events. Qualitative research is often used in social science and market research as a means of understanding behaviors at the individual, group, and sometimes population levels.
Qualitative surveys are generally conducted on a representative cross section of the population of interest; participants must meet the criteria for inclusion in the study. For example, a survey of college students would take a cross-sectional sample of the college student population and ensure that the participants in the sample possess a representative set of characteristics similar to the college student population as a whole. Individuals are then asked a set set of questions. By their nature, surveys generally have a rigid structure so that the results can be easily grouped and compared.
For a qualitative survey to be successful, questions are open-ended, for example, asking why participants engage in certain behaviors or how they complete a task, rather than closed-ended questions that only give yes-or-no answers. A qualitative survey aims to obtain numerous opinions of the respondents. It can be done as a one-on-one interview, in the solitude of an interview room, and the responses noted or recorded. Qualitative answers are often lengthy due to the open-ended nature of the questions and people’s willingness to express how they feel and think. In this case, the interviewer should be trained in how to track surveys and minimize the depth of information collected.
Conducting qualitative surveys in public places can be difficult due to the possibility of gaining insightful expressions and opinions; so they should be short, just for some questions. The interviewer may risk potential interviewees being reluctant to participate. Qualitative data is notoriously difficult to analyze due to the breadth of different responses often collected. The number of surveys performed should therefore be limited and mainly used to generate hypotheses to structure questions in a quantitative survey or to structure further more in-depth qualitative research such as focus groups or case studies.
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