Qualitative Survey

Qualitative surveys use open-ended questions eliciting long, written answers with an aim to reveal opinions, experiences, narratives or accounts. They are often a useful precursor to interviews or focus groups as they help identify themes or issues that should be further explored in the research. The main aim of a qualitative survey is not to establish frequencies, means or other parametres, but to determine the diversity of some topic of interest within a given population – it is a study of diversity, not distribution, in a population (Jansen,  2010).

Qualitative surveys may be inductive (open) or deductive (pre-structured). In inductive surveys, relevant objects/topics, dimensions and categories are identified through the interpretation of raw data, whereas in deductive ones, the diversity to be studied is defined beforehand, and the aim of a descriptive analysis is only to see which of the pre-defined characteristics exist empirically in the population under study. Though qualitative researchers equate qualitative research with induction, Jansen (2010) underlines that pre-structured surveys focused on the diversity analysis as opposed to the numerical distribution are considered qualitative research, too.

As the aim of a qualitative survey is to study the diversity of a phenomenon within the target population, the diversity sample should be purposefully selected, with an aim to cover all existing varieties of the phenomenon (saturation).

The data collection is generally conducted by questioning people, whereas the researcher wants to find out about the relationships between the characteristics of units, i.e. the patterns of categories, in order to explain the diversity in the subject of study. Three main methods of administering qualitative surveys are as follows:

• face-to-face surveys – the researcher asks the participant one or more open-ended questions, and observes the participant’s reactions, which enables them to ask follow-up questions to elicit a more detailed response. These surveys are audio recorded and transcribed.
• telephone surveys – the researcher asks the participant one or more questions, but cannot see their facial or behavioural responses, thus missing potential cues for asking follow-up questions.
• online surveys – open-ended questions are presented to participants in writing via email, often alongside quantitative research questions on the same topic. Some contextual information or key definitions may be provided to frame the participants’ perception of the questions. Diverse responses are usually obtained (from brief to detailed, vague).

The advantage of a survey over an interview relates to the fact that a lot of people can be questioned at the same time; it can be sent by e-mail, thus collecting data from a wider region. It is also cost-effective. However, the reliability of responses depends on the repondents’ sincerety, whereas questions can be misleading/leading, eliciting answers that are not core to the research subject. Questions must be as neutral as possible in order not to reveal the researcher’s expectations.

In order to ensure the success of a survey, it is important to describe its purpose politely at the top of the questionnaire. The fact that the survey is anonymous should be emphasised, as well as the fact that the responses will be used only for the research purposes, and that the aim of the questionnaire is not to test the respondents’ knowledge and therefore there cannot be correct or incorrect answers. It is important to state that the respondents should feel free to express their opinions or attitudes.