Research on the Attitude of the Irish on Alcohol

Qualitative research is subjective data and is often used in the social sciences (Sarantakos 2013, p. 48). Qualitative research is devoted to gathering facts, this can be completed through personal experiences, behaviours, and observations (Sarantakos 2013, p. 46). The purpose of qualitative research is to gather an in depth understanding of human behaviour and the explanations for the behaviour (Martijn & Sharpe 2006, p. 1). An issue with only using a qualitative method is efficacy, qualitative studies cannot address relationships between variables with the degree of accuracy that is required to establish social trends (Sarantakos 2013, p. 46).

Questionnaires are “a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic” (Bryant, L, 2014). There are different types of questionnaires that include face to face, phone, post and online.

Qualitative methods may include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and reviews of documents. Primary inductive process is used to formulate theory or hypotheses. The qualitative method is more subjective, it describes a problem or condition from the point of view of those experiencing it. It is

These are research techniques that can be used to produce data such as questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, observations and scientific experiments.

There are a number of methods of collecting data, some of them are – questionnaire, surveys, checklists, interviews, observations, focus group etc (Cordray, 1986; Einhorn and Hogarth, 1986).

Maxwell (2005) also notes that qualitative research can be used to address various issues and is not restricted to one ontological stance. The method also involves developing a relationship with the people one is studying, an aspect that is important in defining the authenticity of the data and determining the course of action.

Qualitative research is a broad field of inquiry that uses unstructured data collection methods, such as observations, interviews, surveys and documents, to find themes and meanings to inform our understanding of the

Qualitative research is concerned with meanings of experiences and interactions. Qualitative research is very common in the social sciences, although it is often used in market research as well (Alasuutari, 2010; Nieswiadomy, 2011). There has been quite a rise in qualitative research in the last 30 years. It first started to emerge in journals in the 1960’s, and an increase in the number of qualitative research can be seen in research journals in the 1980’s (Alasuutari, 2010). Instead of looking at the statistical numbers within research, the researcher in interested in getting within the research, and understanding the phenomenon (Leedy, 2011; LoBionod-Wood & Haber, 2013).

The method of this research is a qualitative research. Qualitative research isdesigned to reveal a target audience’s range of behaviour and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues. It uses in-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses. The results of qualitative research are descriptive rather than predictive. (Qualitative Research Consultants Association, 2016).

Research methodology generally involves qualitative research or quantitative research, or a mixture of both. A quantitative research methodology involves the analysis of data collected from a large number of surveys or interviews. On the other hand, methodologies for qualitative research often involve using surveys or interviews to collect information about people — their attitudes, experiences and behaviors.

Qualitative research comprises of receiving information that gives a verbal expression of the participates, providing more detail and depth than quantitative studies. It can be used to analysis people’s attitudes and emotions towards a topic encouraging them to expand on their answers to explain the reasons behind why they gave a particular response. The drawbacks to this being as it requires more time to collect the data so smaller sample sizes

There are many exploratory methods that can be used to conduct research. These include field studies, action research, depth interviews, focus groups and desk research. This exploratory research utilised one qualitative method to collect data, which will help gain an insight of the research problem before further research is performed. The method chosen was ‘in-depth interviews’ which are relatively unstructured and extensive interviews in which the interviewer asks many questions and probes for in-depth answers (Zikmund, Ward, Lowe, Winzar, & Babin; 2011). Zikmund, Ward, Lowe, Winzar, and Babin, (2011) also suggest that there is no one perfect method which can meet all research objectives.

“Qualitative research is an umbrella term for an array of attitudes towards and strategies for conducting inquiry that are aimed at discovering how human beings understand, experience, interpret, and produce the social world.” (Sandelowski, 2004, p.893).

Qualitative research explores attitudes, behavior and experiences through such methods as interviews or focus groups (Dawson C. , 2007).

Qualitative research is the technique that is used as a part of exploratory research and to derive the independent variables. There are different methods through which we can conduct the qualitative research. As a part of this study we have adopted the following methods: