Research on the Attitude of the Irish on Alcohol

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.

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

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 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

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 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).

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).

“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 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.

The survey can be conducted in a variety of methods due to the flexibility and usually are conducted using standard questionnaire. The questionnaire can be administered by postal questionnaires, telephone, face to face interviews, online survey or group interviews. (Muijs, 2004) Strengths and limitations of this methodological approach (especially online

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:

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.

There are several methods that could be used such as observational or longitudinal studies over a period of time, or by using surveys, and focus groups.

Generally, survey is defined as an act of doing a brief interview or discussion about a specific topic with an individual in order to gather information needed (Fowler, 2013, p.8). To collect the data in survey, the researcher can use either by a written questions (questionnaire) or by straightly ask a load of questions to the participants to obtain the required information (interviews). This type of data collection method is really preferred by many researchers among the other methods due to its numerous advantages and benefits. One of the major advantages is it provide a greater range of information that represent a large number of population which the result usually more precise because the questions that used are usually undergo a scrutiny standardizations (Mathiyazhagan and Nandan, 2010, p.34). However, it required lots of time consuming and cost. Thus, due to its advantages, me as the researcher will be using survey method through questionnaire, with two types of questions, which are the closed questions, and Likert scaled questions in this research. The closed questions are more effective in the survey because it is easier