A qualitative analysis focuses on qualities and characteristics over numbers.
The Latin. This is the language in which we can find the etymological origin of the qualitative term that concerns us now. And it derives from the Latin word "qualitativus", which can be translated as "related to quality" and is made up of two different parts:
• The noun «qualitas», which is synonymous with «quality».
• The suffix «-tive», which is used to indicate a passive or active relationship.
Qualitative is an adjective that is used to name that which is linked to quality (the way of being or the properties of something).
Qualitative analysis
A qualitative analysis , therefore, is aimed at revealing what the characteristics of something are. In this way, qualitative focuses on quality , unlike quantitative, which focuses on quantities.
Let's look at an example to better understand the concept. A soccer coach asks his assistant to prepare reports on his team's latest games. The technical assistant, in this way, develops two studies: one quantitative (where he details that the team scored seven goals, won two games, lost three and used eighteen players) and another qualitative (which specifies that the team had a poor performance and that performed below expectations since the objectives agreed upon before the start of the tournament were not met).
Qualitative is oriented towards quality and not quantity.
Assessment of qualities
Qualitative can also be an assessment of qualities over numbers or figures . An artisan who makes bracelets decides to favor the qualitative and create only three bracelets a day, taking care of the details and the finish of the product, while another may give priority to the quantitative and produce eight bracelets a day, but of lower quality.
Generally, in an economic or commercial field, the higher the quality, the higher the value (that is, what has quality is sold at a higher price). Continuing with this example, the artisan who makes three bracelets may sell each piece for 20 pesos, while the one who produces eight should offer them, due to their characteristics, for no more than 6 pesos each.
Qualitative research
It is important to establish the existence of what has been called qualitative research , which is research that aims to achieve specific results through the use of methods or tools such as surveys, discussion groups, open interviews or experiments.
Within the field of social sciences is where the use of the aforementioned methodology is most frequently used, which can be of several types:
• Research – action. Through it, what is intended is to obtain a series of data that allows the situations of certain groups to be improved, and to this end what it does is investigate their participation.
• Ethnography. Participant observation becomes the fundamental basis for the development of this type of research, which is based on the study of the different types of life that human beings can have.
• Projective techniques. It is based on the fact that some individuals, when interpreting the behavior of others, indirectly give an account of their beliefs, ideas, thoughts, feelings or motivations. This study is carried out through resources such as focus groups or association.