Considerações teóricas acerca da utilização da pesquisa qualitativa

Abstract

This paper presents a general vision of Qualitative Research. This type of research tries to explain subjective interpretation of the studied object. Qualitative Research doesn't deal primarily with the measure of happenings. The individual or object of study is understood in a complex way, what became a hard task to categorize them. Main characteristics of Qualitative Research are: 1. Absence of quantitative measure; 2. Preoccupation to find happenings of phenomenon; 3. Preoccupation with "the how" and "the why" of the phenomenon; 4. It works with little samples; 5. It studies the symbolic levels of contents and its characteristics; 6 It uses contextual and intra-psychic attitudes in analyses of the studied object. The qualitative research uses as principal techniques the interview in deep, focus group, case analyses, projective techniques, Delphi techniques and observation. The correct choice of the method and techniques depends on the object and the study's problem.