¶ … nature of the research and what is being looked at, but many things have to be looked at, either partially or in full, in a qualitative and otherwise non-numbers way. This brief response will cover this non-numbers way of doing research, why it is vital and why it is non-optional. At the same time, the chance of bias, mistaken conclusions and the like is much more likely when speaking of qualitative research.
As requested by the assignment, the author of this response found an article in the Qualitative Health Research journal and this particular article was published a scant three months ago. The article focused on qualitative conclusions that are made during mental health intake process. This was a worth topic to review as many conclusions drawn as it pertains to mental health are mostly if not entirely qualitative in nature. Another major wrinkle in this dynamic is that many people are either incapable or unwilling to be honest and forthright about what is really going on and for that and many other reasons, the salient facts and conditions that should inform a mental health intake professional's judgment may be elusive and/or misleading (Nakash & Alegria, 2013).
Having a solid blend of qualitative and quantitative data is nice to have, especially if they lead to the same outcome and/or conclusion, but that is not always possible in all instances. As lightly inferred above, the material that is gained via research is subject to bias and selected revelations of data and this is much more often the case when speaking of anything involving face-saving, avoiding embarrassment or anyone otherwise positioning and releasing information in a way that suits the revealer but may not be informative to what is actually going on. Also as noted before, not everyone is willing and able to volunteer the most relevant information and this is where an adept mental health professional (in the case of a mental health intake situation) or a researcher (in research of the same) comes into play and is very important (Nakash & Alegria, 2013).
Another Perspective
The line of thought espoused in the QHR article is echoed when assessing the California State University at Long Beach website section regarding qualitative research. They, much like the author of this response would suggest, advocate the importance and necessity of qualitative research but at the same time caution about using it correctly and in a way that yields proper and verifiable results. Simple conjecture and blind assumptions are not part of any good research, qualitative or quantitative, and that slippery slope that exists is much more pervasive and prone to come to pass when speaking of qualitative research as compared to quantitative research (CSULB, 2013).
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