Answer and Explanation:
Some of the characteristics of qualitative research include:
1. Natural setting
2. Researcher is key instrument
3. Multiple methods
4. Focus on participants
5. Emergent design
1. Natural setting: This means that qualitative researchers collect their data from the field ie where the participant is naturally dwelling(sometimes without the participant's knowledge of the researcher). This is different from an experimental research that involves bringing participants to a lab in order to manipulate dependent variables and observe them with independent variables and extraneous variables. An experimental research would therefore have to report the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable while a qualitative research would report participants behavior given variables in his natural dwelling.
2. Researcher is key instrument: a qualitative researcher is the main instrument of research as he does not make use of third party source of data or data collected by someone else such as use of questionnaires, he observes the participants directly in the field. An experimental researcher on the other hand makes use of the results of his experiment, cause and effect relationship of variables, in getting his data for analysis. Therefore the qualitative researcher and experimental researcher will report different sources/methods of data collection in their research report.
