Investigators using qualitative methods can use these methods to pick a particular subject and study it in-depth. As opposed to a questionnaire that asks for a "yes" or "no" answer to questions, qualitative researchers can also encourage the subjects to respond in their own terms. These terms may include loosely defined or subject-determined concepts such as "self-esteem," "job performance" or "benefits" regarding a policy or program. The investigator can also use qualitative methods to record a subject's experiences and perceptions, rather than only cataloging data; for instance, in analyzing the effects of a sales initiative, a quantitative researcher might only look at revenues versus costs, where qualitative research can explore how a subject responds to the differing pressures of the new initiative.
Because qualitative research delves into subjective concepts and relies on individual and group experience and perceptions for data, the qualitative researcher gains explanatory power. While quantitative experiments may show that an increase in revenue offsets the cost of a training program, the qualitative researcher can analyze and explain subjective factors that might impede better revenue gains, such as employee satisfaction, stress levels and overall interoffice morale. Qualitative researchers can also use this subjective information to compare data between two groups, one that underwent a change and one that did not. This type of research can also explain how subjective factors affect one another or interact, such as job stress and perceived job security.
While many quantitative data-driven experiments in the social sciences take place in clinical or laboratory settings, researchers can use qualitative methods in a variety of settings. Researchers in human resources can conduct interviews at a job site to receive feedback on employee perception of working conditions. Sociologists can study the behavior of a cultural or ethnic group in its native environment. Educators can analyze the effects of a cutback by going into a school and studying the effects of a reduction in programming. In this latter case, investigators can also interview teachers, students and administrators to gauge the changes.
Qualitative research methods also enable studies of greater complexity, both in the amount of information gathered and in the time over which a researcher compiles that information. Greater complexity of data can lead to a fuller understanding of a phenomenon. Researchers can use qualitative methods to track an educational policy's effects over the entire educational K-12 life of a student rather than just noticing, quantitatively, if test scores improved during one quarter. This type of research also yields more complex interpretation that ties many factors, such as student self-esteem or the perceived challenges of different course material, into the explanation.