What are the purposes that qualitative research serves?

What will be an ideal response?

1. What are the purposes that qualitative research serves?
Qualitative research serves four major purposes. It can be used as an exploratory study method and is particularly oriented toward exploratory discovery and inductive logic. It can also be used as a complement to large-scale systematic research, and is often conducted first to provide leads and feedback for more structured or large-scale quantitative research that follows, or later to help confirm and elucidate information to add depth, substance, and meaning to survey and experimental results.

It can also be used as a method for specific research purposes, and is more appropriate than other methods for certain objects, topics, problem, and situations, such as the study of complete events, phenomena, or programs; developmental or transitional programs and events; attitudes, feelings, motivations, behaviors, and factors associated with the changing processes; complex events with interrelated phenomena; dynamic or rapidly changing situations; relationships between research subjects and settings; and processes, or how things happen, rather than outcomes, or what happens.

Qualitative research can also be used as an alternative when methodological problems and ethical concerns preclude the use of other methods. When subjects are unable or unwilling to participate in a formal survey or experiment, qualitative research may be used as a viable alternative. It is often a preferred alternative when the control and manipulation necessary for an experiment are not ethically feasible.