The Meaning of Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative and Qualitative are two different forms of research that complement each other either from a numerical standpoint or a descriptive one. Quantitative research comes from a numerical perspective and qualitative research comes from more of a descriptive perspective, though they cannot be described with these specific terms, they need to be elaborated on to get more of an overall understanding.
Quantitative research expresses data in a numerical fashion and its main focus is to supply information and to determine relationships between variables (Guts, 2014). It is the most widely used research because it gives hard results and is quite easy to understand (Guts, 2014). Quantitative research can shape our behavior. For example, wearing a seatbelt in the car. People wear their seatbelts in the car because one, it is the law. Two, it became a law because of research that has been done, saying that wearing seatbelts protects the body more effectively when in car accidents than not wearing a seatbelt. The data is expressed numerically by showing statistics on people’s health when they have been in an accident either with a seatbelt on or off. Quantitative research is helpful when learning about unknown facts such as the importance of wearing a seatbelt.
The most popular method of quantitative research is an experiment, which gives casual information and hard numbers (Guts, 2014). Experiments are easy to understand, and provide accessible information that helps predict human behavior (Guts, 2014). In experiments, researchers manipulate variables using experiment and control groups. (Guts, 2014). An experiment includes independent and dependent variables. An independen...
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...uch a large interest into a study could cloud the researcher’s judgment. From these examples, it is clear that ethical concerns need to addressed and prevented when working with both quantitative and qualitative research.
Quantitative and qualitative research are often compared for their strengths and weaknesses. Yet, in many cases, both approaches compliment each other when attempting to understand human experience. When quantitative research is unable to thoroughly identify the information numerically, qualitative research lends a hand by giving a subjective intake of the data. And, quantitative research does the same for qualitative research. Proving that, both approaches help researchers grasp a greater understanding of human experience.
References
Guts, K. (2014). Personal Communication.
Research can be quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research is objective and involves measuring the phenomena under investigation. Qualitative research is subjective, explores experiences and feelings, and involves the recording of phenomena that cannot easily be quantified (Toates, 2010, pp. 5-6). Both are empirical since they involve data collection (OU, n.d.).
Methods used in psychological research are used to obtain quantitative or qualitative data. Quantitative data is more often than not derived from methods such as experiments and statistics analysing data using surveys, questionnaires and interviews. Qualitative data tends not to be aimed at finding exact measurements in its findings, but is more concerned with evidence collection and analysis through practices such as observation and ethnography (using observations through involvement in activities over a period of time) (Brownlow 2011).
That is the reason why in the first place they were classified as two different research methods. For starters, being the most apparent difference drawn from the definitions of the two methods, data when collected is subjected to different uses. In the event of quantitative data, it is merely manipulated mathematically. If there are accounting records obtained for example showing income and expenditure, the most common form of calculation that is done is to obtain gross profit. Qualitatively however theoretical data is all that is obtained, this data will not be subjected to any arithmetic procedures but rather to become words or pictures. Such data could involve the list of activities done by workers during their free time at work.
Quantitative is numerical or statistical data which often comes from surveys, surveillance or administration records. Quantitative evidence provides a good overall picture of a population or geographical region. It can often be used to measure trends over time. It describes who, what, where and when. Quantitative has four main designs, Descriptive, Correlational, Experimental and Quasi-experimental. Descriptive is the characteristics of individuals, situations or groups and the frequency which with certain phenomena occur using statistics to summarise and describe data. Correlational, interrelationship amongst variables of interest without any active intervention by the researcher. Experimental is systematic and objective, investigator controls the independent variable and randomly assigns subjects to different conditions (Ingham-Broomfield, n.d.).
Pure, hard numbers allow researchers to fully understand and evaluate their work. With Qualitative research producing good quality facts is a bit harder as it only produces descriptions and translation of the research. Quantitative and qualitative research can be used in conjunction with each other but in maybe in something outside of business. For example, if you were to pair the two research functions when looking at a real world issue like domestic violence. Quantitative research/analysis could be used to show how many people in the study are affected by domestic violence, and qualitative analysis to explain the symptoms of those who have suffered through a relationship where domestic violence was problematic. If I had a business of my own, I would much prefer to use quantitative research and analysis, as I would be motivated by numbers to have a better understanding of my production and rates of success and
Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed
On the other hand, Quantitative research refers to “variance theory” where quantity describes the research in terms of statistical relationships between different variables (Maxwell, 2013). Quantitative research answers the questions “how much” or “how many?” Quantitative research is an objective, deductive process and is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables with generalized results from a larger sample population. Much more structured than qualitative research, quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys, personal interviews and telephone interviews, polls, and systematic observations. Methods can be considered “cookie cutter” with a predetermined starting point and a fixed sequence of
Each of them have the same goal, but use a different path to find contrasting info in various ways. Doing qualitative research gets you reasonings and explanations of certain issues or improvements a company can do. People who are surveyed are telling their own opinions and ideas in their own words. Companies take this into consideration and use this info collected for future reference. Qualitative data is collected by doing interviews, focus groups, and observations. This data is usually recorded in person, to get a true and more accurate answer. For example, if the business has a drop in sales, they gather people to tell them why people are not buying the products. Quantitative data, however is collected by polls, questionnaires, and surveys. A majority of these methods are not done in person, but are done using online surveys. These surveyors will get numbers, like how many people liked a certain product or the average age of customers. For simple and efficient ways of getting information in numbers, using technology is the fastest and easiest way to do this. All the company needs, is to send out these online polls or surveys to a large group of people. Unlike qualitative data, quantitative data can give you a more general idea of data and a bigger amount of it as well. Qualitative data takes time to find out and can only use a small sample
...n, K., Guest, G., Namey, E. 2005). While quantitative research seeks to prove hypotheses, qualitative research explores an idea. While quantitative research seeks to predict relationships, qualitative research explains relationships. While quantitative research uses close ended questions, qualitative research uses open ended questions. Quantitative research is inflexible and stable, while qualitative research can be altered as new information is gathered (Mack, N., Woodsong, C., MacQueen, K., Guest, G., Namey, E. 2005). With the key difference being the amount of flexibility, qualitative research would be the best methodology to explore and discover new research on my chosen research topic. In the case of a literature review, quantitative methodology is the ideal method for exploring what data already exists, so we can assess the needs for new data to be explored.
For example, if one wanted to know how many of customers support a proposed change in products or service and how strongly and they support it. Again, in quantitative research, the researcher might end up with data reduced to numbers, which are analysed using statistics. They tend to focus on the numbers in order to get the full picture. At the same time, in qualitative research, it involves describing and analysing a phenomenon while using words. In many research projects, make a use of mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative in order to gain a more comprehensive and explanation of the subject being studied. However, quantitative data are often portrayed as being more limited in scope and in depth than qualitative data. Largely, quantitative methods have some notable advantages; they also have a disadvantage, which means that some phenomena are best studied by using different qualitative
Quantitative research is more focus on the number of participants, therefore it is easy to analyse the variety of data, which is interesting to see. Overall, the important lesson and required improvement for my research skill is specificity, though still there are interesting findings.
According to (John W. Creswell 2003 and Gunderson 2000) giving a very clear definition that quantitative research method is the type of research by using collecting numerical data to explaining the particular phenomena and the numerical data that can be analyze by using mathematically. Quantitative research method, researcher will design a quantitative from for respondent to answer the question with numbers and the researcher will collect the numerical data as an evidence from the respondent. The researcher will according the data and analyze by using the mathematically method and statistics. The strength of quantitative research is neutral and can be easily analyze.
Many describe Quantitative research method as the oldest form of social research and trusted by most researchers as they believe that anything that has been proven with the help of numbers cannot be wrong (Alston & Bowles, 2012, p. 10). Basically Quantitative method deals with numbers, the researcher 's own presence is minimal and has deductive approach. It is most commonly used when, one began with a Hypothesis and that needed to confirm or reconfirm through research. It is a type of research in which the researcher decide what to study, ask specific questions, collects quantifiable data, analysis these data and conducts the enquiry in an objective manner. Generally, quantitative research is to gather or collect information that can be inferred to large populations of
Qualitative and quantitative research methods take different approaches to gathering and analysing information. Whether it is a qualitative or quantitative study, the research study begins with a question or series of questions. Both use rigorously designed studies to get the most accurate, detailed and complete results. Qualitative studies common methods are interviews, surveys and observation. A qualitative study aims to provide a detailed description of the study results, often using pictures and written descriptions to describe what the research revealed. A qualitative study looks at the big picture, helping researchers to narrow in on points of interest that then can be followed up on in a quantitative study. While a quantitative study has a narrower focus, it attempts to provide a detailed explanation of the study focus, along with this using numbers and statistics. And the results from a quantitative study can reveal bigger questions that call for qualitative study. Or vice versa a qualitative study may reveal at analysis that a more focus and direct approach may be needed. With both methods analysis is a key part of any study whether qualitative or quantitative.
Quantitative research involves the collection and converting of data into numerical form to enable statistical calculations be made and conclusions drawn. It provides a measure of how people think, feel or behave and uses the statistical analysis to determine the results. However, this measurement results in numbers, or data, being collected, which is then analyzed by using quantitative research methods (Byrne, 2007).