The Meaning of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

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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.

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