Qualitative and quantitative researcher’s exhibited conflicting ways of approaching a research. Some researchers prefer qualitative over quantitative and vice-versa. Also, it is common for qualitative and quantitative to be used together in a research. But, both methods when carried out correctly provide good research. Plus, both methods have their own unique differences and characteristics. In this paper I will define three of these characteristics in a quantitative and qualitative research design and discuss and compare their differences. (Smith & Davis, 2010) One type of characteristics in a qualitative research is that it is carried out in a natural setting. As a consequence, when a researcher is conducting a research they are committed to spend time doing field work. This will ensure that their claims are not bias or incorrect. Furthermore, the sitting for their research is typically places similar to a board room, or a class room. Also, it is usually limited to a smaller group. As a result, it allows the research to be more personal. (Smith & Davis, 2010) Another characteristic of qualitative research is that it is personal and contains very little scientific terminology. For example, the researchers seek to understand human issues and problems or why humans behave in a certain manner. This type of empathetic approach in a quantitative research is a very unique in characteristic. Also, in a qualitative research, researches interact with the participants or sample, this is very important because they need to observe their behavior. As a result, it causes the research to be more up close and personal. This type of approach is what makes a qualitative research unique or different from quantitative research. (Smith &... ... middle of paper ... ...ve and quantitative methods to conduct a successful research. But, both qualitative and quantitative research is based on assumptions, and both when carried out accurately provide good research. Reference Hughes, C. (n.d.). Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches [DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY ]. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/ academicstaff/chughes/ hughesc_index/teachingresearchprocess/quantitativequalitative /quantitativequalitative/ Naik, A. (2010, May 4). Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-qualitative-and-quantitative-research.html Smith, R. & Davis, S. (2010). The Psychologist as a Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology (5th ed). Pearson Education, Inc.
Smith, R. A., & Davis, S. F. (2013). The psychologist as detective: An introduction to conducting research in psychology. Boston: Prentice Hall.
Qualitative research aims to gather information from data collection methods and transform it into written words. Such as transcribing recorded interviews, taking field notes from observations, using words to outline images (Denscombe, 1998, p. 174). On the other hand, quantitative research aims to gather information from data collection methods and transform it into numbers. Such as analysing conducted surveys and pulling numbers to transform it into statistics, tables and graphs (Denscombe, 1998, p.174-177).
Qualitative research is an approach that attempts to situate an activity that locates the observer in the world by providing the study to occur in their natural setting and by attempting to make sense of, or interpret information (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). A characteristic of qualitative research is to use a variety of empirical materials such as personal experience, interviews, and questionnaires. It is imperative to understand the task at hand and how to fully carry out the study when using a qualitative research approach in order to find out the information needed. One view of qualitative research is it involves examining individual’s experiences and documenting those experiences in detail (Jones, 2011). By documenting these observations the researcher is ensuring validity in his or her data and giving the correct creditability to those who participated in the study.
Qualitative research is concerned with understanding people’s many layers of envisioned reality. It is observation of the human practice, descriptive in manner, with careful, detailed factual description of people, objects and action. Viewed in a nonpositivism style, those who look at research in this manner believe all that is important and cannot be measured as in quantitative, concrete measurement. They believe there is an interaction between researcher and participant that has to be accounted for. This being said, experiments cannot be reproduced from one environment to another because the conditions are different, the context of the situation changes and interactions cannot be the same for different researchers and participants (Long, 2014a).
Qualitative research relies on subjective data to provide a deep understanding of the meaning of an event from the point of view of certain individuals (Lobiondo-Wood & Haber, 2014). In contrast, quantitative research uses an objective approach (Lobiondo-Wood
As indicated, research requires a process in order to collect data and analyze the data to come to a correct conclusion. Quantitative research is different from the qualitative research as researched above. Quantitative research focuses on amounts or quantities of one or multiple variables (Leedy, & Ormrod, 2010). To further explain, Fischler (2010) states, “a type of educational research in which the researcher decides what to study; asks specific, narrow questions; collects quantifiable data from participants; analyzes these numbers using statistics; and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner” (p. 12). In order to utilize this philosophy, the problem needs to be clearly identified, data needs to be collected and analyzed in order to come to a solid evaluation or conclusion.
Qualitative in this example as it could be considered ethnography as the research is looking
Qualitative research seeks to understand a social or human problem through an inquiry process. It is conducted in a natural setting and reports the views of informants in rich detail. Qualitative research strives to describe the extraordinarily complex nature of people and their perceptions of their experience in the specific social context in which the experience occurs. (Geertz, 1973). This is quite different than the paradigm of quantitative research. The raw material for qualitative research is ordinary language, as opposed to the numbers that are the raw material for quantitative research. The language may be obtained in many ways. It may be the participant’s own descriptions of him or he...
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.).
The design differences in qualitative research in comparison to quantitative research plainly seen are these: qualitative research involves words, pictures, or objects; quantitative involves data in the form of numbers and statistics. The researcher uses in-depth interviews in qualitative research to find out how the subjects view their world. In quantitative research the researcher uses precise measurement to predict hypotheses. In qualitative research the researcher changes the environment of the subject and uses these in-depth questionnaires to find differing attitudes about the world we live in. Quantitative can be personal, such as in periodic visits with the researchers to analysis symptoms and record data. Qualitative and quantitative can overlap in the in-dept interview process in quantitative research to record data and test subjects for symptoms. The two designs can overlap but there are finally differences such as numerical data collection and statistics that will always be at odds.
Quantitative research may be seen as the less contentious of the two because it is more closely aligned with what is viewed as the classical scientific paradigm. Quantitative research involves gathering data that is absolute, for example numerical data so that it can be examined as unbiased as possible. The main idea behind quantitative research is that it is able to separate things easily so that they can be counted. The researcher generally has a clear idea of what is being measured before they start measuring it, and their study is set up with controls. Qualitative research on the other hand is a more subjective form of research, in which the research allows themselves to introduce their own bias to help form a more complete picture. Qualitative research may be necessary in situations where it is unclear of what is exactly being looked for in a study, while quantitative research generally knows exactly what it is looking for. Questionnaires and surveys are quantitative socio-legal research, because it is the collection of numerical data, or data that can be easily being turned into a numerical form. In terms of analysing quantitative data, Excel is the b...
We believe it is clear that both qualitative and quantitative research have many benefits and many costs. In some situations the qualitative approach will be more appropriate; in other situations the quantitative approach will be more appropriate.
Another option available to a researcher is mixed methods which focuses on collecting, analyzing, and mixing both qualitative and quantitative data in a single study; also, it is based on the premise that the use of quantitative and qualitative combination provides a better understanding of the research problem than either approach alo...
Stejskal, S.M. (2010) Quatiative and Qualitative Research Methods are not and should not be Mutually Exclusive, Grinn Verlag.
The human experience is this focus of qualitative research. Qualitative research focuses on the behaviors, perspectives, actions, and reactions of subjects (Criswell, 2015). Qualitative research is described in “crisis of legitimation, meaning that the methods are consistent with a philosophical underpinning of questions such as a teacher who believes in Skinner’s behaviorism is the best way to classroom manage and want to prove it or interviewing a student about their social media use and how it has impacted their appearance to peers (Newman and Benz, 1998).