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... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
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.
...primary research that gathers vast amounts of information. Quantitative research is a derivative of secondary research and is associated with the gathering of data, as in numbers, height, weight etc. In order for either research to effective, the proper research tool must be used in its right context. If not, the research will prove to be a less adequate one.
Qualitative: This is different to quantitative due to the fact that first this can provide question which can be given multiple choice responses for the user to be able to answer.
Quantitative means statistics that involve numbers e.g. IQ, weight and qualitative means statistics that are not shown with numbers e.g. hair and eye colours. The two investigations I decided to do were: 1) Two pieces of quantitative information - Contrast the variations in weight and height.. The aim is to find out if there is any correlation between weight and height and if so what it is. Also I will separate this coursework further by dividing it into male and females to see if there is any difference in correlation there.
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.).
Rather than hearing what individuals have to say, researchers are more likely to looking at numbers and making judgements off on them. Qualitative can measure and analysis relationships between the variables, but is unable to understand the processes of how the relationship is created. Denzin and Lincoln (2007) argue that qualitative research is a “triangulation” focused, meaning it only can show so many sides of a research. However, quantitative is a “crystal,” meaning that it has many different sides, shapes,
Research in healthcare is used to answer a question or to test a method about how something effects another. Connor (2014) states that research is about investigation, exploration, and discovery. Research is also about creating a dynamic environment for promoting healthcare, health, and wellness. There are two different types of research: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research is a numerical way to collect data and using it to obtain information. Ingham-Broomfield (2014) refers to quantitative research as a means for testing objective theories by looking at relationships among variables and that the word quantitative implies quantity or amounts. Qualitative research is more of a verbal research method. It looks at life experiences and gives meaning to them (Connor. 2014).
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
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.
Traditional research may use quantitative or qualitative research method. According to Hendricks (2009), quantitative research is a general conclusion based on hard data. Hen-dricks describe quantitativ...
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.
The definition and the aim of quantitative research is gathering the information from many individuals so that it has the ability to make generalisation (Ranjit Kumar, 2014). Compared with qualitative research (interview), it might not take a long time to gather all the sample, as researcher conduct it at the same time if they wish. In addition, it might not make respondents really tired, compared with the interview. As the term mentions,
Quantitative means it can be measured or expressed in numerical form. Qualitative is related to the character of something. Test scores and assessments of students are quantitative and teacher observations of students are qualitative. In their article, Jupp and Education (2009) strongly feel teacher effectiveness cannot be looked at based on one point in time; instead students learning should be evaluated from the beginning of a school year to the end looking at what students know before and what they know exiting. In a Farr (2010) book, Teacher as Leadership: the Highly Effective Teachers Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, effective teachers are defined by looking at six characteristics or skills.... ...
On the other hand, quantitative research allows you to test hypothesis derived from theories, associated with the issues being investigated. It is less flexible, as there are standardized procedures and techniques for collecting, organizing and analyzing the data (Kuada, 2012).