By definition, qualitative research is the study towards social reality and description experiences, feelings, perspectives of human lives. Qualitative research is an empirical research under the non-numeric form, concerned with collecting and analysing information on many forms, words samples. It is likely associated with inductive approach, which generates theories, develops and interprets qualitative data to understand the social world. In qualitative research methods, studies focus deeply on understanding insider of the field, which is beneficial to researchers who examine forms of knowledge. In term of collecting qualitative data, there are three typical ways: interviews, observation from director participating such as participant characteristics, …show more content…
Quantitative is based on empirical research, critical interpretation of data in forms of numbers. Mostly, quantitative research uses deductive approach, which begins with a theory, generalizes and tests theory or hypothesis. Quantitative is suitable for researcher aiming at answering questions, operational definitions, an experiment of time series to see how things are changed in number, casual explanation and deductive reasoning. Quantitative research data is based on questionnaires collected from descriptive information, attitude survey, explanatory survey through an interview, form filling, portal, email. (Sue, 2017; University of Surrey, 2017)
In term of similar comparison, though quantitative research focuses more on testing theory, it is possible to explore an area and generating hypothesis, meanwhile, qualitative research can be used for hypothesis or theory testing. Qualitative data also includes qualification studies and quantitative research can collect qualitative data through open investigations. (Sue, 2017; University of Surrey,
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Data sources can come from interview, participant observation, documents, artefacts. There are four main ways of collecting qualitative data such as interviews, focus group, observation and action research (University of Surrey, 2017). Among those, interview is considered to be more convenient. The interview is better when carried in fairly informal way in which participants have the equal right in the discussion, and the purpose is to collect stories for analysis not answer. In order to have a good conversation, interviewer should know their role, be confident, maintain motivation and well prepare beforehand. Interview can be in various forms from unstructured, semi structured to structured. Structured interview is similar to questionnaires with prepared questions and order, ready-made answer options and open questions. Semi-structured interview includes scope, specific reactions, deep and personal context, experience. It can be open questions on a specific topic, broad questions under investigation. Unstructured interview requires few informants, investigation of history, background in different cases. The discussion can have limited number of topics but great details. Qualitative interview requires careful consideration and planning. (University of Surrey,
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Show MoreQualitative 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).
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.).
Qualitative research answers open-ended questions such as “why” or “how”. It helps me to remember this by seeing how closely the word qualitative resembles the word quality. Qualitative research is looking for qualities instead of sheer numbers. “Qualitative research methods allow research subjects to answer questions in their own words or even in ways that do not use words.” (Kolb, Bonita, 29)
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
According to Smith (1983) quantitative research is to explain, predict and develop laws that can be universally applied and Qualitative research is the interpretation and understanding of what people give to their situation. The researchers clearly stated the purpose of their studies, aim, objectiv...
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...
There are many elements involved in conducting a proper research. The two general types of research designs are qualitative and quantitative. These types of designs are different in many ways. Quantitative is an objective research typically focused on numerical data. Qualitative research is subjective research focused on narrative data. This paper further elaborates on many elements that separate quantitative research from qualitative research.
Qualitative and quantitative research have many differences. Qualitative is exploratory, interpretive, subjective, descriptive, emergent, looks to produce or reach a hypothesis by what is observed, has unknown variables, is flexible, and uses personal views. Qualitative research is confirmatory, predictive, objective, deduces and test the hypothesis, has known variables, is not flexible, but is a fixed, static designed to control variables, and tries to be bias-free. Qualitative research collects data through interviews, observation, surveys, review of artifacts, and self inqu...
Quantitative research uses a deductive reasoning also known as top to bottom or (top down approach) starting with a theory, then the hypothesis, followed by observation and finally confirmation , going from the general to the more specific. Quantitative methods use numbers and statistics to show the results of the research exercise and mainly are concerned with mathematics and statistics. In quantitative research there are levels of measurement being firstly nominal which are names of things followed by ordinal sequence of things, interval where the sequence has equal distance between each item, and ratio where there is a true zero (Alston & Bowles, 2003, p. 7-9).
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
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...
Quantitative studies are primarily numbers based. They deal with large cohort groups as well as analyze large amounts of data. “A quantitative researcher typically tries to measure variables in some way, perhaps by using commonly accepted measures of the physical world (e.g., rulers, thermometers, oscilloscopes) or carefully designed measures of psychological characteristics or behaviors (e.g., tests, questionnaires, rating scales)” (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010, p. 94).
Qualitative data analysis is composed of document, observation, interviews, focus groups, and being able to discuss what is being found in each of the piece of data collected (Chenail, 2012). Qualitative data analysis can be viewed as understanding the analysis of data. For qualitative data to be successfully analyzed, the researcher must be able to maintain control of their study, be able analyze their study, analyze themselves, and be able to present this found data in various publications (Chenail, 2012).
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).
...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.