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Similarities and differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods
Introduction on qualitative and quantitative research
Similarities and differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods
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The main objective of this chapter is to expatiate on the necessary methodology that are relevant to this proposed topic. It minutiae the research design adopted and furthermore demonstrate how a qualitative and quantitative methodology are preferred in this study. An attempt is made to make an overview and also provide insights into the various strategies adopted for a qualitative and quantitative research in the proposed study. The Research Design: A Quantitative and Qualitative Approach In the field of social sciences research, there are two distinctive contending ideologies: the quantitative (or positivist) approach where research inquiries are from the "outside" and the qualitative (or naturalist) approach where research inquiries are …show more content…
Ultimately, the area of qualitative research focus on "describing a specific group in detail and to explain the pattern that exist and certainly not to discover general laws of human behavior" (Schofield, 1993: quoted from Henn et al., 2006: 178). The substantial aspect of qualitative research is that all types of research are valuable; be it quantitative or qualitative. However, the usage of the two research paradigm is subject to the value system, the researcher and the theory being used in the research (Creswell, 2007: 247). Qualitative research according to Ehigie and Ehigie (2005: 621), requires the full participation of the researcher with astute concentration in order to have deep understanding of the phenomenon at …show more content…
According to Morgan (1988), an FDG has some elements of both in-depth interviews and participant observation. About three focus groups will be required for this research in some selected locations. Each focus group shall have not less than 8 participants in each location. In this case, there shall be the moderator whom shall facilitate the focus group discussion, and the assistant whom shall take note, audio-visual, tape recorders and other minor things involved which could distract the moderator. The moderator shall therefore facilitate the interaction and discussion; and also encourage each group member to discuss about their opinion. A major advantage of using the FGD is that it helps the researcher to have in-depth understanding of what the issues is which the respondents are more predisposed to and capable of
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.
The study outlined in the article is well organized in its major parts, including introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussions. The introduction provides the research question and purpose, while the remaining parts provide sufficient data to help in justifying the hypothesis and rationale of the study.
There are debates on why qualitative and quantitative can be combined because the two approaches share the goal of understanding the world in which we live Haase & Myers (1980). However, Reichath &Rallis (1994) argued that the two paradigms are incompatible if the qualitative paradigm assumes that there are no external referents for understanding reality. Howe (1988) suggests that researchers should forge ahead with what works. Quantitative research makes no attempt to have personal relationship with the people being studied and to account of their view. The accounts include feelings, beliefs these being concept of feminist work. Feminism holds on to qualitative method because are interested in how ordinary people observe and describe their Silverman (1993).
There has been a debate over which tradition of methodology, qualitative or quantitative, can provide a better explanation while conducting social science research. Qualitative research provides in-depth case-by-case studies while quantitative, generates broader arguments accommodating a large number of cases. Many social scientists may be naturally qualitative analysts and their expertise could lie predominantly in such field (Mahoney and Goertz, 2006). Quantitative analysis, on the other hand, is preferred when the researchers want to observe common patterns among several different cases. However, both quantitative and qualitative analyses ask questions differently which may lead to different explanations, although they may be examining
The authors of this article have outlined the purpose, aims, and objectives of the study. It also provides the methods used which is quantitative approach to collect the data, the results, conclusion of the study. It is important that the author should present the essential components of the study in the abstract because the abstract may be the only section that is read by readers to decide if the study is useful or not or to continue reading (Coughlan, Cronin, and Ryan, 2007; Ingham-Broomfield, 2008 p.104; Stockhausen and Conrick, 2002; Nieswiadomy, 2008 p.380).
In this research study descriptive and empirical research approach have been follow because of the following
Gelo, O., Braakmann, D., & Benetka, G. (2008). Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Beyond the Debate. Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 42(3), 266-290. doi:10.1007/s12124-008-9078-3
In order to effectively address a proposed research’s problem or research question(s), the researcher adopt a wide range of qualitative and quantitative mythologies (Berndtsson, Hansson, Olsson, & Lundell 2008). Some of these methodologies include interviews (Jones 1985), questionnaires, and surveys (Dawson 2009). Various qualitative and quantitative methodologies have distinct advantages and limitations which can be optimized if researchers correctly identify the most appropriate method for collecting a particular type of data.
This essay is going to critically discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys and questionnaires as a method of Socio-Legal research. When conducting socio-legal research, a number of methods can be used to collect useful information.
focused on the key qualitative research methods. For each article review, a brief description, guided by Myers (2013), and a critique, guided Pratt (2009), is provided. A summary of the five articles identifying the research method, data collection technique, data analysis approach and critique is provided in Table 1. The narrative review of each article coupled with figures and tables to organize and visualize thoughts (Pratt, 2009) follows the summary table.
Quantitative and qualitative research use similar design but, they differ in terms of their epistemological, theoretical and methodological underpinnings. Quantitative research is objectivist epistemology and thus seeks to develop explanatory universal laws in social behaviors by statistically measuring what it assumes to be a static reality. The quantitative research leans towards the views of psychological and social phenomena. On the other hand, qualitative research does not rely on any knowledge from the independent knower, but however socially constructed and that reality is neither static nor fixed. Nonetheless, there are multiple realities that different cultural groups construct on the basis of their world views or value systems, there are multiple interpretations or perspectives on any event or situation (Yilmaz, K.
Thereafter the researcher looked at common themes and subthemes and the relationship that need to be interpreted and synthesized (ibid). A summarization of the information gathered was done using tables according to the variables and objectives of the research. A premier qualitative report was written using Microsoft word.
To collect valid and reliable data for the investigation, the researcher combined qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct “mix methods research” (Creswell, Plano, Gutmann & Hanson, 2003, p.42) because Dörnyei (2007) claimed that qualitative and quantitative methods had equal contribution in theorising as they can support each other. Furthermore, the two methods were adopted to attain an entire understanding of a target phenomenon or to justify one series of results against the other (Sandelowski, 2003). As regards quantitative and qualitative methods, according to Conrad & Serlin (2011), qualitative research methods paid attention to exploring the experiences, perspectives, and mindsets of the participants. In other words, the qualitative
The research was designed using qualitative model based on exploratory design. This was done to facilitate multi-faceted study with a broader prospective. Basic percentage analysis was done to supplement qualitative analysis. The study was conducted with the help of a Questionnaire. To deepen the understanding data was collected from a variety of books, Internet web pages, and articles of different kinds conducted was descriptive in nature. Descriptive research includes survey and facilitating enquiries of different
...chniques and procedures among those associated with quantitative or qualitative research. A literature review, which included document analysis, was used to answer sub-questions one, two and three. A model building approach was suggested to answer sub-question four. In addition, the study uses a case study as a proof-of-concept. The use of a case study is a qualitative empirical study to strengthen the research validity. Since the research methods directly responding to the research questions (Literature review and Model building) make use of textual data, we classified this study as a qualitative study. Table 3.1 below summarises the classification of this study in terms of the dimensions discussed above.