Research Methods Essay

Qualitative research is flexible written form their results are ongoing and their conclusion can be changed while quantitative research is numerical, reliable, specific, data are collected by statistical analysis due to which quantitative are more accurate. Qualitative research uses open questions to find the depth of the information while quantitative research uses closed question, secondary data or experiments due to this it lacks the depth of the information and neglect the effect of the individuals which could be service provider, service users or other staff members.

Qualitative research depicts the attributes and characteristics of something. In Qualitative research, the portrayal is not decreased into numbers just like the case in quantitative research. In any case, this can later be accomplished through encoding process. Qualitative research furnishes the scientist with data about

Qualitative research data is useful to explain to others the outcome of the information whereas quantitative research is difficult to understand at an initial glance. An advantage to quantitative data is that it is easy for you to turn in to quantitative data, which is more aesthetically pleasing for the audience.

The theoretical foundations of qualitative and quantitative methods are very different, but many researchers believe both methods should be used in the research study to increase validity and reliability.

Although qualitative researchers are more likely to come up against the constraints of everyday social life, qualitative research embed their findings within the action of the social world (Lincoln, 2003), in contrast quantitative research seldom studies the world directly.

Qualitative and quantitative researches are the two basic research categories which are used in psychology, with both these type of research having advantages and best limitations to their use in researching.

Quantitative and qualitative methods differ from one another as to their research design elements as listed below:

It is common for researchers to compare qualitative and quantitative research methods. Quantitative methods originate from positivist and post- positivist research paradigms. Also, the methods objectively examine statistical data to determine cause and affect and often use generalizable data. There are various methods used in quantitative research such as surveys,

Quantitative research methods are objective as it uses measurements and analysis of statistical data to answer the study question. The researchers’ opinions do not affect the outcome of the study, ensuring that the study is unbiased. Another advantage is quantitative research uses numbers and statistics which is understood universally (Houser,2008).

Quantitative research deals with numbers and is measurable. Some examples of quantitative data are cost, number of participants and time. This type of research is systematic and uses the more traditional scientific method of data collection and presentation. Qualitative research has data that is nonnumeric in nature and it is difficult to measure. As the root of the same suggests, it gives a quality description of the data being viewed. It can include descriptions or verbal responses. Qualitative data is subjective in the sense that the answer can be different amongst various people.

“Researchers who use quantitative research method seek objectivity through testable hypotheses and carefully designed studies, and gather date that can be reported in numbers and statistics” (Crawford, 2016, p. 66). According to Crawford (2016, p. 66) “conclusions from this study are drawn from statistics and generalized to populations of interest”. Unlike qualitative that helps to eliminate opinions and thoughts, quantitative quantify opinions and thoughts and they obtain results from a larger sampling population. As I had previously stated on my discussion board “Quantitative researcher’s collection methods include many different kinds of surveys for example; online surveys, paper surveys, online polls, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and etc”(myself). “They use the surveys to measure attitudes, behaviors, and opinions” (myself).

To conduct quantitative research, the first step is defining the problem, identifying the objectives and goals, and establishing research questions or hypothesis. It is followed by data collection and analysis with the application of various numerical and statistical approaches. Quantitative research is more factual in terms that we get concrete data with evidence to prove the results of our research.

There are also some differences between these study designs, which may cause some problems for the inexperienced researcher. “Quantitative research is objective; qualitative research is subjective. Quantitative research seeks explanatory laws; qualitative research aims at

Qualitative data deals with descriptions, which it can be observed not measured. Qualitative data analysis is more for exploratory purposes and usually is done through interviews (Henninger, 2009). Quantitative data deals with numbers, data that can be measured. Qualitative data analysis allows researchers to test their hypotheses and is done through surveys (Henninger, 2009). This was a quantitative research study. However,

(i) Quantitative vs Qualitative Research: Qualitative research methods is based on values and not numbers while quantitative is based on numeric and Quantifiable data to generalize in its conclusion.