Qualitative Research Versus Quantitative Research Essay example -- Res

Qualitative Research Versus Quantitative Research Quantitative research data is a formal, objective, systematic process in which numerical data is utilised to obtain information around the world. Quantitative research is all about quantifying the relationships between variables such as height, weight. It is obtained by such things as questionnaires, official statistics and planned interviews and then from the numerical data we can identify trends and correlations and get an idea of the attitudes of large numbers of people which can be very helpful. It is obtained mostly in the form of numbers. They were originally developed in the natural sciences to study natural phenomena. Qualitative research data is all types of data that are not in the form of numbers including written sources, pictures, films, open-ended questions and unstructured interviews. Qualitative data can often provide a richer and more in-depth picture of social life. It was developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena. Qualitative research uses unreconstructed logic to get at what is really real: the quality, meaning, context, or image of reality in what people actually do, not what they say they do. The advantages of a questionnaire which produces quantitative data are you do not have to pay interviewers and it is cheap to classify results. Fast and efficient analysis possible with pre-coded closed questions and answers can be easily quantified and entered straight on to computers. Also questionnaires do not normally need interviewers so you do not have the risk of the interviewer influencing the respondent'... ...ty as if another researcher did the same experiment would they get the same results as others. And if a group of researchers all researched the same topic would they all get different results? If so which should we believe. Researchers often combine quantitative and qualitative data in their research to get a fair and accurate result even thought quantitative is often more accurate than qualitative. The major difference between qualitative and quantitative research is the underlying statement about the role of the researcher. In quantitative research, the researcher is ideally an objective observer that neither participates in or influences what is being studied. In qualitative research, however, it is thought that the researcher can learn the most about a situation by participating and/or being immersed in it.