Qualitative and Quantitative research

quantitative would not operate under the same condition as there would be a need for a sample group and a control group from the population

Research plays a very important role in making sense of the world around us and developing knowledge basis and systems. As such, understanding research methods and paradigms is very important to scholars and researchers if they are to come up with credible and comprehensive research. This paper discusses the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods and also looks at how the two methods can be similar and how they can be used together. Qualitative research is a scientific and systematic method used to gather data that it not quantifiable (Yin 2018). This type of research, as Marshall (2016)) explains, "refers to the meanings, concepts definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things". Therefore, as a research method, qualitative research is also used to unearth new trends in thought processes and actions, how people feel about specific circumstances and to get to the heart of issues and how they affect people (Wolcott 2016). Marshall (2016) emphasizes that qualitative research is primarily exploratory research and is used to obtain information such as intentions and motives that helps explain an occurrence. Thus, qualitative research methods help to understand new occurrences or trends and then helps to explain why such things are happening or occurring. Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics (Lichtman 2017). According to Wolcott (2016) quantitative research is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables and generalize results from a larger sample population. Thus, quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research to make sense or deductions on how things have unfolded. Therefore, where qualitative data seeks to understand a phenomenon, quantitative methods seek to quantify them and identify variables that can be measured. Qualitative research uses data collecting methods that often require the direct participation of the researcher to gather data and information crucial to the study. Morgan (2017) notes that

qualitative research data is obtained from words,pictures, objects while quantitative research includes numbers and statistics.

Marsyangdi Journal , 2020

This paper intends to compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative research in brief. Based on library sources, the paper is prepared for the Bachelor and Master level research students plus interested one. The article initiated with the concept of research and its major purposes, and then associates the general information about qualitative, quantitative and mixed method research. Finally, it illustrates the relative and discrepancy between qualitative and quantitative research with a few concluding note.

Qualitative and quantitative researchers do use similar elements in their work, however, they state a purpose pose a problem or raise a question, define a research population, collect and analyze data, and present outcome

As outlined in the previous chapter, the AIMS/SEEP approach to impact assessment by and for practitioners combines quantitative and qualitative techniques. The Impact Survey and Client Exit Survey are categorized as quantitative tools because they collect standardized information by asking exactly the same questions to clients and organizing their answers into quantifiable response categories. The individual Loan Use Strategies Over Time and Client Empowerment interviews and the Client Satisfaction focus group discussions are qualitative instruments that gather more detailed information through a more flexible, in-depth dialogue with clients. AIMS believes that these two categories of tools are complementary, each providing different types of information that enable evaluators to gain a more complete, richer picture of impact than would be possible with only one.

Qualitative Methods provides a fitting occasion to reflect on this branch of methodology.1 Given that the other APSA organized section concerned with methodology2 is centrally fo-cused on quantitative methods, the additional issue arises of the relationship between the qualitative and quantitative traditions. Adopting a pragmatic approach to choices about concepts (Collier and Adcock 1999), we believe that the task here is not to seek the "true" meaning of the qualitative-quantitative distinction. Rather, the challenge is to use this distinction to focus on similarities and contrasts in research practices that pro

Journal of Evidence Based Medicine and Healthcare, 2019

BACKGROUND Qualitative research is a process of naturalistic inquiry that seeks an in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting. It focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of social phenomena and relies on the direct experiences of human beings as meaning-making agents in their everyday lives. Rather than by logical and statistical procedures, qualitative researchers use multiple systems of inquiry for the study of human phenomena including biography, case study, historical analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, grounded theory, and phenomenology. Quantitative methodology is the dominant research framework in the social sciences. It refers to a set of strategies, techniques and assumptions used to study psychological, social and economic processes through the exploration of numeric patterns. Quantitative research gathers a range of numeric data. Some of the numeric data is intrinsically quantitative (e.g. personal income), while in other cases the numeric structure is imposed (e.g. 'On a scale from 1 to 10, how depressed did you feel last week?'). The collection of quantitative information allows researchers to conduct simple to extremely sophisticated statistical analyses that aggregate the data. Quantitative research includes methodologies such as questionnaires, structured observations or experiments and stands in contrast to qualitative research. Qualitative research involves the collection and analysis of narratives and/or open-ended observations through methodologies such as interviews, focus groups or ethnographies. The purpose of quantitative research is to generate knowledge and create understanding about the social world. Quantitative research is used by social scientists, including communication researchers, to observe phenomena or occurrences affecting individuals. Social scientists are concerned with the study of people. Quantitative research is a way to learn about a particular group of people, known as a sample population. Using scientific inquiry, quantitative research relies on data that are observed or measured to examine questions about the sample population. 1-2