Research is one of the most commonly used tools that increase knowledge and provide information about anything or anyone. There are two ways of performing the research, “qualitative research” and “quantitative research” for any field; whether it is marketing, business, psychology, sociology, economies, etc.
There is no end to this conversation about which research is best among Qualitative and Quantitative data. In this article, we are going to give some information about them along with their differences and similarities.
Before discussing the various factors of Qualitative vs Quantitative research, we would like to tell you a bit about what they individually mean.
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What is Qualitative Research?
Qualitative research helps in providing insights and a clear understanding of the problem setting. This is known as the basic research method that examines the highly difficult phenomena which are not possible to illuminate with quantitative research. This is an unstructured approach. This helps in generating the ideas for later quantitative research.
This research is basically being used to achieve a detailed understanding of human behavior, intentions, attitudes, experiences, and motivations, depending upon the interpretation and observations that help in finding the way for people to think and feel. In this qualitative research, researchers give more importance to the views of the participants.
Types of Qualitative Research:
- Case study
- Grounded theory
- Ethnography
- Historical
- Phenomenology
What is Quantitative Research?
Quantitative research is the approach that focuses more on the natural science methods that generate hard facts and numerical data. Its target is to build a cause that affects the relationship among two variables with the use of computational, mathematical, and statistical methods. The other famous name of this research is “Empirical Research” because this gives accurate and precise measures.
In this research, whatever data is being collected by the researchers is divided into categories or maybe put into some ranks, and it can also be calculated in the aspects of units of measurement. Raw data of tables including graphs can also be generated with the help of this quantitative research.
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Types of Qualitative Research:
- Descriptive
- Experimental
- Correlational
- Causal-Comparative/Quasi-Experimental
Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research
| Basis for Comparison | Qualitative Research | Quantitative Research |
| Meaning | This research gives the approach that generates the understanding in human and social sciences, to determine the ways how people feel and think. | This research is the approach that is used to develop hard facts and numerical data, with the help of logical, statistical, and mathematical techniques. |
| Reasoning | Inductive | Deductive |
| Data | Verbal | Measurable |
| Nature | Holistic | Particularistic |
| Approach | Subjective | Objective |
| Sampling | Purposive | Random |
| Hypothesis | Generated | Tested |
| Methods | Non-structured techniques | Structured techniques |
| Result | Creates initial understanding | Suggests final course of action |
Similarities Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research
- While carrying out their work, qualitative and quantitative researchers use similar content.
- Qualitative and Quantitative research relies on the theoretical framework.
- For carrying out any investigation, both the research requires a plan.
- Both the researchers collected the data and carried their research in the natural setting.
Wrapping Up
The beneficial and recommended research is the one that includes both the methods together. There may be instances that require only one out of these research methods depending upon the required information by the researchers.
