The distinction between qualitative and quantitative goes far beyond that of whether or not numbers are being implemented during the process of recording data; qualitative researchers can use numbers to label and categorize objects. The conventional view is that the qualitative researcher finds their observations to be more descriptive and contextually dependent, while the quantitative researcher is allowed to make predictions and deductive inferences while assuming that their findings can be generalized. Determining whether a certain researchable topic is qualitative or quantitative can give an investigator ideas about the types of information they will be collecting and the types of statistical procedures that they will need to employ.
Quantitative …show more content…
This type of research typically uses open-ended questions instead of instruments of measurement. It also relies more heavily on inductive reasoning, which is the act of inferring general conclusions from particular observations. Robertson, Lang, and Schaefer (2014) used a qualitative research design to study parental concern for helmet usage. They held discussions with parents, leading off these discussions with open-ended questions about the activities in which they require their children to wear helmets while participating in. According to Creswell (2014), when conducting a study with a qualitative methodology, researchers are able to focus more on the differences of each individual participant, as opposed to quantitative research which tends to look for similarities or differences between large groups of participants. Although the previous statement is generally valid, there are some counterexamples to its claim; behavioral analysts use quantitative methods and also study the individual. While the observations of qualitative research tend to be less universal, or replicable, in comparison to quantitative observations, social scientists may have other motivations for choosing to avoid the use of descriptive/inferential statistics. If a researcher’s goal was to study how a specific organization operates efficiently, it would be …show more content…
Qualitative researchers may be using linguistic terms as their data as a result of mathematics’ current inability to handle all scientific interests; qualitative researchers tend to use logical quantifiers (e.g. most, all, some, none, etc…) in their language (Sechrest & Sidani, 1995). This perspective may imply that qualitative research should only be done when we lack the technology to make precise evaluations of our observations using numerical terms. A researcher might be interested in how stress correlates with reading about stressful scenarios. In the past, that researcher may have taken a qualitative approach, asking the participants a set of questions related to how they felt about what they read. Currently, researchers can use equipment designed to measure the aforementioned electro-dermal response, which can access how much stress is exhibited by a participant, measuring it on a scale that allows for numerical manipulation. This being said, skin conductance can also be an indicator for many other phenomena; for example, the electro-dermal response is used to measure decision making processes (Figner & Murphy, in press). This means while a quantitative approach is often more precise than a qualitative approach, qualitative methods are sometimes more accurate
Quantitative …show more content…
This type of research typically uses open-ended questions instead of instruments of measurement. It also relies more heavily on inductive reasoning, which is the act of inferring general conclusions from particular observations. Robertson, Lang, and Schaefer (2014) used a qualitative research design to study parental concern for helmet usage. They held discussions with parents, leading off these discussions with open-ended questions about the activities in which they require their children to wear helmets while participating in. According to Creswell (2014), when conducting a study with a qualitative methodology, researchers are able to focus more on the differences of each individual participant, as opposed to quantitative research which tends to look for similarities or differences between large groups of participants. Although the previous statement is generally valid, there are some counterexamples to its claim; behavioral analysts use quantitative methods and also study the individual. While the observations of qualitative research tend to be less universal, or replicable, in comparison to quantitative observations, social scientists may have other motivations for choosing to avoid the use of descriptive/inferential statistics. If a researcher’s goal was to study how a specific organization operates efficiently, it would be …show more content…
Qualitative researchers may be using linguistic terms as their data as a result of mathematics’ current inability to handle all scientific interests; qualitative researchers tend to use logical quantifiers (e.g. most, all, some, none, etc…) in their language (Sechrest & Sidani, 1995). This perspective may imply that qualitative research should only be done when we lack the technology to make precise evaluations of our observations using numerical terms. A researcher might be interested in how stress correlates with reading about stressful scenarios. In the past, that researcher may have taken a qualitative approach, asking the participants a set of questions related to how they felt about what they read. Currently, researchers can use equipment designed to measure the aforementioned electro-dermal response, which can access how much stress is exhibited by a participant, measuring it on a scale that allows for numerical manipulation. This being said, skin conductance can also be an indicator for many other phenomena; for example, the electro-dermal response is used to measure decision making processes (Figner & Murphy, in press). This means while a quantitative approach is often more precise than a qualitative approach, qualitative methods are sometimes more accurate