Qualitative Vs Quantitative

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There are many reasons that researchers decide to use a qualitative method rather than a quantitative one. In many universities and schools qualitative research is the model of choice (Sanders). This essay will discuss the factors which influence researchers to choose qualitative over quantitative methods with reference to existing research studies.
Qualitative research aims to understand occurrences in context-specific settings and has a naturalistic approach. On the other hand, quantitative research is experimentally based and seeks to investigate hypothetical generalizations (Sanders 1997). Whilst qualitative research is based on the belief that there is an individual phenomenon perspective, quantitative research believes that there is a …show more content…
One of the main differences between qualitative and quantitative research is that qualitative avoids statistical techniques as it gathers information in a non-numerical form. Quantitative research, however, is widely based on statistics. This is one of the main factors that researchers deciding …show more content…
He believes that the null hypothesis overlooks effects that could actually be important just because statistically they are not. Thus, qualitative research understands the dynamics of the social world better than quantitative methods (Cronbach 1975).
When considering which paradigm to use, the researcher must also consider the different ways in which the results are calculated within qualitative and quantitative studies. Whilst quantitative findings must be stated factually, quantitative research findings can be explained through the researchers own understanding and political values. Qualitative research is thus very flexible which makes it innovative unlike quantitative which is much more controlled (Silverman).
Although quantitative research may appear as though it must be reliable, it has often been scrutinised by the public for not being trustworthy. Many people believe that with statistics researchers can say anything they want even though it is false. An example of this could be statistics in the media which often say one thing even though the public experience another. For example the media might say that an experiment found that merchandise prices are dropping but it will not be credible if all the public see are prices going up in the shops

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