Difference between Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Table of Contents

What is Qualitative research?

Qualitative Research is a process of finding related information regarding a topic by the method of scientific observation for gathering non-numerical data.Difference between Qualitative and Quantitative Research It is a multi method that requires a naturalistic approach, great focus and involving interpretation.

The conclusion of qualitative research mostly results into finding out an elaborative meaning to a certain topic. The normal and formal reference to continue with qualitative research are.personal experience, life story, artifacts, case study, introspection, interview and cultural texts.

The main purpose of qualitative research is to find answers to how rather than how often.The fields of studies such as natural science, social science, market study for business and service deployment are continuously conducting qualitative research.

What is Quantitative research?

Quantitative Research is a process of finding related data regarding a topic by the method of systematic investigation for gathering quantifiable information. The methods involved in quantitative research are by performing mathematical, statistical and computational techniques.

The conclusion of quantitative research mostly results in developing theories, mathematical models and hypotheses based on certain phenomena. The main purpose of quantitative research is to numerically approach every condition to observe changes based upon numeric facts.

The area of study where quantitative research is most used are economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, etc. Even though the research carried out in physics and mathematics are ‘quantitative’ it differs in context.

What to do in qualitative research?

Qualitative research conducts various methods and formats as their fundamental approach. The design of the qualitative research is based upon four basic steps.

They are phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory and case study. Phenomenology is the concept of describing a topic that is already in existence as an integral part of this universe.

Ethnography is a branch of science that deals with anthropology as its main concern. Qualitative research is based on this principle to gather information from society and human related sources.

As a part of methodology for qualitative research, grounded theory is basically an arrangement of the information to describe the research topics. Case study is a major approach towards qualitative research to understand the technique to bring out effective results out of the research.

What to do in quantitative research?

Quantitative research methods are divided into four sub groups. They are quasi-experimental, experimental, descriptive and cor relational.

Depending upon the degree of importance of the research, these methods are categorized. Quantitative research is a process of collecting existing and potential samples of data using methods like polls, surveys and questionnaires.

The methodology of quantitative research is divided into two sets.They are data collection and data analysis. Based on these steps a report of quantitative research is prepared on the required topic of interest.

Data collection is a process of retrieving data from various sources like the internet, public libraries, government and non government sources, public libraries and commercial information sources. Data analysis is simple study and arrangement of these collected data.

Difference between qualitative and quantitative research

The main difference between qualitative and quantitative research is identified as their heading. Qualitative identifies and includes abstract concepts whereas quantitative refers to the numeric data.

The other differences whereas are classified upon these headings such as Theory/Research ratio, Concepts, Relationship with the subject, Interaction between researcher and respondent, Search design, Nature of data, Type of analysis, Methodology and Scope of result.

	Qualitative Research	Quantitative Research
1	It is a process of gathering non numerical data.	It is a process of gathering numerical data.
2	Data obtained in this research includes abstract concepts.	Data obtained in this research includes statistical information.
3	It is a method of scientific observation.	It is a method of systematic investigation.
4	Data is retrieved through Phenomenology, Ethnography, Grounded theories and case studies.	Data is retrieved through Sampling, Polls, Surveys and Questionnaires.
5	Data collected is categorized as soft subjective in their integrity.	Data collected is categorized as a hard objective in their standardization.