Essay on Qualitative and Quantitative Research

The theoretical foundations of qualitative and quantitative methods are very different, but many researchers believe both methods should be used in the research study to increase validity and reliability.

Quantitative and qualitative research generates from two different perspectives, and it provide different types of crucial information from the research subject. Qualitative research corresponds more with comprehensive and thorough descriptions of events, whereas quantitative research creates statistical models to explain events. Several advantages and disadvantages in qualitative and quantitative research, depends upon the researcher's purpose and area of focus and information that will answer those research questions (Creswell, (2013).

The key distinctions between qualitative and quantitative data are qualitative data is subjective, ask What?, Why?, literature review may be done after study is complete, develops theory, focus is complex, facts are biased and values are involved, qualitative data is about discovery, describing, understanding, sharing results to who are concerned about the study. Basic with analysis is part of, the researcher conducting the study is part of the process, and participants are involved, reasoning is dialectic and inductive, describes the meaning of what was discovered in the study conducted, uses communication and observation, and strives for trends and theories easy to understand. Study conducted has a flexible approach in a natural setting, provides information worth counting (Anderson, 2006). Quantitative data provides objectives, ask questions how many?, literature review must be done early in the study, tests theory, focus is

A qualitative study addresses the complexity of human experience, focusing on the big picture (Rebar & Gersch, 2015); while a quantitative study breaks a problem down into small pieces and focuses on specific parts to see how they all relate (Rebar & Gersch, 2015). Qualitative methods focus on subjective information, and never try to predict or control the phenomenon of interest (Rebar & Gersch, 2015); on the other hand, quantitative methods focus on statistics and objective information, and can yield predictions and control (Rebar & Gersch, 2015).

Research methodology generally involves qualitative research or quantitative research, or a mixture of both. A quantitative research methodology involves the analysis of data collected from a large number of surveys or interviews. On the other hand, methodologies for qualitative research often involve using surveys or interviews to collect information about people — their attitudes, experiences and behaviors.

For quite a while there has been some discussion around which method of distinctions between Qualitative research and quantitative research. This has been fired in later years with some thinking that a combination of the two is best practice especially in social

The Research Design Determine the most appropriate research design. Why two research design were selected and why two were not selected? What data collections instruments will be used? Survey? Interview? Other? I may select a qualitative and quantitative design only because the two together address different parts of the problem and together provide a richer, more multi-faceted response than either alone would. The qualitative aspect would give me an in-depth, rich perspective and allow me to plumb one aspect further whilst the quantitative investigation would base the investigation on a scientific, objective purview.

I will explain how quantitative and qualitative strategies and methods/procedures are similar and different. In qualitative strategies, there is a focus on "data collection, analysis and writing" (p. 176). In qualitative strategies usually may fall in line with survey designs and experiments. The strategies followed the same general format such as purpose, data collection, data analysis and conclusion. The differences between the two for methods and procedures is the following: for quantitative methods they tend to be used in a pretest and posttest control group designs. This is done by following six steps which include administering measures of the dependent variable, assign the participants to pairs, randomly assign members to the control group or experimental group, expose the experimental group, administer measures of dependent variables and finally the performance. For

General speaking, quantitative research is thought to be objective, however qualitative research often involves a subjective element. There are differences designs in qualitative research in comparison to quantitative research. Qualitative research involves words, pictures, or objects; Quantitative involves data in the form of numbers and statistics.

There are two types of research methods, which are qualitative, and quantitative each of which is focused towards diverse aspect. It is noticed that qualitative research method is used for the studies that are dependent on the use of theoretical data or content instead of collecting statistical or empirical evidence to support the discussion. The aim of this method is to consider the use of general data or theories to make sure that research aim and objectives are evaluated specifically (Taylor et al., 2015). While on the other hand, quantitative research method is used by the studies that are reliant on the utilisation of facts and figures in the numerical or statistical format in order to support the arguments or discussion. In this considered, the quantitative research method is emphasised as it will consider using numerical or empirical evidence to support the discussion. This depicts the fact that nature of the study is quantitative (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 2006).

Researchers will gain insight on numerical, statistical data when studying quantitative studies (Polit & Beck, 2017). Whereas, qualitative research will show human behaviors and experiences (Polit & Beck, 2017).

The key distinction between quantitative and qualitative research data in a nutshell is that quantitative research produces measurements and numerical results; quantitative research develops information or numerical data that can be translated into numbers and convey statistical conclusions while qualitative research generates non-numerical data; qualitative generates hypothesis or questions and are normally in the beginning of the research (Murphy, 2007).

Both of approaches have pros and cons, it is difficult to decide which research approach is appropriate for a specific research task. Excepting the selection of methods, the background information and the subjective consciousness of participants are main aspects to decide the quality of a given piece of research. Researchers should seriously consider the specific situation of the research. Meanwhile, researchers should synthesize the advantages between quantitative and qualitative research so as to effectively achieve the research aim by a mixed methodology.

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have their specific qualities which make them useful to a researcher, however in the course of this short essay I will explain why, for several reasons, qualitative research is better. As both methods operate within different assumptions, it is important to stem criticism for each method 's respective theoretical base in order to adequately judge them. In the course of this essay I will highlight each method 's theoretical assumptions and then I will assess each method by pointing out their positive and negative factors.

According to Naoum (2013) quantitative research is “enquiry into a social or human problem based on testing a hypothesis or a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers and analysed with statistical procedures in order to determine whether the hypothesis or the theory hold true”(Naoum 2013,p.39). The approach is objective in nature and not abstract. It is associated with tangible, measurable and numerical data that may be analysed to produce conclusive and generalized answer. It is mostly applied when researchers want to prove or disprove a set of hypothesis and when enquiring realities about the theory, query or attributes (Saunders et al. 2012) by using primary collected data (Fellows 2003). Quantitative research is more structured and well defined that allow the researcher to do extensive planning before the actual research starts. In most cases the actual work tends to be consistent with the predetermined research question and conceptual framework (Bell 2014). This allows for easy forecast of ethical challenge and a plan on how to handle the challenges can be put in place before the actual work begins. It may be carried out by survey, structured interview or observation (Saunders et al. 2012).