Qualitative
vs
Quantitative Research
by
Nour Bani Melhim
English Dept.
1
Qualitative Research is an umbrella covering
several forms of inquiry that help us understand
and explain the meaning of social phenomena
with as little disruption to the natural setting as
possible.
‫ مالحظة ظاهرة‬:‫البحث النوعي هو حبث مشكلة ما يف مكاهنا الطبيعي مثال‬
‫العنف يف املدارس‬
2
There is typically a high level of researcher
involvement with subjects; strategies of participant
observation and in-depth, unstructured interviews
are often used. The data produced provide a
description, usually narrative, of people living
through events in situations. (Boyd, 2001)
‫الباحث النوعي يقوم بجمع معلومات باستخدام المالحظة والمقابلة وغيرها والقيام بوصف الظاهرة او‬
‫ داخل المدرسة مثال‬: ‫المشكلة في مكانها الطبيعي‬
3
Qualitative research is a study, which is conducted in a natural setting where
the researcher, an instrument of data collection, gathers words or pictures,
analyzes them inductively, focuses on the meaning of participants, and
describes a process that is both expressive and persuasive in language.
‫في البحث النوعي يقوم الباحث بجمع المعلومات (صور او كلمات) من المشاركين وتحليلها ووصفها‬
4
Qualitative research is an effort to understand situations in their
uniqueness as part of a particular context and the interactions there
(Denscombe, 2010).
‫يقوم الباحث النوعي بجمع المعلومات في مكان حدوثها ويقوم بمعرفة التفاعالات والروابط بين اجزاء‬
‫المشكلة‬
5
Creswell (2012) defines qualitative study as:
“Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding
based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that
explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a
complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, report detailed
views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural
setting.”
6
Typically qualitative findings are in the form of themes, categories,
concepts or tentative hypotheses or theories.
The product of a qualitative study is richly descriptive.
‫ تصنيفات و فرضيات تجريبية او‬, ‫النتائج في البحث النوعي تكون على شكل موضوعات و مفاهيم‬
‫نظريات‬
7
A second characteristic of all forms of
qualitative research is that the researcher
is the primary instrument for data
collection and analysis.
: ‫يعد الباحث في البحث النوعي هو نفسه اداة البحث مثال‬
‫الباحث هو من يقوم بمالحظة مشكلة العنف في المدارس‬
‫ويقوم بكتابة او تصوير ما يتم مالحظته‬
8
Not measurements, but WORDS!
Instead of asking how many times someone
purchased an item, you ask "WHY...?"
Typically the samples are small, and not "random“
‫البحث النوعي يستخدم الكلمات عوضا عن االرقام والمقايس‬
9
Understanding basic issues
why do people buy/use our product?
Pretesting ideas or questions
do people want a product that cleans their refrigerator?
Message testing
How do people like this ad?
Recommended to capture the basic feel of a
problem prior to conducting a more analytical
study
10
1.Interviews
2.Observations
3.Documents
11
1. Interviews
Open-ended questions and probes yield indepth responses about people’s experiences,
opinions, perceptions, feelings and
knowledge.
Data consist of verbatim quotations with
sufficient context to be interpretable.
12
2. Observations
Fieldwork descriptions of activities, behaviors,
actions, conversations, interpersonal interactions,
organizational or community processes, or any other
aspect of observable human experience.
Data consist of field notes: rich detailed descriptions,
including the context within which the observations
were made.
13
3.
Documents
Written materials and other documents, programs
records; memoranda and correspondence; official
publications and reports; personal diaries, letters,
artistic works, photographs, and memorabilia; and
written responses to open-ended surveys.
Data consists of excerpts from documents captured
in a way that records and preserves context.
14
Depth Interview: An unstructured interview that seeks
opinions of respondents on a one-to-one basis. Useful for
sensitive issues, politics etc.
Protocol Analysis: Involves placing a person in a decision
making situation and asking him/her to state everything he/she
considers in making a decision. Useful in 1. Purchasing involving
a long time frame (car, house) and 2. Where the decision process
is too short (greeting card).
Projective technique: Involve situations in which participants
are placed in simulated activities hoping that they will divulge
information about themselves that are unlikely to be revealed
under direct questing.
15
Weaknesses
•Good for examining feelings and
•Volume of data. ‫نتائجه كبيره و كثيرة‬
motivations. ‫معرفة الشعور والتحفيز‬
•Complexity of analysis . ‫صعوبة‬
•Allows for complexity and depth of
‫تحليل النتائج‬
issues. ‫الدخل في صلب الموضوع وتفاصيله‬
•Time-consuming nature of the
•Provides insights.
clerical efforts require , ‫يتطلب وقت‬
‫طويل في اعداد البحث و تحليل النتئج‬
•Can’t extrapolate to the whole
population
• ‫ال يمكن تعليم النتائج على دراسات مشابهه‬
16
Quantitative—involves use of numerical indices to
summarize, describe and explore relationships among
traits—reliance on control, statistics, measurements, and
experiments
Qualitative—emphasis is on conducting studies in natural
settings using mostly verbal descriptions, resulting in stories
and case studies, not statistical reports
17
A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Basic research
objective
Type of sample
used
Data collection
Method
Nature of data
analysis
Qualitative Research
To gain a broad qualitative
understanding of the
underlying reasons and
motivations;
As a first step in
multistage research
Small numbers of nonrepresentative cases
Unstructured
Quantitative Research
To quantify the data and
generalize the results
form the sample to the
population of interest;
Recommend a final
course of action
Large number of
representative cases
Structured
Non-statistical
Statistical
18
Qualitative
Quantitative
"All research ultimately has
a qualitative grounding"
- Donald Campbell
"There's no such thing as qualitative data.
Everything is either 1 or 0"
- Fred Kerlinger
The aim is a complete, detailed
description.
The aim is to classify features, count them,
and construct statistical models in an
attempt to explain what is observed.
Researcher may only know roughly in
advance what he/she is looking for.
Researcher knows clearly in advance what
he/she is looking for.
Recommended during earlier phases of
research projects.
Recommended during latter phases of
research projects.
The design emerges as the study unfolds.
All aspects of the study are carefully
designed before data is collected.
Researcher is the data gathering
instrument.
Researcher uses tools, such as questionnaires
or equipment to collect numerical data.
Data is in the form of words, pictures or
objects.
Data is in the form of numbers and statistics.
Subjective - individuals� interpretation of
events is important ,e.g., uses
participant observation, in-depth
interviews etc.
Objective � seeks precise measurement &
analysis of target concepts, e.g., uses
surveys, questionnaires etc.
Qualitative data is more 'rich', time
consuming, and less able to be
generalized.
Quantitative data is more efficient, able to
test hypotheses, but may miss contextual
detail.
Researcher tends to become subjectively
immersed in the subject matter.
Researcher tends to remain objectively
separated from the subject matter.
19
Quantitative research is:
"a formal, objective, systematic process in
which numerical data are utilised to
obtain information about the world"
(Burns and Grove cited by Cormack 1991 p
140).
20
Quantitative
Qualitative
Both are systematic in their approac h
Objective
Subjective
Deductive
Inductive
Generalisable
Not generalisable
Numbers
Words
21
Quantitative research is thought to be objective
whereas qualitative research often involves a
subjective element.
It is thought that in gaining, analyzing and
interpreting quantitative data, the researcher can
remain detached and objective.
Often this is not possible with qualitative research
where the researcher may actually be involved in
the situation of the research.
22
Consider a study being undertaken into waiting times in the
Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department of a hospital.
A quantitative study, measuring how long people wait, can
be purely objective.
However if the researcher was wanting to discover how
patients felt about their waiting time, they would have to
come into contact with the patients and make judgments
about the way they answered their questions.
If the researcher asked the patient "how are you feeling
having waited an hour to be seen by the doctor?" they would
almost certainly register the patients non-verbal behaviour
as well as document the response; in this way the researcher
is adding a subjective element to the study.
23
Quantitative research is inclined to be deductive.
In other words it tests theory.
This is in contrast to most qualitative research
which tends to be inductive.
In other words it generates theory.
24
Using the A&E waiting time example again, the
quantitative approach might test the hypothesis
that "
Patients attending this A&E department do not
wait for more than one hour to be seen by a
doctor".
A qualitative approach which explores the
feelings of patients who wait an excessive time to
be seen by the doctor might generate the theory
that "patients who experience an excessive wait to
be seen by the doctor experience an enlargement
of the symptoms that brought them to the
department".
25
Quantitative designs of research tend to produce results that can be
generalised.
Using our A&E example, we should find that, at least for the department
under consideration, the results of the quantitative study tend to hold
true. Providing, of course, that the research was conducted in an
appropriate manner using appropriate sampling techniques.
However, qualitative studies tend to produce results that are less easy to
generalise.
This has to do with the problem of the sample used at the time.
We all know, for example, that our feelings about waiting can change
dependent on our particular set of circumstances. Even if the researcher
encountered the same group of clients on another day, they may find
different results. Generally, it is difficult to generalise with qualitative
results.
26
Quantitative research uses data that are structured
in the form of numbers or that can be immediately
transported into numbers.
If the data can not be structured in the form of
numbers, they are considered qualitative.
(Note that qualitative data can sometimes be
handled in such a way as to produce quantitative
data. e.g. the researcher exploring feelings of
patients can analyse the responses in clusters that
are negative or positive so as to produce a
figure/percentage of negative patient and positive
patient feelings).
27
The majority of medical research is quantitative
(and considered to produce "hard", generalisable
results) whilst much of nursing research is
qualitative (and considered to produce "soft"
results).
28
Types of quantitative research include:



Descriptive
Quasi-experimental
Experimental
Some authors (see Burns & Grove 2nd Edn. 1993)
include a fourth type of design known as a
correlational (Ex post facto) study although
others would dispute whether this is a
quantitative approach to research
29
Basically, experimental and quasi-experimental
studies are designed to examine cause and effect.
These studies are usually conducted to examine the
differences in dependent variables thought to be
caused by independent variables (treatments).
Descriptive and correlational studies examine
variables in their natural environments and do not
include researcher imposed treatments.
30
Experimental design
The paradigm for scientific method in research is the true
experiment or randomised control trial (RCT). Typical
examples of RCT's include drug trials.
Experimental designs are set up to allow the greatest
amount of control possible so that causality may be
examined closely.
The three essential elements (OHP) of experimental design
are:
Manipulation : The researcher does something to at
least some of the participants in the research
Control : The experimenter introduces one or more
controls over the experimental situation.
Randomisation : The experimenter assigns participants
to different groups on a random basis.
(adapted from Polit & Hungler 4th Edn.1997)
31
The classic example is the before-after design or pre-test
post-test design.
This is perhaps the most commonly used experimental
design.
Comparison of pre-test scores allows the researcher to
evaluate how effective the randomisation of the sample is in
providing equivalent groups.
The treatment is fully under control of the researcher. The
dependent variable is measured twice during the study
(before and after the manipulation of the independent
variable).
Example : Drug trials
32
33
34
A development of the pre-test post-test design is known as the Solomon 4-group design.
Although somewhat cumbersome this design effectively measures the influence pre-testing has
on post-test scores. It is a stronger tool than the pre-test post-test design but requires more
complicated statistical analysis of the data obtained
.
35
Factorial designs are a further development of the experimental technique
which allow for two or more different characteristics, treatments, or events to be
independently varied within a single study. This is a logical approach to
examining multiple causality.
36
Quasi-experimental designs
Quasi-experimental designs were developed to
provide alternate means for examining causality in
situations which were not conducive to experimental
control.
The designs have been developed to control as many
threats to validity as possible in situations where at
least one of the three elements of true experimental
research is lacking (i.e. manipulation, randomisation,
control group).
37
There are too many types of Quasi-experimental design
(see Burns & Grove 1993 pp.305-316)
Most are adaptations of experimental designs where
one of the three elements is missing.
An example could be where the researcher uses groups
(control and treatment) which have evolved naturally in
some way rather than being randomly selected.
This is a quasi-experimental approach using nonequivalent control groups.
38
Descriptive designs
Descriptive designs are designed to gain more
information about a particular characteristic
within a particular field of study.
A descriptive study may be used to, develop
theory, identify problems with current practice,
justify current practice, make judgments or
identify what others in similar situations may be
doing.
There is no manipulation of variables and no
attempt to establish causality.
39
Correlational studies
Correlational studies as already mentioned are not
universally accepted as a form of quantitative
research.
As already noted they are also know as ex post facto
studies. This literally means "from after the fact".
The term is used to identify that the research in
question has been conducted after the variations in
the independent variable has occurred naturally.
40
The basic purpose of this form of study is to
determine the relationship between
variables.
However the significant difference from
experimental and quasi-experimental design
is that causality cannot be established due to
lack of manipulation of independent
variables.
"Correlation does not prove Causation"
41