THE QUALITATIVE STUDY AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Difference between the qualitative study and quantitative study



Difference between the qualitative study and quantitative study

Introduction

The goal of any science is gaining knowledge and choosing the appropriate method that allows us to know the reality is therefore, essential. The problem is to accept as true the wrong knowledge or vice versa. Inductive and deductive methods have conflicting objectives and may be summarized as developing the theory and analysis of theory respectively. Inductive methods are commonly associated with qualitative research, while the deductive method is often associated with quantitative research.

Define at least three characteristics of a qualitative study that are unique to this effort.

Qualitative research is inductive. Researchers develop concepts and insight, based on the data and collecting data to evaluate models, hypotheses or preconceived theories. In qualitative studies, researchers follow a flexible research design. They begin their studies with vaguely formulated questions. This is one of the total differences with quantitative approach (Strauss, 2007).

2In qualitative methodology the researcher sees the stage and people in a holistic perspective. People, scenarios or groups, are not reduced to variables, but taken as a whole. The qualitative researcher studies people in the context of its past and the situations they encounter.

Qualitative researchers are sensitive to the effects that they cause on people who are the subject of study. It has been said of them that are natural, i.e., interacting with informants in a natural and unobtrusive. In participant observation, try to blend in the structure, at least until they have reached an understanding of the stage. In interviews, modeled on a normal conversation, not a formal exchange of questions and answers. Although qualitative researchers can not eliminate its effect on people studying, trying to control or minimize them, or at least understand when interpreting their data (Strauss, 2007)

Define at least three characteristics of a quantitative study.

Pay more attention to the similarities to differences.

Try to find the real causes of phenomena. The theory is a reflection in and from practice, and that reality is constituted not only by external and observable facts, but by symbols and meanings and interpretations made by the subject through interaction with others.

Development of individual hypotheses that occur in individual cases. Adopting the model hypothesis testing, using quantitative and statistical methods is based on observable measurable phenomena, numerical analysis and experimental control. All social phenomena are categorized into variables from which statistical relationships are established (Calero, 2000).

Discuss and compare these differences.

Quantitative research is one in which data are collected and analyzed quantitative variables. Qualitative research prevents quantification. Qualitative researchers make narrative records of the phenomena being studied using techniques such as participant observation and unstructured interviews. The fundamental difference between both methods is that quantitative studies the association or relationship between quantified and qualitative variables do structural and situational contexts. Qualitative research seeks to identify the underlying nature of reality, its system of relationships, dynamic structure. Quantitative research seeks to determine the strength of association or correlation between variables, generalization and ...