Qualitative And Quantitative Methods

Using the databases and the Research Methods research guide in the Ashford University Library, locate and read peer-reviewed articles about the features of qualitative research and quantitative research. Also read the full text of the study you selected in Week One. Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative research methods and terminology. Specify which approach is used in the study. Explain whether the study is qualitative or quantitative by citing specific clues from the article, such as sample size, data collection techniques, the nature of the data collected, or the data analysis techniques used. Using information in the instructor guidance and Chapter 2 of the textbook, determine whether the research study you selected is non-experimental or experimental. Explain your reasoning.

Your paper must be a minimum of four pages (excluding title page) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. All sources must be documented in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. For more information about APA style, please see the Ashford Writing Center.

Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Research methods are split broadly into quantitative and qualitative methods.

Which you choose will depend on your research questions, your underlying philosophy of research, and your preferences and skills.

Our pages Introduction to Research Methods and Designing Research set out some of the issues about the underlying philosophy.

Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is perhaps the simpler to define and identify.

The data produced are always numerical, and they are analysed using mathematical and statistical methods. If there are no numbers involved, then it’s not quantitative research.

Some phenomena obviously lend themselves to quantitative analysis because they are already available as numbers. Examples include changes in achievement at various stages of education, or the increase in number of senior managers holding management degrees. However, even phenomena that are not obviously numerical in nature can be examined using quantitative methods.

The development of Likert scales and similar techniques mean that most phenomena can be studied using quantitative techniques.

This is particularly useful if you are in an environment where numbers are highly valued and numerical data is considered the ‘gold standard’.

However, it is important to note that quantitative methods are not necessarily the most suitable methods for investigation. They are unlikely to be very helpful when you want to understand the detailed reasons for particular behaviour in depth. It is also possible that assigning numbers to fairly abstract constructs such as personal opinions risks making them spuriously precise.
Sources of Quantitative Data

The most common sources of quantitative data include:

Surveys, whether conducted online, by phone or in person. These rely on the same questions being asked in the same way to a large number of people;
Observations, which may either involve counting the number of times that a particular phenomenon occurs, such as how often a particular word is used in interviews, or coding observational data to translate it into numbers; and
Secondary data, such as company accounts.

Our pages on Survey Design and Observational Research provide more information about these techniques.

Analysing Quantitative Data

There are a wide range of statistical techniques available to analyse quantitative data, from simple graphs to show the data through tests of correlations between two or more items, to statistical significance. Other techniques include cluster analysis, useful for identifying relationships between groups of subjects where there is no obvious hypothesis, and hypothesis testing, to identify whether there are genuine differences between groups…

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