Quantitative and Qualitative Research

1
Quantitative and Qualitative Research

• S. Kathleen Kitao
• Kenji Kitao
• Keywordsquantitative research, qualitative
  research

2

• will discuss
• two major approaches to research
• quantitative research
• qualitative research

3
Two Sample Studies

• Dr. Stiff (a quantitative researcher) and Dr.
  Miller (a qualitative researcher) are both
  looking at the research question "How is the
  discussion of personal information in close
  friendships different for men and women?"

4

• Part of Dr. Stiffs Lickert scale would look like
  this
• Think of a close friend and answer the following
  questions about him/her. Circle 5 if you strongly
  agree, 4 if you agree, three if you are neutral,
  2 if you disagree, and 1 if you strongly disagree.

5

• 1. There is nothing that I cannot tell my friend.
  1 2 3 4 5
• 2. My friend tells me all her/his secrets.
  1 2 3 4 5
• 3. If I have a problem, I tell my friend about
  it. 1 2 3 4 5

6

• Dr. Stiff would take the average response for
  each of the questions, as well as the average
  score for all questions, and compare them for
  males and females.
• He would then draw conclusions about how men and
  women are different in the personal information
  that they share with close friends.

7

• When he wrote about this part of the
  questionnaire, he might write
• "The average score for self-disclosure for female
  participants was 4.3 and for male subjects was
  2.5, indicating that women are more likely to
  discuss personal information with a close friend
  than men."

8

• Dr. Miller uses open-ended questions, that is,
  questions that do not have a "right" or "wrong"
  answer, which the participant can answer any way
  he/she wants. Part of Dr. Miller's questionnaire
  would look like this
• Write about a close friend. How much do you
  confide in this friend? What kind of personal
  information do you give this friend? Do you talk
  to this friend about personal problems?

9

• Some of the answers might look like this
• (answer from a woman)
• My best friend's name is Sherry. I feel as if
  there is nothing that I can't tell her. We talk
  about our plans with the future, our
  relationships with our boyfriends, and so on.
  When I have a problem, shes the first one I talk
  to. Sherry doesn't necessarily offer solutions,
  but talking to her always makes my problems feel
  smaller, even though nothing has really changed.
  For example,

10

• (answer from a man)
• I have a good friend at work named Bob. Sometimes
  after work we go out for a drink, and we talk
  about sports mainly. We don't talk too much about
  personal problems, though once I asked him for
  advice about a problem with my girlfriend. He
  gave me good advice, and it helped solve the
  problem.

11

• Dr. Miller would read all of the answers and look
  for patterns, particularly patterns of
  differences between men and women.
• For example, she might notice that many of the
  women said that just talking about their problems
  with their friend helped them, while many of the
  men seemed more interested in practical help from
  their friends.

12

• When Dr. Miller wrote up her study, she might
  write, "For women, talking about the problem
  appeared to have a comforting effect, even if the
  friend did not offer practical help. As one
  subject wrote, 'Talking to Sherry about my
  problems always makes them feel smaller, even
  though nothing has really changed.' Men, in
  contrast, seemed more interested in getting
  practical help, such as advice to help solve a
  problem."

13
Differences Between These Two Approaches

• Quantitative studies involve converting
  observations into numbers and comparing those
  numbers.
• Even if they use open-ended questions, they
  analyze them by counting responses. Qualitative
  studies, in contrast, involve trying to find
  patterns in the subjects' responses, and the
  results are often reported using the subjects'
  own words.

14

• Setting categories
• In quantitative approaches, the researcher sets
  the categories and decides what will be important
  to study.
• In qualitative research, the subjects have more
  opportunity to "influence" the direction of the
  research by bringing up aspects of their own
  experience that the researcher might not have
  considered.

15

• Quantitative research is like taking one or more
  "photographs" of a situation at one or more
  points in time.
• A quantitative researcher who is studying how
  friendships change over time may have
  participants who are starting a friendship fill
  out a questionnaire, and then have them fill out
  the questionnaire again after six months.
• Therefore, the researcher sees what the
  relationships are like at the beginning and again
  what they are like after six months.

16

• In this way, the researcher can see how the
  relationships are different at those two points
  in time, although it is difficult to see the
  process that the friendship goes through.
• However, the advantage of quantitative research
  is that it can include many people.

17

• Qualitative research looks in more depth at the
  process a relationship goes through, though a
  qualitative study would use fewer people.
• A qualitative researcher might interview people
  in detail over the first six months of their
  relationship to learn how the relationship is
  changing.
• A qualitative study is more like a video tape.
• Qualitative research involves fewer people, so it
  is more difficult to say how much the results can
  be generalized.

18

• Quantitative researchers make an effort to be
  objective, while in qualitative research,
  objectivity is not as important.
• In quantitative research, if subjective
  judgements are involved, the researcher tries to
  make sure that all of the judgements are made
  according to the same standard.

19

• Because quantitative research uses statistics, it
  is important to use a large number of
  participants in the study.
• In contrast, qualitative research generally uses
  relatively few participants -- sometimes only one
  -- and looks at them in a deeper way.

20

• Finally, quantitative research tends to involve
  some comparison, while qualitative may not.
• Researchers who take this approach might compare
  two groups of people or compare the same group of
  people at different times.
• Qualitative researchers, on the other hand,
  sometimes just describe the characteristics of
  one group, without reference to another group.

21

• Quantitative and qualitative researchers can be
  very critical of one another.
• Quantitative researchers sometimes say that
  qualitative research is not real science.
• Qualitative research just looks at one person or
  one group of people, and it is not clear how the
  findings apply to other people or groups.
• Qualitative researchers often say that
  quantitative researchers only look at the surface
  of what they are studying.

22
Conclusion

• Qualitative and quantitative research are two
  approaches to doing research.
• They are each appropriate for different purposes
  and may even be combined.
• Researchers might use a qualitative approach
  first to identify some of the interesting
  concepts. They then might use a quantitative
  approach to take a closer look at those concepts.