...Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research Methods Martin Berkshire Indiana Tech Abstract This paper will discuss the varying thoughts of utilizing a qualitative approach to research versus a quantitative approach. It will look at scenarios from different aspects of the business world and compare the use of both approaches. Not all of the articles feel the same way about the research methods. Tauber (1987), is very clear on his take that qualitative research should be able to stand alone from quantitative research. While Carlson and Gold (2008), suggest that combining the two forms of research can lead to superior results. Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research Methods There are many types of definitions for the term Qualitative Data, according to Anderson, Sweeney, Williams (2008) “qualitative data is considered labels or names used to identify an attribute of each element.”(18) They go on to say that qualitative data can be either nonnumeric or numeric in nature and can use either the nominal or ordinal scale of measurement. The site BusinessDictionary.com defines qualitative data as “data that approximates or characterizes but does not measure the attributes, characteristics, properties, etc., of a thing or phenomenon. Qualitative data describes whereas quantitative data defines.” While the definitions of qualitative data vary, the definition of quantitative data remains fairly consistent. Quantitative data is defined as “numeric values that indicate...
Words: 1535 - Pages: 7
...Foundations of Research Kevin Jackson UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX April 22, 2013 Dr. Linda Crawford University of Phoenix Material Foundations of Research Template * Complete the following University of Phoenix Foundations of Research template. * Base your responses on at least four current scholarly sources, of which two are articles from peer-reviewed journals. * Cite references used according to APA 6th edition. Include an APA-formatted reference list. * Insert your reference list at the end of the document. * Demonstrate your understanding of the nature of the three major research methods by describing and comparing the foundations of quantitative and qualitative research for each of the following elements, using this template. Limit your response of each item to 100 words. * Nature of research: scientific and philosophical underpinnings The scientific and philosophical underpinnings need a foundation for inquiry to conduct research. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies consist of three philosophical underpinnings, which is identified as: objectivism, subjectivism, and constructivism. The different philosophical foundations and scientific of quantitative and qualitative methodologies have different ontology and epistemology. In quantitative paradigms have an ontology and epistemology of, where the observer and the observed are considered separate and independent. Whereas, qualitative the ontology and...
Words: 867 - Pages: 4
...Running Head: IMC 612 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research 1 Comparing the Use of Qualitative and Quantitative Research in Marketing IMC 612 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research 2 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Though qualitative and quantitative researches differ in their methodologies and philosophies, they both contribute to an overall research plan, and act to uncover the motives and feelings of the consumer. At their very essence the two types of research employ different reasoning and as such, each method has its own fair share of detractors and supporters. The truth of the matter is that despite their inherent differences, qualitative and quantitative research methods are complimentary in many ways and can be used in conjunction with each other (Colorado State University, n.d.). When combined, the two methods of research can give a more detailed picture of the consumer’s wants and needs. “Gathering vital evidence by conducting thorough and well-considered research can benefit businesses of all sizes” (Frost, 2012). Qualitative research by its very nature makes use of inductive reasoning (Colorado State University, n.d.). In inductive reasoning, the researcher begins with specific observations and measures, begins to detect patterns, formulates a tentative hypothesis based on those patterns...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...Fundamentals of Research Paper BSHS/382 Define the scientific method. The scientific method has its foundation in a number of steps including research, observational analysis and establishing data-driven rulings. Tell how it relates to human services research. Based on substantiation research studies, medical treatments and newer drugs are not only sustained but also adapted and improved over time. Exclusive of scientific research, their formation and effectiveness regulation will not be achievable. What are the steps in the process of scientific inquiry? Why must each of these steps be included to support the scientific method? Provide a human services research example of the scientific method and identify each step within your example 1. The first step in executing a scientific examination for research in a given field of study. It ascends and takes a solid shape, once a trained researcher figures out that some evidence may be necessary but is missing, and to study such information, the researcher proposes the research setback. 2. Then occur, set up of variables and investigational conditions. 3. This is trailed by choosing or indiscriminately assigning qualified participants, under controlled laboratory and research conditions, to their individual experimental groups. 4. The variables are expended in distinctive variations, along with the treatment to be tested, and their endings are noted...
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
... | |Quantitative Research |-Requires the collection, analysis, and |-Research is deductive, logical or | | |reporting of data. |reasonable. | | |-Reporting data consist of supplying |-A hypothesis is needed to begin research. | | |readers with participant information, data |- The researcher is ideally an objective | | |patterns, recognition of biases, and |observer that neither participates in nor | | |further research to be conducted |did influence what is being study (Barnes, | | |surrounding the topic. |2005). | |Qualitative Research |-Requires the collection, analysis, and |-Research is inductive, leading on or | ...
Words: 653 - Pages: 3
...Research Method Hypothesis and Theory Hypotheses can be developed and tested to recognize the relationships between categories. Silverman (1991:1) defined hypothesis as a ‘testable proposition’. The appearance of an apparent relationship or connection between categories will need to be tested in order to find out whether there is an actual relationship (Saunders, 1997:344). The importance of hypothesis is that it will bring a specific direction and focus to a research study. The theory on the other hand, is usually drawn from the hypothesis. Theories are usually generated from attempts at explaining observations and thus prediction or expectations can be made (Gill, 1991:25). Deduction and Induction There are two methods of establishing what is true or false and of drawing conclusion. These two methods are deduction and induction. Induction is made by empirical evidence based, while deduction is logic based. Through induction, a general conclusion can be made from empirical observation. It goes by the process of assumption to conclusion (Ghauri, 1995:8). From deduction, conclusions are draw through logical reasoning and it is not necessary to be reality. When an observation is made to generate a theory with consistent facts, it is called induction, on the contrary deduction involves the gathering of facts to confirm or disprove hypothesized relationships among variables that have been deduced from proposition or earlier theories (Ghauri, 1995:9). Research method and methodology ...
Words: 2557 - Pages: 11
...Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 1 RES/351 Business Research August 13, 2014 Understanding Business Research Terms and Concepts: Part 1 It is important to understand business research terms and concepts when conducting research. Having an unclear understanding of the terms and concepts could lead to ineffective research results. Having good measurement tools in place can be used as an indicator for measuring accuracy. Tools that are put in place to measure accuracy are evaluated using three key criteria, validity, reliability, and practicality. Validity is the main concern of the research. Reliability deals with the quality of measurement. Practicality is concerned with factors of economy, interpretability and convenience. In this paper, I have chosen two articles and will identify, compare, and contrast the two approaches, qualitative and quantitative, used by the researcher. In the first article titled, “Research in the News: Practicality trumps desirability in gift giving”, the researchers use a qualitative approach. The strength of this approach was that the studies were conducted face to face in a classroom which allowed the study capture the actual emotions, feelings, and opinions of the individuals being surveyed. Using a combined approach in this study would enhance the results by adding in statistical measures, which will be obtained through the quantitative design. The appropriate method for this research study was the qualitative design. The...
Words: 468 - Pages: 2
...which has resulted in an emphasis on quantitative research methods, centred on collection of numerical data and statistical analysis (the empirical approach). However, since the 1960s there has been increasing criticism of such reliance on the quantitative data-collection characteristics of the scientific method, which has developed over subsequent decades into a strong shift towards more qualitative approaches. This has led to the somewhat inevitable, yet ultimately unhelpful, divide between competing methods: quantitative versus qualitative. According to Bauer, et al (2000), quantitative research deals with numbers, makes use of statistical models to explain the data and is considered ‘hard’ research, whereas qualitative research avoids numbers, involves interpretation of social realities and is considered ‘soft research. Both approaches, however, have their strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of quantitative research, as outlined by Burns (2000), includes precision and control – precision is achieved through quantitative and reliable measurement, control through sampling and design. Further, “experimentation leads to statements about causation” in that the systematic manipulation of a variable, in an environment where other variables have been eliminated or controlled, can be shown to have a direct causal effect on another. Finally, quantitative data allows statistical analysis. Coolican (1999) points out that the pure quantitative position deems measurement to be fundamental...
Words: 939 - Pages: 4
...RESEARCH DESIGN Qualitative, Quantitative. and Mixed Methods Approaches SECOND EDITION John W. Creswell University of Nebraska, Lincoln SAGE Publications International Educational and Professional Publisher Thousand Oaks London New Delhi ~ 6 7 6 3Copyright O 2003 by Sage Publications, Inc. -3 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover image copyright O Sheldan CollinsICorbis; used by permission. For information: Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: order@sagepub.com Sage Publications Ltd. 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. M-32 Market Greater Kailash I New Delhi 110 048 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Creswell, John W. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches I by John W. Creswel1.- 2nd ed. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-7619-2441-8 (c) - ISBN 0-7619-2442-6 (pbk.) 1. Social sciences-Research-Methodology. 2. Social sciences-Statistical methods. I. Title. H62 .C6963 2002 30W.7'2-dc21 Acquiring Editor: Editorial Assistant: Production Editor: Copy Editor: Typesetter: Cover Designer: ...
Words: 7400 - Pages: 30
...others have made a distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods, and how do they relate to scientific and humanistic approaches in geography? I n the previous chapter, we explained that the empirical part of scientific research involves systematically observing cases in order to record measurements of variables that reflect properties of those cases. Researchers analyze the resulting set of data (usually numbers) graphically, verbally, and mathematically in order to learn something about the properties of the cases. Data collection efforts do not generally go on continuously but are grouped into periods of activity focused on particular research issues or questions. Such a focused period of data collection and analysis is a study (in Chapter 7, we learn that there are two major categories of scientific studies, experimental and nonexperimental). In this chapter, we introduce some basic characteristics of data collection in geography, including the distinction between primary and secondary data sources, the five major types of data collection, and the distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods. 35 03-Montello-4862.qxd 1/30/2006 12:17 PM Page 36 36——AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODS IN GEOGRAPHY Primary and Secondary Data Sources One way to characterize data in geography concerns whether they were collected specifically for the purpose of a researcher’s particular study. If so, we call the data primary....
Words: 3668 - Pages: 15
...Quantitative and Qualitative Research Most of the people who are conducting a research are not aware of the difference between qualitative and quantitative method, these two terms are the most important element in a research. Many mistakes are made since most people think that they can use both elements interchangeably. Both methods have their own explanation, although two of them are used in a research but they can’t be used together in one research. Catherine M. Castellan (2010, Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 4) assumes that “quantitative and qualitative research programs claim different philosophical perspectives, and correspondingly, work with different underlying assumptions.” A research of “Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods: Understanding Why Qualitative Methods are superior for Criminology and Criminal Justice” is made by Richard Tewksbury, University of Louisville on a Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology, Vol. 1 (1) 2009. In this research of criminology and criminal justice, Richard Tewksbury (2009, Vol. 1) stated that “because of the unique contributions – depth of understandings being primary -- that qualitative methods can provide it is argued that such approaches should be used more frequently, be more frequently and strongly valued and seen as unique, often superior approaches to the creation of criminological and criminal justice knowledge.” A quantitative research is an explanatory research that’s mainly used to identify a problem in a research by...
Words: 1016 - Pages: 5
...Scholarly Journal Criminology Theory October 16, 2012 Scholarly Journal The growing figures of women implicated in the criminal-justice system and the shortage of programs and assistance that are equipped toward their necessities has encouraged criminal justice experts to investigate their sanctioning and oversight procedures in terms of gender. However, there is additionally comprehensive information concerning the attributes of women in prisons and jails, there are considerably fewer facts on female delinquents in community correctional environments. The failure of mature females in criminal-justice investigation has been substantiated on the grounds that they report for only a short fraction of apprehensions and move fewer delinquencies than males. This explanation disregards the fact that, adult females who do register in the justice system, while fewer other and less vicious than their male counterparts, generally come to be extensive users of the system. In concentrating on the devastating quantity of males in the criminal and juvenile justice organizations programs, procedures and services usually fall through to produce a mixture of options for conducting with the gender and culturally specific complications of female offenders implicated in the system. For Gottfredson and Hirschi, transgression can generally be diminished to “acts of force or fraud undertaken in pursuit of self-interest,” which is speculative of both cross-cultural and reforming authentic interpretations...
Words: 1729 - Pages: 7
...Fundamentals of quantitative research Suphat Sukamolson, Ph.D. Language Institute Chulalongkorn University Abstract The main purpose of this article is to introduce some important fundamental concepts of quantitative research to readers especially novice researchers. It comprises types of research, definitions of quantitative research, different types and assumptions of quantitative research, when to use and not to use quantitative methods, advantages, common approaches and samples of quantitative research, and common misconceptions. Besides, a set of criteria for evaluating quantitative research proposal is provided. The main focus is on the assumptions underlying the quantitative research and some of the misconceptions that many researchers have when they are conducting a research study. Types of Research It is not easy to say how many types of research there are because different researchers or educators may use different criteria to classify research types. Generally speaking, research can be classified into 3 main groups based on the application of the research study, its objectives in undertaking the research and how the information is sought. Each group can be subdivided into different types as follows: (Kumar, 1996) Types of research Applications Pure research Applied research Types of information sought Objectives Descriptive research Correlational research Exploratory research Explanatory research Quantitative research ...
Words: 6353 - Pages: 26
...Faucher Literature Search Paper Numerous studies have been conducted to prove the relationship of shift work and fatigue and the results noted on medication errors. Two articles were chosen using the University Library, a qualitative research study and a quantitative research study from peer reviewed articles through the use of databases such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Gale Powersearch. To research this topic, the query tool utilizing terminology such as shift work, fatigue, and medication errors was used to narrow the search. The intent of this paper is to identify the difference between research study articles versus plain journal articles, the type of nursing journals, and if the article is peer reviewed. EBSCOhost allows one to narrow the search, by selecting the mode as Boolean search, the source type as Academic Journal, the subjects as errors and patient safety, the publication as Journal of Nursing Management, AORN Journal, and Journal of Nursing Education, and finally the database as CINAHL plus with full text reduced the results to 259 articles. The articles are in order from most relevant to least relevant. Effects of working conditions of intravenous medication errors in Japanese hospital, written by Seki and Yamazaki was the most relevant article posted that encompassed the use of a quantitative research method to support the educational content. According to Burns and Grove (2011) “quantitative research is a formal, objective systematic processes in which...
Words: 1024 - Pages: 5
...24, 2014 Mike Hamm Finding What Works Quantitative versus qualitative research. Both methods hold an important place in the process of asking, hypothesizing, researching, gathering compiling and presenting the findings of any marketing process. The most effective method depends on the desired results. If the research being conducted is for the purposes of reporting the quantity, measurement, role or ability of a product, then quantitative research is required. If the researcher is seeking results that describe a given process can improve relationships, work ethic, and peace of mind or cohesiveness within a given circumstance, qualitative research would be the most appropriate. Research is an important aspect of many parts of life. While prayer is not a business or a job, it is a call that serves a purpose and is a large part of my current and future work ventures. Gathering data on the power of prayer, let alone proving what that gathered data means, is an improbable and highly scrutinized practice. When researching the present findings and preparing this paper, I found myself in quite a conundrum of faith and understanding. That being stated, according to Baesler and Ladd 2009, several studies have been conducted, indicating that those experiencing crises have shown an improvement in their over-all wellbeing when participating in prayer centered activities. The struggle however is, how does one record a qualitative record, when the action, connection and result...
Words: 544 - Pages: 3
