Understanding Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: Key Differences Explained (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: While the distinction between these two research methods may seem confusing, an understanding of their differences and when and how to use either method is crucial to your path of becoming a great researcher. Hi, my name is Dustin Harding and I'm an assistant professor of marketing here at UVU. Today, I'm going to explain briefly the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. While the distinction between these two research methods may seem confusing, an understanding of their differences and when and how to use either method is crucial to your path of becoming a great researcher. To start, qualitative research is about gathering language, pictures, or other descriptions behind an observation, as opposed to counting or gathering numbers, and can help drive a theory or discover the how or why something occurs. For example, interviewing customers about their thoughts of your product design or gathering memes that customers post while talking about your company would be considered qualitative research. In these examples, you could gain valuable non-numeric insight that could help you theorize ways to improve your product or service. The only trouble is that these data have been filtered through you and are therefore biased by your own understanding and beliefs. In contrast, quantitative research is about counting or gathering numbers and helps track or analyze observations or test theories. For example, asking someone to rate how much they like your product on a scale or tracking the number of likes or dislikes you get on a post would be considered quantitative research. The main issue with quantitative data are that they often do not explain the why behind an observation. These two research methods are most powerful when used together. For instance, you could discover potential ways to improve your product or service qualitatively by interviewing customers and then test those theories quantitatively by having people rate the product changes in an online survey. Or you may notice quantitatively a rise of people liking a particular post and then qualitatively go through the post comments to help theorize why customers like that post more than others. Neither of these research methods is better than the other. You simply use each method to help answer different questions to gain different insights. And there you have it. There's a simple explanation of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research.