Speaker 1: Hello, this is Dr. Grande. Welcome to my video on quantitative and qualitative research. These two types of research vary along many dimensions, and I'll be taking a look at those dimensions one by one. First, we'll start with function. The function of quantitative research is to identify a cause, quantify the effect of a cause, predict an outcome, explain why something happens. It's also used to test a hypothesis or hypotheses or to test a theory. In contrast, qualitative, the function of qualitative research is quite different. It contains components like understanding, processing, exploring, interpreting, and creating a foundation for theory. There are several types of quantitative and qualitative research. On the quantitative side, you have descriptive research. So these would be papers that simply use descriptive statistics when describing a construct or constructs. You have correlational studies. So you take several variables and run a correlation on them and draw whatever inferences are possible and logical to draw from that. Another type of quantitative research is causal comparative. So this is when you have a dataset that was collected, or typically I should say, a dataset that was collected without any intent to conduct research at the time it was collected. So oftentimes these are convenience datasets. So you're an active researcher and you stumble upon an agency or an institution that's collected a lot of data, and then you go back and look at the data and try to infer causation. So at the time the independent variables were being manipulated, if they were in fact being manipulated, and the dependent variables were being collected, the scores, you as a researcher didn't have any influence over that. You weren't the one manipulating the independent variables. Quasi-experimental research allows us to infer causation with a little more authority than causal comparative. Oftentimes we call research quasi-experimental when it lacks random assignment, although there are certainly other reasons why research could be classified that way. And then we move up to experimental, which oftentimes is considered the highest level of research in terms of speaking about causality with authority. Now if you find a cause and effect relationship in experimental research, you can defend it fairly strongly, but not definitively. There's always error. But in experimental research you have a control group and a treatment group, or sometimes more than one treatment group, and you have random assignment. Looking at the qualitative side, again much different types are represented here. The first one I have here is ethnography. So this is a study of a cultural group or cultural groups. And when speaking about ethnographies, we're using the word culture in a broad sense. The most popular type of ethnography is what's called participant observation. That's where the researcher is with that cultural group, kind of living as one of them as they're making observations. Now there is a qualitative research type in ethnography where the researcher is distant and does not become a part of, in a way, a part of the culture. And that's called direct observation. And in that instance the researcher tries not to influence or become part of the cultural experience. Then we have grounded theory. And grounded theory is where the theory is rooted in the data. So the data comes first, and then the theory is built from there. So you don't start with a theory, you start with data, and you let the data take you to the theory. Which of course is different than quantitative where you oftentimes start with a theory. Another type of qualitative research is historical analysis. So this is where a researcher tries to understand the past, usually using archival data and documents. Then we have action research. Now action research, the point of action research, is to solve a problem and simultaneously analyze the causes of that problem. So it's a little bit more than research. It does have a problem solving component to it. And then we have phenomenology. And phenomenology is where a researcher tries to understand the subjective experience of another individual or a group of individuals. So now taking a look at some of the differences in data collection between quantitative and qualitative. So in quantitative we use instruments, assessments. This is a particularly common way to gather data in quantitative research. Quantitative researchers also use surveys, as well as structured interviews and structured observations. And most of the time the data collection is performed using a computer. Looking at qualitative research, the data collection involves the use of interviews, but they're not structured interviews. They're actually unstructured interviews, and they're deliberately designed to be unstructured. So the participant can take the interview where the participant wants to take it. They use documents. They use observations. I spoke about that before, participant observation and direct observation. And the data is usually initially recorded either on a voice recorder or a video recorder, where it's often recorded. Sometimes it's also recorded in a notebook. It's handwritten. Now eventually in qualitative research, a computer is going to be involved. The data is going to be moved to a computer. But for the initial data collection, that's not where the data is going to initially be recorded in many instances. So taking a look at data analysis in quantitative and qualitative research. In quantitative research, data analysis is deductive. That means it moves from the general to the specific. The data collection occurs before the data analysis. Statistics are used in quantitative research, and the purpose of the analysis is to create knowledge. In qualitative research, they use, qualitative researchers use inductive reasoning. That moves from the specific to the general. Data collection occurs at the same time as data analysis. So as a researcher is collecting data, they're analyzing that data in an ongoing fashion. And the analysis focuses on themes and models. We use the word themes a lot in qualitative research because that is a major focus of the analysis is to find and extract themes oftentimes from long narrative documents, usually the interviews that take place. So moving on to results. In quantitative research, the results are numerical. Represented, as I mentioned before, with statistics. Generalizations are made to a wider population. So a quantitative researcher will have a finding and the sample size might be 300 individuals from a certain population. And to one extent or another, that researcher is often going to make generalizations to a larger population. In one sense, that is a major point of conducting quantitative research. And the results are formal. There is a structured way to write the results, and quantitative researchers typically follow that structured method. Qualitative research, of course, a bit different, much more dependent on a narrative. That's what you have. A qualitative paper is a narrative. It involves a lot of direct quotes, usually from the participants. The results are ongoing. So there aren't really any definitive conclusions. Rather, they're tentative conclusions in qualitative results. Now, it's important to note here that on the quantitative side, it wouldn't be unusual to see the word scientific. And on the qualitative side, to see unscientific or just to not have the word scientific there. But to be fair, if you look at quantitative and qualitative research, both methods are scientific. When we think of science, the first thought is usually quantitative. But the qualitative research methods, although many are highly unstructured, some do have structures and there is some standardization to how qualitative data is analyzed. So you could certainly argue that it's more informal, but I believe both methods are scientific. So then taking a look at selection. So you have to decide, usually you can use both methods in a paper, but typically we decide to use either a quantitative research method or a qualitative research method and not both. So how do you select between the two research methodologies? Well, first you want to look at the purpose of the research. Why are you conducting the research? What is it you want to discover, find, prove, explore? You really have to know the research question. All research really needs to start with a research question. Also, you have to look at the available research on the topic. If there's a lot of research on the topic that's quantitative, you may want to build on that with another quantitative study, or because so much of the research is quantitative, you may want to look at the other side and conduct a qualitative study. Oftentimes, if there's very little research available on a topic or really no research available, oftentimes that would lead you to a qualitative research design. Because remember, qualitative research can build the foundation for a theory, and then if it does, if it's successful, you could test that theory using quantitative research. You also have to look at the available sample. If you have access to a large population, then there are some clear benefits to using quantitative research methodology. But if you only have access to a few people, then quantitative research would be difficult, not impossible, and qualitative research would probably be a better choice. You also have to look at any type of time restrictions you might be under. Qualitative research doesn't have to, but often takes longer, not only to conduct, but to write up. Qualitative papers are oftentimes longer than quantitative papers. You need to consider what type of measurement you want to use. If you're going to use If you're going to use instruments, then quantitative is probably a good choice. If you are not going to measure at all, then qualitative research would make more sense. Then you need to look at the talent of your research team, and you have to evaluate that talent in terms of the ability to understand and use quantitative research methodology, to interpret instruments, to process data, to use inferential and non-inferential statistics. If looking at a quantitative study, these studies are formal and precise and often written in the third person. So upon evaluating the research talent you have available between you and your research team, you have to look at what's required for quantitative research, and then weigh that in terms of what's required for qualitative, which would be researchers and writers that are strong at putting together a narrative, using quotes, capturing the subjective experience of individuals, capturing the experience of cultural groups, explaining that experience in detail, finding themes, and writing oftentimes in the first person. So there are a lot of different variables to consider as you decide between quantitative and qualitative research methodology for any given project. I hope you found this video on quantitative and qualitative research methodology to be helpful. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to assist you.