Qualitative vs Quantitative Research
| QUALITATIVE |
QUANTITATIVE |
| Methods include focus groups, unstructured or in-depth interviews, and reviews of documents for types of themes |
Surveys, structured interviews, measurements & observations, and reviews of records or documents for numeric or quantifiable information |
| A primarily inductive process used to formulate theory or hypotheses |
A primarily deductive process used to test pre-specified concepts, constructs, and hypotheses that make up a theory |
| More subjective: describes a problem or condition from the point of view of those experiencing it |
More objective: provides observed effects (interpreted by researchers) of a program on a problem or condition |
| Text-based |
Number-based |
| More in-depth information on a few cases |
Less in-depth but more breadth of information across a large number of cases |
| Unstructured or semi-structured response options |
Fixed response options, measurements, or observations |
| No statistical tests |
Statistical tests are used for analysis |
| Less generalizable |
More generalizable |
Adapted from https://www.orau.gov/cdcynergy/soc2web/Content/phase05/phase05_step03_deeper_qualitative_and_quantitative.htm
