When to Use Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative vs. quantitative research

While quantitative research uses the scientific method to prove or disprove a hypothesis in a numerical fashion, qualitative research is narrative in scope and studies phenomena from a subjective, open-ended perspective. Quantitative research is deductive and proceeds from the general to the specific and usually involves studying a large population to create a general principle that can be applied to individual cases. Qualitative research studies specific cases and (sometimes) creates a general principle from those cases. Other times qualitative may be so specific and so focused upon unique cases that the research may merely present the data rather than creating a theory.

Examples of qualitative research methodologies include case studies, ethnographies, and phenomenology. Methods of qualitative researchers may include observing subjects; interviewing subjects and then coding their responses; or even participant-observer engagement with the researcher actively involving him or herself in the process of study. Qualitative grounded research studies do attempt to create an overarching theory in a more rigorous fashion about the research but only in an inductive, not a deductive fashion. Qualitative research does not assume there is an objective 'way of knowing' -- rather, it rests upon the supposition that knowledge is subjective and situated within the vantage-point of the observer and the persons living the experience that is being observed. The interpretivist view of the qualitative researcher is that "researchers recognise that all participants involved, including the researcher, bring their own unique interpretations of the world or construction of the situation to the research and the researcher needs to be open to the attitudes and values of the participants or, more actively, suspend prior cultural assumptions" (Vine 2009).

Quantitative methodology embraces a positivist paradigm. "Positivism…asserts a deterministic and empiricist philosophy, where causes determine effects, and aims to directly observe, quantitatively measure and objectively predict relationships between variables" (Vine 2009). Scientific, controlled studies, such as observing whether a drug works or does not work on a particular population, are grounded in positivism vs. A qualitative study which might determine the subjective, personal experiences and impressions of different people on antidepressants. Quantitative studies make use of questionnaires, experiments, and statistically observable data such as in a longitudinal study tracking different trajectories of development between an experimental and a control group. Although qualitative studies may also take place over extended periods of time, quantitative studies only track measurable data that can be compared and the variables under scrutiny are pre-determined before the researcher embarks upon the actual study.