Question
Exercise 1: 1. What is the primary difference between qualitative and quantitative research design?
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The primary difference between qualitative and quantitative research design lies in their core focus and methodologies:
1. **Qualitative Research**:
- **Focus**: Qualitative research is primarily concerned with understanding human behavior, experiences, and social phenomena. It explores the meanings, concepts, and attributes associated with a particular subject.
- **Methodology**: It typically employs non-numerical data collection methods, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and content analysis. The data collected are often rich in detail and can provide insights into participants' thoughts and feelings.
- **Outcome**: The results are generally descriptive and interpretative, providing deeper insights into complex issues, but they are not easily generalizable due to smaller sample sizes and subjective interpretations.
2. **Quantitative Research**:
- **Focus**: Quantitative research aims to quantify the problem or phenomenon by collecting numerical data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is often used to test hypotheses and evaluate causal relationships.
- **Methodology**: This type of research uses structured methods such as surveys, experiments, and existing statistical data. It emphasizes measurement and usually involves larger sample sizes to support generalization of results.
- **Outcome**: The results are presented in numerical form, allowing for statistical analysis and the ability to identify patterns and make predictions.
In summary, qualitative research focuses on understanding the "why" and "how" of human behavior, while quantitative research emphasizes measuring and analyzing the "what," "where," and "how many."
1. **Qualitative Research**:
- **Focus**: Qualitative research is primarily concerned with understanding human behavior, experiences, and social phenomena. It explores the meanings, concepts, and attributes associated with a particular subject.
- **Methodology**: It typically employs non-numerical data collection methods, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and content analysis. The data collected are often rich in detail and can provide insights into participants' thoughts and feelings.
- **Outcome**: The results are generally descriptive and interpretative, providing deeper insights into complex issues, but they are not easily generalizable due to smaller sample sizes and subjective interpretations.
2. **Quantitative Research**:
- **Focus**: Quantitative research aims to quantify the problem or phenomenon by collecting numerical data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is often used to test hypotheses and evaluate causal relationships.
- **Methodology**: This type of research uses structured methods such as surveys, experiments, and existing statistical data. It emphasizes measurement and usually involves larger sample sizes to support generalization of results.
- **Outcome**: The results are presented in numerical form, allowing for statistical analysis and the ability to identify patterns and make predictions.
In summary, qualitative research focuses on understanding the "why" and "how" of human behavior, while quantitative research emphasizes measuring and analyzing the "what," "where," and "how many."