Qualitative research is usually exploratory research, used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations; or qualities. Qualitative data describes qualities or characteristics.
Quantitative research is used to evaluate or quantify a problem and its defined variables. Quantitative data can be counted, compared, and transformed into statistics.
Qualitative Research | Quantitative Research | |
Objective | Understand trends or provide insight into a problem, gain an understanding of underlying reasons or motivations | Measure the incidence of a problem in a chosen sample, quantify data and generalize results from a sample |
Sample | A small number of non-representative cases, often chosen | A large number of subjects randomly selected |
Data | Data tells a story, non-statistical, anecdotal | Statistical, data expressed as a number |
Metric | Temperature: "cold" | Temperature: degrees celsius |
Question | Exploratory such as how or why | Conclusive such as when, where, or what |
This abstract has several indications that this is a qualitative study:
This abstract has several indications that this is a quantitative study: