How do you decide on what kind of research suits your study the best? The most generic categorization of Qualitative and Quantitative Research can set the record straight.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research are the ABCD of Research. The most primitive and ever-existing concepts since the very beginning of research as a field of study.

You will barely come across a research student or professional who wouldn't have heard the term Qualitative and Quantitative research.

Two of the most defining forms of research to ever exist, these two set the tone and the entire background for your research study.

And when talking about research, It is a boon to be able to define your entire research’s nature in a word or a single concept.

Just say it's Qualitative Research and the person examining your research already knows what to expect from your work.

It is the simplicity of Qualitative and Quantitative research that wins hearts and marks too!

But are these two types of research so easy to understand? Can you comprehend everything about these extensive concepts of research?

There's more to see than meets the eye and without any further delay let's get to breaking down and understanding these concepts better. 

Qualitative Research: the research edition of Quality over Quantity. 

What exactly is Qualitative Research? We all know that research is scientific and systematic, it's about accurate data, and it's very empirical knowledge and evidence-based process. So how can an element like “Quality” be involved here?

Science does not deal with expressions and views or opinions either isn't it? Aren't theories at the heart of all research? Aren't practical procedures and frameworks the essence of research? So far that's what we know about research, isn't it? 

When we talk about Quantitative Research it makes sense because it ticks most of the boxes or question criteria mentioned above. But how does Quality even come into the picture for research?

Quality is very much intangible and does not have a set of guidelines or rule books to deal with. Will that note make our studies inaccurate? Well, this is where there's a need to understand Qualitative Research Better.

While all research is scientific, empirical, and systematic, it is also supposed to be accurate and precise. Research is just as much about the Quality of the Data you Collect as the Quantity of Data you collected.

If you collect 100 responses in the name of quantitative data but these responses barely give you any meaningful information it serves no purpose.

But if you have 100 Quality responses that give you accurate information then it serves some purpose to your research.

Qualitative research is often looked down upon simply because it deals with the quality of responses, and the importance of the meaning of these responses, over statistical numerical data.

But Qualitative Research can give you access to your sample's feelings, experiences, emotions, beliefs, viewpoints, expressions, etc which are more helpful than just a statistical graph in terms of information. 

Let us dive deep and understand the vast ocean of Qualitative Research and How it stands tall, shoulder to shoulder with Quantitative Research in Research Studies.

Understanding Qualitative Research: What should one know about it?

Qualitative Research in the simplest form is about the quality of your research, the quality of your responses, and the quality of interactions that take place to collect qualitative data.

The researchers are not concerned about how many responses they get but they are concerned whether these responses add any meaning to their study.

You may find Qualitative Research in the fields of Arts, Humanities, Sociology, Psychology, Media and Organisation Behaviour, Consumer Behaviour, etc.

Anything that has to do with real interactions, gaining perspective from the views of people, behavioral studies, etc all deal with Qualitative Research. 

When you decide on topics like how the consumers like a product or service, what influences their choices, and why they are reacting a certain way to a certain commercial, your goal is to get a deeper understanding of human behavior.

To understand the why of their behavior. When you interact with your respondents in an interview setting or discussion setting, you as a researcher care about their individual experiences as a consumer or customers.

You care about their emotions and their views, and you attempt to record their experiences and analyze them, attempting to decode the deeper meaning of why they feel a certain way.

Every respondent will have different responses to your questions but your goal is not to focus on the number of similar responses or the number of people who reacted a certain way.

You want to analyze every bit of information and the quality of the response irrespective of the numbers. 

Your goal as a qualitative researcher is to gain a deeper complex understanding of why people behave or feel the way they do. Why do they have certain viewpoints?

Your goal Is to understand the complexity of people’s experiences and human behavior. Even if that means having data that can only be applied to your respondents.

As a qualitative researcher, you don't want to generalize your findings to the entire population and that is because every respondent's experiences, views, and thought processes are different. They cannot be generalized. 

What Approach does Qualitative Research follow?

There are three most important things to remember. Qualitative Research is

• Inductive Research

• Theory Building

• Bottom-up Approach

What this means is that qualitative research is inductive I.e it keeps building everything from scratch and accepts all the information that comes it's way. It does not deduct any information.

It builds it up completely based on all the information that is inducted and collected. Since the researcher starts from the very basics, the researcher does not pick a theory before collecting the data.

The research primarily collects data and based on the information collected chooses or builds the most suitable theory to explain it.

The research is so centered on the respondent's experiences and behavior, that the entire research is built up from the very basics just keeping the focus on understanding the quality of the responses collected. What is the bottom-up approach?

Imagine a pyramid. Qualitative research moves from the bottom of the pyramid to the top of the pyramid. This means that from a generic large population at the bottom, the study moves to the top which is a more specific category of individuals

This bottom-up approach suggests moving up from the generalization of data to the specialization of data that can apply to a selected population only.

Other important characteristics to keep in mind are:

1. Qualitative Research does not have a predetermined Hypothesis. This is because the researcher does not want to predict anything on their own regarding the study and wants to completely focus on recording, analyzing, and decoding the deeper meaning and significance of human experiences and behavior. Because of the Theory building approach and inductive nature of the research, the research keeps building on the information drawn and does not predict or pre-determine any hypotheses.

2. Now since there are no hypotheses, the researchers ensure that they have a clearly defined idea or topic that they want to study about or a well-defined research problem that they want to explore. The topic or research problem is the only element that is well-defined before starting qualitative research in advance. If the researchers feel the need to have a theoretical framework to guide them, they can use a theory to guide or give direction to their work. 

3. There is a systematic method of data collection even in qualitative research, but the researcher gets more flexibility to collect qualitative data for research than a quantitative one.

4. Qualitative Research always deals with Data collected in a Textual Form through observation, interviews, focus groups, in-depth participant interviews, etc, and focuses more on the descriptive nature of data. 

5. Data for Qualitative Research is never converted to any kind of numerical or statistical format for evaluation. It is only through the analysis of behavioral sciences that the data is decoded. 

The Principles of Qualitative Research: why is it believed that Qualitative Research is more flexible than Quantitative Research?

• In Qualitative Research since the researcher is so focused on collecting quality data, the researcher is not very strict in terms of methods used to interact with participants. The researcher will allow the participant to freely describe their experience and allow them to be spontaneous with their responses.

• The researcher will use a less rigid and less formal approach to make sure the participant feels comfortable responding to a certain set of questions. For eg, if some questions are triggering or can affect the respondent negatively the researcher can skip those or change those questions. 

• The methods of data collection are more open-ended and exploratory because close-ended questions may restrict the participant’s ability to express their views and experiences. So the methods are less narrow and more open-ended.

• The researcher also gets a lot of freedom in terms of the flexibility of questions asked. The researcher can probe deeper and investigate further than the initial response of the respondent.

• It is important to know that qualitative research is not meant for a larger population. The results are not to be generalized to the sample universe. Qualitative research is conducted with small sample size and with a very small number of participants. The researcher engages with a small sample to keep the research accurate and to draw from minimum yet important responses. 

• These principles do not indicate that qualitative research is less scientific or systematic in any manner. Just as quantitative research aims to measure responses, qualitative research aims to analyze them. 

Understanding Quantitative Research: What should one know about it?

The age-old tradition of conducting research has to be Quantitative research. Population surveys, opinion polls and exit polls in the elections, vote counts, etc are all forms of quantitative research.

Solely focused on numerical data. Quantitative Research deals with the numbers and statistical data which can be measured, gauged, and statistically analyzed and is very precise and accurate. 

Quantitative research comes from the train of thought that numerical data is as good as empirical evidence which can be reconfirmed at all times. Quantitative data believes that the figures speak for themselves

What approaches does Quantitative Research Follow?

Quantitative Research contrary to Qualitative one is

• Deductive Research

• Theory Testing

• Top-down approach

What this means is, that since quantitative research is focused on data collection and statistical analysis of numerical data, the approach used is always deductive keeping in mind the need to narrow down the research to only scientific and empirical research.

Quantitative research is very strict in terms of the process to be followed for data collection and analysis and thus cuts down on any unnecessary piece of information that diverts the course of research.

This type of research deals with testing theories and picks a theory to be tested at the very beginning of the research even before the data is collected.

The top-down approach talks about how from a smaller sample population at the top, quantitative research moves down to a larger population and generalizes the result of the findings to this larger generic population at the bottom.

Some other important characteristics to keep in mind are:

• Quantitative Researchers will always have more than one hypothesis ready at all times and this is because the theory and the research are already well-defined by the researcher. The researcher will also highlight research questions and predictions or possible relations between variables, etc.

• Unlike qualitative research, the researcher will have every aspect of the research taken care of before beginning the research. The researcher will have a complete framework ready, a plan of action, and all the required tools or materials to conduct the research and to make sure the research is conducted systematically and in proper order.

• Since the data collected is solely numerical or statistical, the researcher is strict in terms of collecting it and is not flexible about the questions asked, etc.

• Being technical about the research procedure and not accepting vague responses helps the researcher to understand or decode how the variables being studied are related and how they are influenced, etc. The researcher is adamant about studying the nature of this relationship between variables to be as precise as he/she can with the research.

The Principles of Quantitative Research: perfection and nothing less than that would do.

• Objectivity: Objectivity is at the heart of quantitative research. Having one specific purpose, goal, or aim to research ensures that too many angles do not ruin your research. A narrow focus, a specific requirement, a close-ended data collection method, strict rules for data collection, etc are only ensuring that your research is tightly knit and has no loose ends.

• Validity: Validity and Reliability are two concepts of measuring factors in research. When quantitative research is in the picture, validity is always present. The whole focus of the researcher is on ensuring that the research is valid and they are successfully measuring exactly the parameters that they intend to. 

• Controlling external factors for accurate results is a must in quantitative research. Any external force that may affect the results of the research is kept away and is not studied. Quantitative research is indeed a tough cookie to crack. 

Well, this blog article attempted to highlight the expansiveness of these two types of research and now you must surely know that the concepts that define your research in one word have so much more in detail.

And when we talk about research, it's always all in the details.