Qualitative Quantitative Data Analysis
Qualitative Quantitative Data Analysis
The research you perform will give you an idea of the methodology one has to use to analyse the results and methods to be used to gather data. If one wants to gather quantitative data, you are mostly gauging the various variables or verifying the prevalent theories. The data gathered is often used to formulate new hypotheses based on the data results on several variables.
Qualitative data analysis research is usually performed to understand the deeper meanings and describe experience, ideologies and values.
This is a normal approach and helps you to backup from one set of findings from one method of data gathering underpinned by a methodology. For example, students might want to gather numerical data from a questionnaire and give statistical data and then try to back this up with research by interviewing people from a selected sample.
It is a subjective way to view the life as it is lived and an attempt to explain the studied behavior.
Interviews accentuate the scope of face to face discussion with human subjects. If one is going to use interviews they have to decide whether to take notes, depend on memory and record the interviews. Closed questions are usually designed to obtain answers regarding fixed facts such as numerical data or names. They generally are out of speculation and they tend to generate short answers.
The main issue with closed questions in interviews is that they restrict the responses of the interviewees can give and hence lowers their tendency to think deeply.
The data that is numerical in nature is known as quantitative data. Such types of data are utilized when trying to make contrasts, or when dealing with financial or statistical research. A major advantage of using this method is that the results got from evaluating the quantitative information can be applied to a larger population. A major disadvantage of the quantitative data that it is not very descriptive and it offers lesser detailed analysis. Questionnaire often seems the most sensible and the convenient option of gathering information from people. They are in fact tough to create and due to the high frequency usage in all contexts, the rate of response is always an issue. On the other hand, in the case of interviews, one can decide to formulate more closed-type questions or open-ended in order to obtain answers of one's choice.
Quantitative research is usually of two types experimental or descriptive. The former tests the precision of a theory by recognizing the independent variables that causes an impact on the dependent variable. On the other hand, the latter (descriptive research) gauges the sample at a moment in time and it just explains the demography of the sample.
To be precise, quantitative data analysis research seeks to prove a theory by performing an experiment and evaluating the results numerically, qualitative research seeks to conclude at a theory that elucidates the behavior as observed. In this way, it can be said that quantitative research is more deductive in nature and qualitative research is more inductive by nature.