KIN 3982 Lecture 3: 2:6 Notes
2/6 Notes
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
2:31 PM
What is quantitative research?
• What do researchers hope to do with the findings?
• What important qualities typically characterize this research?
o Objective, standardized, reliable, validated
• Structure questionnaires, closed-answer interviews, physiological
measures, observational measures
o Anything that is easily reduced to numbers
What is qualitative research?
• Extend topics further
• Aim to capture complex interactions, and gain "rich" descriptions
o Interviews, focus groups, open-ended survey questions, observational
measures
• Anything that captures words, interactions, or behaviors
Start specific and move to general
Sampling: in quantitative, sampling comes in large numbers. Qualitative sampling
is a much smaller sample size. Group where you obtain your information
When do you use qualitative vs quantitative?
• Depends on research topic
• Use qualitative when little is known about a research topic
• Use qualitative when participants belong to a culture that is close or
secretive
• Use quantitative when potential participants are not available for extensive
observation and study
• Use quantitative when time and funds are limited
• Use quantitative when hard numbers are required
• Can do a blend of both types (mixed methods approach)
Quantitative
• Deductive approach
o Based on literature
• Use literature to guide research
• Structured
o E.g., questionnaires
