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Difference/comparison between quantitative versus qualitative research:

For occupational Health and safety mostly reports are in quantity or quality basis?
Qualitative data: is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of
underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to
develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also
used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative
data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common
methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and
participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to
fulfill a given quota.
Qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form. For example, diary
accounts, open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and unstructured
observations. Qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyze
than quantitative data.

ethods
The major methods of qualitative research are

Interviews, to elicit peoples view and perspectives in a detailed and comprehensive


manner

Case studies or detailed investigations to analyze the variables relevant to the subject

under study in its own natural settings


Participant observation or collecting data by observing the sample in their natural

environment
Action research, or collaborative inquiry that entails interactive inquiry about the

subject including review of records and data driven analysis and identification of underlying causes
of the phenomenon by active enquiry
Historical research, or studying documents, artifacts, and other materials to gain

insight into the groups behaviors, actions, and other characteristics over a period
Phenomenology, or the theoretical study of a phenomenon to describe the subjective

reality" of an event
Philosophical research, or intellectual analysis, which involves clarification of

definitions, ethical values and norms, and other percepts for the specific field of study
Qualitative research requires small focus groups rather than large diffused samples. Such focus groups
provide broad overviews of the population they represent.

Examples
Assume the existence of a fictitious convenience store looking to improve its patronage. Participant
observation concludes that most visitors are men. One good method to determine why women were
not entering the store is in-depth interviews of potential customers in the category. Interviewing a
sample of potential female customers, selected at random from competing stores or shopping malls
might reveal the reason of the store not stocking enough products suitable for women, having an
image of a mens store" selling adult items, having dirty or filthy bathrooms, and the like.

Such qualitative research can serve as the basis to indulge in further quantitative research, which
provides remedies. Quantitative research for instance would shed light on whether a renovation or rebranding would entice women customers to patronize the store, by selecting a broader sample and
generalizing the findings based on established market trends.
One good real life example of qualitative research is Alan Peshkins 1986 book God's Choice: The Total
World of a Fundamentalist Christian School published by the University of Chicago Press. Peshkin
studies the culture of Bethany Baptist Academy by interviewing the students, parents, teachers, and
members of the community, and spending eighteen months observing, to provide a comprehensive
and in depth analysis of Christian schooling as an alternative to public education.
Peshkin describes Bethany Baptist Academy as having institutional unity of purpose, a dedicated
faculty, an administration that backs teachers in enforcing classroom disciplines, cheerful students,
rigorous homework, committed parents, and above all grounded in positive moral values and a
character building environment. The school aims to prepare students for wholesome" lives, distinct
from the normal secular world, while still interacting with such a world. The flip side however is the
lack of cultural diversity, an inescapable fact in todays world, students trained in one-dimensional
thought, totally cut off from viewpoints that differ with their teachers biblical interpretations, and a
heavily censored library. This becomes counterproductive. For instance, they become incapable of
arguing against Drawin's theory of evolution if they known nothing about the concept in the first place.
The school also ignores state regulations for schools, such as state assessments, certification and
minimum wages for teachers, while enforcing compulsory volunteer" tasks for teachers. Peskin
however consider's the school in a positive light and holds that public schools have much to learn from
such schools.
Paskin's work represents qualitative research as it is an in-depth study using tools such as observations
and unstructured interviews, without any assumptions or hypothesis, and aimed at securing
descriptive or non-quantifiable data on Bethany Baptist Academy specifically, without attempting to
generalize the findings to other schools.

Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or
data that can be transformed into useable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions,
behaviors, and other defined variables and generalize results from a larger sample population.
Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in
research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data
collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys
online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face
interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and
systematic observations.

The basic building blocks of quantitative research are variables. Variables


(something that takes on different values or categories) are the opposite of

constants (something that cannot vary, such as a single value or category of a


variable).

Qualitative research is concerned with the opinions, experiences and feelings of


individuals producing subjective data.

Qualitative research describes social phenomena as they occur naturally. No


attempt is made to manipulate the situation under study as is the case with
experimental quantitative research.
Understanding of a situation is gained through an holistic perspective.
Quantitative research depends on the ability to identify a set of variables.
Data are used to develop concepts and theories that help us to understand
the social world. This is an inductive approach to the development of theory.
Quantitative research is deductive in that it tests theories which have
already been proposed Qualitative data are collected through direct
encounters with individuals, through one to one interviews or group
interviews or by observation. Data collection is time consuming.
The intensive and time consuming nature of data collection necessitates the
use of small samples.
Different sampling techniques are used. In quantitative research, sampling
seeks to demonstrate representativeness of findings through random
selection of subjects. Qualitative sampling techniques are concerned with
seeking information from specific groups and subgroups in the population.
Criteria used to assess reliability and validity differ from those used in
quantitative research

Examples
Assume the existence of a fictitious convenience store looking to improve its
patronage. Participant observation concludes that most visitors are men. One good
method to determine why women were not entering the store is in-depth interviews
of potential customers in the category. Interviewing a sample of potential female
customers, selected at random from competing stores or shopping malls might
reveal the reason of the store not stocking enough products suitable for women,
having an image of a mens store" selling adult items, having dirty or filthy
bathrooms, and the like.
Advantages:
One advantage of qualitative methods in exploratory research is that use of openended questions
and probing gives participants the opportunity to respond in their own words, rather
than forcing
them to choose from fixed responses, as quantitative methods do. Open-ended
questions have the
ability to evoke responses that are:

meaningful and culturally salient to the participant


unanticipated by the researcher
rich and explanatory in nature
Another advantage of qualitative methods is that they allow the researcher the
flexibility to probe
initial participant responses that is, to ask why or how. The researcher must listen
carefully to
what participants say, engage with them according to their individual personalities
and styles,
and use probes to encourage them to elaborate on their answers.

U n i t s a n d Variables
When conducting quantitative research, a researcher should have a clear
understanding about the concepts of research units and variables. When we
collect data for quantitative research, we have to collect them from someone
or something. The people or things (e.g. schools) we collect data on or from
are known as research units, units or cases. If we have to draw the data from
the samples of population, the samples are also called sampling units. They
all are the same. We can generalize the findings of our research study to the
population from which we draw its sampling units. The data that we collect
from these units are known as variables. Variables are any characteristic of
the unit we are interested in and want to collect (e.g. gender, age, selfesteem). The name variable refers to the fact that this data will differ
between units. For example, achievement will differ between students and
schools; gender will differ between students, and so on. If there are no
differences at all between units we want to study we probably aren't going to
be able to do any interesting research. For example, studying whether
students are human would not yield interesting findings.

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