Quantitative & Qualitative Research

n the field of psychology even something as simple as a research method becomes a debate all on its own. The main research methods in question?Quantitative and Qualitative research. There are many obvious and apparent differences between the two in question, yet they seem to be just as effective as each other. “Conducting qualitative and quantitative research does not merely involve different methods of data collection and analysis; an even more fundamental difference concerns the research strategies used”.(Anson & Schwegler, 2000; Hairs ton & Ruszkiewks, 1996; Lee, 2002; Lunsford & Connors, 1995; Rosen & Behrens, 1997) It has become essential for psychologist to figure out which form of research would be better or more logical to use to aid them in their attempt to find the most effective solution to conducting conclusive psychological research and experiments. In light of psychologists specific need for a research method that would satisfy both the need for an effective research method and one that would be sensitive to the practise of psychology , it is important for us to be able to understand and distinguish between the two methods that are in question. By doing so we will then be able to determine which would be better suited to the task at hand, the task of gathering psychological data. “By comparing and contrasting these two strategies is will make it easier to demonstrate how both “strategies necessarily arise out of the respective research orientation and deviations from the strategies results in grave damage to the quality of the respective research”

Quantitative research, is as you can imagine, research that is mainly involved with gathering as much data as possible, from as many participants or subjects as the researcher can reach. It is all about the numbers. Simply put, the aim is to try to get numbers or figures as an answer. “Quantitative data are based on surveys, censuses and statistics. These provide a large number of data which is