Qualitative vs Quantitative research

1. Quantitative and
Qualitative Methods of
Data Collection.
Qualitative methods – interviews and focus groups
Objective quantitative – physiological responses
Subjective quantitative – checklists and rating scales.

2. qualitative methods of data collection
 Self-reports – written or spoken answers to questions or
statements asked by researchers
 free responses.
 Pros: Allow detailed responses. Allow researcher to ask
follow up questions
 Cons: Difficult to summarise/score. Data analysis is time
consuming
 Two types – interviews and focus groups.

3. Interviews
 Can be structured (with predetermined questions and
fixed ways of replying), semi structured (guidelines for
questions being asked but timing and phrasing is open), or
unstructured (no fixed questions or ways to respond).
 Respondents describe their response in their own words

4. Focus Groups
 Interviewer asks members of the group a series of open-
ended questions
 Participants encouraged to share opinions, ask questions
and expand on other peoples responses
 Assumed that interaction helps people to explore, clarify
and articulate their responses.
 6-8 members, researcher is facilitator
 Group discussion is recorded for later analysis

5. objective quantitative measures in
research
 Physiological responses
 Includes things such as heart rate, temperature, electrical
conductivity of the skin.

6. subjective quantitative measures in
research
 advantages – can be statistically analysed. Easy to
complete. Less data to process.
 disadvantages – restricts responses. Social desirability. No
follow up.
 Two types – rating scales and checklists

7. Rating scales
 Series of fixed-response questions or statements about different
aspects of a factor which respondents indicate their abilities,
attitudes, views or opinions.
 Can measure:
 Direction – whether in favour or against
 Strength – how strongly people feel
 Most commonly used – Likert Scale. Where someone is presented a
statement, and they have to indicate the strength to which they agree
with the statement from strongly disagree -> strongly sagree or circle
number 1-5 where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

8. Checklists
 Participant are presented with statements or questions
and can either identify with it or not. Experimenters then
add up number of ticks present.
 eg personality scales, depression or anxiety measures
where boxes are ticked