What is the scientific method and what is qualitative and quantitative research?
In the social sciences, researchers are faced with an unresolved question: Can we measure concepts like love or racism the same way we can measure temperature or the weight of a star? Social phenomena—things that happen because of and through human behavior—are especially difficult to grasp with typical scientific models. Show
Psychologists rely on both quantitative and quantitative research to better understand human thought and behavior.
This article discusses what qualitative and quantitative research are, how they are different, and how they are used in psychology research. In order to understand qualitative and quantitative psychology research, it can be helpful to look at the methods that are used and when each type is most appropriate. Psychologists rely on a few methods to measure behavior, attitudes, and feelings. These include:
Most of these are quantitative methods. The result is a number that can be used to make assessments about differences between groups. However, most of these methods are static, inflexible (you can't change a question because a participant doesn't understand it), and provide a "what" answer rather than a "why" answer. Sometimes, researchers are more interested in the "why" and the "how." That's where qualitative methods come in. Qualitative research is about speaking to people directly and hearing their words. It is grounded in the philosophy that the social world is ultimately unmeasurable, that no measure is truly ever "objective," and that how humans make meaning is just as important as how much they score on a standardized test. Qualitative
Quantitative
Quantitative Research MethodsQuantitative methods have existed ever since people have been able to count things. But it is only with the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte (which maintains that factual knowledge obtained by observation is trustworthy) that it became a "scientific method." The scientific method follows this general process. A researcher must:
Quantitative methods are about measuring phenomena, not explaining them. Quantitative research compares two groups of people. There are all sorts of variables you could measure, and many kinds of experiments to run using quantitative methods. These comparisons are generally explained
using graphs, pie charts, and other visual representations that give the researcher a sense of how the various data points relate to one another. Basic AssumptionsQuantitative methods assume:
In some fields, these assumptions hold true. Whether you measure the size of the sun 2000 years ago or now, it will always be the same. But when it comes to human behavior, it is not so simple. As decades of cultural and social research have shown, people behave differently (and even think differently) based on historical context, cultural
context, social context, and even identity-based contexts like gender, social class, or sexual
orientation. Therefore, quantitative methods applied to human behavior (as used in psychology and some areas of sociology) should always be rooted in their particular context. In other words: there are no, or very few, human universals. StatisticsStatistical information is the primary form of quantitative data used in human and social quantitative research. Statistics provide lots of information about tendencies across large groups of people, but they can never describe every case or every experience. In other words, there are always outliers. Correlation and CausationA basic principle of statistics is that correlation is not causation. Researchers can only claim a cause-and-effect relationship under certain conditions:
So when you read a report that "gender was linked to" something (like a behavior or an attitude), remember that gender is NOT a cause of the behavior or attitude. There is an apparent relationship, but the true cause of the difference is hidden. Pitfalls of Quantitative ResearchQuantitative methods are one way to approach the measurement and understanding of human and social phenomena. But what's missing from this picture? As noted above, statistics do not tell us about personal, individual experiences and meanings. While surveys can give a general idea, respondents have to choose
between only a few responses. This can make it difficult to understand the subtleties of different experiences. RecapQuantitative methods can be helpful when making objective comparisons between groups or when looking for relationships between variables. They can be analyzed statistically, which can be helpful when looking for patterns and relationships. Qualitative Research Methods Qualitative data are not made out of numbers but rather of descriptions, metaphors, symbols, quotes, analysis, concepts, and characteristics. This approach uses interviews, written texts, art, photos, and other materials to make sense of human experiences and to understand what these experiences mean to people. While quantitative methods ask "what" and "how much," qualitative methods ask "why" and "how." Qualitative methods are about describing and analyzing phenomena from a human perspective. There are many different philosophical views on qualitative methods, but in general, they agree that some questions are too complex or impossible to answer with standardized instruments. These methods also accept that it is impossible to be completely objective in observing phenomena. Researchers have their own thoughts, attitudes, experiences, and beliefs, and these always color how people interpret results. Qualitative ApproachesThere are many different approaches to qualitative research, with their own philosophical bases. Different approaches are best for different kinds of projects. For example:
Qualitative researchers must be aware of several different methods and know each thoroughly enough to produce valuable research. Some researchers specialize in a single method, but others specialize in a topic or content area and use many different methods to explore the topic, providing different information and a variety of points of view. RecapThere is not a single model or method that can be used for every qualitative project. Depending on the research question, the people participating, and the kind of information they want to produce, researchers will choose the appropriate approach. InterpretationQualitative research does not look into causal relationships between variables, but rather into themes, values, interpretations, and meanings. As a rule, then, qualitative research is not generalizable (cannot be applied to people outside the research participants). The insights gained from qualitative research can extend to other groups with proper attention to specific
historical and social contexts. Relationship Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research It might sound like quantitative and qualitative research do not play well together. They have different philosophies, different data, and different outputs. However, this could not be further from the truth. These two general methods complement each other. By using both, researchers can gain a fuller, more comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon. For example, a psychologist wanting to develop a new survey instrument about sexuality might and ask a few dozen people questions about their sexual experiences (this is qualitative research). This gives the researcher some information to begin developing questions for their survey (which is a quantitative method). After the survey, the same or other researchers might want to dig deeper into issues brought up by its data. Follow-up questions like "how does it feel when...?" or "what does this mean to you?" or "how did you experience this?" can only be answered by qualitative research. RecapBy using both quantitative and qualitative data, researchers have a more holistic, well-rounded understanding of a particular topic or phenomenon. A Word From VerywellQualitative and quantitative methods both play an important role in psychology. Where quantitative methods can help answer questions about what is happening in a group and to what degree, qualitative methods can dig deeper into the reasons behind why it is happening. By using both strategies, psychology researchers can learn more about human thought and behavior. Is the scientific method qualitative or quantitative?There are two basic types of research associated with the scientific method. Quantitative research is based on collecting facts and figures. This type research is common in biology. Qualitative research is based on collecting opinions and attitudes.
What is a scientific research method?The scientific method is the process of objectively establishing facts through testing and experimentation. The basic process involves making an observation, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting an experiment and finally analyzing the results.
What is quantitative in scientific method?Definition. Quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques.
Is quantitative research using scientific method?Quantitative research is generally closely affiliated with ideas from 'the scientific method', which can include: The generation of models, theories and hypotheses. The development of instruments and methods for measurement. Experimental control and manipulation of variables.
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