In very basic terms - are your results numbers or words. Numbers =quant. Words = qual. Answer from Ok-Lynx-6250 on reddit.com
Simply Psychology
simplypsychology.org › research methodology › qualitative vs quantitative research: what’s the difference?
Qualitative vs Quantitative Research: What's the Difference?
May 16, 2025 - Quantitative data involves measurable numerical information used to test hypotheses and identify patterns, while qualitative data is descriptive, capturing phenomena like language, feelings, and experiences that can't be quantified.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/psychologystudents › what is quantitative v qualitative?
r/psychologystudents on Reddit: What is quantitative v qualitative?
February 18, 2024 -
I am doing applied statistics and haven’t found any easy to understand definitions for qualitative and quantitative variables, and maybe some other terms as well. There aren’t any easy definitions in the college text book either. I am really falling behind in class.
Are you able to give me an easy definition?
What are resources that teach applied statistics in an easy to understand manner? Perhaps with laymen terms or a plain speaking manner.
Top answer 1 of 4
13
In very basic terms - are your results numbers or words. Numbers =quant. Words = qual.
2 of 4
3
In terms of statistics, qualitative data are things where our numbers are arbitrary and have no “mathematical value” For example, I ask about favorite colors and make it so Blue = 1 Red = 2 Green = 3 I COULD try to do 3 + 1 here, but that makes no sense because Green + Blue makes no sense. This is qualitative data in the stats class context. It’s another term talking about categorical or nominal data. I suggest you use khan academy to help you with practice problems and tutorial videos. If you’re really struggling with intro stats, it’ll be more helpful than a textbook
Videos
What Is Qualitative vs. Quantitative Study?
There are two distinct types of data collection and study—qualitative and quantitative. While both provide an analysis of data, they differ in their approach and the type of data they collect. Awareness of these approaches can help researchers construct their study and data collection methods. Qualitative research methods include gathering and interpreting non-numerical data. Quantitative studies, in contrast, require different data collection methods. These methods include compiling numerical data to test causal relationships among variables.
gcu.edu
gcu.edu › blog › doctoral-journey › qualitative-vs-quantitative-research-whats-difference
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: What’s the Difference? ...
What Is a Common Goal of Qualitative and Quantitative Research?
Both quantitative and qualitative methods seek to find patterns in the data they collect that point to a relationship between elements. Qualitative and quantitative data are both instrumental in supporting existing theories and developing new ones. Ultimately, the researcher must determine which kind of research best serves the goals of the study.
gcu.edu
gcu.edu › blog › doctoral-journey › qualitative-vs-quantitative-research-whats-difference
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: What’s the Difference? ...
PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › 22231806
Qualitative versus quantitative methods in psychiatric research - PubMed
Researchers measure the frequency of occurring events using quantitative methods; however, qualitative methods provide a broader understanding and a more thorough reasoning behind the event.
National University
nu.edu › blog › qualitative-vs-quantitative-study
What Is Qualitative vs. Quantitative Study? | National University
Data Analysis Approaches: Qualitative analysis involves coding and interpreting narratives, while quantitative analysis uses statistical tools such as cross-tabulation, trend analysis, and descriptive statistics.
Published April 27, 2023
Open Textbook BC
opentextbc.ca › researchmethods › chapter › qualitative-research
Qualitative Research – Research Methods in Psychology – 2nd Canadian Edition
October 13, 2015 - But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)[4]. This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis.
GCU
gcu.edu › blog › doctoral-journey › qualitative-vs-quantitative-research-whats-difference
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research: What’s the Difference? | GCU Blog
May 20, 2021 - Qualitative research explores ... experiments. The key difference is that qualitative research seeks to understand meanings, while quantitative research aims to quantify variables....
Verywell Mind
verywellmind.com › what-is-the-difference-between-quantitative-and-qualitative-research-4588136
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research in Psychology
November 28, 2023 - Psychologists rely on quantitative and quantitative research to better understand human thought and behavior. Qualitative research involves collecting and evaluating non-numerical data in order to understand concepts or subjective opinions.
Lumen Learning
courses.lumenlearning.com › adolescent › chapter › quantitative-and-qualitative-approaches-to-research
Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Research | Adolescent Psychology
And it is not very good at all at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation. But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Although this is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is a vital alternative called qualitative research.
TheMantic Education
themantic-education.com › home › blog › qualitative v quantitative
Qualitative v Quantitative | IB Psychology
February 9, 2021 - Experiments and correlational studies are some of the quantitative methods used in Psychology. Quantitative research often tries to investigate cause and effects, or correlations between factors and behaviour.
Frontiers
frontiersin.org › journals › psychology › articles › 10.3389 › fpsyg.2021.605191 › full
Frontiers | Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Generalization and Replication–A Representationalist View
January 11, 2021 - However, qualitative research seems to be hardly affected by this discussion. In this paper, we argue that the latter is a direct consequence of how the concept of generalizability is conceived in the two approaches. Whereas most of quantitative psychology is committed to a top-down strategy of generalization based on the idea of random sampling from an abstract population, qualitative studies usually rely on a bottom-up strategy of generalization that is grounded in the successive exploration of the field by means of theoretically sampled cases.
NCBI
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › books › NBK470395
Qualitative Study - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
September 18, 2022 - However, while qualitative research is sometimes placed in opposition to quantitative research, where they are necessarily opposites and therefore "compete" against each other and the philosophical paradigms associated with each other, qualitative and quantitative work are neither necessarily opposites, nor are they incompatible.[4] While qualitative and quantitative approaches are different, they are not necessarily opposites and certainly not mutually exclusive. For instance, qualitative research can help expand and deepen understanding of data or results obtained from quantitative analysis.
Diffen
diffen.com › english language › grammar › words
Qualitative vs Quantitative - Difference and Comparison | Diffen
While quantitative research is based on numbers and mathematical calculations (aka quantitative data), qualitative research is based on written or spoken narratives (or qualitative data). Qualitative and quantitative research techniques are used in marketing, sociology, psychology, public health ...
Psychology Today
psychologytoday.com › us › blog › thoughts-thinking › 202201 › critically-thinking-about-qualitative-versus-quantitative-research
Critically Thinking About Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research | Psychology Today
January 26, 2022 - Such practices should be frowned upon—so should making a career out of strictly using qualitative methodology in an attempt to find answers core to the human condition. All these researchers are really doing is spending a career exploring, yet never really finding anything (despite arguing to the contrary, albeit avoiding the word "generalize"). ... The solution to this problem, again, is to truly listen to what your research question is telling you. Eventually, it’s going to recommend a quantitative approach.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/academicpsychology › quantitative vs. qualitative
r/AcademicPsychology on Reddit: Quantitative vs. Qualitative
December 22, 2023 -
Does anyone else feel like psychology pushes quantitative a little too hard sometimes? Don’t get me wrong, I love quantitative (I’m a huge stats and R nerd), but I think that quantitative runs the risk of reducing people to averages. What drew me to the field in the first place was being able to study what makes us unique. I think qualitative really gets at those individual differences and provides a certain richness to the data that quantitative alone can’t do. At my university, they don’t even have qualitative courses. When I’ve asked around about it, professors just tell me, “You might learn that at the doctoral level.”
This field started off as qualitative and I think we abandoned it along the way. I’m really excited to learn more about qualitative methods. I plan on doing mixed methods when I get to the doctoral level, but, for now, I’ll continue to educate myself on qualitative methods the best I can.
Top answer 1 of 5
12
They require vastly different backgrounds and specializations. I can barely work my way through R and SPSS, but I’ve got interviewing techniques down to a science and know a few different theoretical lenses for each different topic we’re interviewing on. I’ve also got a better grasp of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and applied rhetoric than most of my peers. We all have our specialties. If you want to learn qualitative methods the best way is to join a qualitative lab and just immerse yourself in it. Or, play to your strengths and make friends. Either way works.
2 of 5
10
On the one hand, yes, I strongly agree about the problem of reducing people to averages, especially since inferential statistics cannot run "backwards". That is, we collect a sample, then generalize to the population, but we cannot then "go backwards" to predict anything about the individual. On the other hand, I worry about the potential problems with trying to teach qualitative research methods to undergrads that already struggle with quantitative research. Specifically, imagine the severity of Dunning–Kruger bullshit that people would come up with when they improperly apply what they think they learned in their bachelor's degree to the real world. You would have a cohort of people saying, "I used thematic analysis on my ex-boyfriend's texts and, as it turns out, he's a narcissist" or "I applied grounded theory to Twitter and here's my analysis of the eight different categories of racism". Even with those potential negative outcomes, I would support more training at undergrad for qualitative. I'd like to see that as third year courses and fourth year seminars. It seems potentially useful! This field started off as qualitative and I think we abandoned it along the way to prove that we’re a “real science” when we were under scrutiny from other STEM disciplines. I don’t think we have to prove ourselves anymore Have you not heard of the replication crisis ? Psychology still has A LOT to prove. Fuck, it isn't even about "prove" at this point because psych is so far gone. At this point, psych needs to atone for the shitty science of the past several decades. I plan on doing mixed methods when I get to the doctoral level Mixed methods are where it's at. Quantitative methods for when you've got solid hypotheses you want to test. Qualitative methods for when you want to get the "lay of the land", to generate hypotheses, and to add texture or understand outliers and niche communities/individuals.
Psi Chi
psichi.org › page › 284Eye-Qualitative-Research-in-Psychology-Not-a-Field-Just-a-Different-Way-to-Learn-Stuff
Qualitative Research in Psychology:
Quantitative research methods involve the collection, analysis, and interpretation of numerical data. Qualitative research is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of nonnumerical data.
Libguides
stevenson.libguides.com › c.php
Overview - Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research - SU Library at Stevenson University
The table below illustrates the main differences between qualitative and quantitative research. Be aware that these are generalizations, and that not every research study or article will fit neatly into these categories. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and integrative reviews are not exactly designs, but they synthesize, analyze, and compare the results from many research studies and are somewhat quantitative in nature.
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung
qualitative-research.net › index.php › fqs › article › view › 3986
The Fundamental Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Data in Mixed Methods Research | Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
January 31, 2023 - As qualitative data are analyzed ... other type of method. Quantitative data analysis can reveal new patterns, but these are always related to the existing variables, whereas qualitative data analysis can reveal new aspects that are hidden in the data....
Fullstory
fullstory.com › blog › qualitative vs. quantitative data in research: what's the difference?
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data in Research: The Difference | Fullstory
October 4, 2024 - Quantitative research methods are measuring and counting. Qualitative research methods are interviewing and observing. Quantitative data is analyzed using statistical analysis.
Scribbr
scribbr.com › home › qualitative vs. quantitative research | differences, examples & methods
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research | Differences, Examples & Methods
June 22, 2023 - Qualitative content analysis: Tracking ... with explanations and examples. ... Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings....
Lumen Learning
courses.lumenlearning.com › suny-hvcc-psychology-1 › chapter › quantitative-and-qualitative-research
Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Research | Introduction to Psychology
And it is not very good at all at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation. But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Although this is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is a vital alternative called qualitative research.