Psychology Qualitative and Quantitative Research

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Difference between qualitative and quantitative research In psychology there are mainly two types of research methods, they are qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods focus on difference in quality while quantitative focus on the difference in quantity. Quantitative studies focus on numbers and have results based on statistics whereas in qualitative methods the results are in words rather than numbers. In quantitative researches a large number of people need to be involved. This is because it gives the analysis a more statistical power. In a qualitative research there don't need to be a large number of people, a small group or even a single participant can give good results. Another difference is that qualitative researches are more subjective than quantitative researches, small groups of people are asked a number of questions and the researcher explores and probes into these questions. Quantitative research studies test theory while qualitative researches develop theory. Qualitative research generates rich, detailed and valid data that contribute to in depth understanding of the context, quantitative researches generate reliable population based and generalised data. A particular strength of quantitative research is that it can be generalised to some extent, a sample that closely relates to a population is chosen. Qualitative researches do not choose samples that are closely related to a population. Quantitative researches allow the researcher to test hypotheses. Qualitative researches are more for exploratory purposes, the researches allow the data to take them on different directions. Because these are more open to different interpretations, qualitative researches may lead to accusation of bias or personal subjectivity. In quantitative researches the reasoning is logistic and deductive whereas in qualitative researches the research is
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