The Difference and Combination of
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Abstract: Quantitative research and qualitative research are two basic paradigms and methods, each with different concept, nature, fundamental theory, and research process. Recently, there are more and more arguments about the tow methods and more and more scholars promote the combination of them in researches. This thesis demonstrates the differences between the two methods and also analyzes the combination of them and its significance in researches.
Key words: Quantitative research, qualitative research, difference, combination
Section One The Introduction of Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
There are two paradigms in social science research. One is the positivist methodology and the other is the humanist methodology. The positivist methodology simulates the natural science and uses inductive method to discover new knowledge, uses the “hypothesis-deduction” mode to test theory (Kerlinger, 1964), uses the method of mathematical statistics to analyze quantizable empirical observation and to assure the cause-and-effect relationship. In comparison, the humanist methodology derives from humanist science and emphasizes collecting, comprehending and explaining documents.
Quantitative research is the specification of the positivist methodology and it emphasizes on the quantitative analysis and statistical calculation, including experimental method, quasi-experimental method and questionnaire method, etc. Quantitative research emerged after 1940s’. The nature of quantitative research is the use of statistic model to test the relativity between the independent variable and the dependent variable, and in turn to test the hypothesis and to deduce the cause-and-effect relationship between the variables. Quantitative research is widely employed in various researches, such as social science research, environment and ecology research, energy research and so on. In practice, quantitative research requires the following process:
1) to establish hypothesis and to determine the variables in the
cause-and-effect relationship;
2)
3)
4) to use the reliable tools to measure and analyze the variables; to test the hypothesis; to draw a conclusion.
In comparison, qualitative research is the specification of the humanist methodology and stresses the analysis of documents and the comprehension,
explanation and annotation of the objects of research, including literature analysis method, historical research, action research, observation method, interview, case analysis and ethnography, etc. Qualitative research is a explosive research and a process of discovering new things. It is analysis and research of the quality of the objects and in turn to describe the objects and reflect the characteristics and nature of the objects.
Section Two The Differences of Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
2.1 The different fundamental theories
Quantitative research and qualitative research differs from each other in their fundamental theories. Quantitative research is based on the empirical philosophy, specifically the positivist methodology which holds that the subject and the object are separate entities, that is the social phenomena are objective and out of the influence of subjective value. The researchers should take a neutral stance in researches.
On the contrary, qualitative research holds that the researchers and the objects are not independent from each other and that the comprehension of the social phenomena depends on the inter-relationship between the two. Thus researches in social science can not take a neutral stance.
2.2 The different purposes of research
The quantitative research is aimed at determine the relationship influence and the cause-and-effect relationship of the objects with more attention to individual variables and elements and their relationship. It is used to find the quantitative relationship and master the quantitative characteristics and variation by measuring the social realities, experimental verification, mathematic statistics and various mathematic and statistic analysis and is also used to find the quantitative regularity by exploring truth, rules and the essence
of the objects by the quantitative relationship, .
Instead, qualitative research is aimed at comprehend the social phenomena with a heavier emphasis on the opinions of the researchers and with a view to comprehend, explain and explore the social phenomena from a holistic perspective. What’s more, qualitative research is meant to have an insight into the objects through broad and delicate researches. At the same time, it will take into consideration the view of researchers and emphasize on the explanatory comprehension of realities in order to provide some references for similar researches and to discover the inner momentums in various educational context.
2.3 The different research approaches
Quantitative research is based on existing theories. Then the researchers will put forward theoretical hypothesis and to collect empirical evidences to prove the hypothesis, the presupposed models and theories. It is a deductive and general-to-specific approach which highlights the verification and extension of the existing theories. The quantity in the research comes from the materials which includes quantitative relation and which are collected by the researchers. Also those materials are reached by expert measurement and mathematical analysis, and therefore they are scientific, objective and accurate. The major methods used in quantitative research include questionnaire, experiment, survey, measurement, statistic method, etc. In order to discover a fact, the researchers in quantitative research will quantize the collected materials and use data to prove their hypothesis.
In qualitative research, there is not an existing theory. Instead, it is a process of constructing theories and it collects relevant materials through interview, case study, and so on. Furthermore, qualitative research emphasizes the insightful explore into and the comprehension of social phenomena, from which a proposition, conclusion or theory can be generalized. In essence, it is a general-to-specific process (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). What’s more, qualitative research requires descriptive materials in the form of words or
pictures instead of the form of accurate data, which results in the inaccuracy and ambiguity of its conclusion. The major methods used in qualitative research include observation, in-depth interview, action research and case study. The researchers in qualitative research will induce the first-hand materials and transform them in to theories.
2.4 The different degrees of subjectivity
Quantitative and qualitative researches both pursue objectivity, but have different degrees of subjectivity. Quantitative research is based on neutral evidence and strives for objectivity. But in the construction of hypothesis, the selection of facts and the explanation and deduction of the results, it can not guarantee the completely objectivity. Rather, qualitative research focuses on understanding the world which they observed from the point of view researchers, their main research tool is the researcher himself. Thus it is more subjective and the research process can not avoid subjectivity.
Section Three The Respective Characteristics and Limitation of Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research
3.1 The Characteristics and Limitation of Qualitative Research
There are three characteristics in quantitative research:
1) Repeatability. The research process and the materials should be
distained from the influence of the personal values, that is, the researchers must be objective during the whole research. It is advocated that delicate measuring and analyzing instruments to ensure the repeatability of the research;
2) Deduction. In the quantitative research, the researcher should first
put forward some hypothesis. and then they will collect materials and transform them into data in order to verify or falsify their hypothesis. The logic method used here is deduction.
3) Controllability. The quantitative research usually requires the control
of the irrelevant variables or the uses the control groups to remove the influence of the irrelevant variables, so as to discover the cause-and-effect relation of the variables accurately.
The main advantages of quantitative research is simple and concise, as well as, persuasive, however there are some limitation. On one hand, branch of instruction is to some extent humanistic, but the quantitative ignore the value and significance of people and it can hardly have insight into the humanistic aspect of the branch of instruction. On the other hand, the quantitative ignores the elements that can not be quantified. It emphasizes the quantitative measurement and analysis of the instruction activities. Thus it distorts the essence of education to some extent.
3.2 The Characteristics and Limitation of Qualitative Research
There are two characteristics of qualitative research:
1) Induction. Qualitative research employs induction as its logic
method. The researchers may or may not have a hypothesis before
the research and they gradually construct a theoretical hypothesis
during the research. It is a top-down inductive research model;
2) The characteristic of natural scene. Qualitative research advocate
researches in the real life and natural scene. The researchers spend
a long time in describe and record the results in different
conditions in the natural scene from the perspective of the object.
Therefore, qualitative research is also called field research or site
study.
At the same time, there are still some limitation of qualitative research, such as difficulty in operation, the high requirement in the researchers, the influence of the subjective elements to the conclusion and the difficulty in repetition.
Section Four The Relation and Combination of Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
4.1 The relation between quantitative research and qualitative research Firstly, quantitative research is to some extent the premise and foundation of qualitative research. Any qualitative change results from quantitative changes and only enough quantitative change can lead to qualitative changes. Thus frequent research in quantitative changes makes for the discovery of qualitative changes early. We can borrow the view of dialectical materialism: everything existing objectively is the unity of quality and quantity. There is no quantity without quality in the real world, and there was no quality without quantity. A close combination of quality and quantity can constitute a complete thing. Therefore, if we want a comprehensive study of a thing, both qualitative research and quantitative research should be conducted. In the same study, using two different methods can help us draw a more comprehensive and accurate conclusion from different sides, different angles on the same problem. Through qualitative research, we can master things the inherent characteristics of different from other things; while the supplement of quantitative research helps us to grasp the scale of the existence, development, extent, speed and other properties that can be quantified. This determines that the qualitative research and quantitative research are interrelated, complementary and indivisible.
Secondly the two methods can provide mutual helps and supports for each other. For example, before qualitative research, the analysis of quantitative research data can provide great help for the qualitative study; while conducting quantitative research，quantitative research data also has a strong guiding function. Also, when performing quantitative research, quantitative research data also has a strong complementary function.
Thirdly, two research methods can be interspersed with the use of each
other and combined with each other. In some studies, both qualitative methods and the quantitative methods are used. Some qualitative research also inserts data to do corroboration, while most of the quantitative research needs the rational thinking in qualitative research in the processes of hypothesizing, demonstrating the cause-and-effect relationship and discovering the regularity of phenomena. Usually, before we conduct a new research project, the quantitative research often begin with the appropriate qualitative researches, and sometimes qualitative research is also used to explain the results obtained by the quantitative research.
Although quantitative research and qualitative research differ from each other in many aspects, they are not mutually exclusive but complementary to some extent. Since we have clearly seen the advantages, weakness and the relation of quantitative research and qualitative research, we can combine the two approaches together to overcome those weaknesses when using one’s strengths to overcome the other’s weaknesses. For instance, words and pictures can be used to add meaning to numbers and data, and data can be used to add precision to words and pictures. As a result, the data would be more efficient, able to test hypotheses, involve contextual details and able to be generalized, which makes contribution to obtain higher credibility.
4.2 The combination of quantitative research and qualitative research
In recent years, the increasing extension of the scope of social science research as well as the increasing multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborative research, provide a realistic possibility for the mutual learning and cooperation between the two research paradigms. What’s more, thanks to the rapid development of information technology and the computing and quantitative analysis capabilities, the qualitative research has become more sophisticated. The two researches are combined with each other to provide the possibility of a different paradigm methodology.
At present, the combination of the combination of quantitative and qualitative researches is gradually systemized. There are three main ideas of the
among the west scholars: Ingersoll’s Mixed Model, Dentin’s Triangulations Model and Smith’s Binding Model.
4.2.1 Ingersoll’s Mixed Model
Ingersoll (1983:6-12) considers quantitative and qualitative researches have their own strengths and weaknesses, both of which can be combined in order to learn from each other. Ingersoll gives a continuous quantitative and qualitative research diagram, showing the three modes combine the two methods---exploring parameters, providing examples and suggesting interpretations.
The first model on left end of the diagram is “exploring parameters”. In the combination of qualitative and quantitative researches, qualitative research plays the role to explore and thus helps quantitative research to determine the parameters of the problem. On the middle point of the line is the second model---“providing examples”. Both quantitative research and qualitative research are used in the model, with each playing their own effectiveness, where qualitative research is to provide examples of quantitative research and provides views of the research objects. On the right end of the line is the third model---“suggesting interpretations”, in which the results of qualitative research help to explain the meaning and significance of the results of quantitative research. The first model begins with qualitative research, and then gradually moves to quantitative research---”explore the parameters”. The third model begins with quantitative research, and then gradually moves to qualitative research---”proposed interpretation”. In the second model, quantitative and qualitative researches are conducted simultaneously.
4.2.2 Triangulation Model
”Triangulation” means to study the same phenomenon through different ways, data, research objects and theories. “Triangulation” was originally applied to the field of measurement and navigation and through trigonometry people can accurately measure the area of a region. Denzin (1978) was the first to use the “triangulation” to represent the combination of different ways to
study the same phenomenon. “Triangulation” relies on the assumption that the strengths each method can compensate the weaknesses of other methods.
At present, there are four “triangulation” (Denzin, 1989): 1) data, “ triangulation” , which change the use of data resources in the study involving time, space and personal ; 2) researchers “ triangulation” , the use of different researchers; 3) theory “ triangulation”, which uses multiple theoretical perspectives or a variety of theoretical perspectives to interpret the results of a study ; 4) method “ triangulation”, which is used to study the same problem by using a variety of methods.
The implementation procedures of “Triangulation” include “sequential model”, “parallel model”, “fused model” and “interactive model”. “Sequential model” refers that different methods have a sequence when they are used.. “Parallel model” means the simultaneous use of different methods to verify and supplement each other. “Fused model” means to include the quantitative study into observational studies, to do an overall analysis or to quantify the observations and to do statistical analysis. “Interactive model” refers to use the qualitative and quantitative methods alternately and continuously, for example, the form of one kind of research is use in the early studies , and during the research another form is then employed, and there are combination and interaction of the two methods throughout the process of the research.
4.2.3 Smith’s Binding Model
Smith (1975) believes that the forms of the combination of qualitative and quantitative researches can be divided into the one-fold combination of research programs and the combination of various research programs. 1) The one-fold combination of research programs also have two types---"continuous combination" and "parallel combination". 2) The combination of various research programs includes three models: the first is to quantify qualitative case study; the second is to discuss the quantitative indicators in the form of narrative; the third is a combination of two kinds of materials without changing their original states.
Through the above three models, it can be found that qualitative and quantitative researches are on the two ends of a continuum with a variety of ways to be combined, including the different combinations of different elements of the study, the alternations of the research phases, the different combinations in the same study, the different combinations in a number of studies, etc. Despite these complex combinations, the basic approach is nothing but a combination of qualitative and quantitative researches. This basic relationship is reflected in two aspects: firstly, qualitative research can help quantitative research; Secondly, quantitative research helps qualitative research.
Section Five Conclusion
Quantitative research and qualitative research are not mutually exclusive but interrelated and mutually reinforcing. We can make good use of their respective strengths to overcome its limitations and to complement each other by combining the two methods so as to reach a more comprehensive conclusion. In the same study, the use of these two mutually complementary research methods helps us to study the same problem from different sides and different angles so that it can come to a more comprehensive and accurate conclusions. Therefore, understanding differences between the qualitative and quantitative researches and grasping their connections between will help us to combine the two research methods together and play a powerful role in our social or educational researches.
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