Full Answer Section

Methods:

• Experiments: Highly controlled environments to manipulate variables and observe outcomes.
• Surveys/Questionnaires: Often use closed-ended questions (e.g., Likert scales, multiple choice) administered to large samples.
• Structured Observations: Counting specific behaviors.
• Secondary Data Analysis: Analyzing existing numerical datasets.

Sample Size: Typically involves large sample sizes to ensure statistical power and generalizability of findings to a broader population.

Analysis: Statistical analysis (e.g., descriptive statistics like means and standard deviations, inferential statistics like t-tests, ANOVA, regression, correlations).

Researcher’s Role: Aims for objectivity, maintaining distance from the participants.

Outcomes: Statistical results, charts, graphs, and findings that can be generalized to a larger population. Tests hypotheses.

Qualitative Research

Focus: To explore, understand, and interpret. It aims to gain in-depth insights into experiences, meanings, perspectives, and underlying reasons for phenomena.

Type of Data: Non-numerical, descriptive data. This includes words, narratives, observations, images, and symbols.

Research Questions: Often starts with “Why?”, “How?”, “What is the experience of…?”, “What are the perceptions of…?”, or “What meanings do people attribute to…?”.

• Example: “How do college students describe their experiences with sleep deprivation and its impact on their daily lives?” or “What are the lived experiences of individuals undergoing cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety?”

Methods:

• In-depth Interviews: Open-ended questions allowing participants to elaborate freely.
• Focus Groups: Group discussions to explore a topic and capture diverse perspectives and interactions.
• Participant Observation: The researcher immerses themselves in a setting to understand a group’s culture and behaviors from within.
• Case Studies: Intensive study of a single individual, group, or phenomenon.
• Content Analysis: Analyzing text, audio, or video for themes and meanings.

Sample Size: Typically involves small, purposive sample sizes chosen for their rich information, as the goal is depth over breadth. Findings are generally not statistically generalizable but offer transferable insights.

Analysis: Thematic analysis, content analysis, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, grounded theory. Involves identifying patterns, themes, and categories within the descriptive data.

Researcher’s Role: Often actively involved, acknowledging their own subjectivity and potential influence on the data (reflexivity).

Outcomes: Rich descriptions, themes, conceptual models, and in-depth understandings of specific contexts or experiences. Generates hypotheses and builds theories.

Key Differences at a Glance:

In psychology, both methods are incredibly valuable and often complement each other. For example, a quantitative study might identify that a certain therapy reduces anxiety, while a qualitative study might explore how and why patients experience that reduction, providing deeper insights into the therapeutic process.