| What is it? | Methodology |
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Qualitative research is a process of collecting and analyzing both words and textual data. This form of research methodology is sometimes used where the aim and objective of the research are exploratory. |
Observations, interviews, focus groups. Exploratory research might be used where you are trying to understand human actions i.e. for a study in the sociology or psychology field. |
| What is it? | Methodology |
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This methodology focuses more on measuring and testing numerical data. What is the aim of quantitative research? When using this form of research, your objective will usually be to confirm something. |
Surveys, tests, existing databases. For example, you may use this type of methodology if you are looking to test a set of hypotheses. |
| What is it? | Methodology |
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A mixed-method approach combines both of the above approaches. The quantitative approach will provide you with some definitive facts and figures, whereas the qualitative methodology will provide your research with an interesting human aspect. |
Where you can use a mixed method of research, this can produce some incredibly interesting results. This is due to testing in a way that provides data that is both proven to be exact while also being exploratory at the same time. |
If you've done your due diligence, you'll have an idea of which methodology approach is best suited to your research. It’s likely that you will have carried out considerable reading and homework before you reach this point and you may have taken inspiration from other similar studies that have yielded good results. Still, it is important to consider different options before setting your research into stone. Exploring different options available will help you to explain why the choice you ultimately make is preferable to other methods.
If proving your research problem requires you to gather large volumes of numerical data to test hypotheses, a quantitative research method is likely to provide you with the most usable results. If instead you’re looking to try and learn more about people, and their perception of events, your methodology is more exploratory in nature and would therefore probably be better served using a qualitative research methodology.
It helps to always bring things back to the question: what do I want to achieve with my research?
