Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said “research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody el se has thought.” Qualitative and quantitative research are two types ofresearch that have their differences, but at the same time they are both striving towards the same goal, to figure out the unknown. “The trouble with research i s that it tells y ou what people were thinking about yesterday, not tomorrow. It’s like driving a car using a rearview mirr or” (Bernard Loomis). “Quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques” (Wiki, Par. 1) “Qualitative research is a method that investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, and when” (Wiki, Par. 1). The differences between the two ty pes of research are very argumentative, but in my opinion no matter what type of research an individual is conducting in the end he/she is doing research. “All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding” (Donald Campbell). “There’s no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is eit her 1 or 0” (Fred Kerlinger) These gentlemen were at both ends of the spectrum in the debate of qualitative versus quantitati ve research. From the small amount of research I’ve done on both of these topics quantitative research produces the numbers behind the observations of qualitative r esearch. Another argument between the two types of research is that “the aim for qualitative re search is a complete, detailed description, and the aim for quantitative research is to classify features, count them, and construct statistical models in an attempt to explain what is observed” ( Neill, p.1). Some argue t hat qualitative research is “subjective in which individuals interpretation of events is important, qualitative research uses participant observation, and in- depth interviews, etc” (Neill, p.1). Others argue that quantitative research is objective in which it seeks precise measurement & analysis of target concepts by using surveys, questionnaires, etc” (Neill, p.1) Both types of research methods
