The differences between Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Qualitative Methods	Quantitative Methods
Methods include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and reviews of documents for types of themes	Surveys, structured interviews & observations, and reviews of records or documents for numeric information
Primarily inductive process used to formulate theory or hypotheses	Primarily deductive process used to test pre-specified concepts, constructs, and hypotheses that make up a theory
More subjective: describes a problem or condition from the point of view of those experiencing it	More objective: provides observed effects (interpreted by researchers) of a program on a problem or condition
Text-based	Number-based
More in-depth information on a few cases	Less in-depth but more breadth of information across a large number of cases
Unstructured or semi-structured response options	Fixed response options
No statistical tests	Statistical tests are used for analysis
Can be valid and reliable: largely depends on skill and rigor of the researcher	Can be valid and reliable: largely depends on the measurement device or instrument used
Time expenditure lighter on the planning end and heavier during the analysis phase	Time expenditure heavier on the planning phase and lighter on the analysis phase
Less generalizable	More generalizable