The goal of an empirical study is to answer research questions through observation or
experimentation. Empirical studies can be quantitative or qualitative,
and it's important to understand the difference. In this video, we'll compare
quantitative and qualitative scholarly articles. In order to understand these different approaches
to research, let's start by comparing the goals of quantitative and qualitative approaches. When
you think quantitative, think experimental and statistical. The goal here is to measure, test,
predict, and describe using statistics. If you conduct a statistical analysis of the correlation
between a hospital’s promotion of handwashing hygiene and their rate of healthcare-associated
infections, you're taking a quantitative approach, but if you go into a long-term care facility,
observe interactions between residents and caregivers, and conduct open-ended interviews
with residents about the quality of care they receive, you're taking a qualitative approach.
You might hear terms like ethnographic or phenomenological to describe qualitative
research. The goal here is to richly describe people's behaviors and realities,
rather than to measure them. Since the goals of quantitative
and qualitative studies are different, their methods and data are different too.
A quantitative study might use experiments, surveys, or questionnaires,
analysis of large datasets, like Statistics Canada data, or structured interviews and observations
where questions and observation criteria are exactly the same for each participant.
Quantitative studies tend to focus on numbers and things that can be measured.
The qualitative study might use field research case studies or more open-ended
interviews and observations where there is more room for flexibility, and follow-up.
The data in a qualitative study might be interview or focus group transcripts,
observation notes or journal entries. Because methods are
different, data analysis techniques also vary. Between quantitative and qualitative studies,
quantitative studies will feature statistical analyses
while qualitative studies might use text analysis and coding for themes in order to interpret data.
While you'll probably see more numbers, charts, and graphs in a quantitative study, be careful;
just because you see these doesn't automatically mean the study is quantitative.
Qualitative studies might report basic demographic information numerically before diving into
qualitative analysis, so it's always important to read the study for additional information.
Let's take a look at some examples: here are three studies about adolescent mental health.
We'll focus on their goals, methods, data and data analysis techniques to determine
if they are quantitative or qualitative. Our first study is about depression
in female adolescents. According to the article, the goal of this exploratory
study was to gain an understanding of female adolescents own experiences of depression,
and give voice to their experiences. The method for doing this was 6 open-ended interviews
regarding participants experiences of depression. The data consisted of interview transcripts, and
the article includes quotes from the interviews. The data analysis technique was interpreted
phenomenological analysis in which researchers distilled themes from the interview transcripts.
This is an example of a qualitative study. Our second example is about sleep issues
as a risk factor for suicidal behavior in depressed children and adolescents.
According to the article, the goal of this study was to investigate the association between
sleep complaints and suicidal behaviors. In this population, the method for doing this was through
a structured interview about sleep. The same questions for every participant, plus two tests,
the children's depression rating scale, and the children's global assessment scale.
The data consisted of frequency of sleep issues from the interviews as well as a numerical
score. For the two scales the researchers used statistical analysis to analyze the
data and presented the information about the correlation between variables using tables.
This is an example of a quantitative study. Our last example is about self labeling among
adolescents with mental disorders or the impact of mental illness labels on teens psychological
well-being. According to the article, the goal of this study was to investigate associations between
self labeling and perceived negative treatment by other clinical and demographic factors.
The researchers had the hypothesis that many teens wouldn't self label, and those that did would have
worse psychological well-being. The researchers combined the methods to test this hypothesis.
They did semi-structured interviews with some open-ended questions where teens could express
their thoughts and emotions. They also use rating scales to quantify teens experiences,
like the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and clinical information about each patient,
like their type of disorder and age of first treatment for mental health issues. The data
in this study consisted of interview transcripts, scores from the scales, and clinical information.
Because researchers combined two methods they also needed to use several data analysis techniques.
The researchers used textual analysis to find themes in the interview transcripts and they
ran statistical analyses for relationships between the variables on the scales and the
clinical information. The articles included quotes from the teens, as well as statistical tables.
Feedback: Correct! This is a quantitative/qualitative study…but it’s
also a quantitative/qualitative study.] This was a bit of a trick question,
because this study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. We call this
kind of study a mixed methods study. So what makes a better empirical study?
Quantitative studies aren't automatically better or worse than qualitative studies,
these two approaches are just different. Sometimes researchers even combine approaches to present a
fuller picture through a mixed method study. When you're evaluating a study's approach ask yourself,
how well do the methods and analyses fit the research question? If you need
help with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies, you can always ask a librarian!
[Attribution This video was created by College Libraries
Ontario. It is a derivative of Empirical Studies: Qualitative vs. Quantitative by USU Libraries,
licensed under CC
BY. Link: https://youtu.be/RZcfmA1l6cE ]