Qualitative data

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The term qualitative data is used to describe certain types of information. This is almost the converse of quantitative data, in which items are more precisely described data in terms of quantity and in which numerical values are used. However, data originally obtained as qualitative information about individual items may give rise to quantitative data if they are summarised by means of counts.

Qualitative data described items in terms of some quality or categorization that may be 'informal' or may use relatively ill-defined characteristics such as warmth and flavour. However, qualitative data can include well-defined aspects such as gender, nationality or commodity type.^[1]

If qualitative data use categories that are based on subjective or intangible ideas, then these are generally of less value to scientific research than quantitative data. It is sometimes possible to obtain approximate quantitative data from qualitative data - for instance, asking people to rate their perception of a sensation on a Likert scale.

See also

• Level of measurement
• Contingency table

References

1. ^ Dodge Y. (2003) The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, OUP. ISBN 019920613-9

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