Quantitative research is more important than qualitative research because it results in statistical information and conclusive findings?

Answer 1

Qualitative versus Quantitative has been always fiercely debated in the academic field. It is really what you as the researcher think it is important. There is no right or wrong answer. Until I have taken a qualitative research class at USF I thought that quantitative research is more "scientific" than qualitative research. I thought that qualitative research should be should be done before quantitative research. Well, nothing is sure in this world, and we don't even agree in the notion of objectivity. Since I came to USF I learned to question everything, which I guess it was a good lesson. I was pleasantly surprised by John W. Creswell's book about qualitative research. He also says that qualitative research allows the researcher to study deeply a problem and go beyond the numbers. I started to like qualitative research because it is more flexible, interactive, the research design can be modified and it involves fieldwork (patients should be interviewed in their natural setting). Therefore, a qualitative research can provide a more complex answer to certain problems such as minority and race. For example, can racism be easily answered? No, it calls for a qualitative study because it may involve economical, political, and cultural and gender related problems. I guess journalists mainly use qualitative research if they write a longer and deeper article about topics like race, unemployment, etc. I realize that numbers do not mean always the "whole" picture. I would use qualitative research methods if I want to do a deeper research, if I want to gain a deeper understanding of a problem using multiple views.