# Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

Psychology I · Research Techniques · https://tryals.app/learn/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research

## Counting vs. Understanding

Psychological research divides into two traditions. **Quantitative research** collects numerical data for statistical analysis, typically using larger samples to test hypotheses and generalize findings, like surveying 500 people for anxiety scores.

**Qualitative research** collects non-numerical data like interview transcripts and field notes using smaller samples. Its goal is exploring phenomena in rich contextual depth, such as interviewing chronic illness patients about their lived experiences.

| Feature | Quantitative | Qualitative |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Numerical | Non-numerical |
| Sample | Larger | Smaller |
| Goal | Test & generalize | Explore depth |
| Analysis | Statistics | Thematic |

## Choosing the Method

Neither approach is superior; they answer different questions. Quantitative asks "how much" or "how strongly related," while qualitative asks "what is this experience like" or "how do people make sense of this."

**Mixed-methods research** combines both in one study, using a survey for breadth and interviews for depth.

**Common pitfall:** assuming qualitative research is "less rigorous" because it lacks numbers. It has its own standards like systematic coding and checking bias, trading statistical generalizability for crucial nuance.

## Practice questions

7 of this lesson's 12 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Select every statement that is TRUE.

A. Quantitative research is well suited to 'how much' and 'how strongly related' questions.
B. Numbers automatically make a study more rigorous than words could.
C. Qualitative research typically uses larger samples than quantitative research.
D. Qualitative analysis includes checking for researcher bias and disconfirming cases.
E. Mixed-methods research can capture breadth and depth in a single study.

**Answer:** A. Quantitative research is well suited to 'how much' and 'how strongly related' questions.; D. Qualitative analysis includes checking for researcher bias and disconfirming cases.; E. Mixed-methods research can capture breadth and depth in a single study.

**Why:** Quantitative suits magnitude questions, qualitative has real rigor standards, and mixed-methods captures both - all true. Qualitative samples are typically smaller, and numbers do not by themselves confer rigor, so those two are false.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/select-every-statement-that-is-true

### 2. A team studying nurse burnout runs a mixed-methods project. Order the stages, from the broadest measurement to the deepest understanding.

**Answer:**

1. Survey 800 nurses across twelve hospitals with a validated burnout scale.
2. Identify which wards score far above and far below the average.
3. Interview twenty nurses drawn from those extreme wards at length.
4. Analyse the transcripts for themes the survey never thought to ask about.
5. Use those themes to write better survey items for the next round.

**Why:** This is the explanatory sequential design: measure broadly, then go deep where the numbers point. The survey establishes how common burnout is and where it concentrates - neither of which twenty interviews could tell you - and the interviews recover what a five-point scale cannot, which is what the exhaustion consists of and why these wards differ.

The final step is the one people leave out, and it is what makes the two halves a single project rather than two studies stapled together. Themes that emerged from the transcripts become items in the next questionnaire, so the qualitative work feeds back into what the quantitative instrument is capable of asking.

The order is not the only possible one. An exploratory design runs the other way: interviews first, when you do not yet know enough to write a sensible survey, and the measurement follows. Which order fits depends on whether your uncertainty is about how much or about what.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/a-team-studying-nurse-burnout-runs-a-mixed-methods-project-order-the

### 3. A qualitative researcher stops interviewing at 22 participants, saying she reached **saturation**. Why is that a defensible stopping rule rather than a convenient one?

A. Because larger samples are impossible to analyse thematically
B. Because the criterion is informational: new interviews added no themes
C. Because qualitative research makes no claims requiring a justified sample size
D. Because 20 is the accepted minimum sample size for qualitative work

**Answer:** B. Because the criterion is informational: new interviews added no themes

**Why:** The number is an outcome rather than a target: you stop when fresh interviews stop producing fresh themes. The honest version reports how saturation was judged, because 'we reached saturation' is otherwise unfalsifiable, the same objection this unit levels at any claim that cannot fail.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/a-qualitative-researcher-stops-interviewing-at-22-participants

### 4. A team wants to know how common burnout is among nurses AND what it feels like from the inside. Why is running a survey and an interview study better here than choosing the stronger single method?

A. Because the two questions require different kinds of answer.
B. Because using two methods doubles the sample size, which makes any finding more reliable.
C. Because qualitative findings are only publishable when accompanied by quantitative support.
D. Because interviews are used to confirm that the survey's numbers came out correct.

**Answer:** A. Because the two questions require different kinds of answer.

**Why:** 'How common is it?' demands a number from a representative sample; 'what is it like?' demands the participant's own categories, and a five-point scale cannot supply them however many people fill it in. Mixed methods is not a compromise between a strong tool and a weak one, the research question was two questions.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/a-team-wants-to-know-how-common-burnout-is-among-nurses-and-what-it

### 5. A single study can be genuinely mixed-methods, using a survey to measure how common a symptom is AND interviews to explore what living with it feels like.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** True. Mixed-methods research intentionally combines quantitative breadth (the survey's prevalence estimate) with qualitative depth (the interviews' lived experience) in one study, capturing what neither could alone.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/a-single-study-can-be-genuinely-mixed-methods-using-a-survey-to

### 6. Order the steps of a mixed-methods study on nurse burnout, from broad to deep.

**Answer:**

1. Survey 800 nurses with a numerical burnout scale to measure how common it is
2. Identify from the numbers which units show the highest burnout rates
3. Interview a smaller group from those units in depth about their experience
4. Code the interviews for recurring themes that explain the numbers

**Why:** The survey establishes prevalence and points to the highest-burnout units; targeted interviews then add depth, and coding turns them into themes that explain the numbers. Breadth guides where depth is spent - the logic of a sequential mixed-methods design.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/order-the-steps-of-a-mixed-methods-study-on-nurse-burnout-from-broad

### 7. Sort each described study by its methodological tradition.

**Answer:**

- Quantitative: Anxiety-scale scores from 500 participants, analyzed statistically, Counting how many students pass or fail under two teaching methods
- Qualitative: Ten in-depth interviews exploring what living with chronic pain feels like, Field notes coded for recurring themes in how nurses describe burnout

**Why:** Quantitative work produces numerical data (scores, counts, reaction times) for statistical analysis; qualitative work produces non-numerical data (interviews, field notes) analyzed for themes. The data type, not the topic, decides the tradition.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/sort-each-described-study-by-its-methodological-tradition