In order to help you sort it out better, I will talk about these two research ideas in detail below. All students who want to write proposals and papers, please listen carefully!
Definition and difference
First of all, what are qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis?
Qualitative research (qualitative analysis)
Qualitative analysis is devoted to describing the characteristics of objects, which involves situations that can be observed but cannot be accurately measured. It is a kind of work experience scientific research, in which the data information is generally non-data, but there are ways to convert it into data.
In addition, qualitative analysis is generally to deeply understand people's personal behavior, work experience, mentality, intention and subjective factors through observation and expression, so as to discover everyone's thinking mode and experience. Scholars pay more attention to the opinions of participants, and case studies, ethnography, historical time and phenomenology all belong to the category of qualitative analysis.
Quantitative research (quantitative analysis)
Quantitative analysis refers to collecting data information according to the way of mathematics class (especially statistical analysis method) and expressing the situation according to the analysis of data information. In quantitative analysis, data information is always the standard value, and it must be analyzed by mathematics class and statistical analysis method. If there is no data, it is undoubtedly not quantitative analysis.
To sum up, we can get some differences between these two research ideas:
Qualitative analysis is subjective and quantitative analysis is objective;
The data information of qualitative analysis method is generally literal data information, while the data information of quantitative analysis method is numerical data.
Specific practices
After talking about the definitions and differences, we will discuss the practical ways of these two kinds of scientific research.
Qualitative research (qualitative analysis)
No.65438 +0 Personal Interview (Personal Interview)
I usually have two ways to interview: zero distance and telephone. The advantage of zero distance is that people can fully observe the interviewee during the whole interview process, and then get more accurate data information, such as tiny expressions and body language. Defects depend on irreconcilable time and must be paid a certain amount of money and cost.
The telephone interview is convenient and fast enough, and it is not so announced. It is very easy to create a comfortable atmosphere. The disadvantage is that it is very easy to cancel in an unexpected situation and it is impossible to observe the interviewee.
Focus Group II (panel discussion)
The scientific research method of group discussion began with Professor Johnson Merton, the originator of social psychology. During the whole process, participants will appreciate their views on special theme styles (generally put forward by scholars) in the working group, and researchers will record the whole process of discussion, get the most prominent information from the conversation, and finally summarize these information contents.
Note that group discussion is not an independent interview for everyone, the key is discussion. The purpose of this is to create a natural environment so that everyone can express their opinions at will. In addition, this method does not allow the existence of implementers, which will endanger the change of participants' views.
Behavior Observation No.3 (Personal Behavior Observation)
As far as personal behavior observation is concerned, there are no significant respondents. It usually takes a lot of time for researchers to observe personal behavior or choose a certain goal in a special natural environment. For example, interpersonal communication in the new job market and the choice of small animals in different situations.
There is a very obvious defect in the view of personal behavior. When the research object is people, their personal behavior is very easy to be observed and effective from the perspective of behavioral psychology. Long-term observation may make everyone more natural, but it still has certain harm.
Quantitative research (quantitative analysis)
1 questionnaire (questionnaire)
There are many ways of questionnaire, such as telephone, e-mail or other online ways, but their essence is the same, and they all rely on asking the same questions to many staff in the same way, and generally present fixed answers for participants to choose from, and sometimes there are open questions.
Compared with other methods, the questionnaire method has the advantages of less time, simplicity and universality, and can quickly obtain data information from many samples. The defect is that the search answer cannot be included under the condition of fixed selection; Lengthy questionnaires will make respondents lose interest; Respondents are likely to have errors in understanding some difficult questions, which will make the results lose reference value.
Note that the most important thing in the questionnaire is the design of the questionnaire. The description of the problem must be simple and clear, to prevent the whole body from being affected, and to ensure that each problem has only one doubt.
Give a wrong example:
Do you agree that food prices are rising to
Cann't afford it Do you want food prices to rise to an unbearable level? )
This question actually contains two doubts:
Do you agree that food prices are rising? Do you want food prices to go up? )
Do you agree that they can't afford it soon? Do you want everyone to be unable to bear the rising price? )
The puzzle describes several confusing situations, and the answer is of course inaccurate. You never know which part the interviewee is willing to accept, so each puzzle must decide whether it only represents a question.
Second Personal Interview (Personal Interview)
For qualitative analysis, personal interviews such as telephone and zero distance can also be used, but personal interviews here generally don't need to talk, just discuss topics, and researchers must set questions and their order in advance. The design principles of questions are the same as those of questionnaires.
The advantage of my interview is that the answers to difficult questions are flexible and the information content is more accurate; Defects are money and economic costs, and some answers cannot be quantitatively analyzed.
Behavior Observation No.3 (Personal Behavior Observation)
Although personal behavior observation is mostly used for qualitative analysis, it can sometimes be used for quantitative analysis. For example, in a period of time, according to the total number of cars in a street and the time when employees are late, we can get the result of this scalar formula by careful observation.
The advantage of personal behavior observation is that researchers can stop at any time or place or gradually observe. The data and information are convenient, and so are the defects. Observing the natural environment will do some harm to the results.
Auxiliary data No.4 (auxiliary data information)
Sometimes we can rely on certain auxiliary data, such as the population flow in big cities or the annual salary and expenses of some enterprises. These data are already available and we can use them immediately.
The advantage of using auxiliary data information lies in the rapid acquisition of data information, but it is very likely that some data information is not detailed and accurate, for example, the financial reports of some enterprises are likely to have some moisture.
The above is about the differences and specific practices between qualitative research and quantitative research. Students should first think about whether their graduation thesis can be analyzed qualitatively or quantitatively, and then choose specific methods according to the actual situation. For example, it is obviously inappropriate to use my interview method in many sample situations.
How to choose research ideas?
If your scientific research problems are related to everyone's subjective feelings and understanding of daily life, if you need to write a graduation thesis with the theme style of the education system in developed countries, which is a typical graduation thesis describing the situation, everyone will apply qualitative analysis. There is no correct answer to this question:
What are the problems in the education system of developed countries at this stage?
When did the problems in the education system in developed countries gradually emerge?
Is there a solution to this problem in the education system of developed countries?
This is a very subjective question, and the participants have different answers. Similarly, the following similar problems should also be qualitatively analyzed:
Why is online shopping becoming more and more fashionable?
The core concept of male and female consumption
Views of different age groups on corruption in developed countries
If your scientific research involves the correlation between different independent variables, for example, if you want to know the harm of a drug to heart rate, you must record the data of heart rate before and after taking the drug by quantitative analysis, and then you can get more results. The results here are certain and can be listed. Similarly, quantitative analysis should be used for the following questions:
Wage gap between men and women in the Middle East
Well-known brands in the home market are everywhere.
Income distribution of urban population
Sometimes, we will encounter the relationship between subjective feelings and different independent variables. At this time, it is necessary to combine qualitative research with quantitative analysis. For example, in a big city, we want to know the sales situation of the automobile market and its reasons, but we can't know the reasons only through qualitative analysis until we get the sales data. Therefore, qualitative analysis should be used to ask why famous brands are chosen, and the reasons are different. Similarly, the following questions must be applied in two ways:
The change of GDP in a country and its reasons
The present situation and causes of social aging
Changes of the floating population in big cities and their causes
Finally, if you really don't know which way to use, you can refer to the theme style reference method of the same industry, or you can discuss it with your own teacher, which is also a more immediate and accurate way.