Mnemonic for Qualitative vs Quantitative

Qualitative research design and quantitative research design are very different from each other. The key is to remember which one is which, especially because the names are so similar. The most efficient way that I've found to differentiate between the two is through a simple mnemonic method. "Quantity" refers to a number, as a reminder for the quantitative research design since this method includes a lot of counting and statistics. Once I remember that, it becomes easier for me to apply this method to many of the research designs I've been exposed to as a younger student, which were mostly quantitative in nature.

Recently, I recalled being part of a focus group, which is a type of qualitative research method. My family and I were spending the day at Disneyland, when we were approached by a Disney employee and asked if one of the adults in our group - in other words, either my husband or I - would like to participate in a focus group that afternoon. Their incentive was $100 cash on the spot, which essentially paid for most of our visit that day! I assented, and attended an hour long casual question and answer forum. There were about twenty participants in my group, and a Disney employee group leader asked questions like 'what do we think could improve about the food offered in their parks'. The focus group incentive reminded me of the idea that the IRB training mentioned; that the incentive should be just enough in order to interest the participant, yet simultaneously not too much in order to allow the participant to give honest answers. When paying a lot of money for one ticket to Disneyland, the incentive was just enough to entice me to leave my family for an hour in order to attend and give my honest opinion.

As I was reading the chapter in the Creswell book about quantitative methods, I found myself remembering my days as a student in Santa Monica College, taking a mandatory class in statistics. Although it was a basic class, and I passed without much of a problem, the last few chapters of the text I found extremely complicated. However, in order to receive a Psychology degree from California State University of Northridge, statistics was a requirement. Once I was in full psych mode at CSUN, I discovered that statistics truly plays a large role in the quantitative research design. Although I like the definite proof that numbers provide, even with the fact that there is always some level of ambiguity with +/- results; statistical analysis is certainly not my strongest point. In fact, the weekly lecture notates that most scientists are not statisticians, since statistics is ultimately a specialized field.  I wonder how many quantitative researchers are able to close this knowledge gap.

Lastly, an interesting point that I gleaned from this week's lecture notes was that survey research can refer to both quantitative and qualitative research design, although in most cases it's considered a quantitative method. If the survey is viewed or utilized as a substitute for an interview, which is qualitative in nature, this fact truly makes sense.