Difference bewteen Qualitative and Quantitative research

Quantitative	Qualitative
-Test hypothesis that the researcher begins with.	-Capture and discover meaning once the researcher becomes immersed in the data.
-Concepts are in the form of distinct variables	-Concepts are in the form of themes, notifs, generalizations, taxonomies
-Measures are systematically created before data collection and are standardized	-Measures are created in an ad hoc manner and are often specific to the individual setting of researcher
-Data are in the form of numbers from precise measurement	-Data are in the form of words from documents, osbervations, transcipts
-Theory is largely causal and is deductive	-Theory can be causal or noncausal and is often inductive
-Procedures are standard, and replication is assumed	-Reseacher porcedures are paritcular, and replication is very rare
-Analysis proceeds by using statistics, tables, or charts and discussing how what they show relates to hypotheses	-Analysis proceeds by extracting extracting themes or generalizations from evidence and organizing data to present a coherent and consistent picture

A debate between Burawoy 1977 and Treiman 1977 can well illustrate the disagreement over research method. Treiman conducted a series of quantitative cross-nation studies on prestige rankings of occupations and social mobility from a positivist approach. Burawor conducted participant observation studies of factory work in several countries, and qualitative historical research on migrant labour in South Africa and California.

Burawoy attacked Treiman's research on social mobility comparing the United States and Britain and cross-national quantitative research generally. He said the standard quantitative measure requires a basic similarity across units of analysis. If a researcher uses quantitative techniques e.g. random sampling, standard measurement, and statistic analysis, across fundamentally different social realities or cultures, he creates false precision and distorted results. Burawoy said that it is impossible to draw conclusion without referring the specific social context of a society. He rejected imposing a deductive theoretical framework with implicit values.

Treiman defended his research by restating the principles of positivist social science. He believed that the goal of comparative research was to discover what is true for all societies, what varies regularly across societies and what is unique to particular societies. The advantage of standardized measurement is to compare results from different units, in this case societies. He suggested that positivist research would eventually simplify the complexity of society into law-like generalization.

From above, we can see these two methods are valid under their own assumptions. Qualitative researchers insist that social reality has to be discovered under its own social context as the interpretive meanings of individuals can be different. However, the qualitative research, often involves intensive works and greater impacts on researchers lives, it is often used when studying a small group of people interacting in the present.