Quantitative, Qualitative, Inductive and Deductive Research. Characteristics of Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Differences between Inductive and Deductive.

1. QUANTITATIVE
AND
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH.
HANNAH HALLIDAY

2. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
• Quantative research is a way of collecting numerical
research or data which then can be converted into useable
statistics.
• It uses measureable data to formulate facts and uncover
patterns in research.
• Common methods used are questionnaires and surveys.
For media studies, I would use both of these types of
methods to get numerical data so then I can turn this into
facts and statistics and find the trends.

3. CHARACTERISTICS
• Can ask specific questions.
• You can collect data from participants.
• Numbers can be analysed using statistics.
• This type of research is unbiased towards the subject
matter.

4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Qualitative research is used to gain a deeper
understanding of the subject.
• It helps to develop ideas or hypothesises. It is used to
uncover trends in thoughts and opinions. Common
methods used are focused groups, individual interviews
and observations.
• In a media studies aspect, I would use individual
interviews to get peoples true opinions on music
magazines.

5. CHARACTERISTICS
• The questions asked are broad and open.
• The data that is collected is words and text as the
questions asked are open which means the answer can go
anywhere.
• They look on a smaller scale to get peoples true meanings
and opinions.
• Descriptions and analysis for themes and general trends
that may occur.
• Can be biased as things can be manipulated.

6. DEDUCTIVE
• The deductive approach is when a hypothesis is
developed from an already existing theory.
• They start with a social theory that they find compelling
and then test its implications with data.
• They move from a more general level to a more specific
one. A deductive approach to research is the one that
people typically associate with scientific investigation.
• The researcher studies what others have done, reads
existing theories and then tests hypotheses that emerge
from those theories.

7. INDUCTIVE
• In an inductive approach to research, a researcher begins
by collecting data that is relevant to his or her topic of
interest.
• Once a considerable amount of data has been collected,
the researcher will then take a time out from data
collection, stepping back to get a bird’s eye view of their
data.
• At this stage, the researcher looks for patterns in the data,
working to develop a theory that could explain those
patterns.

8. DIFFERENCES
• The main difference between inductive and deductive
approaches to research is that whilst a deductive
approach is aimed and testing theory, an inductive
approach is concerned with the generation of new theory
emerging from the data.
• An inductive approach makes broad generalisations from
specific observations.
• Inductive gives new knowledge whereas deductive
doesn’t as there is already a theory there.
• Although they seem very different from one another, they
complement each other as when doing researcher, the
researcher may need to use inductive and deductive to get
where they want to.