In
natural sciences and
social sciences,
quantitative research is the systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ
mathematical models,
theories and/or
hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of
measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between
empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Quantitative data is any data that is in numerical form such as statistics, percentages, etc. . The researcher analyzes the data with the help of
statistics. The researcher is hoping the numbers will yield an
unbiased result that can be generalized to some larger population.
Qualitative research, on the other hand, asks broad questions and collects word data from phenomena or participants. The researcher looks for themes and describes the information in themes and patterns exclusive to that set of participants.