Titel
The Fundamental Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Data in Mixed Methods Research
Autor*in
Abstract
Mixed methods research is commonly defined as the combination and integration of qualitative and quantitative data. However, defining these two data types has proven difficult. In this article, I argue that qualitative and quantitative data are fundamentally different, and this difference is not about words and numbers but about condensation and structure. As qualitative data are analyzed with qualitative methods and quantitative data with quantitative methods, we cannot analyze one type of data with the other type of method. Quantitative data analysis can reveal new patterns, but these are always related to the existing variables, whereas qualitative data analysis can reveal new aspects that are hidden in the data. To consider data as quantitative or qualitative, we should judge these data as end products, not in terms of the process through which they come into being. Thus, quantitizing qualitative data results in quantitative data and the analysis thereof is quantitative, not mixed, data analysis. For mixed data analysis, both real, non-quantitized qualitative data and quantitative data are needed. As these quantitative data may be quantitized qualitative data, the implication is that, contrary to a common view, mixed methods research does not necessarily involve quantitative data collection.
Stichwort
mixed methods researchqualitative dataquantitative datahybrid dataquantitizingmixed datasetqualitative data analysisquantitative data analysismixed data analysiscase comparison table
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2046058
Erschienen in
Titel
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
Band
24
Ausgabe
1
ISSN
1438-5627
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Publication
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
(c) 2023 Judith Schoonenboom
Universität Wien | Universitätsring 1 | 1010 Wien | T
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