Pontbot What Research Methods Exist and How to Apply Them?
We research every day - our keys, earphones, or wallet.
It's no different with a thesis or at work.
In the previous article about hypothesis, we learned that we can refute or strengthen it with data.
Data collection is exactly for this purpose.
But what research methods exist, and how do we process this data?
What Research Methods Exist?
You've probably heard of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
If not, no problem, here's a table that briefly summarizes them.
| Comparison | Qualitative | Quantitative |
|---|---|---|
| Hungarian equivalent | Focuses on quality | Focuses on quantity |
| How big is the dataset? | Smaller (few people affected by your topic) | Larger (you ask hundreds of people) |
| When do I use it? | You want to understand in depth what's going on | You want to discover patterns, flex that you have lots of data |
| Example | In-depth interviews, observation | Data collection from the net, Surveys |
| What questions do you answer? | Details | How much? How many? What percentage? |
| Advantages | Closer relationship | Fast, big data, pattern discovery |
| Disadvantages | Time-consuming, less data | Cold, almost zero contact, details can be lost, people don't respond to it |
Quantitative Example: I Send My Thesis-Related Questions to Facebook Groups
This is clearly Quantitative, you don't contact anyone personally, you don't listen to the other details.
By asking a few people, you still can't really discover a pattern. That's why big data is good.
You're done quickly, you can discover patterns in it, and it's cost-effective, you'll obtain lots of data, and you can "validate" your hypothesis.
Example: You Call a Client and Ask How the Service Was
Now this is more Qualitative, you ask how the service was, tell me about it, you go deep into it, you're almost digging into their soul and you can get other information from their answer.
How Do We Process the Data?
That's exactly what the next article is about, Comparison.