Final answer:
Quantitative research involves numerical data that can be statistically analyzed, such as the probability of patients having the flu or the average number expected to have it. Qualitative research deals with descriptive data, like prisoners' motivations for education or the description of materials. Examples include counting letters in novels for quantitative research and describing color or motives for qualitative insights.
Step-by-step explanation:
Quantitative and Qualitative Research Examples
When considering quantitative and qualitative research methods, the type of data collected is fundamental to distinguishing between the two. Quantitative research involves the collection of numerical data that can be measured and analyzed statistically. For example, in a study of flu incidence, if the probability of at least four out of 25 patients having the flu is calculated, or data predicting on average how many patients out of 25 are expected to have the flu are both instances of quantitative research. In both cases, the data is numerical and can be used to create stats or probability models.
On the other hand, qualitative research focuses on descriptive data that is not necessarily numerical. For example, analyzing the content of interviews with prisoners may provide qualitative data regarding their reasons for accessing educational opportunities while incarcerated. Another example could be identifying the type of material a car is made of. These descriptive data provide deeper insight into the subjects studied and are not easily reduced to numbers.
To succinctly distinguish between the two: recording the number of letters in words used in Tom Clancy novels is a quantitative study, while describing the color of a gold medal as yellow is a qualitative observation. Similarly, stating that the number of tickets sold to a concert is quantitative data, as exact numbers can be counted.