22 Research types: A brief overview
Learning objectives
- Identify the main types of qualitative research.
- Describe the processes of inductive versus deductive reasoning, and the types of research for both.
- Distinguish quantitative experimental and nonexperimental research.
This chapter provides an overview of quantitative and qualitative research the two major classes of research types to answer your research question. Quantitative research is objective and seeks to statistically make inferences about a sample to generalise to the larger population. Qualitative research is subjective and seeks a human’s experience as a narrative.
Research answers a question or provides context with research findings or result, then EBP utilises highest quality evidence and embeds it into practice to improve clinical outcomes.
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is rooted in research that originated in anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Qualitative research is not experimental, it seeks to understand the lived experiences in humans and seeks to understanding meaning, and it is subjective in nature. The overarching goal of qualitative research is theory-generating. It is an inductive process (inductive reasoning). Most often, qualitative research features an interview style. This allows the researcher to ask open-ended questions and the participants share their experiences and/or explanation of particular meanings in life.
Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in that:
- It is completely subjective.
- It utilises an inductive (versus deductive) approach.
- It does not utilise a hypothesis.
- It generates a theory from the data to explain the social phenomenon that the researchers were interested in.
- The researcher is involved with the participants for data collection.
- The data is analysed with a thematic nature. That is, themes from the collected narratives are analysed to see trends or themes in what the participants shared.
- The results are not generalisable to the population.
There are three types of qualitative research designs:
| Design | About the design | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Grounded Theory | This type of qualitative research seeks to understand and describe social psychological processes. | Keogh and colleagues (2015) used grounded theory methods to understand how mental health service users transitioned home from a hospital stay. The researchers found that the core variable was the patients’ management of preconceived expectations. |
| Phenomenology | This is concerned with the lived experiences of humans. | Tornoe and colleagues (2015) used a phenomenological approach in their study of nurses’ experiences with spiritual and existential care for dying patients in a general hospital. |
| Ethnography | This is concerned with learning about patterns and lifeways of cultural groups. Often these researchers go to the culture itself (fieldwork) to interview the participants in their natural settings. | Sandvoll and colleagues (2015) used ethnographic methods to explore how nursing home staff members managed unpleasant resident behaviors in two public nursing homes in Norway. |
Inductive versus deductive reasoning
The main difference between inductive and deductive reasoning is that inductive reasoning aims at developing a theory while deductive reasoning aims at testing an existing theory.
Think of inductive (theory producing) as to qualitative research and deductive (theory testing) as to quantitative research.
Inductive reasoning moves from specific observations to broad generalisations, and deductive reasoning the other way around.
Both approaches are used in various types of research, and it’s not uncommon to combine them in one large study.
Quantitative experimental and nonexperimental research
Quantitative research
In quantitative research, the goal is to utilise the statistical data to generalise results to the population studied. Some key features include utilising the statistics to help answer the clinical question and determine whether the hypothesis is indeed statistically supported.
There are two main types of quantitative research:
- Experimental: In experimental research, the researcher introduces an intervention or treatment.
- Non-Experimental: In non-experimental research, the researcher does not introduce an intervention or treatment, but instead acts as a bystander. Meaning, they collect data without introducing a treatment.
Quantitative research differs from qualitative research in that:
- It is completely objective.
- It utilises a deductive (versus inductive) approach.
- It utilises a hypothesis(es).
- It tests a theory.
- The researcher is usually not directly involved with the participants for data collection in order to minimise bias.
- The data is analysed statistically in order to generalise results to the larger population.
- Knowledge to application link.
Non-experimental research
In the article, “The relationships among pain, depression, and physical activity in patients with heart failure” by Haedtke, Smith, Van Buren, Kein, and Turvey, the researchers did not introduce an intervention or treatment. They handed out surveys for the participants to complete about their activity and depression levels.
Comparative view of approaches
| Characteristic | Qualitative | Quantitative | Mixed methods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | Images, words, patterns, categories | Variables | Combination of variables, images, words |
| Data analysis | Search for patterns, themes | Statistical relationships | Qualitative support and quantitative indicators |
| Results | Verified findings may generalise | Generalising | Particularistic findings, representation of insider |
| Final report form | Narrative, direct quotes from participants | Statistical | Eclectic and pragmatic |
Do not let nonexperimental research trick you into thinking it is qualitative in nature just because it does not utilise an intervention.
In summary, there are two main approaches to research designs: quantitative and qualitative. They each seek to answer questions, but quantitative research is meant to generalise its findings to the population whereas qualitative research seeks to understand phenomenon and develop theories about the human lived experiences.
References
Chen, P., Nunez-Smith, M., Bernheim, S. (2010). Professional experiences of international medical graduates practicing primary care in the United States. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(9), 947-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1401-2
Haedtke, C., Smith, M., VanBuren, J., Kein, D., Turvey, C. (2017). The relationships among pain, depression, and physical activity in patients with heart failure. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 32(5), E21-E25. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCN.0000000000000399
Pankong, O., Pothiban, L., Sucamvang, & K., Khampolsiri, T. (2018). A randomized controlled trial of enhancing positive aspects of caregiving in Thai dementia caregivers for dementia. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 22(2), 131-143. https://he02.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/PRIJNR/article/view/86178
This chapter is adapted from “The two main research types: A brief overview” in “Evidence-Based Practice & Research Methodologies” by Tracy Fawns, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
