GCSE Stats Q

manps

Whats the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?

Thanks

Reply 1

J.F.N

Here, this is from some internet website:

Qualitative: A record of thoughts, observations, opinions, or words. Qualitative data typically comes from asking open-ended questions to which the answers are not limited by a set of choices or a scale. Examples of qualitative data include answers to questions like How can the program be improved? or What did you like best about your experience? - but only if the user is not restricted by a pre-selected set of answers. Qualitative data is best used to gain answers to questions that produce too many possible answers to list them all or for answers that you would like in the participant's own words. Qualitative data is more time-consuming to analyze than quantitative data.

Quantitative: Numeric information that includes things like personal income, amount of time, or a rating of an opinion on a scale from 1 to 5. Even things that you do not think of as quantitative, like feelings, can be collected using numbers if you create scales to measure them. Quantitative data is used with closed-ended questions, where users are given a limited set of possible answers to a question. They are for responses that fall into a relatively narrow range of possible answers.

The qualitative-vs.-quantitative debate is one can of worms I don't want to delve into. Trust me--have you ever met third-year statistics students?