Psychology AS · Research methodology. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.
Quantitative data are numbers: scores, counts, times and ratings. They are easy to summarise with averages and graphs and easy to compare between groups, but they can miss the reasons behind behaviour.
Qualitative data are words or descriptions, such as answers to open questions or an observer's notes. They are rich and detailed and show how people think and feel, but they are harder to analyse and compare, and the researcher has to interpret them.
Data can also be objective or subjective. Objective data do not depend on anyone's opinion, such as a reaction time recorded by a computer. Subjective data depend on a personal view or interpretation, such as a rating of how happy someone seems.
Students treat "quantitative" and "objective" as the same thing. A number can still be subjective if it comes from someone's judgement, such as a rating scale.
Answer: Quantitative and subjective data.
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