quantitative vs. qualitative

Without getting into the gory details...
quantitative is measurement of numbers. Example: population of 20 women, how many are in childbearing years? How many had a PAP in the last 12 months?

qualitative is a measurement that is more subjective, part of the root is quality. Example: Most standard annual evaluations are qualitative. Surveys (how is our service?) tend to be qualitative.

If you want the gory details, I can refer you to more indepth texts.

In a quantitative study you usually use a very rigid scientific framework for your study. Your methods and data are well defined and very concrete. You may do surveys prior to implenmenting your experiment to adjust your data and questionair's but usually when the study takes off you really do not want to change your design in the middle of its progress.

In a qualatative study you really want to give the readers a view of experiencing an event or describe what goes on during a process ( fro example grieving, patients life changes with terminal cancer, becoming a new mom, differences in parenting between the US and Brasil for example).

There are also many sub types of semi-experimental designs also.

Jared