It describes the implications of the newly discovered information and interprets this into facts, which may support or reject the hypothesis.
Qualitative research takes a more philosophical approach. It "aims to address questions concerned with developing an understanding of the meaning and experience dimensions of humans' lives and social worlds" [CITATION Fos02 p 717 t l 3081 ]. A qualitative approach employs a descriptive method, aimed at finding a meaning of the social world through words, pictures or objects. Typical experimental methods of qualitative research include transcriptions, interviews and discourse analysis. Smith states that "quantitative research facts act to constrain our belief; while in [qualitative] research beliefs determine what should count as facts" [CITATION Smi83 p 10-11 t l 3081 ]. From our definitions above, we can see that quantitative research aims to define our knowledge through the scientific experimentation of hypotheses and analysis of data and delivers measured facts; qualitative research examines facts in the context of the social world, in order to determine what is 'real'.
However as stated by Westerman, "the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research is much less fundamental than most researchers think" [CITATION Wes06 p 263 t l 3081 ]. Quantitative research involves an objective perspective which views that which is being investigated as an object from which the observer is separate. This perspective, known as positivism, asserts that knowledge is based on scientific facts which have been experimentally investigated. Positivists argue that what exists does so outside our knowledge of it, and thus an objective discovery is 'real' in that it is not subject to the values and beliefs of the observer. In contrast, qualitative research is a realist-interpretive approach. It involves an analysis of the world of which the researcher is a part of, and therefore cannot be separated.