As you may have gathered by now, psychological tests, questionnaires, structured interviews, etc. contain a series of close-ended questions. That is, the questions and their probable responses are given in these measures. Generally, these responses are given in scaled forms. That is, they indicate the strength and magnitude of the response. For example, they may vary from 1 (low) to 5, 7 or 11 (high). The participants’ task is to select the most appropriate response. Sometimes there are right and wrong responses. A researcher assigns a number to each answer (normally “1” for right answers, and “0” for wrong answers). At the end, the researcher calculates the total of all these numbers and arrives at an aggregate score, which tells about the participants’ level on that particular attribute (for example, intelligence, academic intelligence, etc.). In doing so, the researcher converts the psychological attributes into a quantity (usually numbers). For the purpose of drawing conclusions, a researcher may compare individual’s score with that of the group, or compare the scores of two groups. This requires use of certain statistical methods about which you will study later. You have already read in mathematics in Class X about the methods of central tendency (mean, median, and mode), methods of variability (range, quartile deviation, standard deviation), coefficients of correlation, and so forth. These and some other advanced statistical methods enable a researcher to make inferences and to give meaning to the data.

Human experiences are very complex. This complexity is lost when one elicits information from a respondent on the basis of a question. If you want to know how a mother feels about the loss of her child, you will need to hear her story to understand how her experience is organised and what meaning she has given to her suffering. Any attempt at its quantification will not enable you to get at the principles of organising such experiences. Psychologists have developed various qualitative methods to analyse such data. One of them is Narrative Analysis. Also data are not always available in the form of scores. When the researcher uses the method of participant observation or unstructured interview, the data are generally in a descriptive form—in participants’ own words, field notes taken by the researchers, photographs, interview responses noted by the researcher or taped/video recorded, informal talks, etc. These type of data cannot be converted into scores or subjected to statistical analysis. Rather, the researcher uses the technique of content analysis to find out thematic categories and build those categories taking examples from the data. It is more descriptive in nature.

It must be understood that quantitative and qualitative methods are not contradictory; rather, they are complementary to each other. In order to understand a phenomenon in its totality, a suitable combination of both methods is warranted.