The purpose of this article is to critically examine some stated discrepancies between qualitative and quantitative research by taking actual studies as a starting point. It is argued that in ordinary empirical research within psychology and education, both approaches should be considered based on critical realism, and that the ordinary validity system of Campbell and coworkers is applicable in each case. The overall conclusion is that the differences between the two traditions are often considerable exaggerated, that they do not represent two paradigms but one, and that they therefore should be combined correspondingly within a common frame in empirical research.