Qualitative versus Quantitative James Neill

Research
Methods Research: Last updated:

Key Points in a Classic Debate

http://wilderdom.com/research/QualitativeVersusQuantitativeResearch.html

Features of Qualitative & Quantitative Research

Qualitative
"All research ultimately has
a qualitative grounding"
- Donald Campbell
The aim is a complete, detailed
description.
Researcher may only know roughly in
advance what he/she is looking for.
Recommended during earlier phases of
research projects.
The design emerges as the study
unfolds.
Researcher is the data gathering
instrument.
Data is in the form of words, pictures or
objects.
Subjective - individuals’ interpretation
of events is important ,e.g., uses
participant observation, in-depth
interviews etc.
Qualitative data is more 'rich', time
consuming, and less able to be
generalized.  contextual detail.
Quantitative
"There's no such thing as qualitative
data.
Everything is either 1 or 0"
- Fred Kerlinger
The aim is to classify features, count
them, and construct statistical models in
an attempt to explain what is observed.
Researcher knows clearly in advance
what he/she is looking for.
Recommended during latter phases of
research projects.
All aspects of the study are carefully
designed before data is collected.
Researcher uses tools, such as
questionnaires or equipment to collect
numerical data.
Data is in the form of numbers and
statistics.
Objective – seeks precise measurement
& analysis of target concepts, e.g., uses
surveys, questionnaires etc.
Quantitative data is more efficient, able
to test hypotheses, but may miss
 Researcher tends to become
Researcher tends to remain objectively
subjectively immersed in the subject
separated from the subject matter.
matter.
 (the two quotes are from Miles & Huberman (1994, p. 40). Qualitative Data Analysis)

Main Points
 Qualitative research involves analysis of data such as words (e.g., from
interviews), pictures (e.g., video), or objects (e.g., an artifact).
 Quantitative research involves analysis of numerical data.

 The strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative research are a

perennial, hot debate, especially in the social sciences.  The issues invoke
classic 'paradigm war'.

 The personality / thinking style of the researcher and/or the culture of the
organization is under-recognized as a key factor in preferred choice of
methods.

 Overly focusing on the debate of "qualitative versus quantitative" frames the

methods in opposition.  It is important to focus also on how the techniques can
be integrated, such as in mixed methods research.  More good can come of
social science researchers developing skills in both realms than debating which
method is superior.

The Assumptions of Qualitative Designs

http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/research/Qualitative/qualquan.htm

1. Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with process, rather than outcomes or
products.
2. Qualitative researchers are interested in meaninghow people make sense of their lives,
experiences, and their structures of the world.
3. The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis.
Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories,
questionnaires, or machines.
4. Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people,
setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting.
 5. Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning,
and understanding gained through words or pictures.
6. The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds abstractions,
concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.

.....Merriam, S. B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative approach. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

.....Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Arguments Supporting Qualitative Inquiry

 Human behavior is significantly influenced by the setting in which it occurs; thus one
must study that behavior in situations. The physical settinge.g., schedules, space, pay, and
rewardsand the internalized notions of norms, traditions, roles, and values are crucial
contextual variables. Research must be conducted in the setting where all the contextual
variables are operating.
 Past researchers have not been able to derive meaning...from experimental research.
 The research techniques themselves, in experimental research, [can]...affect the findings.
The lab, the questionnaire, and so on, [can]...become artifacts. Subjects [can
become]...either suspicious and wary, or they [can become]...aware of what the
researchers want and try to please them. Additionally, subjects sometimes do not know
their feelings, interactions, and behaviors, so they cannot articulate them to respond to a
questionnaire.
 One cannot understand human behavior without understanding the framework within
which subjects interpret their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Researchers need to
understand the framework. In fact, the "objective " scientist, by coding and standardizing,
may destroy valuable data while imposing her world on the subjects.
 Field study research can explore the processes and meanings of events.

.....Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. (1980). Designing qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage.

Predispositions of Quantitative and Qualitative Modes of Inquiry

 

Quantitative Mode Qualitative mode

Assumptions Assumptions
 Social facts have an objective reality   Reality is socially constructed 
 Primacy of method   Primacy of subject matter 

 Variables can be identified and  Variables are complex, interwoven,

relationships measured  and difficult to measure 

 Etic (outside's point of view)  Emic (insider's point of view)

Purpose Purpose
 Generalizability   Contextualization 
 Prediction   Interpretation 

 Causal explanations  Understanding actors' perspectives

Approach 
Approach 
 Ends with hypotheses and grounded
 Begins with hypotheses and theories
theory 
 Manipulation and control 
 Emergence and portrayal 
 Uses formal instruments 
 Researcher as instrument 
 Experimentation 
 Naturalistic 
 Component analysis 
 Searches for patterns 
 Seeks consensus, the norm 
 Seeks pluralism, complexity 
 Reduces data to numerical indices 
 Makes minor use of numerical indices 
 Abstract language in write-up
 Descriptive write-up
 Deductive 
 Inductive 

Researcher Role Researcher Role

 Detachment and impartiality   Personal involvement and partiality 

 Objective portrayal  Empathic understanding

Although some social science researchers (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Schwandt, 1989) perceive
qualitative and quantitative approaches as incompatible, others (Patton, 1990; Reichardt & Cook,
1979) believe that the skilled researcher can successfully combine approaches. The argument
usually becomes muddled because one party argues from the underlying philosophical nature of
each paradigm, and the other focuses on the apparent compatibility of the research methods,
enjoying the rewards of both numbers and words. Because the positivist and the interpretivist
paradigms rest on different assumptions about the nature of the world, they require different
instruments and procedures to find the type of data desired. This does not mean, however, that
the positivist never uses interviews nor that the interpretivist never uses a survey. They may, but
such methods are supplementary, not dominant....Different approaches allow us to know and
understand different things about the world....Nonetheless, people tend to adhere to the
methodology that is most consonant with their socialized worldview. (p. 9)

.....Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. White
Plains, NY: Longman.

Contrasting Positivist and Naturalist Axioms (Beliefs and Assumptions)

 

Positivist Paradigm
Axioms About Naturalist Paradigm (Qualitative)
(Quantitative)
Reality is single, tangible, and Realities are multiple, constructed, and
The nature of reality
fragmentable.  holistic. 
The relationship of Knower and known are Knower and known are interactive,
knower to the known independent, a dualism.  inseparable. 
Time- and context-free Only time- and context-bound working
The possibility of
generalizations (nomothetic hypotheses (idiographic statements) are
generalization 
statements) are possible.  possible. 
All entities are in a state of mutual
There are real causes, temporally
The possibility of simultaneous shaping, so that it is
precedent to or simultaneous
causal linkages impossible to distinguish causes from
with their effects. 
effects. 
The role of values  Inquiry is value-free. Inquiry is value-bound.

.....Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications.

Research with Subjects

Research with Informants (Qualitative)
(Quantitative)
1. What do I know about a problem that
1. What do my informants know about their culture
will allow me to formulate and test a
that I can discover?
hypothesis?
2. What concepts can I use to test this 2. What concepts do my informants use to classify
hypothesis? their experiences?
3. How can I operationally define these
3. How do my informants define these concepts?
concepts?
4. What scientific theory can explain the 4. What folk theory do my informants use to explain
data? their experience?
5. How can I translate the cultural knowledge of my
5. How can I interpret the results and report
informants into a cultural description my colleagues
them in the language of my colleagues?
will understand?

.....Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich College Publishers.
Del Siegle, PhD
del.siegle@uconn.edu