Part 5 - Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Research Design and Methodology
Quantitative and qualitative research

methods
Gebeyehu B. (Dr. of Eng.) Associate Professor

gebeyehu2009@gmail.com
BDU: Bahir Dar Institute of Technology: Computing Faculty

Qualitative and quantitative research
• Research methods are generally categorized as being either qu
antitative or qualitative.
• What matters is that the methods used fit the intended purposes
of the research!
• The qualitative paradigm concentrates on investigating subject
ive data, in particular, the perceptions of the people involved. T
he intention is to illuminate these perceptions and, thus, gain greater insight and k
nowledge.
• The quantitative paradigm concentrates on what can be measu

red. It involves collecting and analyzing objective (often numerical) data that can
be organized into statistics.
2
Descriptions Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Type of interpretative / responsive positivist /hypothetico-deductive
reasoning (usually) inductive (usually) deductive
Link with identifies concepts identified concepts and
concepts investigates relationships
Action sometimes only describes a tests relationships between
situation BUT in action- concepts
research openly intervenes
Outcome illuminates the situation accepts or rejects proposed
theory
Approach to truth seen as context bound truth seen as objective

validity (socially constructed) and universal
3
• After you have decided upon your research issue, you need to decide
what approach you are going to take:
• Quantitative?
• Qualitative?
• Ask yourself are you seeking to prove or disprove a theory? Or are
you trying to generalize your findings to a population?
• It will be a deductive approach, a quantitative approach.
• Or are we hoping to elicit some understandings on what people
think or feel about an issue? that there is little information and so
we must undertake an initial, exploratory study?
• Inductive approach: a qualitative method.
4
Quantitative research method
5
Quantitative research approach
• Quant: what, where, and when of natural phenomena
• develop and employ mathematical models, theories and hypothes
es pertaining to natural phenomena
• Involve large samples of subjects; deal with cause/effect
• Associated with positivism: that objective truth can be known
with certainty, that it can be gained through rational methods
• Positivism is a single, tangible reality "out there" that can be
broken apart into pieces capable of being studied independently
• Indispensable in areas like user demographics, issues of equity,
patterns of use; BUT:
• Can produce a false sense of certainty
• Takes the subject outside of natural setting/tasks
• With the experimental method, can result in:
• “no significant difference” phenomenon
6
• Quantitative research approach is an approach to research on a given
research issues based on testing a theory composed of variables,
measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical procedures, to
determine whether the predictive generalizations of the theory hold t
rue.
• It is a formal, objective, systematic process in which numerical data
are utilized to obtain information about the real situation.
• It’s characteristics are:
• quantifying the relationships between variables (measuring the variables and
construct statistical models to explain the observed issues).
• Goal: Prediction, control, confirmation, test hypotheses.

• Recall that the purposes of research (as related to quantitative) can b
e categorized as:
• Descriptive (fact finding) Explorative (looking for patterns)
• Analytical (explaining why or how)
• Predictive (forecasting the likelihood of particular events)
7
• Descriptive:
• It started during the Roman Empire
• Took census to know the number of people under its empire
• Used for taxation purposes
• Seeks to accurately describe current or past phenomena - to answer such questi
ons as:
• What type of open source software frequently used in Ethiopia?
• What type applications usually consume more bandwidth?
• What type of computers mostly imported in Ethiopia
• What are the main software tools used by end users?
• Explorative
• Seeks to understand psychological and sociological phenomena in an effort to f
ind behavioral patterns:
 How do users use the new software system?
 Why would users use the software in this way contrary to original purpose. For examp
le use of Internet for news rather work related matters
 What are the antecedent factors for IT project success?
8
• Analytical
• Seeking to explain the reasons behind a particular occurrence by
discovering causal relationships.
• Once causal relationships have been discovered, the search then shifts to factor
s that can be changed (variables) in order to influence the chain of causality.
Typical questions are:
 Do user involvement in software development and users IT skills increase softwar

e success?
 Does Hardware performance have an influence on software failure?
 Are road related factors more important in determining accident severity?
 Can network signal be improved by ….
 Does hybrid approach provide better performance.?
9
• Predictive
• Seeks to forecast the likelihood of particular phenomena occurring in given cir
cumstances.
• Does internet bandwidth predict growth online business services ?
• Can the new software system increases the organization’s efficiency?
• To what extent does new software predict growth of the organization profit?
• How to predict network attacks
• This compares independent (IV) and dependent variable (DV).
• We then predict DV by measuring IV
10
• Method of quantitative data collection
• Questionnaire
• Online questionnaire (there are free sites)
• Computer simulation
• Databases (web sites, news …)
• Computer log files – Data like

• Access logs
• Attempts made by Hackers
• Attempts made to break passwords
11
Qualitative research method
12
Qualitative research approach
• Its aim is to give a complete, detailed descriptions of the phenomena
to be studied
• Objective facts + values
• Key philosophical assumption - understanding how people make sense of their
worlds and the experiences people have
• Key concern - knowing or understanding from the participants’ perspectives
• Key focus - understanding (rather than predicting or controlling) social settings
or social phenomena
• When to choose qualitative approach?

• Describe the phenomena
• Build a theory To gain new insights about a particular phenomena
• Develop new concepts or theoretical perspectives about the phenomena
• Discover the problem that exists in the phenomena
• Verification – to test the validity of certain assumptions, claims, theories or ge
neralization with the real world
• Evaluation – to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular policies, design artifac
ts, programs, etc. 13
• Is any research conducted using an observational technique or
unstructured questioning.
• Often viewed as a “Soft-approach.” Conducted:

• when structured research is not possible,
• when true response may not be available [embarrassing touchy qu
estions]
• to explain quantitative research results.
• Should not be viewed as conclusive research.
• Qualitative research is a complimentary of quantitative research

. 14
• why and how of human behaviour
• Work with a range of models, theories, pertaining to human phen
omena
• Involve small groups of participants; interpretation & reflection
• Speech and texts, and their interpretation are very important
• People's accounts of their actions significant
• Not Positivist: no objective truth; different interpretations; no final

certainty in knowledge
• Requires a different way of thinking to address issues like:

• Reliability: repeatable with same/comparable results
• Validity: relationship between conditions and results
• Generalizability: historical and cultural limitations
15
• Main steps in qualitative research approaches:
• General research question Define problem
• Select relevant site(s) and subjects

• Collection of relevant data Review literature Conceptual
• Interpretation of data framework/
Proposal
• Conceptual and theoretical work
Collect Data
• Specification of the research question
• Collection of further data Data Analysis
Build Theory
• Conceptual and theoretical work Or Framewor
k
• Write up findings Data Interpretation/
• Examples: Report Findings
• In-depth Interviews, Historical-Comparative Research, Discourse Analysis
16
• Involves interpretation of a situation, or a setting.
• Analysis must take place within a context – different findings may
accrue in different settings or situations.
• Different researchers may view the same situation and obtain different
results.
• Assumes there is no one right or wrong answer.
• Comes from a particular set of assumptions or theories about how
research should take place.
• Research questions in qualitative researches are:

• Usually focus on one concept or idea.
• Generally don’t make comparisons among issues or others.
• Can be based on hunches or personal experience.
• Usually pertain to the actions or perceptions of participants.
17
• Qualitative research approach in terms of three major research
categories
Exploratory • Case studies

Research • Ethnographic studies
Interpretive • Grounded theory

Research
• Action research
Critical • Test hypotheses about cause and-effect
Research relationships.
18
• Study questions
• Case studies are most appropriate for research questions that are of the “how”
and “why” variety
• The initial task is to clarify precisely the nature of the study questions (i.e. ma
ke sure they are actually “how” or “why” questions)
• Examples:
• Why do 2 organizations have a collaborative relationship?
• Why do developers prefer this tool/model/notation?
• How are inspections carried out in practice?
• How does agile development work in practice?
• Why do programmers fail to document their code?
• How does software evolve over time?
• Why have formal methods not been adopted widely for safety critical applications?
• Study propositions or hypothesis

• Propositions are statements that help direct attention to something that should
be examined in the case study, i.e. point to what should be studied
• Example: “Organizations collaborate because they derive mutual benefits”
19
• Study propositions or hypothesis
• Propositions will tell you where to look for relevant evidence
• Example: Define and ascertain the specific benefits to each organization
• Some studies may not have propositions –this implies a topic of “exploration”
• Note: Even exploratory studies should have both clearly-stated purposes and clearl
y-stated criteria for success
• Unit of analysis
• The unit of analysis defines what a “case” is in a case study
• Example: a unit of analysis (case) may be an individual, and the case study may be
the life history of that person
• Other units of analysis include decisions, social programs, processes, changes,
methods…
• Note: It is important to clarify the definition of these cases as they may be subjecti
ve, e.g. the beginning and end points of a process
• What unit of analysis to use generally depends on the primary research questions
• Once defined, the unit of analysis can still be changed if desired, e.g. as a result of disc
overies based on data
• To compare results with previous studies (or allow others to compare results with yours
), try to select a unit of analysis that is or can be used by others
20
• Qualitative research methods includes:
• Depth Interviews
• Predictive techniques (Eliciting deep-seated feelings/opinions by enabling the r
espondents to project themselves into unstructured situations).
• Word Association
• Sentence Completion
• Role playing
• Story telling with pictures
• Focus groups
• Observation (Ethnography)
• … and other methods
21
• Qualitative research characteristics includes:
• Takes place in the natural setting
• Uses multiple methods that are interpretive
• Is emergent rather than tightly prefigured
• Fundamentally interpretive (role of researcher as interpreter)
• Researcher views social phenomena holistically
• Researcher systematically reflects on who he or she is in the
inquiry and is sensitive to how or her personal biography and
how it shapes the study
• Researcher uses complex reasoning that is multifaceted, iterative,
and simultaneous
• Researcher adopts and uses one or more strategies of inquiry
22
Comparison between the two approaches
• Quantitative and qualitative research are often cast as opposing fields
• Qualitative (inductive method; incorporates values and perspectives
of both researcher and participants).
• Quantitative (deductive – reasoning from general theories to specifi
c instances. Researchers are supposed to be objective.)
• Quantitative research focuses on causal relationships and their
impact (outcomes). They also answer “what” questions.
• Qualitative research answers “how” and “why” questions or process.
• However sometimes blur as:
• They becomes as qualitative research may employ quantification in their wor
k or may be positivist in their approach. Some quantitative may employ phen
omenology.
23
• However sometimes blur as:

• Both can be also be combined in a project
• Qualitative can facilitate quantitative research (i) can provide
hypotheses (ii) fill in the gaps, help interpret relationships
• Quantitative can facilitate qualitative through locating interviewees
and help with generalising findings
• Together they can give you a micro and macro level versions and
so you can examine the relationships between the two levels.
• They can complement each other.
24
• The basic comparison dimensions are

• Type of questions, sample size, and information per respondent,
• Administration with special skill required,
• Type of analysis,
• Tools,
• Ability replicate,
• Needed training and training type,
• Type of research
25
(summary)
Quantitative Qualitative
Tests hypotheses Research questions; Discovers meaning once the
researcher becomes immersed in data.
Concepts are in the form of Concepts are often only measurable in that they are
measurable variables ideas that can be substantiated by observation or
interviews
Measures are created before data Measures are created in an ad hoc manner and are
collection and are standardized often specific to the setting or the researcher.
Data are in the form of numbers Data are in the form of words and images from
from precise measurement documents, observations, and transcripts.
Procedures are standard. It’s Research procedures are specific to the setting or
assumed that the study will be participants and probably can not be replicated.
repeated.
Analysis uses statistics, tables, and Analysis involves extracting themes from evidence
charts and discusses how what they and organizing data into themes and categories to
show relates to the hypothesis. present a coherent, consistent picture.
26
(summary)
Quantitative Qualitative
Quantify the data and generalize Gain a broad qualitative understanding of the
the results from the sample to the underling reasons and motivations, as a first steps in
population interest, recommend a multi stage research.
final course of action.
Large number of representative Small number of non representative cases
cases
Structured Unstructured
Statistical Non statistical
27
• The distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is not

precise. Most qualitative work has some form of quantitative analy
sis involved, and visa-versa.
• More about the comparisons
Qualitative Paradigm Quantitative Paradigm

naturalistic positivistic
Give a complete detailed Summarize and categorize
description observations
Interpretation of behavior Prediction of behavior
Know only roughly what you

Make explicit and clear what you
are looking for
are looking for
28
Qualitative Paradigm Quantitative Paradigm

Design emerges during study Design is explicit and clear in advance
Ends with hypotheses & theory Begins with hypotheses & theory
Time consuming efficient
detailed Less detailed (summarize details in

categories or numbers)
Make abstractions, concepts and Form abstractions, concepts and
hypotheses from details (Inductive) hypothesis in advance and check if
you can find them back in the data
(Deductive)
Part of to be observed data. Insider’s
point of view (emic). Objective observer. Outsiders point of
view (etic)
29
30

Part 5 - Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Part 5 - Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Research Design and Methodology

Quantitative and qualitative research

Gebeyehu B. (Dr. of Eng.) Associate Professor

BDU: Bahir Dar Institute of Technology: Computing Faculty

• The quantitative paradigm concentrates on what can be measu

Descriptions Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Approach to truth seen as context bound truth seen as objective

• Goal: Prediction, control, confirmation, test hypotheses.

 Do user involvement in software development and users IT skills increase softwar

 Are road related factors more important in determining accident severity?

 Can network signal be improved by ….

 Does hybrid approach provide better performance.?

• Does internet bandwidth predict growth online business services ?

• Can the new software system increases the organization’s efficiency?

• How to predict network attacks

• This compares independent (IV) and dependent variable (DV).

• We then predict DV by measuring IV

• Databases (web sites, news …)

• Computer log files – Data like

• When to choose qualitative approach?

• Often viewed as a “Soft-approach.” Conducted:

• Should not be viewed as conclusive research.

• Qualitative research is a complimentary of quantitative research

• Not Positivist: no objective truth; different interpretations; no final

• Requires a different way of thinking to address issues like:

• Select relevant site(s) and subjects

• Research questions in qualitative researches are:

Exploratory • Case studies

Interpretive • Grounded theory

• Study propositions or hypothesis

• However sometimes blur as:

• The basic comparison dimensions are

Statistical Non statistical

• The distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is not

Qualitative Paradigm Quantitative Paradigm

Know only roughly what you

Qualitative Paradigm Quantitative Paradigm

Time consuming efficient

detailed Less detailed (summarize details in

You might also like