Ch 14. Bridging the Quantitative/Qualitative Divide Flashcards
Quantitative and qualitative research strategies have a great deal in common and can complement each other. Why?
Both are required to gain knowledge of the social world
Drawing on the insights of multiple perspectives (Qual/Quan) is much more…
…conductive to good research and produces a deeper level of understanding
Certain epistemological and ontological positions may be associated with a research method. What is natural science epistemology and interpretivist epistemology often paired with?
natural science: social survey research
interpretivist: qualitative interviewing
Three main issues regarding bridging the gap between Quan and Qual
- against integrating the methods
- there are different ways they can be combined
- is it necessarily superior to combine?
Integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches and methods. Does not assume automatic connection between methods/philosophical assumptions
multi-strategy research (mixed-methods research)
Qualitative research often exhibits features associated with a natural science (positivist) model. In what ways?
It has empiricist overtones because of its desire for direct contact with reality, theories are grounded in data, the meanings people give can be ascertained through the senses. It has a specific problem focus which means it already has a positivist model in mind.
What other ways does qualitative research often exhibit features associated with a natural science model?
- hypothesis and theory testing (an analytic induction and grounded theory)
- realism (middle ground between objectivist/constructivist debate)
argues that social reality is produced by mechanisms that are real but not directly observable, and social scientists construct hypotheses about them and need to explain mechanisms of causal influence
Critical Realism
How is quantitive research related to interpretivism?
Many quantitative researchers also are interested in issues of meaning. There is a desire to understand meaning.
Quantitative researchers claim attitudinal questions can access…
…meaning, particularly if respondents are questioned in advance to create survey questions on attitudes.
How can quantitative research have a constructionist mindset?
quantitative methods can be used to establish how people create their sense of reality
People using a particular research strategy do not always…
…share the same epistemological and ontological assumptions. Certain research methods many not be accompanied by expected epistemology/ontology
Problems with dividing quantiative and qualitative (4)
- putting behaviour and meaning against each other
- both ways can arrive to theories/concepts
- numbers vs words is not actually a significant divide (words can be coded)
- notion that quantitative is exclusively artificial and qualitative as exclusively naturalistic
Many perspectives in quantitative social science now consider
meaning to be important. It’s rare to see social scientists who are soley focused on behaviour.
Quantitative and qualitative researchers alike are typically interested both in what people do…
…do and in what they think, even if they go about their investigations in different ways.
Much quantitative research (e.g., survey research) is inductive because?
Hypotheses and theories may not emerge until after the data have been gathered and in surveys, the number of potential hypothesis is vast and many are formulated after the data collection
Quantitative research can be examined using qualitative methods and vice versa.
That suggests that the two approaches can be combined to bring new quality to the studies.
How can quantification happen in qualitative research?
- thematic analysis
- quasi-quantification in qualitative research
- combatting ancedotalism through limited quantification
The main argument against multi-strategy research
The use of a particular research method implies acceptance of certain epistemological and ontological positions
The paradigm argument against multi-strategy research
The quantitative and qualitative approaches are based on separate paradigms that are epistemologically and ontologically incommensurable
Hammersley (1996) proposed three approaches to multi-strategy research
- triangulation
- facilitation
- complementarity
Use of quantitative research to corroborate qualitative findings and vice versa and can take place within a research strategy
Triangulation
Use of one research strategy to assist with research that uses a different strategy. Qualitative facilitates quantitative and vice versa.
Facilitation
Using two or more approaches where a single approach would not be sufficient, filling the gaps
Complementarity
When researcher cannot rely on either a quantitative or a qualitative method alone…
…a multi-strategy approach can be used to fill in the gaps.
Will the principal data-gathering tool be qualitative or quantitative?
the priority decision
Should the “complementary” method be used first, as a preliminary to the principal method, or second, as a follow-up?
The sequence decision
Whether you’re using qualitative, quantitative, and multi-strategy research, the research (4)
- must be competently designed and conducted
- must be appropriate for the research questions asked
- multiple methods likely take more time and money
- different skills and training required
