Qualities and Quantities

Question 1

numbers are summaries…

Answer 1

they relate to qualities by giving information about them in a summarised way

Question 2

what can qualities tell us?

Answer 2

1) how small/large something is

2) how frequent/rare it is

Question 3

advantages of numbers

Answer 3

• internationally understood

- not restricted to a particular area of study`

Question 4

quantities definition

Answer 4

• always refer to a quality of some kind
• we are only really interested in these qualities rather than the numbers themselves
• the number (quantity) is just a means of telling us about the thing we’re interested in (quality)

Question 5

all data is qualitative

Answer 5

every number you come across in social research relates to some kind of quality we are interested in

Question 6

example of quantities all being qualities

Answer 6

Health

-days off work and number of visits to the GP all tell us a quantity about the quality of health