WEEK12: Quantitative & Qualitative Flashcards
Ontology
Concerned with? (2)
Concerned with the nature of existence and reality
Epistemology
Concerned with? (nature of? method of?)
Concerned with the nature of knowledge and the methods of gaining knowledge
Positivism as an epistemological position
Focuses on the significance of? (2) when searching for?
What must the researcher do to maintain objectivity?
What kind of observations? 2, when searching for? proposed by?
Focuses on the significance of objectivity and evidence when searching for the truth
In order to be objective, the researcher must distance themselves away so that they do not impact the research findings- the researcher has limited interaction with participants
Carry out direct and systematic observations in an objective way to discover knowledge about the world- proposed by postivist writers such as Newton and Bacon
Positivist epistemology
What two things (to do with data) does it have in common with natural science? examples? (testing, explanations)
Knowledge about the world is created by? derived from? What is this called? (what kind of data)
Similar data collections and data interpretations used in natural science including hypothesis testing, casual explanations and modeling
Knowledge about the world is created by experiences, derived from the senses (empirical data)
Positivists assumptions underlying quantitative research methods
What kind of reality is there to be discovered?
what kind of variables do quantitative researchers use? what model do they follow?
How does research progress? (2)
There is an objective reality to be discovered and researchers use predetermined variables derived from specific hypotheses- following the hypothetic model
Progress through falsification and hypothesis testing
Gain evidence from different measures, with different researchers attempting to falsify theory or hypothesis
Falsification
A statement can be proven to be true in some situations and be counterargued in others
Can be proven to be true and false
Popper
What distinguishes scientific from non scientific theories?
Falsifiability distinguishes scientific from non-scientific theories
Assumption underlying qualitative research methods
What is the main aim of scientific research? (what kind of relations avoiding?
What are confounding variables?
The main aim of scientific research is to find universal casual relations- cause and effect, and avoid confounding variables
Confounding variables: variables that can be overlooked and could be the true causes of the observed effects
Assumptions underlying qualitative research methods
The role of the quantitative researcher
What can researchers have? therefore what can they create?
What is practiced because of this? what does this increase?
Be suspicious about the role of the researcher as they can have biases and create evidence that fits their own theories, Creating ‘noise’
Therefore procedures are standardized to enable replication
Different types of quantitative research
Descriptive research
Observation of what kind of data?
Why use large samples?
Descriptive research
- observation of numerical data
- frequency of occurance
- large samples means that the data will be more representative of the population = universal conclusions, generalisability
- Large numbers of observations = more precise results, likely to be similar to the wider population - reliable.
Different types of quantitative research
Relational research - correlations
Tries to find?
What does a correlation coefficient show?
What type of correlation are humans not good at spotting based on intuition? what is this called?
What causes the observed data
Which variables are related
Correlation coefficient- shows if variables are related and how strong the relationship is
Humans are not good at spotting correlations based of intuition- especially negative correlations.
- We tend to perceive relations that do not exist (illusory correlations)
Different types of quantitative research
Experimental research can help understand?
Relational research- see if variables are related, but does not help us understand cause and effect
An experiment can help us understand cause and effect relations
Weakness of the quantitative method
Quantitative imperative
Falsification test (Researches spend too much time on? rather than? 2 things)
Research is limited to topics that can be measured and represented as numbers
Emphasis on disapproving theories and erasing wrong theories means that it takes time away from proposing new theories and finding practical solutions to concrete problems.
Problems with experimental research
No interest in?
What is research driven by?
Difficult to progress in psychology? (2)
No interest in the person behind the participant
Research is too driven by what can be measured numerically and tested experimentally
Many psychological experiments are impossible to carry out due to the ethical and practical limits therefore it could be very hard to progress in psychology compared to natural sciences like physics or chemistry.
Grounded theory
Developed by?
What kind of research is it applied in?
What type of theory does it aim to create?
Process? (researcher chooses? develops? stemming from? collects? to assess?
Developed by Glaser and Strauss
The systematic methodology involved in qualitative research- social scientists
Involves creating hypotheses and theories by collecting and analyzing qualitative data
Aim: develop a theory that is grounded in the accounts of participants
Researcher chooses an existing theoretical framework, develops one or more hypotheses stemming from that framework, and collects data to assess the validity of the hypotheses
