INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE AND

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 INTRODUCTION
The quantitative-qualitative debate is not
about differences in methods or in data;
rather, it is an ideological debate that brings
into question fundamental beliefs about
knowledge.
 INTRODUCTION Cont…

The design of a research study begins with the

selection of a topic and a paradigm. A paradigm
is essentially a worldview, a whole framework of
beliefs, values and methods within which
research takes place. It is this world view within
which researchers work.
 RESEARCH PARADIGM
The choice of either a qualitative or quantitative
paradigm in social science research depends on
the assumptions of :
• Philosophy
• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Methodology
(Guba and Lincoln, 2005; Creswell, 1994; Morgan
and Smircich, 1980; Burrel and Morgan, 1979).
 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
1. guides the researcher to clarify a research design or strategy to be used in
a study. This includes the type of evidence gathered and analysed, the
way such evidence is interpreted in order to provide good answers to the
basic research questions;

2. enables the researcher to recognise the different methodologies and

methods that are most suitable. It also helps a researcher to avoid
inappropriate use and unnecessary work by identifying the limitations of
particular approaches at an early stage; and

3. helps the researcher to be creative and innovative in identifying, creating

and designing a method that were previously outside his or her past
experience.

Easterby-Smith, et al. (1991, p. 21).

 ONTOLOGY
Reflects beliefs about the nature of reality .
“what is the form and nature of social reality and what is there that can
be known about it” (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994).

Is reality an objective phenomenon that holds truth?

(“reality” to be investigated is objective and external to the individual,
imposing itself on individual consciousness from without)

OR

Is reality a subjective phenomenon?

(“reality” is the product of individual cognition and virtually constructed
through social, political and gendered meanings?)
 EPISTEMOLOGY
•Refers to beliefs about the preferred relationship between the
researcher and the researched.

•The epistemological debate is therefore divided between positivism

and phenomenology.

Should we remain objective and removed from what we study?

(explain and predict what happens in the social world by searching for
regularities and causal relationships between its constituent elements)
OR
Should we get immersed in it?
(explain that the social world can only be understood from the point of
view of the individuals directly involved in the activities which are to
be studied)
 METHODOLOGY
• Refers to the techniques we use for collecting information about the world. The
assumptions about how one attempts to investigate and obtain “knowledge” about
the social world.

• The basic methodological question concerns whether the social world is a hard,
real, objective reality, external to the individual, or a softer, personal reality, internal
to the subjective experience of the individual.

Should we manipulate and measure variables in order to test hypotheses? (base

research on systematic protocol and techniques, using methods found in the natural
sciences that focus on the process of hypothesis testing- nomothetic principles)
OR
Should we search for meaning in words and behaviours?
(base research on the view, that one can only understand the social world by
obtaining first hand knowledge of the subject under investigation-ideographic
principles)
 Research Paradigm

• The frames of reference that researchers use to

shape observation and understanding.
• They include basic assumptions underpinning the
research, key issues, models of quality research, and
methods used (Neuman, 2006, p. 81; Rubin and
Babbie, 2001).
• There are three main paradigms associated with
social research:
– Positivist Paradigm
– Intrepretivist Paradigm
– Critical Paradigm
 Positivism
• Neuman (2006, p. 82) defines positivist social research as:

“An organised method for combining deductive logic with precise empirical
observations of individual behaviour in order to discover and confirm a set of
probabilistic causal laws that can be used to predict general patterns of human
behaviour.”

• likely to remain formal or apart from the "subjects" who take part in their
studies;
• social world exists externally, and that its properties should be measured
through objective methods ;
• believe that research produces truthful information about an objective world;
• commonly employ structured methods such as experiments or surveys that
produce quantitative data;
• might use structured interviews or observation to record qualitative data in a
systematic fashion.
 Post Positivism
• The research that does not adhere to the ontological and
epistemological beliefs of interpretive research; instead, is
driven by a positivist world view using qualitative rather than
quantitative data.
• Guba and Lincoln (1994) refer to this as post-positivist research,
or research that incorporates qualitative data and a belief in
the importance of subjective reality without fully abandoning
other fundamental tenets of conventional positivism.
• Does not fully forgo the distant, objective stature of the
researcher. That is to say, these studies do not truly mix
quantitative and qualitative epistemology though they employ
both quantitative and qualitative data.
 Critical theory
Neuman (2006, p. 95) defines critical social research as:

“A critical process of inquiry that goes beyond surface illusions to uncover

the real structures in the material world in order to help people change
conditions and build a better world for themselves.”

• The aim of research in this paradigm is not just to study society but also to
play an active role in social change (Alston and Bowles, 1998). Critical
social researchers believe that research is a political activity and argue that
uncritical research is in danger of maintaining the status quo rather than
helping to create a better world (Neuman, 2006).

• Critical researchers assume that social reality is historically constituted and

that it is produced and reproduced by people. Although people can
consciously act to change their social and economic circumstances, critical
researchers recognise their ability to do so is constrained by various forms
of social, cultural and political domination (Neuman, 2006).
 Interpretive

Neuman (2006, p. 88) defined interpretive social research as:

“The systematic analysis of socially meaningful action through the direct detailed
observation of people in natural settings in order to arrive at understandings and
interpretations of how people create and maintain their social worlds.”

• Assumes that reality exists in the thoughts and perceptions of each individual; thus,
objectivity is impractical and researchers should try to understand the contextual
realities and subjective meanings that shape peoples' interactions with their world.

• Generally attempt to understand phenomena through the meanings that people

assign to them.
 Interpretive (cont…)
• Believe in multiple realities rather than a single Truth. They will collaborate with
participants in an attempt to understand lived experience from the point of view
of the participants.

• Commonly use repeated or on-going interviews and field notes that produce
qualitative data, though they might use supporting empirical measures or count
the frequency of events to supplement their qualitative understandings.

• Asking participants to verify the way that the researcher represents their
stories. The participant, not the researcher, is viewed as the authority on the
phenomenon under study.

• Interpretive research does not predefine dependent and independent variables,

but focuses on the full complexity of human sense making as the situation
emerges
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Qualitative research aims at understanding. It answers
primarily to how? –questions.
• Quantitative research aims at (causal) explanation. It answers
primarily to why? –questions.
• Both qualitative and quantitative research can aim at
description of social reality.
• Complementary - not contradictory
– different kinds of research questions and objects of research
– different perspectives on the same research objects / questions
– (methodological triangulation)
– different stages in the research process
• quantitative qualitative
• qualitative quantitative
 Quantitative
• Quantitative study is an inquiry into a social or human
problem, based on testing a theory composed of variables,
measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical
procedures, in order to determine whether the predictive
generalizations of the theory hold true.
• Quantitative researchers use methods as a way to remain
objective and removed.
• Under the quantitative framework, researchers place much
emphasis on defining and adhering to a methodological
protocol.
• Methodological rigor, after all, assures objectivity and reliability
in the data.
 The quantitative method
• Based on the idea that social phenomena can be
quantified, measured and expressed numerically.
• The information about a social phenomenon is expressed
in numeric terms that can be analysed by statistical
methods.
• The observations can be directly numeric information or
can be classified into numeric variables.
• Observation are transformed into a data matrix in which
each observation unit (e.g. individual) occupies one row
and each variable one column.
• The data matrix is the starting point for the analysis.
 Observation units and variables
• Variable is observable and measurable
characteristic of an observation unit, which varies
across different units
• Observation unit (i.e. research unit, case)
– individual
– group (e.g. family, household, couple)
– institution, organization or community (e.g. school,
– enterprise, municipality)
– text (e.g. newspaper article, a novel, research)
– event or activity (war, strike, revolution)
 Quantitative Research
Strengths:
• Enables the research and description of social structures and processes that are not
directly observable.
• Well-suited for quantitative description, comparisons between groups, areas etc.
• Description of change.
• Analysis and explanation of (causal) dependencies between social phenomena.

Weaknesses:
• Simplifies and ”compresses” the complex reality: abstract and constrained
perspective.
• Only applicable for measurable (quantifiable) phenomena
• Presumes relatively extensive knowledge on the subject matter in order to be able
to ask ”correct” questions.
• Difficult to study processes or ”dynamic” phenomena: produces static view of the
reality
• Description of actors’ perspectives, intentions and meanings difficult
SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM FOR QUANTITATIVE

• Scientific materialism
• Laws of nature
• Measurable and observable ‘proof’
• Experiment, large scale data collection,
quantitative analysis
 Qualitative
• Qualitative researchers cannot anticipate all
the methods they might use in a study;
instead, they actively construct their methods
as the study progresses.
• Qualitative researchers do not forgo the
importance of methodological rigor but they
define rigor quite differently.
• Researchers use methods as a way to enter
the subjective reality of the participant.
 Definitions of Qualitative Research
Denzin and Lincoln (1994)
“Qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive,
naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative
researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense
of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.
Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of
empirical materials case study, personal experience, introspective, life story
interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts-that
describe routine and problematic moments and meaning in individuals'
lives.”

Cresswell (1994)
“Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on
distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human
problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words,
reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural
setting.”
 Characteristics of Qualitative Research

• An exploratory and Descriptive focus

• Emergent Design
• Data Collection in the natural setting
• Emphasis on ‘human-as-instrument’
• Qualitative methods of data collection
• Early and On-going inductive analysis
 USE OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Development of concepts
• Generation of theory
• Drawing of specific implications
• Contribution of reach insight
 Qualitative Research Types
• The Biography
• Phenomenology
• Grounded Theory
• Ethnography
• Case Study
Cresswell (1994)
 Biography

• The researcher needs to collect extensive information from

and about the subject of the biography.
• The investigator needs to have a clear understanding of
historical, contextual material to position the subject
within the larger trends in society or in the culture.
• It takes a keen eye to determine the particular stories,
slant, or angle that "works" in writing a biography and to
uncover the "figure under the carpet" (Edel, 1984) that
explains the multilayered context of a life.
• The writer, using an interpretive approach, needs to be
able to bring himself or herself into the narrative.
 Phenomenology
• Focus of phenomenological research is people's experience in regard to a
phenomenon and how they interpret their experiences.

• The researcher tries to gain access to individuals' life-worlds, which is their world
of experience; it is where consciousness exists.

• There are four aspects of the human experience, which are of interest to the
phenomenological researcher: spatiality, corporeality, relationality, and
temporality.

• A phenomenological study may be challenging to use because:

– The researcher requires a solid grounding in the philosophical precepts of phenomenology.
– The participants in the study need to be carefully chosen to be individuals who have
experienced the phenomenon
– Bracketing personal experiences by the researcher may be difficult.
– The researcher needs to decide how and in what way his or her personal experiences will be
introduced into the study.
 Grounded Theory

• The investigator needs to set aside, as much as possible,

theoretical ideas or notions so that the analytic, substantive
theory can emerge.
• Despite the evolving, inductive nature of this form of qualitative
inquiry, the researcher must recognize that this is a systematic
approach to research with specific steps in data analysis.
• The researcher faces the difficulty of determining when categories
are saturated or when the theory is sufficiently detailed.
• The researcher needs to recognize that the primary outcome of
this study is a theory with specific components: a central
phenomenon, causal conditions, strategies, conditions and
context, and consequences. These are prescribed categories of
information in the theory.
 Ethnography
• The researcher needs to have grounding in cultural anthropology and
the meaning of a social-cultural system as well as the concepts
typically explored by ethnographers.

• The time to collect data is extensive, involving prolonged time in the

field.

• In many ethnographies, the narratives are written in a literary, almost

storytelling approach, an approach that may limit the audience for
the work and may be challenging for authors accustomed to
traditional approaches to writing social and human science research.

• There is a possibility that the researcher will "go native" and be

unable to complete the study or be compromised in the study. This is
but one issue in the complex array of fieldwork issues facing
ethnographers who venture into an unfamiliar cultural group or
system.
 Case Study

• The researcher must identify his or her case. He or she must decide
what bounded system to study, recognizing that several might be
possible candidates for this selection and realizing that either the
case itself or an issue, for which a case or cases are selected to
illustrate, is worthy of study.

• The researcher must consider whether to study a single case or

multiple cases. The study of more than one case dilutes the overall
analysis; the more cases an individual studies, the greater the lack of
depth in any single case. When a researchers chooses multiple cases,
the issue becomes "How many?"- Typically, however, the researcher
chooses no more than four cases. What motivates the researcher to
consider a large number of cases is the idea of generalizability, a
term that holds little meaning for most qualitative researchers.
 Qualitative Methods of Data Collection

• People’s words and actions represent the data of

qualitative inquiry and this requires methods that
allow the researcher to capture language and
behavior. The key ways of capturing these are:
• Observation – both participant and direct
• In-depth interviews
• Group Interviews
• The collection of relevant documents
• Photographs and Video Tapes
 Characteristics of Good Qualitative Research
• Use a tradition of inquiry. This means that the researcher identifies,
studies, and employs one or more traditions of inquiry.
• Begin with a single focus. The project starts with a single idea.
• Problem that the researcher seeks to understand, not a causal relationship
of variables or a comparison of groups Although relationships might evolve
or comparisons might be made these emerge late in the study after we
describe a single idea
• The study includes detailed methods, a rigorous approach to data
collection, data analysis, and report writing. This means, too, that the
researcher verifies the accuracy of the account using one of the many
procedures for verification.
• Write persuasively so that the reader experiences "being there."
• Analyze data using multiple levels of abstraction. Often, writers present
their studies in stages (e.g., the multiple themes that can be combined into
larger themes or perspectives) or layer their analyses from the particular to
the general reflecting all the complexities that exist in real life. The best
qualitative studies engage the reader.
 REASONS FOR CONDUCTING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

• Given these distinctions and definitions of a

qualitative study, why does a person engage in
such a rigorous design?
• To undertake qualitative research requires a strong
commitment to study a problem and demands
time and resources.
• Qualitative research shares good company with
the most rigorous quantitative research, and it
should not be viewed as an easy substitute for a
"statistical" or quantitative study.
 Criticisms of qualitative research
• Qualitative research has been criticized and regarded with suspicion and
hostility, within the nursing profession and elsewhere, because its general
characteristics remain poorly understood and consequently its potential remains
underdeveloped (Adelman, Kemmis, & Jenkins, 1980; Sandelowski, 1986).

• A familiar criticism of qualitative methodology questions the value of its

dependence on small samples which is believed to render it incapable of
generalizing conclusions (Hamel, Dufour, & Fortin, 1993; Yin, 1984, 1993, 1994;).

• Those researchers forcefully argue for the value of every single study
providing that parameters are guided by the goals of the study, and have met
the established objectives. Yin (1989) asserts that general applicability will result
from the set of methodological qualities of the study, and the rigor with which
the study is constructed.

• Attention to such rigor may serve to offset some of the criticisms of

qualitative research as a 'soft approach' utilizing subjective procedures that
provides corresponding weak explanations (Morse, 1989).
 Key Distinctions between Qualitative and Quantitative Research

1. Words and numbers

Qualitative research places emphasis on understanding through looking closely at
people's words, actions and records. The traditional or quantitative approach to research
looks past these words, actions and records to their mathematical significance. The
traditional approach to research (quantifies) the results of these observations.
In contrast qualitative research examines the patterns of meaning which emerge from
the data and these are often presented in the participants' own words. The task of the
qualitative researcher is to find patterns within those words (and actions) and to present
those patterns for others to inspect while at the same time staying as close to the
construction of the world as the participants originally experienced it.
2. Subjective versus objective views
3. Discovery versus proof
The goal of qualitative research is to discover patterns which emerge after close
observation, careful documentation, and thoughtful analysis of the research topic.
What can be discovered by qualitative research are not sweeping generalizations but
contextual findings. This process of discovery is basic to the philosophic underpinning
of the qualitative approach.