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Science Forum Index » Statistics - Math Forum » Quantitative research Vs qualitative research?
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| Robert |
 Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:44 pm |
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can someone help me to make two easy examples about quantitative and
qualitative research?
I've read the differences but it's not really clear, and thus gets
harder when i have to combine them.
Thanks a lot.
P.S.
I'm not asking what is quantitative or qualitative research, but to
produce an example for each of them. |
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| Phil Holman |
| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:13 am |
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"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7e8e1d7e-50fc-469c-9305-75a9161a5853@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Quote: can someone help me to make two easy examples about quantitative and
qualitative research?
I've read the differences but it's not really clear, and thus gets
harder when i have to combine them.
Thanks a lot.
P.S.
I'm not asking what is quantitative or qualitative research, but to
produce an example for each of them.
Here's a good example; quantitative research would investigate the
proportion of questions on this ng that are homework questions.
Qualitative research would investigate how the ng regulars felt about
being asked to help with homework.
Phil H |
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| Bruce Weaver |
| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:53 am |
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Phil Holman wrote:
Quote: "Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7e8e1d7e-50fc-469c-9305-75a9161a5853@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
can someone help me to make two easy examples about quantitative and
qualitative research?
I've read the differences but it's not really clear, and thus gets
harder when i have to combine them.
Thanks a lot.
P.S.
I'm not asking what is quantitative or qualitative research, but to
produce an example for each of them.
Here's a good example; quantitative research would investigate the
proportion of questions on this ng that are homework questions.
Qualitative research would investigate how the ng regulars felt about
being asked to help with homework.
Phil H
But if the investigator produced counts for various "feeling"
categories (e.g., annoyed, unaffected, amused, etc), then what
would it be? :-|
--
Bruce Weaver
bweaver@lakeheadu.ca
www.angelfire.com/wv/bwhomedir
"When all else fails, RTFM." |
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| Art Kendall |
| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:59 am |
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It is good that you are able to see that these are not very disjoint
concepts. Often this is a meaningless distinction. Most research has
both quantitative and qualitative elements. For example, while
developing a survey instrument, a researcher uses techniques like "think
aloud", asking for similar terms, familiarizing him/herself with how
people in the respondent pop think about the phenomena under study. etc.
Once you start to count, rate, rank, etc. you are doing quantitative
things.
Although there is research that is completely qualitative (biography,
ethnography, psychohistory), (almost?) all research styled
"quantitative" has extensive "qualitative" elements. I say "almost" but
no instances come to mind based on my methodological consultation since
1972 where "quantitative" research does not have "qualitative" elements.
An interpretation of Moby Dick would be qualitative research.
Multidimensional scaling of word proximity in Moby Dick would be very
sophisticated quantitative research. [Google "digital humanities".]
Interpreting the visualization of the proximity space would be qualitative.
Dry runs of an experiment would be qualitative research.
The experiment would be quantitative research.
Debriefing respondents, interviewers, etc. would be qualitative research.
Pre-testing a survey would involve a lot of qualitative work.
The survey would be quantitative.
Having the survey team collect "lessons learned" about the process would
be qualitative research.
Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants
Robert wrote:
Quote: can someone help me to make two easy examples about quantitative and
qualitative research?
I've read the differences but it's not really clear, and thus gets
harder when i have to combine them.
Thanks a lot.
P.S.
I'm not asking what is quantitative or qualitative research, but to
produce an example for each of them. |
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| Back to top |
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| Phil Holman |
| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:12 pm |
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Guest
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"Bruce Weaver" <bweaver@lakeheadu.ca> wrote in message
news:MrWdnY8VrP2H9InVnZ2dnUVZ_g-dnZ2d@tbaytel.net...
Quote: Phil Holman wrote:
"Robert" <centro.gamma@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7e8e1d7e-50fc-469c-9305-75a9161a5853@c19g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
can someone help me to make two easy examples about quantitative and
qualitative research?
I've read the differences but it's not really clear, and thus gets
harder when i have to combine them.
Thanks a lot.
P.S.
I'm not asking what is quantitative or qualitative research, but to
produce an example for each of them.
Here's a good example; quantitative research would investigate the
proportion of questions on this ng that are homework questions.
Qualitative research would investigate how the ng regulars felt about
being asked to help with homework.
Phil H
But if the investigator produced counts for various "feeling"
categories (e.g., annoyed, unaffected, amused, etc), then what would
it be? 
Some of those feelings are orthogonal and so wouldn't fit on a number
line. How would a feeling of wanting to help combined with a feeling of
apprehension about student dishonesty be rated?
Also, with such a subjective variable, what could be inferred from the
result? Could that result be generalized to all news groups? To follow a
more qualitative tack, the investigation might also inquire why they
felt the way they do about the issue.
Phil H
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