quantitative and qualitative methods

Name of the student:                        Mziwamadoda Pongolo

Course:                                                Development Studies Honors

Course Code:                                      Dev 511

Assignment Question:   What are the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative methods? Which one would you prefer for your research purpose?

Student Number:                              200503324

Lecturer:                                                                                              Professor Aminur Rahim

Due Date:                                                                                             09 May 2012

Introduction

In the field of scientific research there are two methods that make scientific study possible, which are qualitative and quantitative research methods. These two methods of doing research are equally important depending on the type of research a researcher wishes to undertake. This paper will give a brief background of, qualitative and quantitative methods with a special emphasis to sampling and data collection, recruitment of the people to take part in the research study, the ethical guidelines to be observed while undertaking the research study, the merits and the demerits of both, and lastly state which methods I would prefer for my research purpose which will be the conclusion for the paper.

Qualitative research background

Qualitative research is a type of a scientific research, in general terms scientific research consists of an investigation that seeks to answer to a question. Systematically it uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question by collecting evidence that will ultimately produce the findings that were not determined in advance. And these findings that are produced by scientific research are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the scientific study. Qualitative research shares these qualities however, it seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the perspectives of the local population it involves. Qualitative research is especially of use in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of a particular population. The strength of the qualitative research is its ability to provide complex textual descriptions of how people experience a given research issue. It provides information about the human side of an issue, that is, the contradictory behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions, and relationships of individuals. Qualitative methods are also effective in identifying intangible factors, such as social norms, socio-economic status, gender roles, ethnicity, and religion whose role in the research issue may not be readily apparent. Although findings from the qualitative data can often be extended to people with characteristics similar to those in the study population, gaining a rich and complex understanding of a specific social context or phenomenon typically takes precedence over eliciting data that can be generalized to other geographical areas and populations. In this sense, qualitative research differs slightly from scientific research in general. What is important at this point is the explication of qualitative research in a method that will enable the fundamental understanding of qualitative research.

There are three most common qualitative methods used in collecting data in qualitative research method namely; is participant observation which is appropriate for collecting data on naturally occurring behaviors in their usual contexts. The in-depth interviews are optimal for collecting data on individual’s personal histories, perspectives, and experiences, particularly when sensitive topics are being explored. Lastly, the focus groups are effective in eliciting data on the cultural norms of a group and in generating broad overviews of issues of concern to the cultural groups or subgroups represented. The type of data these three methods generate are field notes, audio, and sometimes video recordings, and transcripts.

Generally, qualitative method seeks to explore phenomena with an analytical objective to describe the variation, to describe and explain the relationships, to describe the individual experiences, and group norms. The format of questioning used in qualitative research is an open ended as opposed to the qualitative research method. The study design employed in qualitative method is a flexible. For example, the addition, exclusion, or wording of particular interview questions, in qualitative method participant responses affects how and which questions researchers ask next. Lastly, the study design is iterative, that is, data collection and research questions are adjusted according to what is learned.

According to Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, and Namey. (2005) ‘one advantage of qualitative methods in exploratory research is that use of open ended questions and probing gives participants the opportunity to respond in their own words, rather than forcing them to choose from fixed responses, as quantitative methods do. Open ended questions have the ability to evoke responses that are meaningful and culturally salient to the participant, unanticipated by the researcher, and rich and exploratory in nature. Another advantage of the qualitative methods is that they allow the researcher the flexibility to probe initial participant responses, that is, to ask why or how. The researcher must listen carefully to what participants say, engage with them according to their individual personalities and styles, and use probes to encourage them to elaborate on their answers (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, and Namey: 2005)’. In addition to that, with qualitative methods, the relationship between the researcher and the participant is often less formal than in quantitative research. With open ended questions, participants are free to respond in their own words, and these responses tend to be more complex than simply yes or no.

Quantitative research background

Quantitative research is a numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. It is used in a wide variety of natural and social sciences, including physics, biology, psychology, sociology, and geology (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2005).  Again, according to Bamberger (2000), quantitative research is defined as social research that employs empirical statements. Bamberger states that an empirical statement is defined as a descriptive statement about what is the case in the real world rather than what ought to be the case. Typically in quantitative methods of doing research, empirical statements are expressed in numerical terms and empirical evaluations are applied. In simple terms, quantitative research is a type of research that is explaining phenomena by collecting data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods in particular statistics. When Shepard (2002) is explaining a research problem in the context of causation, he speaks of variables that relate to causation. When we speak of variables we speak of a characteristic such as age, education, social class that is subjected to change, and it occurs in different varying degrees. According to Shepard (2002), ‘Each of these is quantitative variable, a variable that can be measured and given a numerical value. Because differences can be measured numerically, individuals, groups, objects, or events can be pinpointed at some specific point along a continuum (Shepard 2002: 42)’.  

In quantitative method we collect numerical data in explaining a particular phenomenon, therefore in order to be able to use mathematically based methods our data has to be in numerical form. Many data that do not naturally appear in quantitative form can be collected in a quantitative way by means of designing research instruments aimed specifically at converting phenomena that don’t naturally exist in quantitative form into quantitative data which could be analyzed statistically. An example to this would be attitudes and beliefs; if a researcher wants to collect data on student’s attitude to their school and their teachers. These attitudes evidently do not exist in quantitative form; however, the researcher can develop a questionnaire that asks pupil to rate a number of statements for example ‘I think school is boring’ as either agree strongly, agree, disagree, or disagree strongly and give an answer a number (e.g. 1 for disagree strongly and 4 for agree strongly).

This is to show how to collect quantitative data in phenomena like attitude and others similar to it using data collection instruments like questionnaires and tests. It is important to note that all phenomena are best studied using quantitative methods, while quantitative methods has some notably advantages it has disadvantages as well. Quantitative research is factual and very scientific; it focuses on measuring social reality and quantitative researchers view the world as reality that can be objectively determined, so rigid guides in the process of data collection and analysis are very important. Though the paper do not give much detail about quantitative research methods, however, it is essential to state that there are different types of quantitative research methods. It can be classified as survey research, correlational research, experimental research, causal-comparative research. Quantitative methods of doing research are useful for conducting audience segmentation; it is done by dividing the population into groups whose members are similar to each other and distinct from other groups. When used in this context it can serve as a follow-up step to a qualitative study to quantify results obtained in a qualitative study and to verify data obtained from qualitative study. Quantitative research method is also useful to quantify opinions, attitudes, and behaviors and find out how the whole population feels. While quantitative methods are good at answering some of the questions, there are other types of questions that are not well suited to quantitative methods.

The situation where quantitative will fail is when a researcher wants to explore a problem in depth. Quantitative research is good at providing information in breadth from a large number of units, but when a researcher wants to a problem or a concept in depth, quantitative methods are too shallow. To get really under the skin of a phenomenon, the researcher needs to go for ethnographic methods, interviews, in-depth case studies and other qualitative techniques. Furthermore, quantitative research method is well suited in testing of theories and hypotheses, but it is a challenge for the quantitative method to develop hypotheses and theories. Quantitative are also good at looking at the cause and effect (causality) while on the other hand qualitative method is more suited to looking at the meaning of particular events or circumstances.   

Sampling

In qualitative research

In qualitative research, only a sample of a population is selected for any given study, the study’s research objectives and characteristics of the study population such as size and diversity determine which and how many people to select. In simple terms, in qualitative research we assess variables, sex, marital status, and group membership are three qualitative variables often used by social scientists. The paradigm that is used by qualitative researchers is inductive paradigm, it is broad and open ended in nature, and it is sometimes called a bottom-up approach. There are three sampling methods used in qualitative research, scientists use purposive sampling, quota sampling, and snowball sampling, of course each has a different approach to the other.

In quantitative research

In quantitative research as opposed to qualitative, we measure variables, we measure various concepts. Sampling in quantitative research is done by means of survey research, by survey research we mean the systematic way of gathering information from respondents for the purpose of understanding and predicting some aspects of behavior of the population of interest. The model that is often used in quantitative method is the deductive model which confirms hypothesis and theory, it works from the general to the specific and is also called a top-down approach. The survey research in quantitative is concerned with sampling, questionnaire design, questionnaire administration, and data analysis. There are of course different types of surveys that are used in doing survey research such as, in-person interviews, telephone interviews, omnibus survey, self-administered questionnaire, and common misconceptions.

Recruitment

Recruitment in both qualitative and quantitative methods, the local principal investigator and either a qualitative or a quantitative research team members work together, in close consultation with community leaders and community members in official or unofficial authority positions to develop a plan to identify and recruit the potential participants for each site.

Ethical guidelines

Ethical guideline in doing research is of great importance in a sense; it serves as a warning to researchers to be honest and accountable. The ethical guide in doing scientific research encourages careful preparation, even if you are going to the field only for a week it is worthwhile learning about wherever it is you are going, be it contemporary politics, significant figures, revolutionaries, and so forth. It would be an ethical consciousness if for example, you are preparing for more extensive fieldwork, and then it is worthwhile delving into the past literature of the country or area. According to Potter (2006), ‘An ethical researcher should, in addition to being mindful of the standard twin goals of validity and reliability, be context sensitive, honest and up front about her/his own interests and how they face the research and the kinds of relationships s/he has with members of the researched community (Potter 2006: 28)’. Most notably in doing ethical research, thinking about ethics involves a heavy reliance on the idea of ought; what ought we to do when carrying out research or research writing.

Conclusion

However, there are basic differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods, and they differ primarily in their analytical objectives, the types of questions they pose, the types of data collection instruments they use, the form of data they produce, and the degree of flexibility built into the study design. When one looks at the merits and demerits of both qualitative and quantitative, one realizes that each methodology is complementing the other because the loop hole that are left by the quantitative method, when done simultaneously, qualitative closes them. When these methodologies are applied together one clean after the other, and therefore making it the effective combination in undertaking an empirical research study. Since I am planning to take up the question of Land Reform in South Africa as the rationale behind my study I therefore think that qualitative method would be more appropriate, however it might be possible that I integrate qualitative and quantitative methods because there would be numerical data that will be used in collecting information for the intended study.

According to Bamberger  (2000), ‘while some studies rely exclusively on quantitative methods for sampling, data collection, and data analysis, and others rely exclusively on qualitative methods, many studies mix and match statistical sampling techniques, qualitative data collection, and statistical analysis from qualitative and quantitative data collection (Bamberger 2000: 9)’. When qualitative method is used along the quantitative method the combination has a potential of consolidating the intended study, so to say, by closing the gaps and loop holes that might be when only qualitative is used. The combination of the two methods of collecting data can help us to interpret and better understand the complex reality of a given situation and the implications of quantitative data. The combination of quantitative and qualitative could create a very good and effective research study if the researcher wants to look at both breadth and depth, at both causality and meaning. Hence the concept of mixed method design, the flexible approach came into the picture; where both qualitative and quantitative share the same status.  

Bibliography

Bamberger , Michael. 2000. “Opportunities and Challenges for intergrating quantitative and qualitative Research”. In Intergrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research ed. M. Bamberger, pp. 3-26. Washington D.C.:World bank.

Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, and Namey. 2005. Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide. North Carolina: Family Health International.

Jim Shepard. 2002. Sociology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth: Thomson Learning, pp.38-59.

D. Potter, V. Desai. od. 2006. Doing Development Research, London: pp. 27-33.