QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative Research

Quantitative research is research using methods allowing for the measurement of variables within a collection of people or groups and resulting in numerical data subjected to statistical analysis.

By its very nature quantitative research is a form of positivism.

Strategies in Qualitative and Quantitative Research - Harald Witt
Conducting qualitative and quantitative research does not merely involve different methods for data collection and analysis; an even more fundamental difference concerns the research strategies used. Differences in this respect are so considerable that communication about research strategies between "quantitative" and "qualitative" researchers is beset with difficulties—even among "qualitative" researchers. This contribution is an attempt to pinpoint the most important differences. Qualitative research is exemplified by the approach put forward by KLEINING (1982; 1995). KLEINING has stressed the importance of the heuristic moment in qualitative research; he assumes that all research methods are based on everyday methods, and he has advanced four rules for conducting qualitative research. The ideas of this concept are described in an article in this volume of FQS. Especially the four rules are discussed in more detail (KLEINING & WITT in this issue).
The research strategy resulting on this basis can be described as circular; it will be contrasted with the linear strategy used in quantitative research.

Seeing Our Quantitative Counterparts: Construction of Qualitative Research in a Roundtable Discussion - Jean A. Saludadez & Primo G. Garcia
Abstract: The research relationship between qualitative and quantitative researchers is influenced by their constructions of one another's research approaches. While we, as qualitative researchers, have our own construction of quantitative research we seldom get quantitative people's construction of qualitative research. In this paper, we present our quantitative counterpart's construction of qualitative research in the form of themes we derived collaboratively from a small roundtable discussion on the use of the qualitative approach for research management studies. We define 'construction' as the meaning structure shared by the participants on the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research. This exercise has implications for our presentation of qualitative research as a complementary research approach to quantitative research and on our on-going construction of the quantitative-qualitative research relationship.

Discovery as Basic Methodology of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Gerhard Kleining & Harald Witt
Abstract: The paper argues 1. that methodologies of qualitative research in psychology and the social sciences should be directed toward discoveries rather than reflexive interpretations. It gives a critical account of hermeneutics and the "interpretative paradigm" pointing to three drawbacks: inherent subjectivity of interpretations, restriction to Geisteswissenschaft or the qualitative form of data and a recent tendency of dissolution of rules in what is said to be a crisis of qualitative research (DENZIN & LINCOLN 1994, pp.577f.). (2.) A number of classical studies in psychology and sociology show that problems associated with hermeneutics can be overcome using discovery or explorative research strategies. (3.) The authors present the Hamburg qualitative heuristic methodology which is in line with various classical studies but makes its methodological decisions explicit. It describes four basic rules of data collection and data analysis, the process of heuristic research and verification of its results. (4.) It gives an example of explorative research with qualitative data using the methods of the qualitative experiment and group-controlled "dialogic" introspection and evaluates these techniques. (5.) It shows how quantitative data can be handled in an explorative approach. An example is the exploration of the present structure of German society. (6.) It claims that there is no inherent relationship between the form of the data—qualitative or quantitative—and a certain research methodology—heuristic, deductive, hermeneutic—though heuristic research in psychology and the social sciences can be handled more easily with qualitative data as they carry meaning. (7.- 8.) After a look at discovering methods in the natural sciences the authors conclude that discoveries should be a basic guideline for psychological and social research in general, which could bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and establish a new relationship toward the natural sciences which owe their success mainly to the development of their explorative capacities.

Sociological Explanations between Micro and Macro and the Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods - Udo Kelle
Abstract: Despite the ongoing "war" between methodological camps this paper will argue for an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in the sociological research process. For this purpose a short overview about important methodological discussions addressing basic questions of mixed (qualitative and quantitative) method designs will be given focusing on the term "triangulation" which is seen by many authors as a central concept for method integration. However, this notion carries systematic ambiguities, at least when transferred to the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods—triangulation does not represent a single integrated methodological concept but a metaphor with a broad semantic field. Three different understandings of the triangulation metaphor will be discussed: Triangulation as mutual validation, triangulation as the integration of different perspectives on the investigated phenomenon and triangulation in its original trigonometrical meaning. These understandings of triangulation will be contrasted with examples from sociological life-course research projects which combined qualitative and quantitative panels in order to answer certain research questions. The examples clearly demonstrate that each of the three understandings may have a value by showing different possibilities for relating qualitative and quantitative results in one research project to each other. However, none of these three concepts may serve as a general methodological model for the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods.
In the final section of the paper it will be argued that the most crucial problem of the methodological discussions surrounding mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) designs is that epistemological and methodological concepts are not sufficiently linked to theoretical considerations about the nature of the investigated social structures and social processes. In its concluding section the paper will briefly outline some ways that the already-discussed examples from sociological life course research as well as the discussions about triangulation could be integrated into a more general theoretical framework. The focus of these considerations will lie on the distinction between the micro- and macro-level of sociological description and on current discussions about individualisation processes in modernising societies. Thereby it will be shown that an understanding of triangulation in its original trigonometrical sense (although it cannot be considered as a methodological model suitable for all aspects of method integration) may be helpful in gaining a deeper insight into theoretical aspects of method integration in sociology. - qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01kelle-e.htm

Combination and Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis - Philipp Mayring
Abstract: In this paper, I am going to outline ways of combining qualitative and quantitative steps of analysis on five levels. On the technical level, programs for the computer-aided analysis of qualitative data offer various combinations. Where the data are concerned, the employment of categories (for instance by using qualitative content analysis) allows for combining qualitative and quantitative forms of data analysis. On the individual level, the creation of types and the inductive generalisation of cases allow for proceeding from individual case material to quantitative generalisations. As for research design, different models can be distinguished (preliminary study, generalisation, elaboration, triangulation) which combine qualitative and quantitative steps of analysis. Where the logic of research is concerned, it can be shown that an extended process model which combined qualitative and quantitative research can be appropriate and thus lead to an integration of the two approaches. - qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01mayring-e.htm

Processing Raw Data both the Qualitative and Quantitative Way - Dietmar Janetzko
Abstract: Representations and changes between them play a major role in education (e.g., HEWSON, BEETH & THORLEY 1998), problem solving (e.g., BAUER & REISER 1990), cognitive development (e.g., VOSNIADOU & BREWER 1992), processing of metaphors (e.g., INDURKHYA 1992) and the history of science (e.g., KUHN 1970). Change of representations (also called conceptual change) is amenable to both qualitative and quantitative analyses: either the degree of correspondence between some activities under study (quantitative aspect) and a hypothesized representation representation per se (qualitative aspect) can be the focus of investigations. This articles presents and discusses and knowledge tracking (KT), viz., an approach to analyze changes of representation on the basis of symbolic sequential data. KT allows the researcher to fully investigate both aspects of changes of representation. A web-site is described that provides free usage of the knowledge tracking engine (KTE), which is a tool for analyzing data according to knowledge tracking. The article concludes with a comparison between knowledge tracking and other approaches that rely on network representations of cognition. - qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01janetzko-e.htm

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