RESEARCH DESIGN: QUALİTATİVE AND QUANTITATIVE
BUSN 364 – Week 6Özge Can
Research Activities:
Read article: “Bilim Ortamı Olmadan Bilim Olmaz” by Dogan Kuban Available at Course webpage – Reading
Materials
Read article: “Science in America: Decline and Fall” Available at Course webpage – Reading
Materials
Triangulation
Triangulation: We learn more by observing from multiple perspectives than by looking from only a single one
Improves the accuracy of the research
Triangulation
Triangulation of measures: Taking multiple measures of the same phenomena
Triangulation of observers: Multiple observers/ researchers bring a fuller picture of a phenomenon
Triangulation of theory: Using multiple theories to plan a study or interpret data. Each has certain assumpitons and concepts
Triangulation of method: Mixes the qualitative and quantitative research approaches and data. The research becomes richer and more comprehensive.
Triangulation: Examples
Research Topic: The amount of violence in popular American films
Measures: The frequency (number of killings, punches), intensity (volume and length of time screaming, amound of pain in face and body), level of explicit graphic display (showing a corpse wtih blood flowing, close-ups of injury) in films
Observers: Have five different people independently watch, evaluate and record forms and degrees of violence in a set of 10 highly popular American films
Triangulation: Examples
Theory: Compare how feminist theory, functional theory and symbolic interaction theory explain the forms, causes and societal results of violence that is in popular films
Method: Conduct a content analysis of 10 popular films As an experiment, measure the responses of experimental
subjects to violence in each film Survey attitudes toward film violence among the public Make a field observation on audience behavior during and
immediately after watching the films
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research
Research Aspect Quantitative Research
Discover ideas;Used in exploratory research with general research topics
Common Purpose Hypothesis testing;Specific research questions
Observe and interpret Focus Measure and test
Unstructures, flexible Data Collection Approach Structured, standard
Researcher highly involvedResults are subjective
Researcher Researcher uninvolvedResults are objective
Few cases, natural settings Samples Many cases, attaining generalizability
Exploratory and descriptive research
Most often used for: Descriptive and explanatory research
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Differences between qualitative and quantitative research approaches in terms of:1) Nature of data2) Assumptions of social life3) What are we trying to accomplish in
a study4) Type of “logic” and research path5) Researcher characteristics6) Type of question
1) Nature of Data
Soft data: Words, sentences,
photos, symbols
Data collection methods:
Field research, interview, natural observation, historical comparative research
Hard data: Numbers
Data collection methods:
Experiment, survey, existing statistics (secondary data), content analysis
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
2) Assumptions of Social Life
Interpretive perspective:
Use a language of “cases and contexts” and of cultural meaning
Emphasis on conducting detailed examinations of specific cases in the natural flow of social life
Positivist perspective:
Use a language of variables and hypotheses
Emphasis on precisely measuring variables and testing hypotheses
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
3) What We Want to Accomplish?
We describe details of a mechanism or process for a limites set of cases
We often generate new hypotheses (and theories) => induction
We focus on an outcome or effect that is found across many cases
We try to verify or falsify a relationship (hypothesis testing) we already have in mind => deduction
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
4) Type of “Logic” and Path of the Research
Implicit knowledge from practical activities, specific experiences, individual “judgment calls”
Nonlinear path: research proceeds a cyclical, iterative, back-and-forth pattern
Organizing, standardizing, codifying knowledge and practices into explicit rules, formal procedures techniques
Linear path: research procees in a clear, logical, step-by-step straight line
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
5) The Researcher
Emphasis on researcher’s: openness and integrity
Validation: Self-discipline and trustworthiness. Researcher takes maximum advantage of personal insights, and life pescpectives
Intimate, first-hand knowledge of a setting
Emphasis on researcher’s: neutrality and objectivity
Validation: Replication, explicit standard procedures, numerical measurement, anayzing the data with statistics (similar to natural sciences)
Objective knowledge
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
6) Questions Asked
Mostly starts with a vague or loosely defined topic. Specific topic emerges slowly during the study; it may change with new data
High flexibility: questions become clear only after we become immersed in the data
A topic is narrowed into a focused question in the very beginning before we design the study and collect data
Research questions refer to relationships among a small number of variables
Qualitative Research Quantitative Research
Research Question
Both approaches work well with some topics:
E.g. Poverty. You can study poverty by examining official
statistics, conducting a survey, doing ethnographic field research or completing a historical comparative analysis
But some topics are best suited for qualitative and others best suited for quantitative research
Research Question
Typical qualitative questions: How did a certain condition or social
situation originate? How do people, events, and conditions
sustain over time? By what processes does the situation
change, develop or end?
Typical quantitative questions: Associations, relations “Is age at marriage associated with
divorce?”
Ways to Select a Research Topic:
Personal experience, everyday life and personal values
State of knowledge in the field Social premiums; curiosity based on
media Solving a problem
How to Narrow the Topic into a Research Question:
Examine the literature Published articles are excellent sources of ideas for
research questions. They provide lots of suggestions Talk over ideas with others
Ask people who are knowledgeable about the topic; seek out others’ opinions
Apply a specific context Focus on a specific time period, society, catgeory,
subgroup or geographic unit Define the aim or desired outcome of the
study Is it an exploratory, descriptive or explanatory stdudy?
Good and Bad Research Questions
Quantitative Design: Variables Variable: Empirical measure of a concept
that can take multiple values Attributes: Categories or levels of a
variable
For Example: gender is a variable; male is an attribute marital status is a variable; married is
an attribute
Quantitative Design: Variables Independent Variable: Variable that
produces an effect or result on the dependent variable in a causal hypothesis
Dependent Variable: The effect or result variable that is caused by the independent variable
Intervening (Mediating) Variable: Comes logically or temporally after independent variable and before dependent variable; helps to show the link or mechanism between them
Quantitative Design: Hypotheses
Causal Hypothesis: Statement of a causal explanation or proposition that at least one dependent and one independent variable and yet to be empirically tested
Characteristics of causal hypotheses: At least 2 variables (dependent and independent) Expresses a cause-effect relationship Can be expressed as a prediction Logical link between hypothesis and theory Falsifiable
Quantitative Design: HypothesesLogic of Disconforming (“Falsification”): Testing for
no relationship provides more cautious support for possible existence of a relationship. Negative, disconforming evidence is more significant.
*We never prove a hypothesis; but we can disprove it!
Null Hypothesis: states that there is no significant effect
of the independent variable on the dependent.
Alternative Hypothesis: paired with the null hypothesis
stating that there is a significant effect
Potential Errors in Causal Explanation
Potential Errors in Causal Explanation
Potential Errors in Causal Explanation
Reductionism: An error in explanation in which empirical data about associations among small-scale units of analysis are greatly overgenralized
Example: Did World War I really occur because a Serbian shot an archduke in the Austria-Hungarian Empire in 1914?
Potential Errors in Causal Explanation
Spuriousness: An apparent causal relationship is illusionary due to the effect of an unseen, hidden causal factor
Example:
Potential Errors in Causal Explanation
Exam Content:
Textbook – Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 Major topics that we have covered:
Science and scientific method (week 3) How does science differ from other ways
of knowing (week 3) Theory; elements of theory (concepts
and relations), direction of theorizing (deduction and induction), causal explanations (week 4)
Exam Content:
(con’td): Three major approaches to science:
Positivist, intepretive and critical (week 4)
Five dimensions of research; major types of research (week 5)
The difference between quantitative and qualitative research approaches; research question and topic; hypotheses (week 6)
Exam Format:
Multiple choices (%50) Short essay questions based on 2-3
research cases (%50)
Exam Date:April 3, 2013 –WednesdayO 001- O 002
Example Questions
Which concept has the HIGHEST level of abstraction; i.e., it is the most abstract?
A) racial injustice
B) years of education attained
C) the size of a city’s population
D) a murder
Example Questions
A researcher needs all of the following to make a casual statement, EXCEPT:
A) temporal order.
B) elimination of alternative explanation.
C) association.
D) mathematical proof.
Example Questions
Which of the following is NOT an example of quantitative research?
A) surveys
B) content analysis
C) historical-comparative research
D) experiments
Example Questions
According to interpretative social science, human beings are:
A) beings with great potential who are trapped by illusion and exploitation.
B) self-interested and rational beings who are largely shaped by outside forces.
C) slaves full of unrealized potential who are waiting for emancipation.
D) meaning-creating beings who attempt to make sense of the world around them.
Example Questions
Which of the following is a characteristic of quantitative research design?
A) Researchers begin by developing hypotheses then they test them using empirical data.
B) Researchers ignore past research studies on their topic so that their work can be original.
C) Researchers never attempt to replicate their findings in a diverse social setting.
D) Researchers develop measurement tools during the data collection phase.
Example Questions
What is the independent variable in the following hypothesis? “Persons who experience economic deprivation during socialization will place a higher priority on economic self-interest later in life than will people who did not experience economic deprivation during socialization.”
A) later life
B) persons
C) priority of economic self-interest
D) economic deprivation
Example Questions
A recent article on the topic of gun control legislation argued that those who said they oppose gun control laws do so because they have a negative attitude towards laws controlling guns. The problem with the article is
A) ecological fallacy.
B) tautology.
C) teleology.
D) spurious statement.