What do Quantitative Researchers Want from Qualitative Research?

(or at least what does one quantitative researcher want)

Robert M. Groves

University of Michigan and

Joint Program in Survey Methodology USA

Inside the Quantitative-side of the Heads of Researchers

• An inferential population

• A target process of inquiry

• A sampling process

• A fixed measurement process

Notions of Quality from the Quantitative Side

• Variance– Conceptual realizations of the measurement

process– Includes

• Sample• Interviewers• Items used

• Bias– Systematic features of the measurement

Construct Inferential Population

Measurement

Response

Target Population

Sampling Frame

Sample

Validity

Measurement Error

Coverage

Error

Sampling

Error

Measurement Representation

Respondents

Nonresponse

ErrorEdited Data

ProcessingError

Survey Statistic

Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants?

• Flexibility of observation; surprises; measurement of the unexpected– The pre-structured nature of most quantitative

data suppresses chances of observing the unexpected

– The open question has gradually withered away from practice

– Interviewer observations are standardized

Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants? (cont’d)

• Contextual sensitivity; interpersonal behaviors– Quantitative measures often fail to capture among

person interaction– Ethnographies, especially, add cross-time

observation to the interpersonal

Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants? (cont’d)

• Trust-based measurement: Possibility of measurement of the unintended; the normally-hidden; the subconscious– When the researcher becomes a trusted group

member

• Respondent-centered: measurement of what is central to them, in their own terms– Avoiding the imposition of the researcher’s

framework

What This Could Give the Quantitative Measurement/Analysis?

• Agreement/disagreement with findings

• Alternative explanations for empirical findings

• Interaction hypotheses

• Multilevel hypotheses; context impacts

• Reaction to structured measurement