“in the Social Sciences, the Outcomes of Quantitative Research Tend to Be More Important Than the Outcomes of Qualitative Research. Provide an Argument for Why You Agree with, Disagree with or Are Undecided About This Assertion.”

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Many researchers on methodological issues differentiate between quantitative and qualitative research, but some writers see it as an important contrast, whereas others see the difference as no longer useful or even simply ‘false’ (Layder, 1993). Quantitative research can be described as a research strategy that highlights numbers and statistics in the collection and analysis of data. By contrast, qualitative research can be described as a research strategy that usually emphasises words rather than quantification in the collection and analysis of the data. (Bryman & Teevan, 2005) Figure 1 outlines the main steps in quantitative research. 1. Theory 2. Hypothesis 3. Research Design 4. Devise measures of concepts 5. Select research site(s) 6. Select research subjects/respondents 7. Administer research instruments/collect data 8. Process data 9. Analyse data 10. Findings/conclusion 11. Write up findings/conclusion. (Bryman & Teevan, 2005) p.51 There are four main distinctions of quantitative research which are; measurement, casuality, generalisation and replication. Measurement allows an explanation of refined differences between people in terms of the characteristic in question. It gives a coherent mechanism for determining such distinctions and measurement also provides the foundation for more precise estimates of the extent of the relationship between concepts when variables are broken down into further categories. There is a very strong concern in most quantitative research with explanation. When an experimental design is being engaged, the independent variable is the variable that is manipulated. There is little doubt about the direction of casual impacts. However, with cross-sectional designs of the kind used in most social survey research, there is doubt about the direction of casual influence because the

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