Choosing the right method (quantitative vs qualitative vs mixed methods)
14 important questions on Choosing the right method (quantitative vs qualitative vs mixed methods)
What is the aim of the qualitative research
- Contextualizing and understanding
- Interpret the world around us
- Understanding different perspectives
- Explaining processes
What are some assumptions:
- Reality is socially constructed
- Primacy of subject matter (emergence)
- Variables are complex, interwoven, and difficult to measure
What is the aim of quantitative research
- Measuring, classification
- Generalizability
- Impact and correlations
What are some assumptions:
- Social facts have an objective reality
- Primacy of method
- Variables can be identified and relationships measured
The questions asked with quantitative and qualitative research?
- How much, what is the difference, what is the relationship, what is the difference... Hypothesis testing
- --> researcher clearly knows what to look for
- --> deductive: begins w/ hypothesis
Qualitative:
- What, why, how
- No hypothesis
- ---> researcher roughly knows what to look for
- ---> inductive: starts w/ thick description data and ends w/ hypotheses
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A few quantitative methods
- Survey
- Scale
- Questionnaire
- Medical tests
- (observations)
A few qualitative methods
- Interview
- Focus group discussion
- observations
- diary
- Field notes
- Meeting notes
- Photo voice
- Body map
- Resource map
- Participatory video
What is the role of interpretation in qualitative and quantitative research
- Interpretation of the participants, researchers, co-researchers
- --> looking for patterns
Quantitative (measuring features)
- The ned for precise measurement
- The analysis of target concepts
- The importance of systematic..
- --> statistical models
The role of the researcher in qualitative and quantitative research
- The researcher is her own instrument
- Personal involvement and partiality
- Empathic understanding
Quantitative research (measuring features)
- Researcher uses tools to collect data
- Detachment and impartiality
- Objective portrayal
What is mixed methods research?
- Surveys and interviews
- Systematic review and survey
- Interviews and reflexive workshop
--> mostly referring to the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods
What are the purposes of mixed methods
- Triangulation
- Complementarity
- Development
- Inititation
- Expansion
What is sequential explanatory in mixed methods
First quantitative and then qualitative
Purpose: use qualitative results to assist in explaining and interpreting the findings of a quantitative study
Goal: explanatory
Advantages: straightforward, easy to implement, analyse and report
Disadvantages: time consuming
What is sequential expLORatory in mixed methods
Starts with qualitative and then quantitative Purpose: to explore a phenomenon. This strategy may also be useful when developing and testing a new instrument
Goal: exploratory or developing a questionnaire
Advantages: straightforward, easy to implement, analyse, and report
Disadvantages: time consuming
What is sequential transformative in mixed methods
What is concurrent triangulation
- Purpose: generally, both methods are used to overcome a weakness in using one methods w/ the strengths of another
- Goal: exploratory, explanatory, evaluative
- Advantages: triangulation, integration of data, stronger evidence
- Disadvantages: heavy workload, no opportunity to explore discrepancies
What are methods for accessing the sources
- Object: wellbeing of elderly
- Source: elderly
- Methods: interviews, survey, focus group
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