Quantitative Methods vs Qualitative Methods - Sociology - Becoming a Sociologist (Seminar 9)

Module: Becoming a Sociologist


Seminar 9 – Quantitative Methods vs Qualitative Methods


Outline for today’s class
 Look at the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods
 Short PowerPoint presentation on quantitative methods
 Take the quiz on this week’s Moodle session
 Compare the survey to the 1993 survey


Online test: you will be tested on the differences between quantitative and qualitative
methods.


Quantitative Methods:
 Deals with numbers – in social surveys, if you tick yes/no, that answer will be
recorded as a number.

 What can you do with the numbers? Turn them into percentages

 Tends to take the position of the researcher – you are telling the participants
what the questions are and the responses they can select from. Participants
respond the way the researchers want them to respond.

 You are in charge of the research

 Good at testing theories. Example: testing the gender variations

 Tendency to be static – can find out how people are feeling at that very
moment.

 Structured – follow sequences through the process. Very fixed.

 Generalisation – finds out what do most people think about this

 About statistics, hard data, mathematically based.

 Reliable – consistent patterns

 Tends to be macro – you get an overview of the big picture. Dealing with a
large sample.

,  Interested in behaviour – example: if a vaccine was available tomorrow, would
you take it?

 Tends to take place in artificial settings


Qualitative methods:
 All about words

 Focus groups

 Participants can respond in any way they want

 Researcher is much closer to the participant – there is a dialogue between
them. There is social interaction.

 About generating theories and explanations

 Tend to be much more involved in process – to find out how things alter after
time.

 Unstructured – much more flexible and open; tends to develop as it goes
along.

 Tends to focus on the context much more – how does it vary by the context,
looks at the social location they’re in, tries to understand peoples’ opinions
and beliefs.

 Not too much concerned about reliability. You are after the richness and depth
of the data, to look for new insights. Not interested in percentages.

 Micro – conducted in much more smaller groups

 All about meaning – detailed discussion

 Natural setting – the researcher goes to where the action is to observe what is
going on.




Quantitative and Qualitative Methods – PowerPoint presentation

Introduction