COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS
A+ GRADED
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS - ANSWER ✔ + Experiments as a
quantitative method
(a) The quasi-experimental design or field experiments
+ Surveys as a quantitative method
Characteristics of qualitative research - ANSWER ✔ collect data in the field at
the site where participants experience the issue or problem under scrutiny.
collect data through examining documents, observing
behaviour and interviewing participants.
In process, the researchers keep a focus on learning
the significance that the participants attach to the problem or issue, not the
meaning that the researchers bring to the research or writers to the literature.
is a form of inquiry in which researchers make an analysis
of what they see, hear and understand.
researchers attempt to develop a complex and holistic view of
social phenomena (De Vos et al, 2011:65)
characterised by participatory research where the researcher plays an active role in
the collection, analysis and interpretation
of data (Schoeman, 2011:13).
Characteristics of quantitative research - ANSWER ✔ used to answer questions
about relationships among variables with the purpose of explaining, predicting and
controlling
phenomena. The purpose is to create, confirm or validate relationships and to
develop generalisations.
Pre-arranged guidelines exist for conducting quantitative research. Concepts,
variables, hypotheses and methods of measurement tend to be defined before the
study begins and remain the same throughout.
A quantitative study usually ends with confirmation or disconfirmation of the
hypotheses that were tested.
, researchers attempt to rely more deeply on deductive reasoning (moving from the
general to the specific), beginning with certain premises (eg, hypotheses, theories)
and then drawing logical conclusions from them.
regarded as the structured approach because everything that forms the research
process - objectives, design, sample and
measuring instruments - is predetermined (De Vos et al, 2011:64).
summarise the differences between the two research approaches by giving your
own examples to illustrate the diversity. - ANSWER ✔ Qualitative research is
characterised by words, sentences, impressions and symbols, while quantitative
data is expressed in numbers. The following examples illustrate the basic
difference between the two types of research: During qualitative research the
researcher wants to investigate the modus operandi of the rapist, focusing on the
motive for the crime, criminological
circumstances (for example, time of the crime, location of the crime, role of the
victim, etc). During quantitative research the researcher wants to determine how
many murders took place in Cape Town over the period, for example, January
2011 to December 2011.
BASIC APPROACHES TO RESEARCH - ANSWER ✔ Qualitative research
Quantitative research,
Qualitative research - ANSWER ✔ entails that "generic research approach in
social research
according to which the research takes as its departure point the insider perspective
on social action" (Barbie & Mouton, 2001:270). Qualitative data are usually in the
form of words, for example a description of the feelings and experiences of a
number of prisoners in detention (Ladikos, 2009:159).
Quantitative research - ANSWER ✔ entails "precisely measuring variables and
testing hypotheses that are linked to general causal explanations" (Neuman,
2000:122). Quantitative research is characterised by numeric data, for example
official crime statistics (Ladikos, 2009:159).
Give you own example of a field experiment in Criminology. - ANSWER ✔
Experiments do not always have to be in a laboratory. In fact, many experiments
are conducted out in the real world (field experiments). One recent innovative field
experiment was conducted by Pager (2007) to determine the effects of