Transcript Hypothesis & Research Questions Understanding Differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches We have identified three major approaches to research • Exploratory/qualitative • Descriptive • Explanatory/quantitative.

Hypothesis & Research
Questions
Understanding Differences
between qualitative and
quantitative approaches
We have identified three major
approaches to research
• Exploratory/qualitative
• Descriptive
• Explanatory/quantitative
Two of these approaches are considered distinct
paradigms. (Paradigms are models or worldviews)
• Qualitative (inductive method; incorporates
values and perspectives of both
researcher and participants).
• Quantitative (deductive – reasoning from
general theories to specific instances.
Researchers are supposed to be
objective.)
Quantitative or explanatory studies focus on
casual relationships and
• Have at least two variables
• Is used to prove or disprove whether there
is a causal relationship between two
variables.
• Can be expressed as a prediction or an
expected future outcome.
• Is logically linked to a research question or
theory.
Hypothesis are used to state the
relationship between two variables and
may be stated as
• Null hypotheses (no relationship between two
variables).
• Nondirectional hypotheses (we don’t know or
won’t speculate about the direction of the
relationship between two variables).
• Directional hypotheses. We state the direction of
the relationship between two variables.
Relationships specify:
• How the value of one variable changes in
relation to another.
• May be either positive, negative, or the two
variables may not have any relationship to one
another.
• Are not necessarily correlations. The type of
relationship or association among variables
is determined by the level of measurement of
each of the two variables.
Examples of relationship type:
Negative
Positive
None
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Examples of hypothesis type:
• Null: There will be no difference in scores on
Hudson’s self-esteem scale between men and
women.
• Directional: Women will have higher scores than
men on Hudson’s self-esteem scale.
• Nondirectional: There will be a difference by
gender in Hudson’s self-esteem scale scores.
In descriptive studies, we:
• Can specify one or more variables.
• We don’t know enough to specify the direction of
the relationship among the variables.
• We may simply wish to describe who
participants in a study and how they act, believe,
perceive the world, or look.
• We use a research question rather than a
hypothesis.
Examples of research questions
for descriptive studies are:
• What percentage of participants in this study are
women?
• What is the clients’ degree of satisfaction with
the services provided by the Fresno Social
Service Agency?
• Do men or women score higher on the graduate
record exam?
• What percentage of people living in Census
Track 200 have incomes below the poverty line?
• What candidate are California voters most likely
to support for president?
Qualitative research:
• Involves interpretation of a situation, set of
behaviors, or a setting.
• Analysis must take place within a context –
different findings may accrue in different settings
or situations.
• Different researchers may view the same
situation and obtain different results.
• Assumes there is no one right or wrong answer.
• Comes from a particular set of assumptions or
theories about how research should take place.
For example, most qualitative research assumes that
traditional research excludes the perceptions of most social
groups. The most common types of qualitative research
include:
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Feminist
Ethnomethodology
Grounded theory/Social constructionism
Critical theory
For example, assumptions/theory
associated with feminist research are:
• Advocacy of feminist values.
• Rejections of theories developed by traditional
(white,male) researchers.
• Rejection of sexism in assumptions, concepts, and
research questions.
• Creation of a personal relationship between the
researcher and participants.
• Sensitivity to how gender and power relationships affect
all social life.
• Incorporates both the researcher’s and participants
feelings and perceptions.
• Action-oriented or applied research. For example: the
purpose of a feminist research study is to reduce sexism.
Research questions in qualitative
research:
• Usually focus on one concept or idea.
• Generally don’t make comparisons among
groups.
• Can be based on hunches or personal
experience.
• Usually pertain to the actions or
perceptions of participants.
Examples of qualitative research questions
are:
• How do members of the Hmong
community experience grief?
• How do Latinos in rural communities
perceive their ability to obtain public social
services?
• How do Vietnamese women view
domestic violence?
• Why do teenagers join street gains?
Another way to tell if research questions are
quantitative, qualitative, or descriptive is:
• Quantitative research focuses on causal
relationships and their impact (outcomes).
They also answer “what” questions.
• Descriptive research answers “what” and
“who” questions.
• Qualitative research answers “how” and
“why” questions or process.
Ways to select research topics:
• Personal experience.
• Whether you want to evaluate the effectiveness of an
intervention or understand how or why it works
• Curiosity about something in the media.
• State of knowledge in the field
• Solving a problem.
• Hot topics under discussion
• Personal values
• Everyday life.
• Gaps in the research and theoretical literature.
Techniques for narrowing a
topic:
• Examine the literature. You can repeat a
previous study, explore unexpected findings
from previous studies. Follow author
suggestions for future research, extend a theory
to a new topic.
• Talk over ideas with others.
• Apply research to a specific demographic group.
• Define the aim or desired outcome of the study.
Additional differences between quantitative
and qualitative research.
Quantitative
Qualitative
Tests hypotheses
Research questions; Discovers meaning once the
researcher becomes immersed in data.
Concepts are in the form of
measurable variables
Concepts are often only measurable in that they
are ideas that can be substantiated by observation
or interviews
Measures are created before data
collection and are standardized
Measures are created in an ad hoc manner and
are often specific to the setting or the researcher.
Data are in the form of numbers
from precise measurement
Data are in the form of words and images from
documents, observations, and transcripts.
Procedures are standard. It’s
assumed that the study will be
repeated.
Research procedures are specific to the setting or
participants and probably can not be replicated.
Analysis uses statistics, tables,
and charts and discusses how
what they show relates to the
hypothesis.
Analysis involves extracting themes from evidence
and organizing data into themes and categories to
present a coherent, consistent picture.