The Assumptions of Qualitative Designs

1. Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with process, rather than

outcomes or products.
2. Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning: how people make sense of
their lives, experiences, and their structures of the world.
3. The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and
analysis. Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through
inventories, questionnaires, or machines.
4. Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the
people, setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural
setting.
5. Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process,
meaning, and understanding gained through words or pictures.
6. The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds
abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.

…..Merriam, S. B. (1988). Case study research in education: A qualitative

approach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

…..Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

uantitative researchers try to recognize and isolate specific variables contained within the study
framework, seek correlation, relationships and causality, and attempt to control the
environment in which the data is collected to avoid the risk of variables, other than the one
being studied, accounting for the relationships identified.

Among the specific strengths of using quantitative methods to study social science
research problems:

 Allows for a broader study, involving a greater number of subjects, and enhancing the
generalization of the results;
 Allows for greater objectivity and accuracy of results. Generally, quantitative methods are
designed to provide summaries of data that support generalizations about the phenomenon
under study. In order to accomplish this, quantitative research usually involves few variables
and many cases, and employs prescribed procedures to ensure validity and reliability;
 Applying well established standards means that the research can be replicated, and then
analyzed and compared with similar studies;
 You can summarize vast sources of information and make comparisons across categories and
over time; and,
 Personal bias can be avoided by keeping a 'distance' from participating subjects and using
accepted computational techniques.
Babbie, Earl R. The Practice of Social Research. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage,
2010; Brians, Craig Leonard et al. Empirical Political Analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative
Research Methods.