First, we give a short
overview of qualitative and quantitative method and their main differences.
Qualitative and quantitative methods are two big camps in social research. The
main methods of qualitative studies include case study, mapping, etc. Qualitative
methods are used to explore facts and ask open-ended questions.
Quantitative methods are statistical
methods and experimental methods which focus on testing established hypotheses. Quantitative
methods are used to test hypotheses and ask close-ended questions.
When
designing a research, there are three key questions to
consider: Who are the main audiences? What are the major hurdles we need to overcome?
What are the key hypotheses that we need to make?
The first question mainly focuses
on the audiences’ background and the second question requires the understanding
of these audiences’ basic assumptions. Researchers from different disciplines hold
different assumptions. The third question can be answered differently regarding
to whether you are choosing qualitative or quantitative methods.
Sample question:
Generation Y Americans are
increasingly attracted to urban living and renting over suburban homes and
owning. Design a study to test the statement.
Framing the main research question:
The statement touches three levels
of the society: individual, group and environmental level. Therefore the
research question can be framed into three ways regarding to three different
kinds of audiences. As different audiences have their own assumptions, we would
state clearly the general assumption before presenting our research questions.
If the audiences are social
psychologists,
they will focus more on individuals'
personality, perception, motivation and affection. There are two basic general
assumptions. First, they mainly focus on individuals and shed away from social
environment factors. Second, there are situationist in psychology, but the
mainly mechanisms still focus on how the situation factors stimulate
individuals' different perception or biases in judgments.
The research questions they care
about may be framed as 1) compared to other generation of Americans, what are
the special personalities, perceptions, motivations or attitudes of generation
Y that make them prefer living in urban and renting over suburban homes
and owning?
If the audiences care more about
group processes, they have background in sociology and social psychology, they
care more about how generation Y as a newly emerged group change their choices
and what contextual factors influencing their decisions. The research question can
be do all the social groups that are related to generation Y have changed their
choices?
If
the audiences care more about environmental and historical change, their background
probably be history , sociology and
economics. Therefore, they care more about how the new phenomena is caused by
social, historical, or economic factors.
Framing the hypotheses:
Regarding the three level analysis,
we frame
our hypotheses in three different ways.
At
individual level, the dominate method can be experiment and individual survey.
At
the group level, the dominate method can be experiment and case study.
At
the general environment level, the dominate methods are statistical inferences,
ethnography, survey.
The
hypotheses should be framed around the methods you use.
By Kate Jue Wang
