This week’s theme was all about quantitative research, which we investigated by reading articles that used these methods in different ways. First off, defining what quantitative research is was a little more complex than I’ve always thought (as with most terms discussed so far in this course, so nothing new there), even though it’s generally simple to actually recognize when the method is used. The definition that was agreed upon was that it’s a method where the acquired data can be calculated on in order to find correlations among a group of subjects. It often includes numbers, as in how many has this or that opinion, how many percent, how often etc. I also added that it can be used to generalize something relatively fast.
During the seminar we had a relatively heated discussion about what was best, quantitative or qualitative research. I argued that it was best to combine both, for example to begin with quantitative methods in order to gather lots of general data, and then use qualitative methods to selectively gather more details. This opinion was somewhat questioned as it would count as two different researches, so it’s not really a combination, but I stand firm on that opinion. Furthermore, we also discovered that a quantitative approach was more popular among us because it’s a very “engineery” approach, where easy answers to easy questions is often desired (it even had a term - “scientism”!). Qualitative research leans more towards the social science spectra, where it’s interesting to discover more about how people think psychologically.
Then we were introduced to the term “wicked problem”, which is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete or contradictory data, or when too many variables influence the answers. This is something that might arise when using quantitative methods, so one has to be careful when setting up the research. For example, it would be a bad idea to ask “How would you go about designing a smartphone?” in a quantitative way, since there are a lot of answers to this question, which would make it difficult to calculate the data.
To summarize; I think this theme was interesting, but no new groundbreaking knowledge was acquired, as we have come upon quantitative research many times before. However, I haven’t discussed it as critically as we did now, and it was interesting to see how other people saw it. Reading the articles was a great way to see how quantitative research can be conducted in different ways, which is definitely something to remember for future references.
Hi Ellinor,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on that a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will give you the breadth in order to be able to generalize the results, as well as the depth in order to understand in detail why people do/think/feel the way they do. As you probably discussed, it might be considered as two separate studies. I think that, for a bachelor or master student it might be too time consuming to do both methods in the thesis, as we don't have so much time. I, for one, had only six weeks to prepare, conduct and write my study and thesis. But if the resources are available, I think this is the way to go. Good reflection!
hi,
ReplyDeleteyou have a point there. i also think that combining quantitative and qualitative would be best since you have more back up for your conclusions. however i think it also depends on what type of topic you do. and also big thing.. it depends on budget. say if you want to know how popular twitter is among students. only survey might be enough. and you wouldn't want it to consume too much time plus why spending more budget if you already have enough data to conclude. anyways it is an interesting debate that can go on for a while in group discussion. nice work. i enjoy reading keep it up :)
Hello there!
ReplyDeleteOverall, insightful reflections about this week’s theme!
First off, I have to concur that quantitative methods did not turn out to be as easily defined or determined as initially believed. I too had a feeling beforehand what was which but when actually trying to make a distinction, where the line goes, it was pretty blurry. Even though, as you to claim, you can often sense what method is dominant in any research, I feel that there is almost always occurring elements from the other one as well. Thus it seems fairly rare that a research is purely one or the other.
The "wicked problem" is an interesting one which we also discussed during our seminar. It is a problem that we as engineers can find slightly disturbing since it is hard to get a clear and representative answer from it.
Hi Elinor,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that combining qualitative and quantitative methods as you explained makes the most sense when one want to research a field completely. In a practical view I think it makes sense to start with the quantitative method to stop further research once the pre-staged quantitative research shows no significant results, which would enable an in-depth qualitative research. It can be said that a quantitative method narrows down a certain field and getting the quintessence out of this, without researching the quintessence. Is this reasonable?
Hi~
ReplyDeleteClear structure of your reflection is really impressive. I agree with your arguing that combining two forms of research is the best, because they are specific in different fields. I found wicked problems also be discussed in your group, your example is understandable to explain the key point of quantitative research. Good job!
Hi Ellinor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for a interesting blog post. I totally agree with you in the reasoning that the best way of using quantitative and qualitative method is to combining them (first quantitative then qualitative) to get data in several levels to analyze. I like that you write about wicked problems which was a new expression for me until the seminar and I think it is a very interesting expression that is worth to learn more about and also to discuss more. Finally I just want to add the importance of how researcher uses questionnaires, and that affect the participants perceive of the research. Good job Ellinor.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI think your discussion about if quantitative or qualitative research is the best. And I agree with you that a mixture sounds like the best idea when it has the opportunity to give us in depth opinions/knowledge of a generelized result from the quantitative methods. If the quantitative methods gives us a result we can often only speculate in why we got it. If we then have more indepth data we can use that when trying to construct theory. However sometimes the participants might not be able to contribute with this kind of data. Something we always have to have in mind when designing a research is if the participants can actually answer our questions. As in the case “How would you go about designing a smartphone?" we will only get their opinion which might not lead to new insights of how to actually do it because of that they don't have the competence needed to contribute to the desiging of new smartphones.
Hello Elinor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insightful blog post !
As most of us probably do, I agree with the fact that a mix of quantitative and qualitative is often much more powerful than just one or the other. Indeed, it becomes difficult to clearly draw the line between them, and eventually what we do in order to serve our research often just blurs the line we try to draw.
We also talked about the "wicked problems" in our seminar, and I found that very interesting. Indeed, as we have been formatted to like clear and well cut answers, the problem that too many variables influence the outcome makes us wary - and that's why such a problem becomes hard for us to face. In that sense, it becomes necessary to frame the issue better - as we have learned in our 6th theme, design research :-)
Keep up the great work !
Hi!
ReplyDeleteFirst of, your reflection is really easy to read and very informative at the same time giving me a good picture of your thoughts on the weeks theme! You start of by saying that this theme was all about quantitative research. But I felt that it was a bit of a mixture with qualitative as well. Partly because of the pre post question on advantages and disadvantages of qualitative methods but also since the method was brought and discussed about during my seminar.
It is interesting that you bring up Wicked problems. We did not discuss this during our seminar so it was really interesting learning more about it from your reflection! Thank you for that.
Keep it up!!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteVery nice to read your reflection this week. I agree on combining quantitative and qualitative, it's really difficult to put one over the other without knowing the context or what we are investigating. Is quantitative research really more for engineers when you think about our subject media technology? A lot of what we study and work with is how people interact with technology and media, and that might be studied qualitatively.
I think it's interesting that you can't really draw any definitive lines what's a qualitative or quantitative study since it really comes down to what you study.
Keep up the good work! I like that you explained "wicked problems".
Hello!
ReplyDeleteAs always, an excellent reflection that is easy to understand.
I do not think there is an answer to the question: which method is the best, qualitative or quantitative? Just like you are saying, quantitative methods works for simpler questions that needs a simple answer. Qualitative methods are used for the 'wicked problems' that are more complex and can not possibly be answered with yes or no. Quantitative and qualitative are just different methods and are both very good in their respective area.
Hi Ellinor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your funny blog post!
I agree on that combining the two methods can lead to stronger theory. However it depends on the context and what the research is about. I agree on what you say about engineers’ way of looking on quantitative methods, they/we can somethimes have difficulties when analysing problems with more than one answer. I find quantitative method easier to conduct and this could be a result of that we are not taught how to conduct qualitative methods.