Explore

1 Explore – Smartphone-based Activities: Put your investigative skills to the test with these quick interactive activities. Dig deeper into key concepts and understand how they might relate to your own research project via guided website searches and online discussion questions.

2.1 Qualitative vs quantitative

Look for an article online about truth or facts in research. Based on what you find:

·    How far are (a) qualitative (b) quantitative methods suitable for your research topic?

·    What difference does it make to the methodology you use if you are looking for facts or ‘facts’?

2.2 Defining qualitative and quantitative methods

How useful is the distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods?

Search online to see how these approaches are defined.

Does your project exclude quantitative methods? Do you count any phenomena? Do you employ mixed methods?

To help you answer these questions, look at the paper below which argues that it is best to treat research methods as a continuum from which we select methods depending on our research question.

Ercikan, K., & Roth, W.-M. (2006). What Good Is Polarizing Research Into Qualitative and Quantitative? Educational Researcher, 35(5), 14–23.

2.3 A psychologist on quantitative and qualitative research

Use the internet to find researchers explaining why they used qualitative methods.

Then listen to a basic introduction to the differences between quantitative and qualitative research from a psychological perspective in the following podcast:

Research Methods: Qualitative versus Quantitative Appraoches to Gathering Evidence - Part 1

This podcast suggests project aims and researchers’ interests that make you want to do qualitative research. Which of these applies to your project?