Deconstructing the qualitative-quantitative divide 1

Abstract

This chapter challenges the widely held idea that there are two methodological paradigms in social research: the quantitative and the qualitative. The chapter is to identify the various component meanings of the qualitative/quantitative distinction, particularly as used by advocates of qualitative research. It identifies seven such issues here and they are: Qualitative versus quantitative data; The investigation of natural versus artificial settings; A focus on meanings rather than behaviour; Adoption or rejection of natural science as a model; An inductive versus a deductive approach; The identification of cultural patterns as against seeking scientific laws; Idealism versus realism. It is common for quantitative method to be criticised for taking natural science as its model. It is also common for qualitative researchers to contrast their own inductive approach with the deductive, or hypothetico-deductive, method of quantitative research. The chapter also looks at some of the components of the conventional distinction between qualitative and quantitative method.