Social phenomenathings that happen because of and through human behaviorare especially difficult to grasp with typical scientific models.
At a Glance
Psychologists rely on quantitative and quantitative research to better understand human thought and behavior.
Psychologists rely on a few methods to measure behavior, attitudes, and feelings.
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These include:
Most of these are quantitative methods.
The result is a number that can be used to assess differences between groups.
Sometimes, researchers are more interested in the “why” and the “how.”
That’s where qualitative methods come in.
Qualitative research is about speaking to people directly and hearing their words.
Thescientific methodfollows this general process.
A researcher must:
Quantitative methods are aboutmeasuringphenomena, not explaining them.
Quantitative research compares two groups of people.
Basic Assumptions
Quantitative methods assume:
In some fields, these assumptions hold true.
But when it comes to human behavior, it is not so simple.
In other words: there are no, or very few, human universals.
In other words, there are always outliers.
Correlation and Causation
A basic principle of statistics is thatcorrelationis not causation.
There is an apparent relationship, but the true cause of the difference is hidden.
But what’s missing from this picture?
As noted above, statistics do not tell us about personal, individual experiences and meanings.
While surveys can give a general idea, respondents have to choose between only a few responses.
This can make it difficult to understand the subtleties of different experiences.
They can be analyzed statistically, which can be helpful when looking for patterns and relationships.
Qualitative methods are about describing and analyzing phenomena from a human perspective.
These methods also accept that it is impossible to be completely objective in observing phenomena.
Qualitative Approaches
There are many different approaches to qualitative research, with their own philosophical bases.
Different approaches are best for different kinds of projects.
There is not a single model or method that can be used for every qualitative project.
They have different philosophies, different data, and different outputs.
However, this could not be further from the truth.
These two general methods complement each other.
By using both, researchers can gain a fuller, more comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon.
Summary
Qualitative and quantitative methods both play an important role in psychology.
By using both strategies, psychology researchers can learn more about human thought and behavior.
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