SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Nomothetic
Sociology 101
Introduction to Sociology
Halabi
GCC
Differences Between Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Quantitative:
- Want to create variables, measure effects.
- Generalize from small sample to a larger
Qualitative:
- words, images.
- To understand a particular phenomenon (i.e. sexuality in a particular area in mtl)
Whole point to understand major narratives in a certain field.
● Data Collection:
researchers usually don’t gather their statistics, but researchers almost always gather their
qualitative data
● Type of Data: S
statistics numerical, qualitative descriptive
● Insight:
Statistics pursue generalizable insight (nomothetic); qualitative methods pursue more
particular insight (ideographic)
● Methods:
Statistics very formalized method about analyzing data (not so much on getting data);
qualitative more on getting data and less formalized about analysis
● Goal:
Statistics pursues causal explanation, qualitative focused more on understanding
Advantages of Qualitative Methods
1. Exploratory: very good at providing initial insight, building theory
2. Measurement and Concepts: able to measure complex concepts because of the
qualitative aspects of the data
● Look at complex things like culture and understand how they work in a
particular context.
3. Agency and Subjectivity: able to analyze individual actions more closely, explore
psychological states
4. Mechanisms: Good at discovering causal mechanisms
Disadvantages of Qualitative Methods
Lack formalization on how to actually analyze data
- People could possibly look at same data and arrive at different conclusions
Less replicability
- Results usually are not generalizable
- Your research may study one particular school—and you could be told it is irrelevant!
