SOAN 3070 Chapter Notes - Chapter week 3: The Two Cultures, Null Hypothesis, Observational Error
5 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Comparisons of the quantitative and qualitative research traditions sometimes call to mind religious metaphors. We prefer to think of the two traditions as alternative cultures. Each has its own values, beliefs, and norms. Purpose of the article: we do so from the perspective of qualitative researchers who seek to communicate with quantitative researchers. Our goal is to contrast the assumptions and practices of the two traditions toward the end of enhancing cross-tradition communication. We also believe that these scholars pursue different specific research goals, which in turn produce different norms about research practices. By starting with cases and their outcomes and then moving backward toward the causes, qualitative analysts adopt a causes-of-effects approach to explanation. Good theories must ideally explain the outcome in all the cases within the population. We can see clearly the differences between these two approaches to explanation when we consider research on a particular topic.
