Reflection Theme 3

This week I’ve been reflecting on quantitative methods versus qualitative methods and their mixture. My experience of these methods comes down from some work I’ve done in school during different projects, maybe especially during my bachelor thesis and my work at Designkontoret this summer. In my experience, and this I tried to state earlier, the combination of these methods probably is the best way to go about your research. I really like qualitative methods because you can learn so much that is otherwise overlooked in quantitative research methods. Some of the most fundamental and important insights of my studies I’ve gained through qualitative studies, like interviews and other forms of more personal approaches.

This being said, I still think it’s important to include some elements of quantitative methods into your work. This is because that it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions if you just ask 10-15 people about their habits, insights and ideas. You often don’t get thee whole picture through that method alone. The ability to enforce you qualitative findings with quantitative data is important if you want your material to be as indisputable as possible.

I can see why there is such a debate among researchers when it comes to the choice between these two methods. It isn’t an easy nut to crack. The ones in favour of qualitative methods get accused of not coming up with something that you can draw conclusions from. The ones in favour of quantitative get accused of not going deep enough into the subject, and therefore missing the point. And the ones that try to mix these methods get accused of both things.

For me alone it’s impossible to tell who is right or wrong. Maybe no one is? But the more logical answer would be that all of these people are wrong at times. I think that the question of right or wrong is most easily answered if one looks at the particular study conducted and its key points. How do you answer the key questions of you study? Which method do you use? A method is only good if it helps you prove (or disprove) your theory. And although every choice of method is and should be open to critique, (imagine the opposite!) if you have though enough about the choice and can argument well for the use of your theory, then you have done as good a choice as it is possible to make regarding theory. That is my conclusion.