Is Quantitative Literacy or Statistical Methods 1 Better to Take for Arts Pathway

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Callum Mogridge, (2019, Apr 20). A Common Student Question: Which Is Easier, Quantitative or Qualitative Research?. Psychreg on Academia. https://world wide web.psychreg.org/quantitative-or-qualitative/

Reading Fourth dimension: 4 minutes

Leading a peer mentoring scheme means that I become a constant stream of letters and emails from first- and second-year psychology students. Information technology is that time of the twelvemonth where 2nd-yr students are choosing their final-year units and planning what they want to do for their last yr research project (their dissertation).

The most mutual question I receive is: 'Which is easier, quantitative or qualitative research?' Of class, some researchers will have some biased views on this – probably based on what they are involved with themselves. Just whatsoever good researcher will know that there is no straightforward answer to this question.

I remind students that they demand to consider their enquiry question. I conceptualise it between ii questions: 'westward hat' and 'w hy'

The 'what' questions typically chronicle to a inquiry question that requires a quantitative analysis to get a view of what variables influence other variables, or even how and to what extent one variable influences other variables (note that I use influence here, merely such a question may also seek to constitute causality).

The 'why' question, in my heed, would typically require a qualitative analysis. Why are students not receptive to feedback? Why is there a spike in teenage STD contraction? These questions volition require request samples from the population you're interested in.

Of grade, every bit with most things, in that location are some exceptions to this dominion. For example, a 'what' question may require a qualitative analysis. Such as: 'How does stress at work relate to quality of life in people working dark shifts?' This inevitably means seeking out a sample of people working nights shift.

Alternatively, a 'why' question may require a quantitative analysis. But researchers tend to form these 'why' questions in the mode of a hypothesis. They may accept an initial 'why' question, but then reverberate this in an experimental hypothesis. For instance: Why a consumer behaves in a certain why or how they'd feel if a certain state of affairs were to accept identify.

A lot of students are besides concerned about the fourth dimension consumption of research for a final-year dissertation project. Information technology is of import to recognise that one arroyo (quantitative versus qualitative) is not necessarily faster than the other.

I conceptualise the time consumption of the methods equally following, and find this helps students (for quantitative, and so qualitative respectively):

data collection > data assay

information drove < data analysis

I have as well noticed something peculiar, and I believe I may take experienced this myself before getting more involved in research: statistics anxiety.

Many students are coming to me asking how hard statistics is and whether they will get lots of support from their supervisors on their 'contained' projects.

I know many electric current terminal-yr students, and second-year students, who are opting for a qualitative research project just to avoid running statistical analyses. It is credible that this reasoning for choosing a qualitative project is a wrong i, particularly the aforementioned give-and-take on choosing a method based on your research question.

A 'why' question may require a quantitative analysis.

This raises an important question: Are universities failing to engage students in Research Methods and Statistics? Unfortunately, in my ain opinion (as a student), the answer to this question is yes, yes they are.

However, there is a style to ready this. Universities need to realise that the current way of teaching Research Methods and Statistics is declining. I take had countless lectures on unlike statistical tests, which are of import, but I accept had to retain knowledge on dissimilar pieces of logic and philosophy, which is impractical. At the end of the day, the existent world of research does not crave this noesis. It requires you lot to:

1. Formulate a research question;
2. Read the literature;
3. Design an experiment (or qualitative culling);
4. Collect information;
5. Analyse that data;
6. Translate your results.

In my second-year I had a multiple choice question section of my examination, which I strongly believe was pointless on many levels. I failed this section of the exam. The 2d one-half of the examination required me to read some SPSS outputs, interpret them, and write up blueprint, results, and discussion (showtime paragraph) sections of a laboratory report.

I excelled this department of the exam. This, of grade, is far more representative of real-life research. I also wonder why students are not beingness assessed on their quantitative cognition via using software such as SPSS – this is i of the most common statistics software that researchers utilise in the real world.

Universities have a duty to teach students to decide for themselves which is nearly important.

The concern that I have hither is that Research Methods and Statistics is not being taught, nor examined, in a practical or realistic mode. Some other business I accept is that universities are giving the limelight to quantitative methodology, and non giving enough to qualitative methodology. In my first- and second-twelvemonth, I had vi lab classes that were quantitative-based and merely ii that were qualitative-based – both of which based on thematic analysis and nothing else.

This will lead students to believing that qualitative methodology is secondary to quantitative methodology. I cannot help but find the irony in this. Psychologists, with a wealth of noesis on behaviour and attitudes, are however nevertheless to develop curricula that will make the researchers of tomorrow. Universities have a duty to teach students to determine for themselves which is most important. In the instance of those lab classes I mentioned above, surely this should be a l/50 divide.

I call up academia needs to reflect about the current style in which Inquiry Methods and Statistics is taught. The discipline really must pay attending to the apparent trade-off between quantitative and qualitative methodology and the impression that information technology makes on students.

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Callum Mogridge is an undergraduate psychology student at the University of Manchester. He leads the peer support on the degree programme.

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