POLS1009 Chap.11 Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods
Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods
This chapter covers the Week 8 research lecture, which steps back from individual designs to ask what research methods are and how to choose them. Methods are tools, some for gathering data and some for analysing it, and data can be any form of information, from documents and images to recordings and numbers.
The chapter sets qualitative research, which interprets written, spoken and visual material in depth, beside quantitative research, which works with numbers that can be compared across many cases, and explains why the course ranks neither above the other: the research question decides.
It then walks through the main ways of collecting data, starting with the boundaries every project must draw and moving through surveys, interviews and focus groups, online sources and ethnography, before turning to text analysis and statistical analysis.
The opening figure maps the five objectives that can justify mixing methods in one study, namely design, concatenation, gap-filling, triangulation and interpretation, and shows which of them depend on doing one method before the other. Practice items ask you to classify invented studies and to set collection boundaries for a project of your own.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Methods as tools for collecting and for analysing data
- 02
What counts as qualitative and as quantitative research
- 03
Why the research question decides the method
- 04
Setting boundaries before collecting data
- 05
Surveys, interviews, focus groups, online data and ethnography
- 06
Text analysis and quantitative analysis
- 07
What makes a study mixed methods
- 08
The five objectives of mixed-method research
Worked example · free
Naming the objectives of mixed-method research in five council housing projects
- 1Project 1: design. The quantitative result shapes the qualitative study by selecting its cases, so the order matters.
- 1Project 2: concatenation. The two methods address different issues of the same phenomenon, public support and official decision-making, which widens the study's breadth.
- 1Project 3: triangulation. Both methods examine the same question at the same time to corroborate each other, and neither needs to come first.
- 1Project 4: gap-filling. Both methods target the same issue, with interviews covering an alternative explanation that observational data cannot test.
- 1Project 5: interpretation. A second method is used afterwards to make sense of a result that contradicts the theory.
Key terms
- Qualitative research
- Research that gathers and analyses written, spoken or visual material by summarising and interpreting it rather than through statistics, aiming for in-depth, holistic understanding.
- Quantitative research
- Research that gathers and analyses numerical data, including numbers assigned when qualitative material is coded, so that results can be compared and generalised across cases.
- Mixed methods
- A research strategy that combines qualitative and quantitative methods in one study, with each method contributing something the other cannot.
- Triangulation
- A mixed-method objective that uses qualitative and quantitative analyses to corroborate each other's findings, usually run concurrently and in no required order.
- Ethnographic research
- A form of data collection in which the researcher enters the setting of the people studied in order to describe their lives through close, accurate observation.
Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods FAQ
Is quantitative research more scientific than qualitative research?
No. The course states that neither approach is better: each has advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative work is strong on depth, context and meaning, while quantitative work is strong on comparison and generalisation across many cases. Which one suits a project depends on what the research question asks, not on any ranking of the methods.
What is the difference between data collection and data analysis?
Collection is how information is gathered, for instance through interviews, surveys, archives or observation. Analysis is what you then do with it, such as content analysis, statistical analysis or visualisation. Keeping them apart matters because one kind of data can be analysed in different ways, and text can be interpreted qualitatively or counted quantitatively.
Does interviewing people and then analysing the transcripts count as mixed methods?
Not on its own. The Week 8 lecture explicitly excludes that pattern, because gathering interview material and then analysing it are two stages of one method. A study is mixed when a qualitative and a quantitative method each make a separate contribution, and when the purpose of each analysis has been thought through in advance.
What is the difference between concatenation and gap-filling?
Both combine methods in one study, but they divide the work differently. In concatenation the methods examine different issues connected to one phenomenon, which broadens the study. In gap-filling they examine the same issue, with one method used to investigate alternative explanations the observational data cannot measure or test.
How can a small survey represent a large population?
The lecture explains that modern random sampling allows a relatively small number of respondents to stand for a much larger population. The key is that respondents are chosen at random from that population, so that, on average, the sample reflects it. Surveys of this kind are used to capture experiences, perceptions, opinions and attitudes.
Exam move
Build a one-page comparison of qualitative and quantitative research in your own words, then test it on research questions you invent: for each, decide which approach the question calls for, which collection method you would use, and which analysis method.
For mixed methods, draw the five objectives as tiny box-and-arrow sketches from memory until you can reproduce them quickly, and for each one write a one-line study of your own that fits it. Pay special attention to the pairs students confuse, concatenation against gap-filling and design against interpretation.
Because this Week 8 material belongs to the second half of the course, include it in your revision for the end-of-semester exam, and practise writing short answers that name the method and justify it.
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