Quantitative Data:

• The data can be presented in numerical form and is more objective in nature. It can be analysed and conclusions drawn are more likely to be reliable and can be repeated to see new trends over time

Qualitative Data:

• The data is more contextual, often presented in written, verbal or visual formats, and therefore open to interpretation. It offers researchers more of an insight (verstehen) into the lives of others.

Methodological views on data:

• Sociologists who adopt a positivist methodology are more likely to use methods that generate quantitative data as they are looking to establish trends and patterns of behaviour displayed by people in society

• Interpretivists are more likely to use methods that generate qualitative data that fits the purposes of their research. They look for the meanings and motivations behind the behaviour of groups and this is more likely to be found in qualitative data

Quantitative methods:

• Experiments

  • Laboratory

  • Field

• Questionnaires

  • Closed questions

• Opinion polls and surveys

• Structures Interviews

• Non-Participant structured observations

• Official statistics

• Content analysis

Uses of quantitative data:

• Reporting social trends: In the UK through Office for National Statistics. This informs social policies and budget spending

• Opinion polls: Measures social attitudes to issues such as Brexit, voting intentions, fear of crime

• Education: League tables, exam results, University entrance

• Private sector and charities: Marketing, funding projects in specific areas

Qualitative methods:

• Participant observations

• Unstructured interviews

• Questionnaires with open questions

• Personal documents

• Historical documents

• Case studies

• Ethnographic approaches

• Journals, diaries, forms of media

Uses of qualitative data:

• Understanding people’s perceptions, meanings and motivations for behaviour

• Comparing viewpoints across time and revealing changes in social attitudes

• Accessing hard-to-reach groups that are under-represented in society

• Useful in informing further research

Which is better?:

• Theoretical and methodological preference

  • Structural explanations: Quantitative data

  • Social action explanations: Qualitative data

• Quantitative data is better for large-scale research that can be repeated and measured over time

  • E.g. the census

• Qualitative data is best for gaining an insight into the lives and experiences of individuals who are often in society

• Combining methods can increase the reliability and validity of research

Methodological pluralism:

• The term that is given to the combination of methods in an attempt to increase the reliability and validity of a piece of research

• Willis’ Learning to Labour: Use of unstructured interviews, group interviews, questionnaires and observations of behaviour

• The use of open and closed questions on questionnaires to establish behaviours and find out the motivations behind those behaviours