Qualitative and Quantitative methodologies strengths and limitations

Qualitative and Quantitative methodologies strengths and limitations

There are strengths and limitations to Qualitative methodology that requires an understanding form those who may adopt an Incommensurability, Compatibility or Pragmatic paradigm. Firstly, the strengths that Qualitative methodology have is that they can play an important role of suggesting possible relationships, causes, effects and dynamic processes (Ball and Forzani (2007) and as Quantitative aspect-those of statistics are not used, but more of a descriptive, narrative style, Qualitative methodology may particular benefit the practitioner as to examine forms of knowledge that might otherwise be unavailable, thereby gaining new insight into the area of study Hammersley, (2012). There is also a time restriction to Qualitative methodology as the time required for data collection, analysis and interpretation is lengthy potentially and one where contexts, situations, events, conditions and interactions cannot be replicated to any extent nor can generalisations be made to a wider context than the one studied with any confidence (Gearing, 2004 and Kane, 2006). Finally, due to the Researcher's personal presence within the Qualitative study Issues of anonymity and confidentiality present problems when selecting findings which impacts upon the effect on the subjects of study leading to the viewpoints of both researcher and participants have to be identified and elucidated because of issues of bias (Patton, 1990) and miscommunication of the narratives used regarding validation (The word validation used in this paper is limitation methodologies and methods one that is spoken about in section ‘The narrative of the word validation as a limitation’.)

In quantitative research Gall, Gall & Borg, (2003) suggest a strength is that what is being studied is not affected by the researcher, as there is usually less involvement the Qualitative with the subject or subjects being studied leading to less bias and greater objectivity and in turn decreases the chances of people’s responses or behaviors being affected or influenced by the outside researcher (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2003). However, this has been questioned this strength, because it may be improbable that no influence at all takes place in research, regardless of the method or paradigm used (Creswell, 2003). Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) suggest that another strength of Quantitative methodologies is that has been a strong component of a great deal of published research data, and because of its ubiquity, rules, processes, templates, regulations and other guiding principles are available for researchers to use, copy, and clarify their research designs (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2003). Quantitative are touted as replicate and often the instruments created for quantitative studies are used in further research due to the rigors of creating an instrument that effectively measures a certain construct; therefore, the instruments can be used in different social or educational contexts while also being valid and reliable (Creswell, 2003). This has also been suggested by Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) some strengths of quantitative research are that it tests and validates theories that are presently constructed about how and sometimes why phenomena happen; the data collection process is fairly quick; data are precise and numerical; it allows for generality when data are drawn from fairly large random samples.