Theory and Practice in qualitative research

Smitha Venkatesh NPSI IB Psychology HL Paper 3

Learning outcomeTo distinguish between qualitative and

quantitative data

A Revision ExerciseStatistics

CollectionOrganizationSummarizing

and graphical displays

Making inferencesHypothesis Testing

Determining Relationships

Making Predictions

Descriptive Inferential

Data and VariablesData: Value or Measurements that variables

describing an event can assume

Variables

NumericDiscrete

Continuous

Non-Numeric

Quantitative Qualitative

Variables Discrete: something that can be counted. For

eg: Number of rainy days, number of students taking psychology

Continuous: They can assume all values between any two given values. For eg: the weight you will put on or lose due to stress between now and the IB exams

Independent Variable: That can ___________Dependent Variable: That can ______________

Population= Census;

Described by parameters

Sample = Described by

Statistics

Samples• Random• Purposive sample• convenience sample

• snowball sample• Systematic Sample• Stratified etc etc

Types of

samples

How does a researcher go about it?Putting up postersHanding out surveysQuestionnairesOpinion PollsInterviewsVotesEtc etc. Of course the best way to go about it

is random sampling

What is Quantitative Data RecapThe term quantitative data is used to describe a

type of information that can be counted or expressed numerically. This type of data is often collected in experiments, manipulated and statistically analyzed. Quantitative data can be represented visually in graphs, histograms, tables and charts.

Some examples of quantitative data include exact counts ('there were 789 students who attended the rally') or a type of measurement ('it was 78 degree Fahrenheit yesterday at 2 PM').

What is Qualitative Data RecapQuantitative data can be contrasted with

qualitative data, which involves describing things in terms of categorizations or qualities.

For example favorite colour…Blue, Green or Red.

It can also mean race, gender, religion, sport.It can mean rank, or category, young, not so

young, old and really really oldYou can’t really measure the difference

between the two scales

Example of quantitative frequency distribution; No of rainy days in July: Past 24 years

10

5

10

15

20

25

Chart Title

#REF!

Nu

mb

er

of

days

Example of Qualitative Data: Blood group of X IGCSE A

A B O AB0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Series 3

How do we measure both?Quantitative QualitativeSurveysInstruments of measure,

like weighing scale, exam scores (raw and standardized)

Counting

Case StudiesSurveysLikert ScaleObservations

Descriptive StatisticsYou may use bar chartsPie ChartsFrequency distributionDot PlotsTime Series; Stem and Leaf etc etcNOTE: YOU NEED TO USE APPROPRIATE

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FOR YOUR IA

Inferential StatisticsWhat do you ‘infer’ from the data?

How confident are you that 20% of the student population has the blood group A?Your chances are better if you are taking a

random population of 25 from the school, however 25 IGCSE students will also give you all a good idea.

Rainy Days in JULY??

Bell Curve: Normal Distribution

Measures of Central TendencyMean MedianMode

Measures of VariabilityRange

Inter quartile rangeMean Absolute Deviation

The average of absolute deviation from the mean

The Variance and Standard DeviationSample Variance: approximate average of the

squared deviations from the meanSample Standard Deviation is the positive

square root of the sample variance.

Scared Enough??Don’t worry, its quite simple

Test Scores: How did you perform

Need to have different types of DataYou cannot measure everything in absolute in

life.In psychology there is no absolutes, and in

social constructs, things do change

What is asked in Paper 3Eg; Identify 3 types of Triangulation and

briefly describe how each of them maybe applied in qualitative research (2005)

Now you will be given a case study and asked to comment on it (2011)