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Deconstructing the qualitative-quantitative divide in health research
Fran Baum
Department of Primary Health Care, School of Medicine, Flinders University of South Australia
Abstract
Debates about methodologies in health research have a tendency to be polarised. The past decade or so, however, has witnessed a growing acceptance of the validity of non quantitative research to understanding health. Qualitative techniques are being used more and there is now a journal devoted specifically to their use in the health field. These techniques are being used on their own and as part of research that combines methods. In a paper examining the division between qualitative and quantitative research methods Bryman (1984: 77-78) defined qualitative methods by comparison with quantitative ones:
Qualitative methodology differs in a number of ways. The sine qua non is a commitment to seeing the social world from the point of view of the actor.... There is a simultaneous expression of preference for a contextual understanding so that behaviour is to be understood in the context of meaning systems employed by a particular group or society.... Qualitative research is deemed to be much more fluid and flexible than quantitative research in that it emphasises discovering novel or unanticipated findings and the possibility of altering research plans in response to such serendipitous occurrences.
Patton (1990: 10) defines three types of qualitative data: 1. in depth, open ended interviews with individuals or groups; 2. direct observations consisting of detailed descriptions of people's activities, behaviours, actions and interactions; 3. written data, usually from documents yielding excerpts, quotations or entire passages from organisational, clinical or program records; personal diaries; official reports or publication; and open-ended written responses to questionnaire surveys (Lyn Richards has referred to such data as "snatches of conversation caught in the wind").
There are very different traditions under the heading of qualitative research including ethnography, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, co-operative inquiry and action research, to name a few. I will not be discussing the merits of these different approaches in this paper. Rather I will be concentrating on what has been a greater divide between sciences that reduce and measure phenomena related to health and those that seek to understand social and other processes.
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