Qualitative Research- Exercises

Postivist or Interpretivist?

Check the items that you agree with. Think about each item carefully:

1.  I care about understanding the largest populations possible, so that I can help

the most people possible. Individual perspectives might be interesting, but not in a

crisis situation.

2.  I much prefer knowing what people feel actually works for them in their own

lives. I know that flu shots on average keep people from getting sick, but it

matters to me whether they feel that actually getting the shot is worth it.

3.  I like seeing relationships among factors and variables. That’s how I

understand the reality of a phenomenon. I would rather know clearly that X

bacteria causes Y disease than to know how Y disease makes its sufferers feel.

4.  What matters to me is how people feel and think about their experiences, not

whether these experiences are true for everyone. I believe that “bedside manner”

is as important to a patient as the doctor’s knowledge about the illness.

5.  I care a lot about people’s stories and I believe people can benefit from

learning about others’ experiences. Sure, I realize that hearing a dozen stories

about how families coped with the polio epidemic of the 1950s won’t help a

particular family deal with an avian flu epidemic, but I still value other people’s

experiences. I’d base my responses to a new crisis on their collective wisdom.

6.  I realize that in the modern world group data give us information that can

help the most people the fastest. I would truly love to have the inner experience

data, but our world doesn’t offer us the luxury to focus on that. Send me the

averages so I can calculate the probabilities of whatever I need to do to help the

most.

7.  My comfort with numbers and mathematics is clearly stronger than my

comfort with narratives and literary analysis. I trust numbers much more than I

am comfortable with words.

8.  I rely on probability studies and statistical analyses, but I am just as concerned

with how situations affect individual people. I think that every individual’s

perspective is probably similar to other peoples’ perspective, but I still think we

need to find out if that is true.

If you checked numbers 2, 4, and 5, you may be a natural qualitative researcher. If

you checked number 8, you’ll perhaps tend toward a mixed methodology.

Otherwise, you are probably a natural quantitative researcher. If you checked

everything, take a course in critical thinking, or declare yourself a Saint.