Quantitative and Qualitative Research Approaches in Social Sciences

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The main objective of this chapter is to expatiate on the necessary methodology that are relevant to this proposed topic. It minutiae the research design adopted and furthermore demonstrate how a qualitative and quantitative methodology are preferred in this study. An attempt is made to make an overview and also provide insights into the various strategies adopted for a qualitative and quantitative research in the proposed study.

The Research Design: A Quantitative and Qualitative Approach
In the field of social sciences research, there are two distinctive contending ideologies: the quantitative (or positivist) approach where research inquiries are from the "outside" and the qualitative (or naturalist) approach where research inquiries are …show more content…

Ultimately, the area of qualitative research focus on "describing a specific group in detail and to explain the pattern that exist and certainly not to discover general laws of human behavior" (Schofield, 1993: quoted from Henn et al., 2006: 178). The substantial aspect of qualitative research is that all types of research are valuable; be it quantitative or qualitative. However, the usage of the two research paradigm is subject to the value system, the researcher and the theory being used in the research (Creswell, 2007: 247). Qualitative research according to Ehigie and Ehigie (2005: 621), requires the full participation of the researcher with astute concentration in order to have deep understanding of the phenomenon at …show more content…

According to Morgan (1988), an FDG has some elements of both in-depth interviews and participant observation. About three focus groups will be required for this research in some selected locations. Each focus group shall have not less than 8 participants in each location. In this case, there shall be the moderator whom shall facilitate the focus group discussion, and the assistant whom shall take note, audio-visual, tape recorders and other minor things involved which could distract the moderator. The moderator shall therefore facilitate the interaction and discussion; and also encourage each group member to discuss about their opinion. A major advantage of using the FGD is that it helps the researcher to have in-depth understanding of what the issues is which the respondents are more predisposed to and capable of

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