Mending fences: Defining the domains and approaches of quantitative and qualitative research.

Abstract

In view of the increasing ubiquity of qualitative research, particularly mixed method designs, it is important to examine whether qualitative and quantitative models of research can be integrated and how this integration should take place. The recent adoption of best practices for mixed methods research by the NIH seems an opportune starting point for discussion of these questions. This article explores the notion that qualitative and quantitative research, while stemming from fundamentally different "approaches," might yet find an appropriate complementary relationship. We argue, however, that such a complementary relationship depends on an understanding of the notion of approach and an insight into the fundamentally different guiding questions and domains of these 2 research models. Holding that "good fences make good neighbors," this article explores the frontier between quantitative and qualitative research and the challenges attendant to designing and conducting mixed methods research.

Qualitative research is not a paradigm: Commentary on Jackson (2015) and Landrum and Garza (2015).

“…Jackson (2015) and Landrum and Garza (2015) argue. If accepting their premises that NOT A PARADIGM 12 quantitative and qualitative approaches are necessarily of fundamentally different kinds, and that qualitative research is a relatively coherent thing, each paper offers an interesting perspective on relevant issues.…”

“…Commentary on Jackson (2015) and Landrum and Garza (2015) …paradigmatic commitment will influence the way in which one utilizes methods of data collection and analysis [...] because there is often no one-toone correspondence between method and paradigm, there is flexibility in the purposes to which many qualitative methods can be put and the particular paradigmatic framework they can serve… (Madill & Gough, 2008, p.259) The papers by Jackson (2015) and by Landrum and Garza (2015) consider the challenges of combining quantitative and qualitative research. While Jackson focuses on understanding the resistance to qualitative research and its lack of parity with quantitative research in psychology, Landrum and Garza's starting point is the increasing ubiquity of qualitative research and of mixed method designs.…”

The relationship between psychotherapy practice and research: A mixed‐methods exploration of practitioners’ views

“…Like Hesse‐Biber (), we approach triangulation as a question of “seeing whether research findings of two studies on similar topics are in agreement” (p.457). This means, as Landrum and Garza () suggest

that together, quantitative and qualitative approaches [can be] stronger and provide more knowledge and insights about a research topic than either approach alone. While both approaches shed unique light on a particular research topic, we suggest that methodologically pluralistic researchers would be able to approach their interests in such a way as to reveal new insights that neither method nor approach could reveal alone (p.199).

…”

Improving the career resilience of a survivor of sexual abuse

“…Madill (2015) suggests that qualitative research focuses on lived experience, which stands in agreement with Walsh (2015) who states that from an epistemological stance qualitative research is interested in experiences embedded in a real-life context. Maree (2012) seem to support the above statements, and defines qualitative research as working from the assumption that there are multiple realities that are socially constructed and presented as subjective realities (facts) through narrative (Landrum & Garza, 2015).…”