Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Here I want to make a point about the quantitive and qualitative research methods in an interdisciplinary consideration. I was quite astounded to learn more about the methods of ethnology/cultural anthropology. I thought indeed that the aim of any kind of research is to be representative and not only representing.

It seems however that this is not the task of cultural anthropologists, at least this is the first thing students of this disciple learn in Berlin. As a believer in statistics, I thought: "How come?". The following briefing refers to quantitative and qualitative analysis and searches for applications in the economic field.

Thomas Bruesemeister (author of “Qualitative Forschung, ein Ueberblick”, 2008) describes the quantitative analysis as the one that checks if existing theories are true - it verifies or falsifies them, while the qualitative analysis discovers new theories. For new theoretical discoveries even a single case seems to suffice, while testing requires a multitude of data.

The quantitative analysis is considered to select a representative case for research, while the qualitative sampling might work with findings that exhibit odd features and thus call attention to comparisons. The population is then not set at the beginning, but can be updated through new findings.

A rather simplified statement determines quantitative research as a one that works only with known theories, indeed the pre-condition is detailed knowledge about the object of analysis. In this sense the theoretical prepositions should cover all patterns of interpretation. By contrast is qualitative analysis more flexible because it is not based on definite hypotheses - the analysts are not certain about the outcome of the research and the direction it would take.

Basing on Bruesemeister’s theory, one could consider these two kinds of research approach more of wraiths than manifestations that exists in their pure and distinct form. Perhaps economists are able to learn a lesson or two from other social sciences: at least how to be less confident about the self-explanatory power of data. 

On the other hand, Bruesemeister seems to have ignored the benefits that an unbiased quantitative research might offer in discovering coherences, which are beyond the scope of microscopic cultural analysis.