What do Quantitative Researchers Want from Qualitative Research What do Quantitative Researchers Want from Qualitative Research? (or at least what does one quantitative researcher want) Robert M. Groves University of Michigan and Joint Program in Survey Methodology USA

Inside the Quantitative-side of the Heads of Researchers An inferential population A target process of inquiry A sampling process A fixed measurement process

Notions of Quality from the Quantitative Side Variance Conceptual realizations of the measurement process Includes Sample Interviewers Items used Bias Systematic features of the measurement

Inferential Population Construct Representation Measurement Inferential Population Construct Validity Target Population Coverage Error Measurement Sampling Frame Measurement Error Sampling Error Response Sample Processing Error Nonresponse Error Edited Data Respondents Survey Statistic

Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants? Flexibility of observation; surprises; measurement of the unexpected The pre-structured nature of most quantitative data suppresses chances of observing the unexpected The open question has gradually withered away from practice Interviewer observations are standardized

Contextual sensitivity; interpersonal behaviors Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants? (cont’d) Contextual sensitivity; interpersonal behaviors Quantitative measures often fail to capture among person interaction Ethnographies, especially, add cross-time observation to the interpersonal

Given this, What’s Missing that the Quantitative Side of the Brain Wants? (cont’d) Trust-based measurement: Possibility of measurement of the unintended; the normally-hidden; the subconscious When the researcher becomes a trusted group member Respondent-centered: measurement of what is central to them, in their own terms Avoiding the imposition of the researcher’s framework

What This Could Give the Quantitative Measurement/Analysis? Agreement/disagreement with findings Alternative explanations for empirical findings Interaction hypotheses Multilevel hypotheses; context impacts Reaction to structured measurement