1. 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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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