Categories
Methodology Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Mixed Method

This article addresses the quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method approaches to data collection and methodology.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Qualitative research occurs when you explore.  The key idea is to explore or find out.  On the other hand, quantitative research occurs when you want to examine.  The key idea is examination.

Qualitative research will give you the opportunity to go deep into a subject and investigate what is call phenomena.  A phenomenon is a fact that appears to you upon your research.  If you open your eyes after the rain, you may see a rainbow.  This phenomenon appears in the sky.  You may need to explore this phenomenon and write your thesis about it.  So all the people who come after you can build on the phenomena you found.15

Quantitative research will give you the opportunity to collect data about something specific to reach a generalization.  For example, if you had discovered the rainbow, you may decide to collect data about it.  You may then have concluded that there is association between rain and rainbows.  The generalization, a rainbow always appears after the rain, would have been new knowledge that the study found.

In qualitative research, you may use an interview, observations, and deep digging in a fact-finding journey.  While in quantitative research you may survey, measure, and check a specific phenomenon to reach a lasting conclusion.


Mixed Method

A mixed study occurs when you want to achieve both quantitative and qualitative research simultaneously.  For example, you want to investigate the colors that appear in the sky after rain.  You may want to explore the topic first.  Then you reveal the rainbow.  After that, you want to generalize this phenomenon by conducting quantitative research.

Here’s another example: you may be wondering why students do poorly on their exams.  You may want to explore this phenomenon by interviewing students who do poorly in their exams.  During this journey, you find out they have many absences.  Now you can say that you found a pattern that students who have done poorly on their exams missed many classes.  Then you want to generalize that students who attend classes do better on their exams.  This generalization requires a quantitative research to examine and to verify that student performance is related to student attendance.   Then you can survey students in a variety of circumstances, places and situations.  The survey will check their performance and their attendance.  After that, statistical tests will be conducted to reach a conclusion that this relationship was not due to coincidence.

Categories
Conclusions Methodology Research Process

Causation vs. Correlation

So what is this causation correlation confusion?

When it rains, you get wet. When it does not rain, you do not get wet. Every time it rains, you get wet. Of course, while you are under the skies. This is causation. You can see the logic that if every time X happens, then Y has to happen. If any time X did not happen, we never see Y.

Correlation, on the other hand, is the fact that Y and X get together. It does not necessarily mean one affects the other. Rather, a third factor, such as Z influences them both. For example, you might get wet, and you might see the rainbow. These two correlate but they do not cause each other. The rain could cause both to happen, yet rain falls and then cease after some time, likewise the rainbow, it’s clearly seen in the sky after it rains.

It is important to distinguish between the causation relationship and the correlation relationship. You have to be very specific when you use this terminology because its meaning is very different.

For example, as people get jobs their happiness is raised. A research may reach this conclusion after surveying people about their work status, and their happiness level. A relationship can be measured using correlation analysis. Now, the correlation analysis may show a significant association between these two variables. Yet, we cannot claim that because people have jobs, they are happy. Even though, it makes sense that when people have a job, their happiness increases. The causation conclusion would require much work to prove, yet correlation can be sufficient to confirm your point, which says there is association between having a job and one’s happiness.

Categories
The beginning

Why a Thesis? or a dissertation?

Why do students have to do a thesis? First, it is a requirement by your program to get your degree. A thesis or a dissertation is normally an evidence that the student has accumulated an experience in conducting research. This requirement is there to provide evidence that the student can graduate. It proves that the student is capable of conducting research, identifying a problem, build a model, investigate literature, make use of available research methods, know the differences among research methods, collect data, and come up with conclusions. The thesis provides a comprehensive exercise that once the student has passed, he or she has gone through many problem solving challenges that involve knowledge building, and truth finding.

What does the thesis or dissertation try to achieve? The thesis or dissertation tries to find the truth about a topic. The researcher tries to gather all available data, information, findings, other research, and realized findings to reach a conclusion. This truth-finding mission is important to develop learning and to gain insights into a specific topic. As students proceed in the process, they gain experience and apply existing knowledge to solve a new problem, to understand new phenomena, or to provide a new interpretation of a given topic. This process is described here as a journey of finding the truth, and as you take the journey, you need to provide evidence that you have gone through the journey successfully, meaning that you can take this journey again on your own and achieve reliable results that can create new knowledge or trend in the field of study.

The important part of the dissertation objective is you. You are the key component in this study. It is important that you take the journey with the help of your adviser. You program may call your adviser as your mentor, committee chair, or supervisor. As you take the journey, you start to learn the process on how to find the truth, and you start to learn techniques that will help you next time to do it on your own.

 

In summary, the thesis is a truth-finding journey. It provides evidence that you – the student – is familiar with the different research techniques and is able to use them. The thesis is the evidence that you are a master or a doctor of a particular subject.