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Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zasuch an observation by comparing it with the accident statistics, trafficoffences, and so on. In contradistinction to this ad hoc observation, we wouldfind that scientific observations have to be very closely controlled. The bestexample is to be found in experimental work in which the scientist places asubject under artificial conditions in a laboratory. In science, observation canassume many guises. One approach is to virtually become a member of a groupand to use specific criteria and dimensions for recording the day-to-dayexistence of traditional communities (participant observation). Anotherapproach is to make use of pre-tested questionnaires to determine theexpectations of economists regarding the economic climate of a country.It is important to note that the three sets of criteria — operational specificity,testability, and control— actually represent three continua. In other words, onecannot refer to an absolute category at the one extreme that can be described asscience, with an opposed separate category that would be described ascommonplace, the arts, and so on. We are dealing here with differences ofdegree that can range from the ideal type and the perfectly pure science at theone extreme, to the other extreme that is completely incidental, subjective, andad hoc. It is for this reason that one can imagine a situation where an article ina newspaper concerning a political event could well be a more meaningful andvalid version of the actual events than a scientific political analysis of the samematerial. In the same manner, it is conceivable that Picasso’s rendition of thebombardment of the Spanish civilian population at Guernica during theSpanish Civil War is a more accurate representation of the humandisorganization and suffering than a description by a historian or a sociologistcould be. Nonetheless, it is possible to indicate the relative degree ofcompliance with the spirit of science by employing these three criteria.With the aid of those parts of the different continua that we may describe asmore or less scientific, it is possible to identify the most important similaritiesand differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. Inthe following paragraphs we shall pay attention to this comparison of the twotypes of models.A COMPARISON BETWEEN QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVEAPPROACHESAgainst the background of our brief discussion of the research model, it ispossible to use the same mode of operation to arrive at a comparative analysisof the qualitative and quantitative approaches. In line with the representationsin figure 7.1 in which that which is typical of the physical sciences was placedat the extreme right of the three continua, we shall place the more quantitativeapproach on the right of the continuum in the discussion that follows, whilequalitative approaches are placed on the left.159