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Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zaThe differences between the ways in which qualitative and quantitativeresearchers conduct their observations or, stated differently, the manner inwhich they collect their data, can be reduced to two issues.In the first place, quantitative researchers are usually characterized by theirinclination to impose a system upon a phenomenon — whether this be a set ofcategories for a content analysis, a structured interview schedule, or responsecategories in a questionnaire or a psychological test. The researcher attempts totranspose a certain structure onto a phenomenon. Compared with this, thequalitative researcher’s point of view is that the phenomenon should “speak foritself” or, stated differently, that the phenomenon as it exists should revealitself and that the researcher will register it.Secondly, the qualitative researcher tends to become more involved with thephenomenon, while the quantitative researcher adopts a more distanced stance.At times the qualitative researcher is prepared to be part of that which is beingstudied. One finds examples of this in participant observation in which, forexample, the sociologist or anthropologist lives as part of the group orcommunity that is being studied. A more radical example is to be found inphenomenological investigations in which the researchers undergopsychotherapy or engage in systematic introspection with the aim ofsubsequently describing and analyzing their experiences — and thereforeobservations — from within.In a certain sense, quantitative researchers tend to study a phenomenon asoutsiders. They assume that if they were to become part of the process beinginvestigated, they would become too involved in the “object” and, therefore,view the phenomenon from a too egocentric point of view. In rather starkcontrast with the activities of the participant observer in the field of qualitativeresearch, the quantitative researcher would rather make use of a structured,objective, standardized observation technique such as Bales’s InteractionProcess Analysis. Frequently the quantitative researcher has some difficulty inaccommodating response patterns in his or her system of observation wherethese were not anticipated. In comparison, the qualitative researcher has theopenness to observe forms of behaviour as and when they occur.In summary, the differences between qualitative and quantitative approachescould be reduced to differences in structuring, control, and scope. Qualitativeapproaches are relatively more open and broader in the way in which theytackle problems than are quantitative approaches. At the same time it isimportant to emphasize the parallels and areas of overlap between these twoapproaches.EXAMPLESWe shall now, by means of two examples, discuss the differences that are163