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Quantitative And Qualitative Research Methods

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In this paper, I will outline quantitative and qualitative research methods and provide illustrations in the context of some social issues, which will hopefully offer insight into how each method is properly applied.

Social issues around the world are very broad and diverse. They are usually made up of issues or concerns which directly or indirectly affect a person or a certain group of a society and are considered to be problems, controversies or both and are related to moral values, therefore their immediate social environment may become vulnerable in some respect which may also effect several individuals environment and in turn society.

Quantitative research uses an empirical reasoning also known as the top down approach starting
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The census utilizes statistics; which are any function of a number of random variables, usually identically dispersed that will be used to estimate a population parameter (Collins online dictionary, 2012). One useful statistic in social research is the Chi Square, as Faherty (2008. p 149) describes the Chi square test is always non parametric since it uses nominal level data, or ordinal data treated as nominal level in both dependent and independent variables.
One example of this was a study that was completed in Oregon relating to how African American adolescents viewed the variable – respect, particularly as it was experienced by them from others. The research involved 200 African American males ranging between 14 and 18 years. Of the 200 African American males, 100 of them were incarcerated while the other 100 were not incarcerated but had connection with a community youth development program. Researchers administered the 20-item African American Respect Scale (AARS) a standardized scale and a 45-item Scale of Racial Socialization – Adolescent Version to all participants. This 45 items scale was used to assess the level of racial socialization the participants had received. Of the variables, four measured by these two instruments were: societal respect, family respect, peer respect, and racial socialization. A correlation analysis is the measure of connotation between variables, and this
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