STRATEGIES OF RESEARCH DESIGNthan male social researchers adopt the qualitative
approach.^2
A third difference between qualitative and
quantitative research lies in what we try to accom-
plish in a study. “The heart of good work”—
whether it is quantitative or qualitative—“is a
puzzle and an idea” (Abbott, 2003:xi). In all stud-
ies, we try to solve a puzzle or answer a question,
but depending on the approach, we do this in dif-
ferent ways. In the heat wave study that opened this
chapter, Klinenberg (2002) asked why so many
people died. But he also asked how they died, and
why some categories of people were greatly affected
but others were not. In a quantitative study, we
usually try to verify or falsify a relationship or
hypothesis we already have in mind. We focus on
an outcome or effect found across numerous cases.
The test of a hypothesis may be more than a simple
true or false answer; frequently it includes learning
that a hypothesis is true for some cases or under
certain conditions but not others. In the heat wave
study, Klinenberg asked whether a person’s social
class influenced an outcome: being likely to die
during the heat wave. Using quantitative data,
he tested the relationship between class and death
rate by comparing the social class of the roughly
700 who died with thousands who did not.
In many qualitative studies, we often generate
new hypotheses and describe details of the causal
mechanism or process for a narrow set of cases.
Returning to the heat wave study, Klinenberg (2002)
tested existing hypotheses about class and death
rates. He also developed several new hypotheses as
he looked closely into the mechanism that causedEXAMPLE BOX 1
A Multimethod StudyLee and Bean (2007) mixed quantitative and qualita-
tive research approaches in a study of multiracial iden-
tity in the United States. They observed that social
diversity has increased because of growing immigra-
tion since 1970, and for the first time in 2000, the
United States census offered the option of classifying
oneself as multiracial. The new diversity contrasts to
the long history of single-race categories and a dom-
inant White-Black dichotomous racial division. Lee and
Bean asked whether multiracial people feel free or
highly constrained when they pick a single racial-
ethnic or multiracial identity. They also asked whether
selecting a multiracial category on the census form is
a symbolic action or a reflection of a person’s multi-
racial daily existence. In the quantitative part of the
study, the authors statistically analyzed 2000 census
data on the numbers and mixes of people who classi-
fied themselves as multiracial. In the qualitative part
of the study, they conducted forty-six in-depth semi-
structured interviews with multiracial adults from
northern and southern California. In the interviews,
Lee and Bean asked how and why a person chose to
identify herself or himself as she or he did, whether
that identity changed over time or by context, and
about language use and other practices associated
with race and ethnicity. They interviewed adults of
various mixtures of Asian, White, Latino, and Black
races. Based on the interviews, Lee and Bean found
that multiracial Blacks were less likely to call them-
selves multiracial than people of other mixed race
categories. This restriction is consistent with the U.S.
historical pattern of the public identifying a person with
only some Black heritage as being Black. Persons of
mixed White and Asian or Latino or Latino-Asian
heritage had more flexibility. Some mixed Asian-
White or Latino-White people self-identified as White
because of public perceptions and a narrow stereo-
typical definition of proper Asian or Latino appearance.
Other White-Asian and White-Latino people said that
they are proud of their mixed heritage even if it made
little difference in their daily encounters. People did
not stick with one label but claimed different racial-
ethnic backgrounds in different situations. Pulling
together the quantitative and qualitative findings, Lee
and Bean suggested that racial-ethnic group bound-
aries are fading faster for Latinos and Asians than for
Blacks. They concluded that a new Black versus non-
Black divide is emerging to replace the old White-Black
division but that Blacks are still in a disadvantaged
position relative to all racial categories.