Skills for the Social Sciences

Skills for the Social Sciences
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1, Section 1: Theoretical approaches tend to use qualitative and quantitative method........3
PART 2, Section 2: Main differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods......4
PART 2: Key arguments in qualitative and quantitative articles.....................................................6
Qualitative Article 1: Desperately seeking reductions in health inequalities: perspectives of
UK researchers on past, present and future directions in health inequalities research...........6
Qualitative Article 2: Mental Health in the UK Police Force: A Qualitative Investigation into
the Stigma with Mental Illness...............................................................................................6
Quantitative Article 1: Income inequality and self-rated health in Britain............................6
Quantitative Article 2: Mental health in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-
sectional analyses from a community cohort study................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
In Social Science research, quantitative and qualitative research methods are used.
Quantitative research enable researcher to discover patterns, correlations, associations and other
features of population on the basis of analysis of numerous measurements of individual. On the
other hand, qualitative research involves studies of single person, on the basis of observations
and interviews with the goal of determining their intrinsic behavioural and psychological
characteristics. This is an essay report that demonstrate an understanding and knowledge
regarding contribution made by social science disciplines to development of knowledge claims
and contested interpretations of contemporary social issues.
This report covers theoretical approaches that tend to use qualitative and quantitative
methodologies by describing theoretical ideas of different approaches to social science. Apart
from this, the report covers main differences between qualitative and quantitative research and
the types of methodologies which are commonly used in these researches. It also covers the
reason behind differing sample size between qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
In addition to this, two qualitative and quantitative articles are selected and the key arguments in
those articles are discussed in the report. Moreover, the data collection methods between the
articles are compared and the reason behind chosen that particular method in the article is
discussed. At last, a brief summary based on the overall report is provided in this project.
PART 1, Section 1: Theoretical approaches tend to use qualitative and
quantitative method
The theories provide comprehensive and complex conceptual understanding regarding
things which cannot be pinned down like why people interact, how organisations operate and
how societies work in certain way. The qualitative research has varying relationship with theory.
The theoretical approaches which tend to use qualitative research includes narrative approach,
grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology and case study approach. The narrative approach
retells story of someone across time and explore what the story means along with the lessons to
be learnt. The grounded theory approach investigates an action, process or interaction with the
aim of developing a theory. Case study is the common type of qualitative approach which looks
at episodic events in definable structure bounded by setting and time.
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