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A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

James Mahoney  and
Gary Goertz
James Mahoney
Affiliation:
Departments of Political Science and Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-1006. e-mail: james-mahoney@northwestern.edu (corresponding author)
Gary Goertz
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. e-mail: ggoertz@u.arizona.edu
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Abstract

The quantitative and qualitative research traditions can be thought of as distinct cultures marked by different values, beliefs, and norms. In this essay, we adopt this metaphor toward the end of contrasting these research traditions across 10 areas: (1) approaches to explanation, (2) conceptions of causation, (3) multivariate explanations, (4) equifinality, (5) scope and causal generalization, (6) case selection, (7) weighting observations, (8) substantively important cases, (9) lack of fit, and (10) concepts and measurement. We suggest that an appreciation of the alternative assumptions and goals of the traditions can help scholars avoid misunderstandings and contribute to more productive “cross-cultural” communication in political science.

Type
Research Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 14 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Causal Complexity and Qualitative Methods , Summer 2006 , pp. 227 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology 

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