Qualitative_data_analysis

14 QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
measure, but it doesn’t tell us how the weight is distributed, nor how a particular point
in the scale translates into overall appearance. We might prefer to rely on how we
look, whether ‘fat’ or ‘thin’ or maybe ‘just right’. These are qualitative judgements,
but in a social context these may be the judgements that count. If we do not
measure data in quantitative terms, it may be that (at least for the moment) we lack
the tools necessary to do the job. Or it may be that we simply prefer qualitative
assessments because they are more meaningful, if less precise, than any quantitative
measures.
Take colour as an example. For most purposes we are content to use a fairly crude
classification based on a very limited colour range. If we are buying (or selling)
paint, though, we may want a more sophisticated classification. And if we are using
colour in an industrial or scientific context, we may want more precision: a
spectrophotometer measures the amount of light reflected or transmitted across the
visible spectrum, allowing colours to be measured precisely in terms of their
wavelengths. However, the mathematical specification of a colour does not reveal
how it will look to different observers in variable light conditions; although
measurement is more accurate, it is less useful for everyday purposes than cruder
methods which rely on visual classification (Varley 1983:134–5).
Because qualitative assessments are less standardized and less precise than
quantitative measures, there are areas of social life where we do attempt to establish
the latter. Money is the medium through which we measure equivalence in market
transactions, though in contrast to physical measures, confidence in currencies can
collapse completely. Qualifications are another medium used to measure educational
achievement, though here also ‘inflation’ can undermine confidence in established
standards. Attempts to measure educational performance, intelligence, health status,
social adjustment, quality of life and so on in quantitative terms are dogged by
suspicion that these do not capture the ‘quality’ of psychological or social aspects of
life. For example, compare the following statements on educational achievement.
‘Only 5% of British employees in
commercial and clerical work have
educational qualifications above Alevel
standard.’
‘Education is what survives when what
has been learnt has been forgotten.’
In reducing educational achievement to a quantitative measure, do we neglect or
overlook altogether what is important about education—its quality?
This tension between quantitative measures and qualitative assessment is also
apparent in social research. On the one hand, qualitative data is often presented as