ARTICLE REVIEW

Article Review



Article Review

Quantitative research approaches are often described as relying on objectivity, 'hard' data and statistics. Use the Kalisch and Williams study to provide examples of each of these features.

The term epistemology refers to beliefs about the way in which knowledge is construed. It questions whether it is possible to identify and communicate the nature of knowledge as being “hard”, “real” and capable of being transmitted in a tangible form. Thus, it does not consider knowledge to be “softer”, more subjective, spiritual, or even transcendental, based on the experiences and insights of a unique and personal nature. The epistemological assumptions in these instances determine extreme positions on the issues of whether knowledge is something that can be acquired, or something personally experienced. The view that knowledge is “hard”, objective and tangible suggests that a researcher adopt the role of observer. However, to view knowledge, as personal, subjective and unique in nature, requires that researchers become involved with their subjects. Thus, to subscribe to the former is to be positivist and to the later, interpretivist. (Embretson 2000 35-59)

Positivism and interpretivism rely on quite different assumptions about the nature of knowledge, and demand considerably different approaches to research. Positivist epistemology tries to understand a social setting by identifying individual components of a phenomenon and then explaining the phenomena in terms of constructs and relationships between constructs. Therefore, this approach encompasses a more quantitative approach. The interpretivist approach, however, aims at understanding a phenomenon from the participants point of view, whom is directly involved with the phenomenon under study. (Michell 2009 41-85)

Once the epistemological stance for the research has been established and the questions that need to be addressed have been identified, it is necessary to decide on the kind of data to be collected, and to determine how it should be analysed. Data collection may be essentially qualitative, or quantitative in nature, and often depends on the epistemological stance of the researcher (Michell 2007 355-383). For example, data collected in the form of loosely structured interviews may be referred to as qualitative, whereas data collected in the form of precise measurements of variables may be referred to as quantitative. Furthermore, Kalisch and Williams (2009) argue that quantitative and qualitative research methods are mutually exclusive because their underlying assumptions are seen as contradictory.

The process mentioned above is considered as a quantitative one based on the discussion of positivist studies, which is related to features such as causality and generalisation. The main defining feature of the above methodology is the collection of tangible data to produce tangible results based on a sequential (hard) process. (Andrich 2003 253-276)

In relation with Kalisch and Williams (2009) article, nevertheless, older patients and their caregivers do not experience their care in discrete episodes according to the arbitrary divisions of the healthcare system. Rather, they experience their care in a continuous manner irrespective of the particular setting care in which it is delivered. Because they are the only common thread weaving across the health care continuum, the management ...