In addition to the qualitative part of this project, I am considering adding a quantitative component to my research as well. This is actually something that I’ve been struggling with for some time now. You see, the substantive questions that I am asking do not necessarily lead me to quantitative methodology. My questions are more qualitative in nature and not something that is developed enough to be able to test quantitative hypothesis. However, while at UCSB, I’ve taken quite a few quantitative courses. Seeing as how I’ve always been good with numbers, it just made sense to develop that skill in order to make myself more attractive as a job candidate. It would be almost a waste of my training and my particular set of skills if I didn’t do something quantitative in nature. At the same time, I’ve been trained, as everyone should be, that you really shouldn’t let the method drive the research. In other words, I shouldn’t be trying to shoehorn a statistics project in just because I want to do statistics.

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