Qualitative V. Quanitative

For the purposes of this assignment, I am taking a look at sports participation and its affect on high school students diagnosed with learning disabilities. More specifically, I will be looking at the positive affects organized sports can have on those students as they transition through high school and move toward adulthood.

If my aim was to pose a qualitative research question, the title of my article and/or the research problem I'd try to solve would probably look something like: Self Identity, Self Esteem, and Self Confidence: A Study of High School Athletes Diagnosed with Learning Disabilities and the Role of Organized Sports in Identity. This qualitative distinction is apparent due the subjective nature of the research problem. There's not going to be a whole lot of hard data in an article with that title. An article that carries that title will no doubt be more narrative in tone and nature and full of interviews in order to best describe the results.

A quantitative research problem that tackles the same issue would pose a research problem that asks a question like: Academic Performance and High School Sports from 1980-2000: Do Student Athletes Achieve Better Outcomes than Non-Athletes? This is apparent in the use of variables associated with the question as well as the prevalent use of data over a long period of time. This will question would no doubt over a number of participants and a very objective result.