Use the following example to answer a set of questions: Tom wants to examine the causes of domestic violence. He wants to start with social theory and then test some of its implications with data. He would like to explain the causes of domestic violence using independent variables derived from previous research. Erica wants to explore factors related to domestic violence of Latino immigrants, where barely any research has been done. She wants to start with interview data she collected and then identify patterns in her data. She would like to inform future studies with this information. Which researcher utilized deductive reasoning and which used inductive reasoning? Which type of research (qualitative or quantitative) and (explanatory or exploratory) did Tom and Erica conduct? Provide two

Question

differences between their studies.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Tom-deductive; Erica-inductive. Tom-quantitative and explanatory; Erica-qualitative and exploratory. One difference is that whereas Tom started with social theory to test its usefulness in examining the causes of domestic violence, Erica began with data. Second, whereas Erica's data may be less generalizable than Tom's, since she is focused specifically on Latino immigrants, her research could be used in future deductive studies.