Objective: Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data as the basis of social research Instructions: Sociologists have many tools for gathering data on human society - surveys, field notes, photographs, institutional data, government data, popular media, etc. - and every researcher has to make choices about which tools (sometimes called methods) are the best for the job. There are two broad divisions in social research which constitute branches of study. The first branch is called Quantitative Methods, which involve gathering and analyzing numeric data using statistical calculations. The second branch is called Qualitative Methods and encompasses descriptive data that tells the story of a social group, process or setting. In general, quantitative data is considered necessary to build "predictive" social theories and qualitative data is considered necessary to provide context and specificity, i.e. being "descriptive." While many sociologists specialize in one set of methods or the other, the largest and best projects attempt to mix some elements of both branches. While you are not going to design a full-scale research project, you can learn to use both branches of research using small-scale experiments. Conduct some research on this topic using friends, family and peers as your subjects. TOPIC: Anything But Heavy Metal - People tend to have strong opinions about music and musical genres, but why? Conduct a survey (quantitative) of at least 25 people, asking them to identify and rank the types of music they prefer. Then interview (qualitative) 3-5 people in detail about their musical tastes and preferences. You may include yourself in the survey portion of this assignment, but you MAY NOT interview yourself. Include at least one graphical illustration of your survey results