INTEGRATING INTERPRETIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN SOCIALIZATION RESEARCH

Those who study children's socialization are currently debating the re lative merits of interpretive and quantitative approaches in research. In practice, an integrated research program in which both approaches are used in generating hypotheses, categories, measures, quantitative data, and interpretations can profit from the strengths of both approa ches while compensating for their weaknesses. Three studies of the Yup no, Fiji, and Maya show how the interpretive approach contributes an u nderstanding of the meaning of behavior in context whereas the quantit ative approach contributes a precision of measurement that makes gener alizations and comparisons possible. Integrating the two approaches ex tends research findings in significant ways.