A brief note on inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning from the perspectives of qualitative and quantitative research

A brief note on inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning from the perspectives of qualitative and quantitative research (information from perplexity.ai)

My question : "Discuss the research approaches of (1) inductive reasoning and (2) deductive reasoning from the perspectives of (1) qualitative research and (2) quantitative in the context of social science."

The reply: "

1. Deductive Reasoning

• In Quantitative Research: It is the most common approach. Researchers start with a theory or hypothesis and design studies to test this hypothesis with measurable data. It follows a top-down logic: theory → hypothesis → observation → confirmation.

• In Qualitative Research: Deduction is less common but still used, for example, in applying existing theoretical frameworks to interpret qualitative data systematically.

2. Inductive Reasoning

• In Qualitative Research: This is the hallmark of inductive work. Researchers collect data (e.g., interviews, observations) without preset hypotheses and let themes and theories emerge from the data itself — a bottom-up logic.

• In Quantitative Research: Pure inductive reasoning is rare but may appear in exploratory data analysis where new patterns or hypotheses are identified from the data.

Summary:

 

Reasoning Type	Qualitative Research	Quantitative Research
Deductive	Applying theories to interpret data	Testing hypotheses derived from theory
Inductive	Generating theories from data	Exploring and identifying patterns in data

 

 

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