Chapter One

Research, can be broken down into two types, quantitative which translates into numbers and qualitative which refers to the details that create those numbers. Quantitative research is thought to be most important, but qualitative research is just as important. When we preform qualitative research we want to get the what, how, when, where, and why of any question need to be answered. When using qualitative research we need to ask a multitude of questions and find the meaning though a multitude of characteristics and descriptions. Some researchers use triangulation in order to map their ideas out, by using multiple lines of sight in other words, having topic to research and finding many different avenues to get the answer,such as using symbolic interaction and conflict theory ect. This prevents from having research errors when obtaining personal accounts and or in congestion used to validate your research. We then look at symbolic interaction which consists of symbols and interactions that we place meanings to give significance in our society. In e.g, the words subway in american society has different meanings dependent on the context if you say I'm going to catch a a train at the subway, we know it means the electrical underground rail way, if someone said I'm eating subway you know that they are speaking of the sandwich from a sandwich shop called subway.