5. Caveats concerning possible pitfalls
In my position paper, I made several specific suggestions about how researchers should change the ways they use quantitative methods. For example, I argued for using relational codes instead of always coding discrete behaviors. It should now be clear that my comments along those lines were misleading if they suggested that I believe certain quantitative methods (eg, discrete behavior codes) are always problematic-or, if they suggested that I wanted to rule out quite generally what others might call'' strong'' quantitative methods. According to my approach,'' good'' quantitative research includes many examples of what others consider'' strong'' methods in addition to many examples of'' soft'' methods.
Notwithstanding possible confusion, at this juncture, I also want to state that this does not amount to wholesale approval of all quantitative research. I agree with Stam that there are real dangers in what he calls'' Pythagoreanism.'' Quantitative methods frequently are employed in a problematic manner. In my opinion, this occurs when they are used in such a way that they cannot serve their interpretive function. For example, measures of decibel levels are likely to fail at assessing angry behavior if the vocalizations in question do not occur in a structured situation in which loudness serves as a concrete example of such behavior (this is circular, and that is the point). In general, quantitative methods are unhelpful in a particular case insofar as they are actually used in a way that conforms to traditional positivist conceptualizations about'' real'' measures and the like. Hence, I hope that my position paper and this rejoinder serve to mark out a view about how to employ quantitative methods and how not to employ them, rather than a position about which quantitative methods we should use.
Some brief comments are in order about techniques for statistical analysis. In large measure, I agree with the cautionary remarks Stiles offered in his commentary about'' high end statistics.'' How researchers use these techniques very often reflects what I view as a misguided understanding of quantitative research. As Stiles noted, these sophisticated techniques are often applied to decontextualized variables. One of the examples I mentioned in my position paper is relevant here. I argued that investigators studying parent-child interaction from a social learning theory vantage point attempt to explain interactions by breaking them down into isolable, elemental behaviors (eg, prosocial child behavior, parental praise) instead of taking as their starting point what parent and child are doing together. These researchers then try to put together an account of the exchanges by statistically examining sequential dependencies between these putative building block b...
