Quantitative research How might you explore people’s beliefs about children and childcare? In quantitative research, you might develop a fixed set of survey items designed to measure beliefs. A limitation, however, is that people living in cultures other than your own might hold beliefs that you failed to include in your survey. In Bali, home to this grandmother and child, people believe that children are reincarnated from divine ancestors (Gerdin, 1981). Would you have included reincarnation questions in your quantitative survey? In cases such as this, qualitative methods are advantageous. Qualitative methods that allow people to describe their lives in their own terms can reveal beliefs and experiences that are surprising to the researcher.