Quasitative Application in our Private, Professional, and Public Realms:

Dr. Sharon L. Bender

August, 2006

Quasitative

Quasitative means to apply a collective approach to performing inquiries in our private, professional, and public realms. These are our "human realms" in which our world functions. The collective approach results when combining quantitative and qualitative indices in the inquiry process. As a result, we are able to measure the quantitative past, observe the qualitative present, and imagine the quasitative potential. Such potential is one that is "imaginable." It looks at non-existing phenomena. Imagination is a critical element on today's tumultuous planet. Imagination can help us to solve problems in our private, professional, and public realms.

Imagination encourages the process of formulating measurable and observable images and ideas. In recent times, psychologists have tended toward aligning imagery and imaging processes with a reproductive rather than productive or constructive meaning. We are reproducing thought due to our individual biases and perceptions brought to the process. Applying imagination in a useful manner enhances our human realms. When used for personal gratification or to commit a civic atrocity, it deteriorates our world. In this respect imagination as a system or science both differs from and is aligned with belief systems.

Imagination merges objectivity and subjectivity as an action mechanism. This model fits the Q3 Inquiries (quantitative/qualitative/quasitative) approach in that quantitative applications are objective, qualitative applications are subjective, and quasitative applications or collective. How our lives transpire in our private, professional, and public arenas can be explored through our imagination in the objective, subjective, and collective sense. Figure 1 depicts the imagination relationship in the Q3 Inquiries approach.

Figure 1. Q3 Inquiries and the Imagination Connection

This model enables us to ask some pertinent guiding questions. In light of our measurable past and our observable present, what will we do in our imaginable potential? What sensitive inputs and cognitive processes attribute to the innovative outputs? How do these parameters help us to apply imagination in our private, professional, and public worlds? Figure 2 provides a means to examine this inquiry in a model I published in 2005.

Figure 2. Private, Professional, and Public Human Realms Model

Applying the quasitative element of imagination to our private, professional, and public worlds means measuring the past and observing the present in order to imagine the potential in each realm.

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