Characteristics Strengths Weaknesses and Kinds of Quantitative Research

Characteristics, Strengths, Weaknesses, and Kinds of Quantitative Research

Learning Objective § To describe the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and kinds of quantitative research

Key Understanding § Knowledge of the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and kinds of quantitative research Key Question § What are the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and kinds of quantitative research?

Quantitative Research - is a way of making any phenomenon or any sensory experience clearer or more meaningful by gathering and examining facts and information about such person, thing, place, or event appealing to your senses. It involves measurements and amounts and seeks to find answers to questions starting with how many, how much, how long, to what extent, and the like.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research § Quantitative research uses numbers and figures to denote a particular thing. § Quantitative research requires you to focus your full attention on the object of your study.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research § Quantitative research is described as objective research. Characterized by objectiveness, only the real or factual, not the emotional or cognitive existence of the object, matters greatly to the artist.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research § Quantitative research is analogous to scientific or experimental thinking. In this case, you just do not identify problems but theorize, hypothesize, analyze, infer, and create as well.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research § Quantitative research usually happens in hard sciences like physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine; unlike qualitative research, which happens in soft sciences such as humanities, social sciences, education, and psychology, among others.

Strengths and Weaknesses Standards ü Mental survey of reality ü Cause-effect relationships Quantitative ü Exists in the physical world ü Revealed by automatic descriptions of circumstances or conditions ü Researcher’s ü Objective; least involvement with the involvement by the object/subject of the researcher study

Strengths and Weaknesses Standards ü Expression of data, data analysis and findings ü Research plan Quantitative ü Numerals, statistics ü All research aspects are planned before data collection ü Behavior toward ü Control or manipulation of research aspects/ research conditions by the conditions researcher ü Obtaining knowledge ü Scientific method

Strengths and Weaknesses Standards ü Purpose ü Data-analysis technique ü Style of expression Quantitative ü Evaluates objective and examines cause-effect relationships ü Mathematically-based methods ü Impersonal, scientific or systematic ü Sampling technique ü Random sampling as the most preferred

Kinds of Quantitative Research 1. Experimental üTrue experimental, quasi-experimental, single subject, and pre-experimental. • 1 st - give a pre-test to examine the initial condition of both groups in relation to a variable, condition, or factor • 2 nd - apply to the control group a new condition • 3 rd- give the latter group a post-test to determine the effects or influence of the treatment or condition applied on them.

Kinds of Quantitative Research 1. Experimental üQuasi-experimental comes in several types such as matched comparative group, time series, and counterbalanced quasi-experimental.

Kinds of Quantitative Research Types of quasi-experimental research 1. matched comparison – choosing a treatment group and another group that has similarities with the treatment group 2. time-series quasi-experimental research – giving them series of pre-tests and post-tests 3. single-subject quasi-experimental research – controls treatment and condition applied to just one individual or a group

Kinds of Quantitative Research 2. Non-Experimental üIt is incapable of establishing cause-effect relationships; by itself, it is able, if it takes place in conjunction with other experimental and quasi-experimental research methods.

Kinds of Quantitative Research 2. Non-Experimental It involves various ways of data analysis: üPrimary – analysis of data collected by the researcher himself/herself üSecondary – examination of data collected by other people üMeta-analysis – analysis of data expressed numerically

Kinds of Quantitative Research 2. Non-Experimental üIt uses research method that is applicable to both quantitative and qualitative data. üIt collects data through survey, observation, historical studies, case studies, documentary analysis, and so on. (Suter, 2012; Sarantakos, 2013)

Kinds of Quantitative Research 2. Non-Experimental üSurvey üHistorical studies üObservational üCorrelational üDescriptive üComparative research