What is Quantitative Research?
Quantitative research is an investigation that aims to quantify attitudes or behaviours or measure variables. Unlike qualitative research, quantitative research uses measurable data to form facts and patterns. Many argue that both types of research go hand in hand and a thorough investigation of a particular topic will cover both methods of research.
Quantitative research is typically conducted through surveys, telephone interviews, web surveys and intercepts. Questions are highly structured and tend to be closed as opposed to open to allow for measurable data rather than long responses. Quantitative research is performed on a far larger scale compared with qualitative research (in terms of the sample size) and helps to provide accurate statistical data from which conclusions can be drawn.
Quantitative research generates numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers, for example clinical trials or the National Census, which counts people and households. Another example whereby quantitative research has been used to establish a relationship is between smoking tobacco and developing lung cancer. Researchers have been able to identify numerical patterns through statistical methods between the two to make justified hypotheses.
Unlike qualitative research, whereby data often contains the participant’s personal beliefs, concerns and ideas in long responses, quantitative research gains numerical statistics, which can be greatly relied on in giving reliable data. Qualitative research is sometimes not as reliable as opinions are not numerical and do not have the substance. For example:
- Quantitative: 97% of participants were happy with the outcome
- Qualitative: Many participants believed that the success of the event was due to the good media coverage.
According to Wikipedia, approaches to quantitative research were first modeled on quantitative approaches in the physical sciences by Gustav Fechner in his work on psychophysics, which built on the work of Ernst Heinrich Weber.
CLAIM:
“Quantitative research is used to support claims made by qualitative research”
· McBride and Schostak claim that: Quantitative research is not enough on its own as we need to ask, why? When placed alongside qualitative evidence, quantitative evidence is both clear and powerful. Unfortunately it sometimes appears so powerful that it overpowers the opinions of the people involved and this is a danger we have to watch. In addition there are still many researchers, especially the less experienced ones, who are not prepared to ‘go the extra mile’ and add the extra understanding to the figures they have collected.
· Smith argues that researchers sometimes favour one method over the other and their research tends to obfuscate more than it clarifies. Researchers can jump on a band wagon then forget about making their research durable.
· Trochim argues that there has probably been more energy expended on debating the differences between and relative advantages of qualitative and quantitative methods than almost any other methodological topic in social research. The “qualitative-quantitative debate” as it is sometimes called is one of those hot-button issues that almost invariably will trigger an intense debate in the hotel bar at any social research convention.
· Trochim also argues that fundamentally, qualitative and quantitative research produce similar results for the following reasons: All qualitative data can be coded quantitatively, All quantitative data is based on qualitative judgment
REFERENCES:
· McBride, R and Schostak, J (1995) Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research. Enquiry Learning Unit. Accessed 18 March 2008, Available at:
http://www.enquirylearning.net/ELU/Issues/Research/Res1Cont.html
· Smith, J (1983) Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research: An Attempt to Clarify the Issue. American Educational Researcher, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Mar., 1983), pp. 6-13. Accessed 18 March 2008, Available at: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-189X(198303)12%3A3%3C6%3AQVQRAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L
· Trochim, W. M.K. (2006) The Qualitative – Quantitative Debate. Social Research Methods. Accessed 20 March 2008. Available at: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualdeb.php LINKS WITH THESIS
While it will be essential to use some form of quantitative research in my thesis, it will not be the focus of my research and will only be used to support claims made by my qualitative research. Areas where it may be used include: · Discussing the volume of people who use media such as radio or internet during a bushfire
· When analyzing data from my online survey I will discuss measurable responses
· I may do some kind of content analysis of newspaper articles focusing on bushfires. In this situation I will be using quantitative research to investigate patterns of language and topics in the newspapers.
The main methodologies I intend to use during my research include focus groups, interviews and surveys. While surveys usually include closed questions, which help to form quantitative responses, interviews and focus groups stem from the qualitative family. This means very open ended questions, discussions and responses that require discussion rather than a production of a table or graph.
