Quan%ta%ve

Research
Methods
Objec%ves
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Explain what is quan;ta;ve research method;
2. Describe the three types of descrip;ve
research designs;
3. Differen;ate the two types of survey; and
4. Apply the common sta;s;cal approaches in
quan;ta;ve data analysis.
What is
Research is a process of steps used to
collect and analyze informa;on in order to
increase our understanding of a topic or issue.
 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

What is it?
•  Quan;ta;ve research is a study involving the use
and analysis of numerical data using sta;s;cal
techniques.


•  It is used to answer ques;ons on rela;onships
within measurable variables with an inten;on to
explain, predict and control a phenomena

What is it for?
Quan;ta;ve research methods are designed to produce
sta%s%cally reliable data that tells us how many people
do or think something.

Quan;ta;ve data typically is in
numerical form such as
averages, ra;os or ranges.
 When should it be used?

•  When trying to measure a trend such as ‘do youth talk to their
parents about issues important to them?’
•  When data can be obtained in numerical forms such as ‘number
of children under 15 who par:cipate in peace building ac:vi:es’.
•  When simple objec;ve responses can be received such as yes
and no ques;ons.
•  There is no uncertainty about the concepts being measured, and
there is only one way to measure each concept.
•  You are trying to collect data in ra;os, percentages and averages
 ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

Results need to be calculated using Excel,

Can be used when large quan;;es of data Access, or data analysis soTware (such as
need to be collected SPSS), which may not always be accessible
to a country program.

The larger the sample, the more ;me it

The result is usually numerical (quan;fiable)
takes to analyse the data and analyse
and hence considered more “objec;ve”
results.

The data is considered quan;fiable and The larger the sample the more ;me it takes
usually generalizable to a larger popula;on to collect data

It can provide a clear, quan;ta;ve measure The quan;ta;ve data ignores a very
to be used for grants and proposals important human element
Quan;ta;ve method typically begins with data collec:on
based on a hypothesis or theory and it is followed with
applica;on of descrip%ve or inferen%al sta;s;cs.

G  descrip%ve sta;s;cs – deals with

organizing & summarizing observa;ons do
that they are easier to comprehend.

inferen%al sta;s;cs – deals with the

formula;on of inferences about condi;ons
that exist in a popula;on from study of a
sample.
 Observa%on Studies
q  Involved in both quan%ta%ve and
qualita%ve research methods.

q  However, in quan;ta;ve methods, the
focus of observa;on studies is on a
par%cular factor of behaviour and it is
quan%fied.

q  In this type of design, a researcher will
try to maintain objec%vity in assessing
the behaviour being studied.
 Correla%onal Research
For example, as storage becomes larger, it is easier to
manage databases. In other words, there is a
correla;on between storage size and database
capacity.

Correla;onal results can be represented using various
means of visualisa;on. One such example would be
using the scaKerplot which allows a visual inspec;on
of the rela;onship between two variables.
 Correla%onal Research
By examining the scaaerplot, we can
iden;fy or describe the homogeneity or
heterogeneity of the two variables.

Secondly, we can describe the degree of
w h i c h t h e t w o v a r i a b l e s a r e
intercorrelated or using sta;s;cal
approach known as correla;on
coefficient.

Finally, we can interpret these data and
give them meaning.
 Survey Research

The ul;mate goal of survey research is to
learn about a large popula%on by
surveying a sample of the popula%on.

Thus we may also call it descrip%ve survey
or norma%ve survey.


In this method, a researcher poses a series
of ques:ons to the respondents,
summarises their responses in
percentages, frequency distribu:on and
some other sta:s:cal approaches.
 Survey Research
It typically employs:

a. Face-to-face interviews
b. Telephone interviews
c. Ques%onnaires