LESSON 2: IMPORTANCE OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ACROSS VARIOUS FIELDS

PRE-TEST QUESTIONS:
Answer the questions below. Follow instructions properly.

I. MATCHING TYPE. Match item in COLUMN A with those of COLUMN B by

placing the letter of the correct answers in the space provided in column A from
among the choices I column. Identify what discipline the given research title is
related.
COLUMN A COLUMN B
1. What Effect do Punitive Behavioral A. ANTHROPOLOGY
Control Statements have on Classroom?
B. COMMUNICATION
2. The Relationship between the
Mushrooming of Fast Food Chains and C. SPORTS MED.
Obesity of Children in Kuopo, Eastern
England. D. MEDICAL ED.
3. Effect of Tourism to the Cultural
System of Villagers in Southern Cordillera. E. BEHAVIORAL SCI.
4. Factors Affecting Quality of Medical F. EDUCATION
Education in Saint Louis University.
5. Relationship of Verbally Aggressive G. PSYCHOLOGY
Behavior to the Physical Aggression of a
Person. H. ABM
6. Factors Affecting Crime Rates in
I. STEM
Burgos, La Union.
7. Video Integration in Teaching Science
in Grade 12 of Upper Tumapoc National
High School.

8. Communicative Behaviors Associated in

Different Stages of a Romantic
Relationship.
9. Ethnographic Study: Changes of Aeta
Behaviors in past 5 years.
10. Relationship of Physical Activity to the
Amount of Adipose Tissue and
Endurance Fitness of Children Aged
15 – 22 in Burgos, La Union.

II. ESSAY. Discuss briefly, what is ask below. Write your answer on a separate
piece of paper.
1. How is quantitative research related or important to different fields of discipline?
2. Choose two disciplines enumerated above (column B) and explain how quantitative
research was used on it.
UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 1 IMPORTANCE OF
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ACROSS FIELDS
People do research to find solutions, even tentative ones, to problems, in order to
improve or enhance ways of doing things, to disprove or provide a new hypothesis, or
simply to find answers to questions or solutions to problems in daily life. Research findings
can affect people’s lives, ways of doing things, laws, rules and regulations, as well as
policies, among others. Widely, quantitative research is often used because of its emphasis
on proof rather than discovery.
In recent times, research studies are gaining an unprecedented focus and attention.
Then, only the faculty in higher education has so much interest and conduct researchers,
but now even the teachers in the basic education are engrossed in researches and devote
time and effort in conducting researches to improve educational practices that may lead to
more quality learning of the students. Many teachers do action researches because there is
a serious need to identify the problems of the deteriorating quality of education. By doing
so, they can address systematically and make educational decisions regarding the
problems met. Innovative teaching strategies are product of research.
In the natural and social sciences, quantitative research is the systematic, empirical
investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational
techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical
models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of measurement
is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between
empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships.
Health Sciences (Medical Technology, Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine, etc.) use
quantitative research designs like descriptive, pre-experimental, quasi-experimental,
trueexperiment, case study, among others.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH & ACCOUNTING, BUSINESS and MANAGEMENT (ABM)

Researches can help design a new product or service, figuring out what is needed
and ensure the development of product is highly targeted towards demand. Businessmen
can also utilize research results to guarantee sufficient distribution of their products and
decide where they need to increase their product distribution. Conducting researches can
also help a business determine whether now is the proper time to open another branch or
whether it needs to apply for a new loan. It may also help a small business decide if a
procedure or strategy should be change to meet the requirements of the customer base.
Research is important for any organization to remain in the market. The primary function
of research in ABM is to correctly determine its customers and their preferences, establish
the enterprise in the most feasible location, deliver quality goods and services, analyze what
the competitors are doing and find ways on how to continuously satisfy the growing and
varied needs of the clients.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology is a research method of combining qualitative and quantitative
research data. It is concerned with exploring connections simultaneously, amidst cultural
differences, alternatives and identity. In the contemporary academic, socio-cultural and
political climate these concepts have immense symbolic overtones.
Quantitative research is use in Anthropology in many aspects. Like, true experiments may
use in studying people provided that you follow certain steps (Bernard, 2004). This is to look
into the Effects of an intervention in ethnic behavior of a group. In here, you need at least two
groups, called the treatment group and the control group. On group gets the intervention and
 the other group don’t. Next, individuals may be randomly assigned, either to the intervention
group or to the control group to ensure that the groups

UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 2 are equivalent. Then, the groups are
measured on one or more dependent variables; this is called the pre-test. After which, the
intervention is introduced. Lastly, the dependent variables are measured again. This is the post
test.
True in experiments with people in laboratory are also common.
Laboratory experiments often produce results that beg to be tested in the natural
world by Anthropologists. Aaron and Mills (1959, as cited by Bernard, 2004)
demonstrated in a lab experiment that people who go through severe initiation to
a group tend to be more positive toward the group than are people who go
through a mild initiation. They reasoned that people who go through
tough initiation rites put a lot of personal investments into
getting into the group. Later, if people see evidence that the group is not what
they thought it would be, they are reluctant to admit the fact because of the
investments.
In Field, Janet Schofield and her colleagues did a 3 year ethnographic
study in middle school. During the first year, they noticed that African-American
and while children seemed to react differently to “mildly aggressive acts’ – things
like bumping in the hallway, poking one another in the classroom, asking for
food, or using another student’s pencil without permission. There appeared to be
no event of racial conflict in the school, but during interviews while students
were more likely to report being intimidated by their African-American peers
than vice versa (Sagar & Schofield, 1980, as cited by Bernard, 2004)

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and COMMUNICATION

Researchers are often interested in how an understanding of a particular
communication phenomenon might generalize to a larger population. For
example, researchers can advance questions like “What Effect do punitive
behavioral control statements have on a classroom? What communicative
behaviors are associated with different stages in romantic relationships? What
communicative behaviors are used to respond to co-workers displaying
emotional stress? (Allen, Titsworth, Hunt, 2009)

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and SPORTS MEDICINE

Quantitative research is used to analyze how sports may be used as an
alternative way of medicating an illness. An example is the research done by
University of Eastern Finland which investigated the relationship between
mushrooming of fast food chains and obesity, as well as the intervention needed
to prevent children’s obesity from reaching serious proportions. The research
focused on the children’s physical activity and physical inactivity and the
concomitant impact on the children’s amount of adipose tissue (fat mass) and
the endurance fitness. The study is used to analyze certain the effect of physical
activity in weight control.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and MEDICAL EDUCATION

Quantitative research in medical education tends to be predominantly
observational research based on surveys or correlational studies. The designs

UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 3

test interventions like curriculum, teaching-learning process, or assessment with
an experimental group. Either a comparison or controlled group learners may
allow researchers to overcome validity concerns and infer potential cause-
 effect generalizations. Researchers are using to cope with the emerging trends in
recent times.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Relationship Questions in today’s quantitative trend tend to explore how
one behavior exhibited by people is related to other types of behavior. Examples
are verbally aggressive behaviors related to physical aggression – that is, when a
person has a level of verbally aggressive behavior, does he or she tend to be
physically aggressive? Are certain supervisor communication skills related to the
emotional experiences of employees?
Questions of difference explore how patterns of behavior or perceptions
might differ from one group or type of a person to another: Do people with
disabilities experience emotional labor differently from those without disabilities?
Do women perceive talkativeness (or lack of it) differently form men? Do
communication styles differ from one culture to the next? (Alle, Titsworth, Hunt,
2009).
When quantitative researchers explore questions of differences or
questions of relationships, they do so in an attempt to uncover certain patterns
of behavior. If the researcher discovers that a certain relationship exists in
sample that she or he has drawn form the population, she/he is then in a
position to draw generalizations about patterns expected of human behavior.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

Quasi Experiments are most often used in evaluating social problems.
Suppose a researcher has invented a technique for improving reading
comprehension among third graders. She/he selects two third grade classes in a
school district. One of them gets the intervention and the other doesn’t. Students
are measured before and after the intervention to see whether their reading
scores improve. This design contains many of the elements of true experiment,
but the participants are not assigned randomly to the treatment and control
groups.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH and PSYCHOLOGY

Mertens (2005) says that the dominant paradigms that guided early
psychological research were positivism and its successor, post positivism.
Positivism is based on rationalistic, empiricist philosophy that originated with
Aristotle, Francis Bacon, John Locke, August Comte, and Immanuel Kant. the
underlying assumptions of positivism include the belief that the social world can
be studied in the same way as the natural world, that there is a method for
studying the social world that is value-free, and that explanations of a causal
nature can be provided.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH & SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,

ENGINEERING, and MATHEMATICS
Medical practitioners, for example, conduct researches to obtain
significant information about diseases trends and risk factors, results of various

UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 5

 health interventions, patterns of care and health care cost and use. The different
approaches to research provide complementary insights. Researchers help in
determining the effectiveness and even side effect of drugs and therapies in
different populations and various institutions. It is also necessary in evaluating
experiences in clinical practice in order to develop mechanisms for best practices
and to ensure high quality patient care. Researchers in these fields ultimately
aim for man’s longevity.

As for engineers, architects, and other builders, research helps in

providing designs which are creatively beautiful and at the same time give more
convenience and efficiency as they utilize modern technology to adapt to the ever
changing society. New materials and procedures may be developed so as to
further strengthen the structural materials than can withstand various
calamities and disasters.

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