Why researchers use quantitative methods

Written by Susan E. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Qualitative Research Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. Quantitative Research Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. Research Software Snap Survey Software is the ideal survey platform and online research software where structured techniques such as large numbers of respondents and descriptive findings are required.

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Survey Research uses interviews, questionnaires, and sampling polls to get a sense of behavior with concentrated precision. Researchers are able to judge behavior and then present the findings in an accurate way. Survey research can be conducted around one group specifically or used to compare several groups.

When conducting survey research, it is imperative that the researcher samples random people. This allows for more accurate findings across a greater number of respondents.

This kind of research can be done in person, over the phone, or through email. They can be self-administered. Quantitative research is more preferred over qualitative research because it is more scientific, objective, fast, focused and acceptable.

However, qualitative research is used when the researcher has no idea what to expect. It is used to define the problem or develop and approach to the problem.

Everything is either 1 or 0 " - Fred Kerlinger. When to use Quantitative Research Method. It can help you see the big picture. A researcher may want to determine the link between income and whether or not more people pay taxes. The method will be structured and consistent during data collection, most likely using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The data can be used to look for cause and effect relationships and therefore, can be used to make predictions.

The results will provide numerical data that can be analyzed statistically as the researcher looks for a correlation between income and tax payers. Quantitative methodology would best apply to this research problem. The data received is statistically valid and can be generalized to the entire user population. Basically, quantitative research is helpful when you get feedback from more than a handful of participants; need to present a more convincing case to an audience; you want to gather feedback from a diverse population of users NOT all located in the same place; you have a limited budget.

Qualitative research is explanatory and is used when the researcher has no idea what to expect. It is used to delve deeper into issues of interest. Qualitative data adds the details and can also give a human voice to your results. Use this type of research method if you want to do in-depth interviews, want to analyze issues affecting focus groups, want uninterrupted observation and ethnographic participation. You can use it to initiate your research by discovering the problems or opportunities people are thinking about.

Those ideas can later become hypotheses. Quotes from open-ended questions in qualitative research can put a human voice to the objective numbers and trends in your results. Many times, it helps to hear your customers describe your organization honestly which helps point out blind spots. Choose qualitative research if you want to capture the language and imagery customers use to describe and can easily relate with a brand, product, service and so on. Qualitative data consists of words, observations, pictures, and symbols.

Analyzing received data typically occurs simultaneously with the data collection. See qualitative research can be analysed and interpreted with the following steps:. Quantitative research methods result in data that provides quantifiable, objective, and easy to interpret results.

Quantitative data can be analyzed in several ways. The first thing to do for quantitative data is to identify the scales of measurement. There are four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio scale. Identifying the scale of measurement helps determine how best to organize the data. It can be entered into a spreadsheet and managed in a way that gives meaning to the data. The next thing to do is to use some of the quantitative data analysis procedures - data tabulation, descriptive data, data disaggregation, moderate and advanced analytics.

Geramian et al considered the prevalent problem of drug abuse in Iran especially in adolescents and youth, and conducted a study to assess the status of drug abuse among high school students in Isfahan Province, Iran.

The study was conducted through a questionnaire in in 20 cities. Study population was high school students aged 14—18 years. The study identified the degree of drug abuse according to age, gender and cities. There was also an assessment of the type of drugs used, the most common causes of drug abuse for the first time, the most important cause of drug abuse, mean age of abusers and mean age at first abuse, knowledge about short and long-term complications of narcotics and stimulants, common time and locations of drug abuse, and the most common routes of drug abuse according to gender as well as urban and rural areas of Isfahan Province.

Using the results of the research, the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students toward drug abuse were identified. Peshkin examines the culture of Bethany Baptist Academy by interviewing the students, parents, teachers, and members of the community; and observing for eighteen months - to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Christian schooling as an alternative to public education. Peshkin's work represents qualitative research as it is an in-depth study using tools such as observations and unstructured interviews, aimed at securing descriptive or non-quantifiable data on Bethany Baptist Academy specifically, without attempting to generalize the findings to other schools.

Peshkin describes Bethany Baptist Academy as having institutional unity of purpose, a dedicated faculty, an administration that backs teachers in enforcing classroom disciplines, cheerful students, rigorous homework, committed parents, and above all grounded in positive moral values and a character-building environment.

The school also ignores state regulations for schools, such as state assessments, certification and minimum wages for teachers, while enforcing compulsory volunteer tasks for teachers. Peshkin however paints the school in a positive light and holds that public schools have much to learn from such schools. This is a unique online form tool that lets you collect and manage all the data you need. With Formplus builder, you can create surveys, questionnaires or polls that will help you gather data for your qualitative or quantitative research.

Formplus gives you an easy-to-use form builder with a variety of options including customization to beautify the form in your way. Notwithstanding the kind of research you have chosen to do, Formplus offers you amazing features to make your experience simple and easy. The world is more digital than ever and will become even more digital. Formplus understands this and is giving you a platform to collect store data received from your research, without having to look beyond your shoulders, worrying whether your data is safe or not.

On Formplus, you can create forms for any type of qualitative or quantitative research and you know what? You can collect all types and sizes of data including typed documents, images, videos and so on. After you have created the online form, you definitely will want to get it to more people so data collection is not restricted. Use the email invitation feature on Formplus online form to invite people to fill the research form.

You can add the emails one after the other, upload a CSV file or populate from an existing database. You want to know where responses are coming from?

Or concentration of responses from a particular location? Use the geolocation feature, so when responses are submitted, you see the longitude and latitude of the said response. This will come in handy when you are doing qualitative research for a particular area and want to weed out data coming from other areas.

It does not end with email invitations, you could share your online forms to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn for more responses. Embed on your website as a popup to make it easy for respondents to click and fill forms right away without leaving your website. Use the exported data to review responses for the research or make comparisons. On your dashboard, you can view live analytics of responses including abandonment rate, total visits, average time spent and more.

Researches always come in with a lot of data but we got you covered. Formplus allows you store unlimited file types and sizes. Added to that are cloud storage integrations to give you options to choose from. With Formplus, you can decide to use either Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox to store and share received data without hassles. All you need to do is connect an existing account you have with either of those three options and you are on your way.

You can easily create an account with any of them, if you do not have in easy steps. Manage teams for your research to delegate duties to departments or specializations. In the above, we have seen the process of building a survey along with the survey design to conduct primary quantitative research.

Survey distribution to collect data is the other important aspect of the survey process. There are different ways of survey distribution. Some of the most commonly used methods are:. An example of a survey is short customer satisfaction CSAT survey template that can quickly be built and deployed to collect feedback about what the customer thinks about a brand and how satisfied and referenceable the brand is.

Polls are a method to collect feedback with the use of close-ended questions from a sample. The most commonly used types of polls are election polls and exit polls. Both of these are used to collect data from a large sample size but using basic question types like a multiple-choice question.

The third aspect of primary quantitative research design is data analysis. After the collection of raw data, there has to be an analysis of this data to derive statistical inferences from this research. It is important to relate the results to the objective of research and establish the statistical relevance of results. It is important to consider aspects of research which were not considered for the data collection process and report the difference between what was planned vs.

Inferential statistics methods such as confidence interval, margin of error, etc. Secondary quantitative research or desk research is a research method that involves using already existing data or secondary data. Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of research. This research method involves the collection of quantitative data from existing data sources like the internet, government resources, libraries, research reports, etc. Secondary quantitative research helps to validate the data that is collected from primary quantitative research as well as aid in strengthening or proving or disproving previously collected data.

Following are five popularly used secondary quantitative research methods:. Some distinctive characteristics of quantitative research are:. There are many advantages of quantitative research. Some of the major advantages of why researchers use this method in market research are:. Here are some best practices to conduct quantitative research.

Though you're welcome to continue on your mobile screen, we'd suggest a desktop or notebook experience for optimal results. Survey software Leading survey software to help you turn data into decisions. Research Edition Intelligent market research surveys that uncover actionable insights.

Customer Experience Experiences change the world. Deliver the best with our CX management software. Workforce Powerful insights to help you create the best employee experience. What is quantitative research? Gather research insights Quantitative outcome research is mostly conducted in the social sciences using the statistical methods used above to collect quantitative data from the research study.

They are: Primary quantitative research methods Secondary quantitative research methods Primary quantitative research methods There are four different types of quantitative research methods: Primary quantitative research is the most widely used method of conducting market research. They are: A.

Techniques and Types of Studies There are multiple types of primary quantitative research. They can be distinguished into the four following distinctive methods, which are: Survey Research: Survey Research is the most fundamental tool for all quantitative outcome research methodologies and studies.

There are two types of surveys , either of which can be chosen based on the time in-hand and the kind of data required: Cross-sectional surveys: Cross-sectional surveys are observational surveys conducted in situations where the researcher intends to collect data from a sample of the target population at a given point in time.

Cross-sectional surveys are popular with retail, SMEs, healthcare industries. Information is garnered without modifying any parameters in the variable ecosystem. Using a cross-sectional survey research method, multiple samples can be analyzed and compared. Multiple variables can be evaluated using this type of survey research. The only disadvantage of cross-sectional surveys is that the cause-effect relationship of variables cannot be established as it usually evaluates variables at a particular time and not across a continuous time frame.

In cross-sectional surveys, the same variables were evaluated at a given point in time, and in longitudinal surveys, different variables can be analyzed at different intervals of time. Longitudinal surveys are extensively used in the field of medicine and applied sciences. In situations where the sequence of events is highly essential, longitudinal surveys are used. Researchers say that when there are research subjects that need to be thoroughly inspected before concluding, they rely on longitudinal surveys.

Correlational research: A comparison between two entities is invariable. Example of Correlational Research Questions: The relationship between stress and depression. The equation between fame and money. The relation between activities in a third-grade class and its students. Causal-comparative research: This research method mainly depends on the factor of comparison.

The effect of good education on a freshman. The effect of substantial food provision in the villages of Africa. Experimental research: Also known as true experimentation, this research method is reliant on a theory. Systematic teaching schedules help children who find it hard to cope up with the course. It is a boon to have responsible nursing staff for ailing parents.

Gather research insights B. Data collection methodologies The second major step in primary quantitative research is data collection. Data collection methodologies: Sampling methods There are two main sampling methods for quantitative research: Probability and Non-probability sampling.

There are four main types of probability sampling: Simple random sampling: As the name indicates, simple random sampling is nothing but a random selection of elements for a sample. This sampling technique is implemented where the target population is considerably large. Stratified random sampling: In the stratified random sampling method, a large population is divided into groups strata , and members of a sample are chosen randomly from these strata.

The various segregated strata should ideally not overlap one another. Cluster sampling: Cluster sampling is a probability sampling method using which the main segment is divided into clusters, usually using geographic and demographic segmentation parameters.

Systematic sampling: Systematic sampling is a technique where the starting point of the sample is chosen randomly, and all the other elements are chosen using a fixed interval. This interval is calculated by dividing the population size by the target sample size. There are five non-probability sampling models: Convenience sampling: In convenience sampling , elements of a sample are chosen only due to one prime reason: their proximity to the researcher.

These samples are quick and easy to implement as there is no other parameter of selection involved. Consecutive sampling: Consecutive sampling is quite similar to convenience sampling, except for the fact that researchers can choose a single element or a group of samples and conduct research consecutively over a significant period and then perform the same process with other samples.

Quota sampling: Using quota sampling , researchers can select elements using their knowledge of target traits and personalities to form strata. Snowball sampling: Snowball sampling is conducted with target audiences, which are difficult to contact and get information. It is popular in cases where the target audience for research is rare to put together. Using surveys for primary quantitative research A Survey is defined as a research method used for collecting data from a pre-defined group of respondents to gain information and insights on various topics of interest.

Fundamental levels of measurement — nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales There are four measurement scales that are fundamental to creating a multiple-choice question in a survey. Use of different question types To conduct quantitative research, close-ended questions have to be used in a survey.

Survey Distribution and Survey Data Collection In the above, we have seen the process of building a survey along with the survey design to conduct primary quantitative research.