Quantitative research

Question 1

3 things to do when choosing your approach when researching ?

Answer 1

1.unit of analysis e.g., country, company or individual will the findings have broad applicability(generalisable) or be influenced by local factors?
2.does the theory or data -will the literature be read first and then from that the theory is developed
3. will data be gathered and then theory can be developed from that( iterative process).

Question 2

3 things that will make a good study?

Answer 2

1.correct sample with appropriate sampling technique
2.use of standardised + accurate methods of collecting information
3.reproducible findings

Question 3

Quantitative approaches

Answer 3

numerical and analysed using statistic methods

Question 4

Analysed using mathematically-based methods

Answer 4

good to group or visualise data initially -outliers/ cleaning data

Question 5

what is the average being looked for in mathematically-based method?

Answer 5

Mean, median or mode

Question 6

how is spread of data presented?

Answer 6

-skewness(measurement of symmetrical distribution or asymmetry in a data set
through range, variance and standard deviation

Question 7

4 characteristics of quantitative research:

Answer 7

-study designs: ecological, cross sectional, case- control, cohort, RCT
-large sample size-high number of participants
-structured research methods
-closed-ended questions
-RQ includes words such as; how many, test, verify, how often, how satisfied

Question 8

4 ways why quantitative research is beneficial?

Answer 8

-describe what’s happening by finding averages, ranges, typical responses and patterns
-hypotheses about effects and relationships
-making predication about what may happen in the future
-achieve generalisable findings( random sampling from the population you want to generalise to sufficiently large sample

Question 9

Sources of quantitative data

Answer 9

primary: collected by the researcher

Question 10

2 different ways research can be collected from participants

Answer 10

1.can be direct(in person)
2.indirect-clinical records, personal records

Question 11

another method than primary of collecting data?

Answer 11

secondary: use data collected by someone else
-official datasets

Question 12

4 types of quantitative methods

Answer 12

-survey research: gathers and describes the characteristics of a target population
-descriptive research: aims to explain current status of identified and measurable variable
-correlational research: relation between 2 close business entitles and figure out how one of them impacts the other, for example relationship between diet and anxiety disorders
-experimental research: based on one or more theories. True experimentation- establishes the cause -effect relation over group of research variables

Question 13

Methods of getting primary quantitative data from research participants

Answer 13

-asking questions( survey format): direct or indirect- interview, written for example of number of cigarettes.
-taking measurements: direct- recording values, taking samples for analysis to get values for example height/weight.
-counting things- in and outside of lab- number of people using stairs

Question 14

Methods of getting primary quantitative data from non-live things

Answer 14

-counting things: outside the lab, for example number of shops per km
-other sources: internet sites, publications such as newspapers for examples house prices, number of article columns devoted to health.

Question 15

Principles of primary data collection:

Answer 15

What needs to be considered for response options:
-methods of analysis
-impact on participants
-impact on statistician
- do not assume the question will be interpreted by participant the way you intend
-consider how errors minimise in data collection and recording

Question 16

Methods of getting quantitative data from secondary sources

Answer 16

official datasets/ survey and other researcher’s data.

Question 17

Advantages of quantitative data

Answer 17

-direct result comparison
-replication
-large samples
-hypothesis testing:

Question 18

4 disadvantages of quantitative data

Answer 18

-superficial approach: highly restrictive and precise operational definitions-not able to represent complex in adequate manner
-narrow focus: as researchers have data collections, they may not approach the research with an open mind.
-structural bias: when researcher uses skills to form samples it could arrive at wrong conclusions because of sampling biases
-lack of context: the methodology has professional or unnatural settings such as labs so research will tend to ignore cultural aspects -could lead to errors in data collections.