what is quantitative research?
- research concerned why numerical data
- information which can be collected and analysed numerically
what do quantitative researchers believe?
- that the world is stable and predictible
- that issues of interest can be objectively measured and counted
what is positivism?
‘the world is stable and predictable & that things are either true or false’.
what are the two main types of study designs in QUANTitative research?
1.) Observational; research simply observes what happens to variables, i.e., people, over a period of time
2.) Experimental; researchers manipulate a variable to see what affect it has on other variables, i.e., a new drug, changes to someone’s diet, asking participants to uptake a new activity
what are the three subtypes of observational observational studies?
1.) cross-sectional
2.) case-controlled
3.) cohort studies
what is a cross-sectional study?
- data collected at a specific point in time; surveys, cencus data
- attempts to gather data from large numbers of participants
- can show associations but cannot infer causicity
what is case-controlled study?
- retrospective (looks backwards)
- researchers have little control over data
- compares people with a known outcome with those without that outcome
- can show association between variables but not causation, see below
- best known example is a study which shows a link (not CAUSE) between smoking and lung cancer
- No causatives should therefore be spoken about in relation to case-control studies
what is a cohort study?
- longitudinal (or prospective); studies which follow people over a period of time
- often many years
- these studies specifically follow participants who share a common characteristic, i.e., particular occupation, common demographic, etc.
what is a RCT?
- randomised control trial
- considered ‘gold standard’ of studies
- they are prospective
- researchers will manipulate the variables (get SOME participants to do something new/different and compare to those who don’t)
- lots of control involved, making results more reliable/accurate
are RCTs QUANTitative or QUALitative?
- QUANtitative
what does predetermined mean? (in research)
planned in advanced and not altered during the study
structured meaning in research?
data collection tools, sheets, frameworks
standardised meaning in research?
every participant gets the same information/instructions, in the same way- everyone does the same thing
four types of quantitative data collection questionnaires
- numeric answer questions
- likert scale questions
- multiple choice questions
- ranking questions
