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Introduction to Quantitative Research
Charles Laugharne
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Quantitative/Qualitative?
• Quantitative• Emphasis on measuring
and counting
• Makes general statements about people as groups
• Likes to prove causal relationships
• Tends to reduce things to smaller parts
• Qualitative• Usually no counting
• Emphasis on feeling and experiences
• Tends to see the world as changing
• Emphasis on the individual
• Tends to see things holistically
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Methods
• Quantitative• Experiments• Random control trials• Surveys
• Qualitative• Ethnography• Phenomenology
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How to measure
• Instruments
e.g. (Temperature using a thermometer, ruler)
• Scales
(used to measure things we cannot see)
• Counting
(Number of people, ages and length of time)
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The Building Blocks
• Theory – a set of ideas about a situation that guides a research study
• Hypothesis – the researcher’s prediction of what they might find
• Variables - independent variable – the “cause”
- dependent variable – the “effect”
• Instruments – describes the tool used to collect data in a study
e.g. questionnaire
• Measurement – the method used to measure the phenomenon being studied
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Sampling
• Population - the units (people, events, objects or institutions) from which data are collected.
- A clearly defined group who share common characteristics, as defined by the researcher.
• Sample - a proportion or subset of the sample
- a section of a defined population used in a study to provide data
• Census
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Evaluating quantitative research
• ValidityDoes it study what is says it studies? The extent to which a tool of data collection has produced what it intended to produce.
• ReliabilityThe accuracy of the tool of data collection. Are the results repeated in further studies?
• GeneralizabilityIn quantitative research, the ability to apply the results of a study to other like situations.
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