QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
I203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information
Questionnaires, Surveys
Experiments and
Experimental Designs
Common Types of Quantitative Research
Methods (Methods of Research)
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Descriptive Research
Defining Features
Aims to define the existing condition of a classified variable.
Designed to give “answers to the questions of who, what,
when, where, and how which are linked with a research
problem.”
It is applied only to describe what exists and to gather
information about the current status of a certain
phenomenon. (Anastas, 1999 as cited in Salkind and
Rasmussen, 2007, pp. 251-254).
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Examples
A description of how senior high school students
celebrate their birthdays.
A description of how parents feel about the K to
12 Curriculum.
A description of the youth’s perception of the 2016
elections.
A description of the attitudes of the women’s
groups towards men’s playing internet games.
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CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
Defining Features
It tries to define the degree of relationship between two or more
variables using statistical data.
It seeks to interpret the relationships between and among a
number of facts.
Distinguishes tendencies and patterns in data, but it does not go
so far in its analysis to prove causes for these observed patterns.
The data, relationships, and distributions variables are identified
only in a natural setting and not in a manipulated one.
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CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
To find if the data has an observable relationship
that can be further specified in terms of magnitude
and/or an increase or decrease.
Correlation indicates the strength and direction of a
linear relationship between variables.
Correlation and Significance
Is there a relationship
between two
variables/data?
What is the direction of
the relationship?
What is the magnitude?
These relationships may
show any tendency for
the variables to vary
consistently.
Pearson’s product
moment coefficient
correlation: -1.0 to
+1.0
Examples
The relationship between successful career and
educational attainment.
The relationship between high grades and having
tutors.
The relationship between the entrance exam results
and attendance in review centers.
The relationship between smoking and tuberculosis.
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EX POST FACTO
‘from what is done afterwards’
CAUSAL-COMPARATIVE
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL
CAUSAL-COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
Defining Features
It endeavors to ascertain cause-effect relationships among
variables.
It seeks to interpret the relationships between and among a
number of facts.
Distinguishes tendencies and patterns in data, but it does not go
so far in its analysis to prove causes for these observed patterns.
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Studies that investigate possible cause and effect
relationships by observing an existing condition or
state of affairs and searching back in time for
plausible causal factors.
Characteristics of Ex Post Facto
Researcher takes the effect/dependent variable
and examines it retrospectively
Establishes causes, relationships or associations and
their meanings.
Researcher has little to no control over independent
variables.
Flexible by nature.
Examples:
The effect of studying in Catholic schools on the moral value
system of those who graduate from these schools
The effect of exercising regularly to body fitness
The effect of gender on college course choices
The effect of good family upbringing to good performance in
class
The effect of belonging to Christian Living organization on a
students religiosity
Experiments
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Little Albert
Milgram’s Authority Experiment
Experimental Research Design
Experimental research in psychology applies
the scientific method to achieve the four goals of
psychology: describing, explaining, predicting, and
controlling behavior and mental processes.
A psychologist can use experimental research to test a
specific hypothesis by measuring and manipulating
variables. By creating a controlled environment,
researchers can test the effects of an independent
variable on a dependent variable or variables.
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True Randomized Experimental Design
(1) Independent Variables are manipulated
(usually by experimenter, sometimes by context)
(2) Participants must be assigned randomly to
various conditions or groups
When this condition is not met, it is a quasi-experimental
design
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Examples:
A psychologist may be interested in the impact of
video game violence on children's aggression.
The psychologist randomly assigns some children to
play a violent video game for 1 hour and other
children to play a non-violent video game for 1 hour.
Then the psychologist observes the children socialize
afterwards to determine if the children in the
"violentvideogame“
condition behave more aggressively than the children
in the "non-violent video game" condition
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. In example, the independent variable is video
game group. Our independent variable has two
levels: violent video games and non-violent video
games. The dependent variable is the thing that we
want to measure—in this case, aggressive behavior.
Examples:
Effects of receiving a cookie as a reward
(independent variable) on time taken to complete
task (dependent variable).
Participants who received a cookie took much less
time to complete the task than participants who did
not receive a cookie.
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Mixed Methodologies Win
Puts the emphasis on the problem, not
the method
Many combinations found in broad
range of research topics:
Experiment / Questionnaires
Field Study / Experiment
Interviews / Questionnaires
Participant Observation /
Experiments
Can also include using both
qualitative and quantitative methods
of measurement in a single study.