Quantitative research methods focus on gathering numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon or existing hypothesis.
| Strategies |
Controlled Animal or Biological Experiments and Tests (Control the environment and introduce something "new" - i.e. animal, biological, and laboratory studies. Animals and cells no substitute for humans!) Human Studies Polls, Surveys, Questionnaires (Less controlled - people errors; ex. "Yale Study of New Haven Low Income Areas") Cohort Studies (Collect data on wide selection of variables; time-consuming and expensive - e.g. "Harvard Nurses Study") Randomized Trials - (Example, "The GEICO study". Again introduce a new variable; considered more controlled and accurate) Sometimes studies uses Existing Raw Data and Manipulate it using Statistical Instruments (Example, https://www.healthdata.gov/ - clinical data from the DHHS) |
| Materials | Computer modeling software; spreadsheets; data sets; tables of raw data and figures to represent effects |
| Characteristics |
Uses Deductive Reasoning Structured with a set of variables Seeks to prove a supposed hypothesis Larger, random selection of participants Uses mathematical formulas to validate findings To prevent bias, can be "randomized" and "Double blind" (researcher and participants don't know about each other or where variable has been introduced) Findings can be generalized to greater populations and manipulated for other studies or purposes |
