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QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Nature of Quantitative Research
Review from Lectures 1 and 2
Methods as Questioning
What is research?
What is research for, and for whom?
How do different academic disciplines view knowledge, knowledge production, research and its purposes/goals?
A Body of Knowledge
Research can be seen as:
- a series premises/ assumptions
- a disciplined strategy for knowing; a belief system about evidence;
- an established body of knowledge;
- a collection of methods, tools, and techniques
- a deliberate, purposeful or functional activity
- a process carried on by people
Empirical research
- evidence based
- explaining, and predicting natural phenomena.
- understanding will always be partial, incomplete, and probabilistic
Objectivity
- as a procedure or a method
- as the creation replicable findings
- as trustworthy explanations
- as a matter of degree
Nature of the research question.
1) What are the characteristics of a social phenomenon?
(2) What are the causes of a social phenomenon?
(3) What are the consequences of a social phenomenon?
(4) What are the conditions/ contexts of a social phenomenon?
Six Types of Social Phenomenon Addressed
Acts
Activities
Meanings
Participation
Relationships
Settings
BOUNDARIES FOR RESEARCH PROBLEMS
(1) PEOPLE: individuals, groups, population, folklore, families, community groups, employees, management, the disadvantaged, the wealthy, students, crime, criminals, et cetera ...
(2) THINGS: biological and vegetable life, inanimate objects, matter, chemical and pharmacological problems, machines, food and clothing, the universe, et cetera ...
(3) THOUGHTS and IDEAS: opinions, reactions, theories, viewpoints, political theory, religious beliefs, perceptions, observations, issues, language and semantics, literature, confessions, journalistic columns and commentators' viewpoints, cartoons and caricatures
(4) RECORDS: legal documents, lists, journals, registers, diaries, memoirs,
interviews, minutes, speeches, recordings, census reports, financial and corporate statements, artifacts, archeological remains, files, newspapers, paintings, music, manuscripts, et cetera ...
(5) DYNAMICS OR ENERGY: human energy or activity, metabolism, bionics, excitation states, thinking, et cetera...
TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODS:
(1) Action Research
(2) Case and Field Study Research
(3) Correlational Research
(4) Descriptive Survey
(5) Analytical Survey
(6) Developmental Research
(7) Ex Post Facto
(8) Quasi Experimental
(9) True Experimental
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Empirical Research
As Science?
Quantitative Methods
Basic Elements
These four major elements of science:
(1) designing,
(2) hypothesizing,
(3) sampling,
(4) interpreting
HYPOTHESES AND VARIABLES
The building blocks of hypotheses are variables.
CONCEPTS
VARIABLES
CONCEPTS
There are only TWO main types of data/facts:
(1) Writings
(2) Observations
HYPOTHESES AND VARIABLES
The building blocks of hypotheses are variables.
Kinds of Variables
X ---- Y
X---Z---Y
Independent variables are those things thought to be the cause or bring about change in other variables.
Dependent variables are those things changed or affected by independent variables, sometimes through other variables.
operational definitions: give empirical meaning to the concept
operational definitions.
--nominal definitions: theoretical definitions stated verbally ie what researcher getting at when choosing an operationalization
--operational definitions: give empirical meaning to the nominal definition, how the variable will be measured or how you will know when you have found the construct
Relationships among variables
SURVEY RESEARCH DESIGN
The basic idea behind survey methodology is to measure variables
cross-sectional design
longitudinal design
Survey Research: a research method involving the use of standardized questionnaires or interviews to collect data about people and their preferences, thoughts, and behaviors in a systematic manner
- strengths of survey research
- questionnaire surveys
- interview surveys
RESEARCH DESIGNS
SURVEY RESEARCH DESIGN
The basic idea behind survey methodology is to measure variables
Trend, Cohort, Panel
CROSS SECTIONAL ‑versus‑ LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH STUDIES
Questionnaires, Interviews
(Mail, Telephone, Internet)
Controlled Experiment
Experimental studies are those that are intended to test cause-effect relationships (hypotheses) in a tightly controlled setting by separating the cause from the effect in time, administering the cause to one group of subjects (the “treatment group”) but not to another group (“control group”), and observing how the mean effects vary between subjects in these two groups
internal validity, external validity, construct validity, and statistical conclusion validity
MEASUREMENT
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