preferences attitudes practices concerns, or interests.

The

What is Quantitative Research?

Tsadaaaan... the other paradigm

Aug 12, '09 9:06 AM

by Jeni Kalembang for
group thesisorigin

to
,
,
,
survey also involves statistical analysis of numerical data.

Yet, we should also take note of potential problems attached to the survey.

Now that we're done with knowing the definition of research and the requirements involved if one
wants to pursue it qualitatively, let's proceed to the next chapter in your life: learning
what

quantitative methodology is.

What is a quantitative-designed research? Why do researchers use such methodology?

There can be several purposes for doing quantitative research.

to describe current conditions (mapping trends, for example)

to investigate relationships (is there a relationship between age & frequency of internet
use?)

to study causes and effects (what are the factors that cause parental mediation of
children's television viewing?)

How might those purposes be achieved? What are the research designs used in the quantitative
methodology?

One
is on the development of the instrument (the questionnaire for
instance), which can prove to be tedious and must be properly crafted such that it addresses
statistical requirements/needs. Another problem has to do with low response rates. It is actually
not easy to distribute and retrieve questionnaires. And most important, the researcher cannot be
completely assured that responses from subjects are honest.

CORRELATIONAL

There are four (4) major designs we can name here:

The second is called correlational design. The purpose of correlational design is to ascertain the
extent to which two or more variables are statistically related.

1. Descriptive/Survey
2. Correlational
3. Causal comparative, and
4. Experimental

Questions you can raise under this category could be the following:

Let's start off with the most common:

DESCRIPTIVE/SURVEY
A survey's purpose is to describe current conditions. Examples of research questions under this
category could be any of the following:

How many students prefer to research using the Worldwide Web?

What are the attitudes of parents, students, and teachers toward the

What is the relationship between use of new media and scores of freshmen in exams?
Is teachers' use of new media related to their effectiveness?
Do significant relationships exist between the types of activities used in communication classes
and student achievement?
Did you notice the use of the word "relationship" or "related" in those research questions? A
correlational design has that word in its research question all the time.

on-the-job training

provided by the school?

Now what are the characteristics of a correlational study?

What have been the reactions of school administrators to innovations in teaching film making?
To what extent are faculty members using new media in communication classes?

Data from a correlational study are measured with a correlation coefficient. (We'll know what that
is when we have our hands-on in SPSS soon.)

As you might have noticed, the survey is characterized by using large samples and using
tests/questionnaires/surveys. It is also focused on information related

Also in correlational study, one group of subjects can be measured using two variables (such as
what I've given as an example above: the teachers' use ofnew media and their effectiveness).
Instruments or statistical tools are used to measure variables.

And finally, correlation is interested in the direction and nature of the relationship (of the
variables). For instance, it can be said that there is apositive, moderate relationship between use of
new media in teaching and scores of freshmen in exam. (We'll deal with more of this during the
hands-on.)
Yet, despite the sophistication of a correlational study, what are its potential problems? Same as
the survey, the development of the instrument (i.e. questionnaire) would prove to be a bit
cumbersome, because the type of data you need from your subjects (in this case, nominal data are
not useful) must fulfill the requirements of the statistical tool that is used in correlation. (Yes, I
know, I know, we'll re-vist Statistics soon. Don't worry.)
Another potential problem is that inferring cause and effect relationships might be mistaken to be
a conclusion that can be derived from a correlational study. So, the researcher must understand
how to interpret data well using correlation.

CAUSAL-COMPARATIVE
The purpose of the causal-comparative design is to explore relationships among variables that
cannot be actively manipulated or controlled by the researcher.
Examples of research questions under this category are:

What is the effect of on-the-job exposure on the achievement of communication students?

What communication characteristics differentiate students who drop out from those who do not?
Now, how do we know that we're doing a causal-comparative study?
Well, first, the subjects we use in the study are selected from at least two groups in which the
cause (the independent variable) has already occurred. Look at question number one, on-the-job
exposure has already occurred; our job as researcher now may be to find out its effect on
achievement of male and female senior students.
Second, we use statistical comparisons of the effect (i.e., the dependent variable) using at least two
groups.

Examine the effect of teaching with a 1) co-operative groups strategy or 2) traditional lecture
approach on student's achievement

Examine the effect of teaching with new media or a traditional media approach on the test scores
of communication students
You see? The researcher gets to control the environment. The design allows the researcher to
control the causal variable (i.e. teaching with new media/teaching with traditional media).
What are the characteristics of the experimental design?
First is on stringent or strict procedures for selecting subjects and assigning them to groups.
Second, the causal variable is manipulated.
Third, extraneous variables (ideally) are controlled.
Fourth, statistical analysis is used for these numerical data.
The potential problems that lie under the design include the inability of the researcher to
adequately control extraneous variables. In an experiment, there might be other factors that could
influence the effect, which might not have been carefully considered/anticipated in the crafting of
the design of the experiment.
An example I could share is a study I read while researching on Intercultural Communication. The
study wanted to find out if Japanese and American audiences have the same or common facial
expressions when viewing horror films. So an experiment was made, in which these subjects were
separately placed in rooms where they were supposed to watch a horror film. Hidden cameras
were placed in the respective rooms. Ideally, the horror film is the causal variable that should
"induce" the viewer to project the expression, right? What if extraneous variables contribute to the
facial expression documented or snapped by the hidden camera? Say, the whirr from the thirtyyear old airconditioning unit has provided them instead that horrified look on their faces? Or,
perhaps, a cold wind suddenly entered through the window? So, doing an experiment, as you can
see, is not immune to such distractions.
Another problem is on the use of complicated research techniques. Cause-and-effect does not just
rely on correlational analyses. Some tools that are used under experiment will be shared to you
later. Don't worry, in this class you need not conduct any experiment just so you could use these
tools.
Finally and as expected, in experimental design, statistical analyses of data are more complex.

The statistical tools that can be used in causal-comparative design shall be taught to you during
our hands-on.

EXPERIMENTAL
From the word alone, its rationale should be easy to comprehend. The researcher conducts an
experiment to prove something.
The purpose of the experimental design is to establish cause and effect relationships among
variables.
Examples for this category are:

Whew!
In class, we'll try to look at your research topics/questions and see which of them might benefit
from a quantitative investigation.

Questions and comments are highly encouraged!