Quantitative Model ©

JEANNETTE VILLATORO

Quantitative data is quite different from qualitative in that it deals with recorded data of numerical value. The non-experimental methods that are used are plenty and represent the statistical data that can be gathered by using quantitative research.

Surveys, questionnaires, tests, and inventories are used in quantitative research. These are used to gather opinions on an issue that is being studied and proves to be a viable method rather the surveys or forms of questionnaires are analytical or descriptive (Davis, Smith, 2009). This is common for companies wanting to illicit responses to recent campaigns or for running congressmen to ask average citizens how and why they vote. Some problems that can occur using these methods are that people cannot be truthful or may be vague on such surveys, and also the questions can be misinterpreted. And other problem arises when surveys are mailed out and participants do not respond (Davis, Smith, 2009). This method can be useful but may be most successful when combined with another research method.

Descriptive methods are also a part of the non-experimental realm of research. This can include archival and previously recorded sources of data in which a researcher answers a question about the problem at hand by researching data that was recorded by other parties for other purposes (Davis, Smith, 2009). Archival sources are available online to the public or through printed journals or published articles and there can be interesting facts obtained to substantiate a current research project or dilemma (Davis, Smith, 2009). Someone utilizing this way of research may be looking for gender differences in economic status through the census data of a certain city. A researcher should be careful with this method as an only source because the way the data was collected, whether or not there was bias and how the findings occurred cannot be necessarily verified.

One last part of this non-experimental area of learning is ex post facto studies in which variables that happened during an experiment are studied after the experiment is completed (Davis, Smith, 2009). This has to do with independent variables that we either could not manipulate during an experiment or didn’t recognize. We learned how variables could creep in and ruin or compromise a seemingly airtight research experiment, but ex post facto studies help to examine those variables and any possible effects they may have rendered on the research and the collected data. A researcher might examine the type of workplace or the sex of the participants as possible variables in an ex post facto study (Davis, Smith, 2009). Careful approach must be taken when this is done because “drawing conclusions” (Davis, Smith, 2009, p. 69) can easily become a problem after analyzing a completed experiment.
References

Davis, S. F., & Smith, R. A. (2009). The Psychologist as Detective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.