This week I learned
about quantitative research and its elements.
What is quantitative research?
Quantitative research is "research based on traditional scientific
methods, which generates numerical data and usually seeks to establish casual
relationships between two or more variables, using statistical methods to test
the strength and significance of the relationships." Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O62-quantitativeresearch.html
“The information about a social phenomenon is expressed in
numeric terms that can be analyzed by statistical methods.” wrote Mamia about
the quantitative method. I had to sit
back for a minute and ask myself “Can I think of a social phenomenon that can
be expressed in numerical terms and analyzed by statistics?” It took me a moment but then I thought about
Facebook (Twitter came to mind as well but Facebook came to me first). Here is a social phenomenon that has not only
captivated millions of people in the U.S. but has really made a global
impact. Certainly this could be an
example of a social phenomenon that can be expressed numerically and analyzed
by statistical methods. My curiosity
began to get the better of me so I used the Hunt Library in search of an
article to corroborate my suspicion and I found How large companies react to
negative Facebook comments. “The study identifies official Facebook pages
sponsored by the top ten companies (as defined by the Forbes 2000 for 2010) in
four industry groups - banking, retailing, software and services, and household
and personal products. The number of negative comments posted to these pages is
calculated and corporate reactions to the comments analyzed. “
I remember years ago
when I started to hear all the buzz about Facebook. I didn’t quite get it. At the time MySpace was pretty popular and I
the interface was more appealing to me.
However as time went on I kept hearing more and more buzz about Facebook
so I finally decided to give it a try.
Well looks like I’m not the only one who decided to give Facebook a
go. It now boasts upwards of up to a
billion users (although it is very hard to determine the actual number because
of fake accounts, and underage users). I
guess a quantitative study could theoretically be performed to verify the
number of actual users on the website.
The scope of such a study I can imagine would be a challenging task
given variable such as new daily members, members leaving, member inactivity,
etc.
The quantitative
method seemed to make more sense to me when I considered it in terms of the
study performed by Dekay. Research
usually involves the elements of theoretical and empirical research as well. Empirical research involves learning through
direct or indirect observation.
Theoretical research studies problems relating to or based on
theory.
Quantitative
research has strengths and weaknesses. Some
of the strengths are: it enables the research and description of social
structures and processes that are not directly observable, tests hypothesis
that are formed before data is collected, you can use statistical software to
analyze data, useful for studying large groups.
Some of its weaknesses may include: the categories and theories used by
the researcher might not might reflect the understanding of the study’s
participants, the information gathered might be too abstract or general for
application to specific groups, only applicable for measurable phenomena.
In order to conduct
your research you have to have a plan. First
you will want to select a topic to research.
Once you have selected a topic you will want to learn what previous
research on the same topic has been done before. How was the study conducted? Was there any reoccurring themes
discovered? Is there enough data? Next you can select your theoretical
approach. Specify the research problem
into questions that the research can answer.
Lastly plan the empirical research process or research design. Research design is the structure of the
research data. How will it be
organized? What will be explored? When studying large groups it may not be
possible to obtain all of the observations.
When this occurs a “sample” of the population is studied. Generalizations can be made from these
samples. To obtain data you can use face
to face interviews, questionnaires, phone interviews, or systematic
observation. When collecting data you
need informed consent, anonymity, you cannot harm the participants. Without a plan where would you know where to
begin? How would you know what to expect
or anticipate? I like to consider myself
a pretty good planner. When my wife and
I planned our honeymoon trip to San Francisco a few years ago, I was determined
to learn as much about the city as possible.
I bought Fodor’s San Francisco 2011: with the Wine Country in
anticipation of our trip. I planned our
trip from the moment we touched down until the very last day. We visited Alcatraz, walked across the Golden
Gate Bridge, and made our way to Sonoma for some amazing wine tastings. I fell in love with San Francisco on this
trip and we hope to return as soon as Caiden is old enough to travel well. I enjoy learning about different cultures,
experiencing new places, and building memories with my wife. In order to have experienced all the amazing
sights of San Francisco I needed to have a plan.
For example, say I wanted to explore why ERAU students would
choose to shop at a Sam’s Club vs. a Costco.
I would research reliable sources to determine if there had been any
similar previous studies completed. I
would conduct theoretical and empirical research. I would devise a plan in order to collect
data by developing a questionnaire and distributing it via email. I would record and analyze the
responses. Once that was completed I
would answer the empirical questions and conduct my theoretical interpretations
of the results. Those results would then
be compared to earlier research so that I could make my conclusion.
Dekay, S. H.
(2012). How large companies react to negative Facebook comments, 17, 3. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1108/13563281211253539
