4 types of quantitative research and when to use them

You need quantitative research data, conducted on a statistically significant sample to

get the most informative results for your business.

You may already use quantitative research, or you may be new to this research type.
Join us as we explore quantitative research, how to use it, and the best ways to collect
quantitative data.

What is quantitative research?

Research in which collected data is converted into numbers or numerical data is
quantitative research. It is widely used in surveys, demographic studies, census
information, marketing, and other studies that use numerical data to analyze results.
Primary quantitative research yields results that are objective, statistical, and
unbiased. These results are often used as benchmarks.

Characteristics of quantitative research:

 Data is numerical
 Analysis is from a statistical perspective
 Conducted on a statistically significant sample size that is representative of the
target market
 Uses structured tools, such as surveys, to gather data
 Uses closed-ended questions focused on the end goal of the research
 Can provide generalized results that represent an entire population
 Can be used to find patterns and averages
 Can be used to make predictions
 Can test causal relationships

The difference between quantitative vs. qualitative research

The difference between the two is quantitative research collects numerical data.
It is statistical and structured, and its results are objective and conclusive.
Qualitative research collects non-numerical data to gain insights. It is performed
with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of a topic, issue, or problem from an
individual perspective. Data is meant to describe rather than predict. Information is
gathered through focus groups, observation, and open-ended survey questions.
Qualitative research data is not numerical. Because of its exploratory nature,
answers are descriptive text or statements rather than choices from a structured answer
set. This makes qualitative research more time-consuming to analyze than quantitative
research, though it is equally valuable in a well-structured survey.

Advantages of quantitative research

There are several advantages to quantitative research. Some of the most salient
advantages are:

Reliable data: data collected in quantitative research is reliable and accurate because it
is collected, analyzed, and presented in numerical form.

Study can be replicated: standardized collection allows the study to be performed

again to directly compare results.

Fast and easy collection of data: quantitative research data can be collected quickly
and the process of conducting a survey with the quantitative research method is
straightforward and less time-consuming than qualitative research.
Wider scope of data analysis: quantitative research provides a wider scope of
analysis with the use of statistics.

Eliminates bias: there is no scope for personal opinions or biasing of results in the
numerical data.

Less interpretation of results: accept or reject your hypothesis based on numerical

data.

Limitations of quantitative research

No research method is perfect. These are some of the main limitations of quantitative
research:

Superficial representation: complex concepts such as feelings and opinions cannot

be
expressed

Data can be over-manipulated: missing data, imprecise measurements, or

inappropriate sampling are biases that can lead to inaccurate conclusions.

Difficult to analyze without a tool: statistical analysis can be challenging to perform

without statistics knowledge and experience or a tool that performs statistical analysis.

Types of quantitative research

Quantitative research methods are used for descriptive, correlational, causal-
comparative, and experimental research. Let’s take a closer look at each type.

Descriptive research
This type of quantitative research is used to explain the current state of a variable or
topic. It can answer what, where, when, and how, but not why questions (those are
answered in qualitative research). The researcher does not control or manipulate the
variables. They just observe and measure them.

 Surveys are often used to gather a large amount of data that can be analyzed for
frequencies, averages, and patterns. For example, surveys can be used to
describe the demographics of a given region, gauge public opinion on political
topics, and evaluate customer satisfaction with a company’s products.
 Observations are often used to gather data without relying on survey
respondents' honesty or accuracy. This method of descriptive research is used to
understand how individuals act in real-life situations.
 Case studies can also be used to gather detailed information to identify
characteristics of a narrowly defined subject. They are frequently used to
generate hypotheses and theories.
Goals of descriptive research
The goal of descriptive research is to understand the current status of an identified
variable.

When to use descriptive research

Descriptive research is used to identify categories and trends, form hypotheses, arrange
comparisons, confirm existing phenomena, and outline sample characteristics.

Descriptive research examples:

  An athletic shoe brand conducts a demographic survey to understand the shoe
purchasing trends among customers in New York.
 Find out where young adults aged 16-20 get their online news with a survey
listing popular news sites.
 Discover how often working people take vacations by sending surveys asking
how many vacations the target population has taken in the last year.

Correlational research
The correlational research method examines the relationships between different
subjects and variables without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them. It
is focused on relationships between fixed variables. Correlational research relies on the
scientific method and hypotheses.
 Surveys are fast, easy ways to measure your variables of interest. It’s essential
to ensure that your questions are formulated correctly and your questions are
free of bias. Our question bank is very useful in helping you design your survey
questions.
 Naturalistic observation allows you to gather data about a behavior or
phenomenon in its natural environment. This may include measuring
frequencies, durations, scales, and amounts.

Secondary data is a fast, inexpensive way to conduct correlational research. However,

the data may not be reliable or not entirely relevant to your study—and you have no
control over it.

Goals of correlational research

The goal of correlational research is to identify variables that have some sort of
relationship to the extent that one creates a change in the other.

When to use correlational research

Correlational research is used to gather data quickly from natural settings so you can
generalize findings to a real-life situation.

Correlational research examples:

 Find out if there is a relationship between Facebook shares of your website link
and a higher Google ranking.
 Discover if there is a correlation between gender and class participation in
college classes by observing seminars, tracking the frequency and duration of
students’ contributions, and categorizing them by gender.
 Find out if videos on your website improve dwell time and increase conversions.

Causal-comparative/ quasi-experimental research

The causal-comparative research method is used to identify a cause and effect
relationship between two variables, where one variable is dependent and another is
independent. It has aspects in common with experimentation but cannot be considered
a true experiment.

There are three main types of quasi-experimental research designs:

 Nonequivalent groups: groups are similar, but only one experiences treatment or
variable
 Regression discontinuity: researchers assign an arbitrary cutoff in the list of
participants. Those above the cutoff receive treatment or variable and those
below do not. The individuals just below the threshold are used as a control
group because they are so near the threshold.
  Natural experiments: an external event or situation (nature) results in the random
assignment of subjects to the variable recipient group. These experiments are
observational and are not considered true experiments.

Goals of causal-comparative research

The goal of causal-comparative research is to identify how different groups are affected
by the same circumstance.

When to use causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research

Causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research is often used when experimental
research is deemed infeasible, unethical, or prohibited.

Causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research examples:

 Your hypothesis is that sixth-grade students who attend an afterschool program
will achieve better grades. You choose two similar groups of sixth-graders who
attend different schools—one with an afterschool program and one without.
 Find the difference in wages between men and women with a comparative study
of wages earned by both genders across various occupations and locations.
 The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment famously expanded Medicaid (the US
low-income public insurance program) to more low-income adults by random
lottery. Researchers were able to examine the program's impact by using the
eligible adults not chosen as a control group and the enrolled adults as a
randomly assigned treatment group.

Experimental research
The experimental research method is research that is guided by a specific hypothesis or
hypotheses. It is very useful for guiding decision-making. Any research conducted using
the scientific method uses experimental research methods.

There are three types of experimental research designs:

 Pre-experimental: a researcher observes a group or multiple groups after
implementing a treatment or introducing a factor that is assumed to lead to
changes in the groups. This is used to understand if further research is
necessary for the observed groups.
 True experimental: depends on statistical analysis to support or refute the
hypothesis. The participants must be chosen in random sampling.
 Quasi-experimental: participants are not chosen at random.

Goals of experimental research:

The goal of experimental research is to prove or disprove a specific hypothesis. It uses
the scientific method to establish the cause-effect relationship among a group of
variables.

When to use experimental research:

Use experimental research when you need to compare two or more groups that are
experiencing different conditions.

Experimental research examples:

 Your company wants to market your new product. You choose to run two different
versions of your advertisement as part of your marketing plan. You track the
performance of each ad to determine which is the most effective.
 You take your chosen advertisement and show it to two different demographic
groups to see which groups produce the best results.
  You create multiple prototypes of a product and test performance and capability
to choose the most effective design.

Data collection methods

Data collection, the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of
interest, is critical in any type of research. How the information is collected and used
and what insights it can generate are determined by the methodology and analytical
approach of the researcher.

In quantitative research, you’ll use one or more of these methods to collect data.
Surveys
Questionnaires or surveys ask questions to help researchers collect data. There are
several types of survey questions. For quantitative surveys, closed-ended questions
that yield numerical values and answers are typically used.

Cross-sectional surveys
This type of survey gathers data from multiple demographic groups during the same
time period. With cross-sectional surveys, you can compare data across demographics
and track multiple variables.

Longitudinal surveys
These surveys gather data from one demographic group at multiple time periods. A
longitudinal survey may be used to follow up with participants at, for example, one
month, two months, one year, and five years later. The goal of a longitudinal survey is to
see how habits change over time or what impact habits have on a group of people over
the course of months or years.

Interviews
Similar to surveys, participants are asked a series of questions in interviews. Instead of
answering online or on paper, the researcher asks questions face-to-face with the
participant. Interviews may be structured, where each participant is asked the same
questions in the same order, or unstructured, where questions are asked as the
researcher thinks of them or in response to what a participant says.

Observation
In observation, a researcher watches people and notes their behaviors, actions, and
habits. Observation is most often used in qualitative research, but can also be used in
quantitative research.

What type of quantitative research do you need?

Whether you’re engaging in descriptive, correlational, causal-comparative, or
experimental research, you need a panel of participants that meets your requirements.

Types of Quantitative Research Methods and Designs

 Every doctoral student has their own reasons for pursuing a terminal degree.
Some are motivated by enhanced career prospects, while others like the idea of being
recognized as an expert in their field or have a passion for bringing new knowledge to
leaders. Regardless of your own motivations for earning a doctoral degree, you are sure
to develop stronger critical thinking and analytical reasoning abilities along the way. This
is thanks in large part to your strategic research design.

As you prepare for your quantitative dissertation research, you’ll need to think
about structuring your research design. There are several types of quantitative research
designs, such as the experimental, comparative or predictive correlational designs. The
approach you should choose depends primarily on your research aims. Before you
decide which of these quantitative research methods to choose, you should have a
conversation with your dissertation advisor about your options.

What Is Quantitative Research Design?

At the core, dissertations seek to answer research questions. They may develop
new theories, expand upon existing theories or otherwise add to the body of knowledge
in a field. Whatever the purpose, research questions address a research problem
statement, which is the heart of a dissertation.

For example, doctoral students may seek to answer questions such as, If and to
what extent do teacher practices influence special education students’ motivation? or
Do office perks affect workers’ productivity?

The findings you glean from your research will help you develop fully
substantiated answers to your questions. To acquire these findings, however, you’ll
need to develop your dissertation’s research design.

“Research design” refers to your approach for answering your fundamental

research questions. If you are writing a quantitatively based dissertation, your research
design will center on numerical data collection and analysis.

Before you can settle on the details of your quantitative research design, you
must decide whether your dissertation will be exploratory or conclusive in nature.
Exploratory research seeks to develop general insights by exploring the subject in
depth. In contrast, conclusive research aims to arrive at a definitive conclusion about
the topic.

Taking a Closer Look at the Types of Quantitative Research Designs

Your quantitative research design is your strategy for carrying out your doctoral
research. In the process of establishing your research design, you will need to answer
questions such as the following:

 What are your overall aims and approach?

 Which data collection methods will you use?
 Which data collection procedures will you use?
 What are your criteria for selecting samples or screening research subjects?
 How will you prevent the possibility of inadvertent bias that may skew your
results?
 How will you analyze your data?

You should also consider whether you will need primary or secondary data. “Primary
data” refer to information that you collect firsthand from sources such as study
participants. “Secondary data” refer to information that was originally collected by other
researchers; importantly, you will need to verify these sources’ reliability and validity.

Quantitative Research Design Examples

While reflecting upon the answers to the above questions, consider the main
types of quantitative research design:

 Experimental research design

 Quasi-experimental research design
 (Causal) comparative
 Correlational including predictive quantitative design
 General correlation

Descriptive Quantitative Design for Your Research

This type of quantitative research design is appropriate if you intend to measure
variables and perhaps establish associations between variables. However, the
quantitative descriptive research design cannot establish causal relationships between
variables.

Descriptive research is also referred to as “observational studies” because your

role is strictly that of an observer. The following are some of the types of descriptive
studies you might engage in when writing your dissertation:

Case or case study: This is a fairly simple quantitative research design example. It
involves the collection of data from only one research subject.

Case series: If the researcher evaluates data from a few research subjects, the study is
called a “case series.”

Cross-sectional study: In a cross-sectional study, researchers analyze variables in

their sample of subjects. Then, they establish the non-causal relationships between
them.

Prospective study: Also called a “cohort study” or “longitudinal study,” this involves
analyzing some variables at the beginning of the study. Then, researchers conduct
further analyses on outcomes at the conclusion of the study. These studies may take
place over a long period of time (e.g., researchers analyzing individuals’ diet habits and
then determining incidences of heart disease after 30 years).

Case-control study: Researchers can compare cases or subjects with a certain

attribute to cases that lack that attribute (the controls). These are also called
“retrospective studies.”

Because the role of the researcher is solely observational, they may not develop
a hypothesis beforehand, though some researchers might develop one before
beginning their research. Rather, the descriptive researcher develops the hypothesis
after collecting the data and analyzing it for their quantitative dissertation.

Correlational Quantitative Research Design

Because it likewise makes no attempt to influence the variables, correlational
research is very similar to quantitative descriptive research design. Another similarity is
that the researcher conducting the study measures or evaluates the variables involved.
The main difference between descriptive and correlational studies is that a correlational
study seeks to understand the relationship between the variables.

A correlational study can also establish whether this relationship has a positive or
negative direction. A positive correlation means that both variables move in the same
direction. In contrast, a negative correlation means that the variables move in opposite
directions.

For example, a positive correlation might be expressed as follows: “As a person

lifts more weights, they grow greater muscle mass.” A negative correlation, meanwhile,
might be expressed as follows: “As a waiter drops more trays, their tips decrease.”

Note that a correlational study can also produce findings of zero correlation. For
example, the presence of muscular waiters might not be correlated with tips.

The fact that correlational research cannot be used to establish causality is a

common point of confusion among new researchers. After all, it certainly seems to be
causal in nature that a waiter who drops trays frequently would receive smaller tips.
However, the key is that correlational studies do not provide definitive proof that one
variable leads to the second variable.

Quasi-Experimental Quantitative Research Design

In a quasi-experimental quantitative research design, the researcher attempts to
establish a cause-effect relationship from one variable to another. For example, a
researcher may determine that high school students who study for an hour every day
are more likely to earn high grades on their tests. To develop this finding, the researcher
would first measure the length of time that the participants study each day (variable
one) and then their test scores (variable two).

In this study, one of the variables is independent, and the other is dependent.
The value of the independent variable is not influenced by the other variables; the value
of the dependent variable, however, is wholly dependent on changes in the independent
variable. In the example above, the length of study time is the independent variable, and
the test scores are the dependent variable.

A quasi-experimental study is not a true experimental study because it does not

randomly assign study participants to groups. Rather, it assigns them to groups
specifically because they have a certain attribute or meet non-random criteria. Control
groups are not strictly mandatory, although researchers still often use them.

Experimental Quantitative Research Design

Experimental quantitative research design utilizes the scientific approach. It
establishes procedures that allow the researcher to test a hypothesis and to
systematically and scientifically study causal relationships among variables.

All experimental quantitative research studies include three basic steps:

1. The researcher measures the variables.

2. The researcher influences or intervenes with the variables in some way.
3. The researcher measures the variables again to ascertain how the intervention
affected the variables.

An experimental quantitative study has the following characteristics:

  The nature and relationship of the variables
 A specific hypothesis that can be tested
 Subjects assigned to groups based on pre-determined criteria
 Experimental treatments that change the independent variable
 Measurements of the dependent variable before and after the independent
variable changes

A scientific experiment may use a completely randomized design in which each

study participant is assigned randomly to a group. Alternatively, it may use the
randomized block design in which study participants who share a certain attribute are
grouped together. In either case, the participants are randomly given treatments within
their groups.

(Causal) Comparative Research Design

Causal comparative research, or ex post facto research, studies the reasons
behind a change that has already occurred. For example, researchers might use a
causal comparative design to determine how a new diet affects children who have
already begun it. This type of research is especially common in sociological and medical
circles.

There are three types of causal comparative research designs, including:

 Exploring the effects of participating in a group

 Exploring the causes of participating in a group
 Exploring the consequences of a change on a group

Though causal comparative research designs can provide insight into the
relationships between variables, researchers can’t use it to define why an event took
place. This is because the event already occurred, so researchers can’t be sure what
caused it and what the effects are.

Causal comparative studies include the same general steps:

 Identify phenomena and think about the causes or consequences of that

phenomena
 Create a specific problem statement
 Create one or more hypotheses
 Select a group to study
 Match the group with one or more variables to control the variables and eliminate
differences within the group (this step may differ depending on the type of causal
comparative study done)
 Select instruments to use in the study
 Compare groups using one or more differing variables

Causal comparative studies are similar to correlational studies, but whereas both
explore relationships between variables, causal comparative studies compare two or
more groups and correlational studies score each variable in a single group. Though
correlational studies include multiple quantitative variables, causal comparative studies
include one or more categorical variables.