quantitative method

Knowledge

2022

We explain what the quantitative method is, the types of research in which it is used and its characteristics. Also, the qualitative method.

The quantitative method represents the data numerically.

What is the quantitative method?

Quantitative methods, quantitative methodologies or quantitative investigations are the set of strategies of obtaining and processing information that use numerical magnitudes and formal and / or statistical techniques to carry out their analysis, always framed in a cause and effect relationship.

In other words, a quantitative method is one that uses numerical values ​​to study a phenomenon. As a consequence, you get conclusions that can be expressed mathematically.

The quantitative methods of research are useful when there is in the problem to study a set of data representable through different mathematical models. Thus, the elements of the investigation are clear, defined and limited. The results obtained are numerical, descriptive and, in some cases, predictive.

Quantitative research is considered the opposite form of research qualitative, and its use is frequent in the field of exact Sciences and in many social Sciences. It is also known as the empirical-analytical method and as the positivist method.

Characteristics of the quantitative method

The quantitative method is characterized, above all, because it requires numerical variables to be able to express the trouble of the research. In other words, the data analyzed must always be quantifiable, that is, expressible in a quantity.

Among its techniques, surveys, experiments and even predictions are usually used, once a first result has been obtained, since quantitative data are usually generalizable.

Another important characteristic is that it is an objective method, or that it at least aspires to be so. This means that interpretation and points of view have no place in it, but the demonstrable relationship between figures and mathematical models.

For this, inference is your most usual logical procedure. Your starting point is always a hypothesis or some theory that seeks to verify.

Types of quantitative research

In an analytical investigation, a comparison is made by manipulating a variable.

There are different types of quantitative research, such as:

  • Descriptive research. It tries to specify important properties, characteristics and features of the studied phenomenon, through objective dynamics of observation, analysis and demonstration. They are usually the first step of any scientific investigation.
  • Analytical research. More complex than descriptive, it consists of the collation or comparison of variables determined between control and study groups, recording the way in which the results are given in practice to be able to verify or refute any previously established hypothesis.
  • Experimental research. As its name indicates, these are investigations based on the experimentation, that is, in the replication in a controlled environment of the phenomenon studied, in such a way as to be able to understand and eventually manipulate the variables that determine its result.
  • Quasi experimental research. These are experimental procedures that cannot randomly distinguish between the control and study groups, thus differentiating themselves from the experimental ones.

Examples of quantitative method

Some simple examples of the application of the quantitative method can be:

  • An opinion poll, for example, in an upcoming election, in which support for each candidate is expressed in terms of percentage and number of potential voters. From the results, a prediction could be extrapolated from the true result.
  • A study of the number of cases of some disease and its geographical distribution or regarding the social classes of oneself community, as well as a survey regarding eating, health or social habits, to try to find a link between both information.
  • A record of the effectiveness of an antidote against the venom of a certain type of snake, based on the survival rate of horses of the same breed bitten on the legs, comparing it with another type of antidote of a different chemical nature.

Qualitative methods

Unlike the quantitative ones, focused on the application of formal techniques and math In order to obtain results expressed in numbers, qualitative methods apply interpretive techniques to obtain cultural and ideological results, that is, discursive ones.

This difference is fundamental for the field of research, and is usually expressed as follows: where the quantitative seeks quantities, the qualitative seeks qualities.

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