Examples of quantitative methods in the following topics:
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- Another distinction can be made between quantitative methods and qualitative methods.
- Quantitative methods are generally useful when a researcher seeks to study large-scale patterns of behavior, while qualitative methods are often more effective when dealing with interactions and relationships in detail .
- Quantitative methods of sociological research approach social phenomena from the perspective that they can be measured and quantified.
- While quantitative methods involve experiments, surveys, secondary data analysis, and statistical analysis, qualitatively oriented sociologists tend to employ different methods of data collection and hypothesis testing, including participant observation, interviews, focus groups, content analysis, and historical comparison .
- These two researchers are debating the relative merits of using qualitative or quantitative methods to study social phenomena such as the learning processes of children.
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- At its core, quantitative research is used to identify patterns and predict behavior.
- Quantitative research is generally conducted using scientific methods, which can include:
- Unlike quantitative methods which are used to identify patterns and make predictions, qualitative research aims to explain behavior.
- The qualitative method investigates the why and how of consumer behavior, not just what, where, when.
- Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than the large samples required of quantitative methods.
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- In the scientific pursuit of quantitative prediction and explanation, two relationships between variables are often confused: correlation and causation.
- While these terms are rarely used in qualitative science, they lie at the heart of quantitative methods, and thus constitute a cornerstone of scientific practice.
- Employing the quantitative method outlined above, the reader should immediately question this relationship and attempt to discover an explanation.
- Clearly understanding the relationship between variables is an important element of the quantitative scientific process.
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- Like the distinction drawn between positivist sociology and Verstehen sociology, there is - as noted above in the elaboration of general scientific methods - often a distinction drawn between two types of sociological investigation: quantitative and qualitative.
- Quantitative methods of sociological research approach social phenomena from the perspective that they can be measured and/or quantified.
- Quantitative sociologists tend to use specific methods of data collection and hypothesis testing, including: experimental designs, surveys, secondary data analysis, and statistical analysis.
- Qualitative methods of sociological research tend to approach social phenomena from the Verstehen perspective.
- For example, quantitative methods could describe large or general patterns in society while qualitative approaches could help to explain how individuals understand those patterns.
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- Concept testing is the process of using quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate consumer response to a product idea prior to the introduction of a product to the market.
- These methods involve the evaluation by consumers of product concepts having certain rational benefits, such as "a detergent that removes stains but is gentle on fabrics," or non-rational benefits, such as "a shampoo that lets you be yourself. " Concept testing is often performed using field surveys, personal interviews and focus groups, in combination with various quantitative methods .
- Thus, communication of the concept was generally left to the creativity of the advertising agency, with no systematic quantitative method known or employed that could identify the criteria on which consumer choices were made (at least, not with any real accuracy).
- One such method is conjoint analysis and another is choice modeling.
- Using focus groups to generate user feedback is one method of going about concept testing.
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- When assessing the effectiveness of therapy, researchers often rely on mixed-method designs, which means using both quantitative and qualitative designs.
- Ideally, therapies should use mixed methods to provide both quantitative and qualitative data.
- Quantitative methods include randomly controlled clinical trials, correlational studies over the course of counseling, and laboratory studies about specific counseling processes and outcome variables.
- One way of gathering quantitative data is through the use of inventories.
- Qualitative data can provide subjective information that cannot be measured or effectively captured by quantitative methods.
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- Quantitative and qualitative methods can be complementary: often, quantitative methods are used to describe large or general patterns in society while qualitative approaches are used to help explain how individuals understand those patterns.
- For example, a sociologist might use quantitative survey methods to find that, on average, single mothers are more likely to receive welfare even if they could earn more working.
- A common sense explanation of the quantitative findings might be that welfare recipients are lazy and prefer not to work, but using qualitative methods and the sociological imagination, the investigator could find that women strategically choose not to work because the cost of childcare would mean less net income.
- Sociology embodies several tensions, such as those between quantitative and qualitative methods, between positivist and interpretive orientations, and between objective and critical approaches.
- The positivist approach to social science seeks to explain and predict social phenomena, often employing a quantitative approach.
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- One of the simplest points of differentiation between methods is the reliance on numbers for accuracy.
- While quantitative measure use data to express objective results, qualitative approaches do not have this luxury.
- Another method of forecasting, which is likely to be both quantitative and qualitative, is the causal/econometric approach.
- Keeping these methods in mind, it is important to understand how management uses these forecasts to draw conclusions.
- This flow chart compares quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods.
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- Defining the sample and collecting data are key parts of all empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative.
- Social scientists employ a range of methods in order to analyze a vast breadth of social phenomena.
- Many empirical forms of sociological research follow the scientific method .
- The choice of method often depends largely on what the researcher intends to investigate.
- Sampling can be used in both quantitative and qualitative research.
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