Quantitative research.

An example: survey

Example of quantitative consumer research: survey

Quantitative social research typically uses surveys and questionnaires to obtain information that will help to understand the needs of individuals about certain topics. Surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. Surveys of human populations and institutions are common in social science and marketing research. A survey may focus on opinions or be based on information facts depending on its purpose.

When the questions are administered by a researcher, the survey is called a structured interview and when the questions are administered by the respondent, the survey is referred to as a questionnaire.

Questionnaires Questionnaires are frequently used in research and social research in general. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of respondents.

Types of questions that can be included in a questionnaire Contingency questions Matrix questions Scaled questions Closed ended questions Open ended questions As mentioned before, there are observational and experimental techniques. A questionnaire can be used in both techniques. It is a good method for experimentation, since the information included in the questions can be modified to check how respondents react to these modifications. example quantitative research

Qualitative research examples

Example 1: How do elderly people living in a retirement home perceive their situation and how are they dealing with it? This question can be approached using a qualitative approach as you can talk with the elderly about it. A questionnaire is not appropriate as you can probably not come up with all the possible answer categories.

Example 2: How does the image of the ideal man influences the male population between the ages 20 and 35? The question, as formulated above, is probably difficult to answer in either a single qualitative or quantitative study. One first needs to know what the image of the ideal man is. Maybe there is not just one but a number of ideal images. This question could be followed up on in a qualitative study. For finding out how this influences a particular segment of the male population, however, a representative survey would need to be conducted.

Example 3: What are the special challenges that students who are born in Germany and have an immigrant background face? Generally, this question can serve as basis for a qualitative study but it needs some further clarification. In Germany, we have immigrants from lots of different backgrounds: people from Turkey, Russia and the successor states of the former Soviet Union, Poland, successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, etc. Some are Muslims, some are Catholics and others are atheists. And they came for different reasons: work, war, breakdown of communism or having German ancestors. Hence, it is to expect that each group faces different challenges. It is thinkable to design a study where all groups are included, but this would be very large and extensive qualitative research project. The advice here is to narrow the question to one particular group of immigrants.

Example 4: What kind of emotions and attitudes motivate individuals to take part in mass events? This question also requires some modification. On the one hand it needs to be more specific with regard to the kind of individuals and the kind of mass event(s) to be studied. On the other hand, it might be worthwhile to extend the question by including individual background, life situation and the like. The focus on emotions and attitudes most probably is too narrow.

Example 5: Did the role models of marriage and motherhood as perceived by 20 to 30 years old women in our society change; and if so, how did they change? As in example 2, results from a qualitative study cannot be used to generalize to larger portions of the society, i.e. all 20 to 30 years old women from Germany think like that or perceive the role model to be such and such. Thus, one could examine what kind of role models are perceived by a specific group of 20 to 30 years old women and compare those with previous role models described in the literature.

Examples of mixed-methods research An example of the opposite

Interview a small number to gain insights to design a questionnaire, then survey a large number

Purpose: informing instrument design Another similar example

Research into beliefs: interview 4 teachers but survey 80 students

Purpose: accounting for practicality in using instruments

Research into strategies: comparing results from different instruments

Much strategy research involves the use of SILL

SILL asks respondents to identify how often they use a particular strategy

Strategy use is context-dependent

Research question: Will recent context of learning change responses to SILL?

Question:

Part 1: Create two problem statements that address two of the five topics you developed in above. Submit a draft of two 100-150-word problem statements that address those two topics.

Be sure to include references to support your argument. Also use references to support any other statements of fact that you make in the purpose statement.