Research Methods – Quantitative research – Summary
Quantitative research designs
- Quantitative research: realist or positivist
o Foundation for positivists/realist epistemology: social
observations are real, they exist outside a person’s mind.
- Qualitative research: constructivist
o Foundation for interpretivists epistemology: social reality is
not the same as physical reality, people create their own
reality through social interactions.
Theories and empirics
- Theories: ideas about how things work, > if you haven’t tested it, it
is a theory
- Empirics: what we can factually observe in research, > these are the
observations of theories.
Induction
Induction (often interpretivist): you first observe reality, after which
you try to order the results and based on this you describe a pattern
(formulate a theory)
Observation > theory
*Mostly used in interpretivism
Deduction
Deduction (often positivism and realism): you first think about
patterns (theorize), then you check with the empirical world if these
make sense.
Theory > observe
*Mostly used in positivism and realism
Overview – quantitative and qualitative research
Qualitative research Quantitative
research
Theory/empirical Induction Deduction
reality
Epistemology Interpretivism Positivism/Realism
Ontology Constructivism Objectivism
Analysis in Words Numbers and words
Inspiration Humanities Natural sciences
Quality criteria for quantitative research
Reliability
o If you would replicate research, would this lead to a similar
outcome?
o If research is not reliable, the findings could be random
Internal validity:
o Is the causal inference claimed in the research, valid?
Does x lead to y?
, o If research is not internally valid, one cannot make a causal
claim
External validity:
o Do the results hold in a different context?
o If results are not externally valid, the results do not say much
about the ‘real world’
Three different research designs for quantitative research:
1. Cross-sectional
Analysis in one moment in time. In a typical cross-sectional design a large
group of people is surveyed with closed (mc) questions or social reality is
coded.
Advantages:
+ High reliability
Because it is often cheap, many people can participate, which
increases the chance that findings are random.
+ High external validity
It is relatively easy to find a representative sample
Usually the participants share many characteristics with the
population which helps to generalize the research findings.
Disadvantages
- Low internal validity
It is harder to make causal claims because the results can be
spurious or there is endogeneity (i.e. reverse causality).
To increase internal validity:
- For spurious relation: include control variables
- For endogeneity: strong theory or addition of other research
designs (i.e. longitudinal or experiment)
2. Longitudinal
Analysis done over time. The same people are surveyed on different
moments in time.
Advantages
+ Better internal validity than cross-sectional design: because you have a
sequence in time and you can control for associations in groups. Better
chance to establish a cause-effect relationship.
Sequence in time (endogeneity)
Correlation with groups (spurious relation)
+ Sometimes more data than cross sectional research: especially when
researching countries, which is a limited source of data (195 countries in
the world in total)
Disadvantages
- Reliability tends to be lower than in cross-sectional design
Often harder to find participants, at the same time statistical models
are more complex. Thus, increase in chances that replication on a
different sample would produce (somewhat) different results.
- Lower external validity
Participants who drop out (attrition), makes it harder to generalize
to the entire population.
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper marisearens. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €8,99. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
