QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research

Abstract

Although the typical study in Education involves the quantitative analysis of contemporary research participants, occasionally psychologists will study historical persons or events. Moreover, these historical data may be analyzed using either qualitative or quantitative techniques. After giving examples from the subdisciplines of cognitive, developmental, differential, abnormal, and social education, the distinctive methodological features of this approach are outlined. These include both data collection (sampling, unit definition, etc.) and data analysis (both qualitative and quantitative). The discussion then turns to the advantages and disadvantages of this research method. The Paper closes by presenting the reasons why (a) educationists will probably continue to use historical data and (b) quantitative analyses may eventually replace qualitative analyses in such applications.

INTRODUCTION

Imagine the typical empirical study published in a mainstream education journal. Or examine the sample investigations used to illustrate the official APA style in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001). All of these studies tend to share certain features, two of which I wish to emphasize here.

1. The data collected are inherently quantitative in nature. This attribute holds for both laboratory experiments (e.g., reaction time, error counts, behavior frequencies, and similarity judgments) and correlational studies (e.g., Likert-type ratings on personality inventories or attitude questionnaires). Even when qualitative assessments are included, they are most often secondary to the quantitative assessments. An example is the use of protocol analysis in cognitive education. Moreover, with recent advances in computerized administration of experiments and tests, the data can often be collected so that the participant's response is directly converted into quantitative scores in the investigator's database, all set for subsequent statistical analyses. In a sense, the investigator only knows his or her participants via the numbers they provide for those later statistics.

2. The data collected seldom if ever have any intrinsic importance. The data would not even exist if the researcher had not bothered to design the investigation in the first place. Although occasionally other investigators might ask for copies of the data, such requests are rare and usually reflect the desire to reanalyze the data using some other technique. The data have so little intrinsic value that researchers have to be specifically advised to retain them. "Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication in APA journals are required to have available their raw data throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication" (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 2001, p. 137). It is not surprising that APA authors have to be so admonished. After all, the participants were most likely anonymous animals, children, undergraduates, survey respondents, or other individuals in which the investigator takes no personal interest. Both the participants and the data they provide are merely the means to an end: the testing of nomothetic hypotheses about human thought, affect, or behavior.

In contrast, imagine a totally different type of psychological inquiry. To begin with, the researcher did not actually collect the data, but rather others already ...