Sunday, September 27, 2015

A500.7.3.RB - Quantitative Research Reflection_MullBrandon



     A quantitative research project is not only a survey but a quest for the truth regardless of the researcher’s feelings. The quality of a quantitative research, in my opinion, is the most important aspect of the research. If the researcher manipulates the finds to go along with their thesis, that researcher needs to find a different carrier. The researcher is an important part of the quality of  a quantitative research because they have the ability to interpret the data and skew the results. For example, if a survey was done by sending out surveys by mail and the researcher took the times that the survey was respond to then said that the later someone replied to a survey they less motivated they were to do the survey it would skew the results of the survey.

     Quantitative research, I think, is easier to follow when explaining the results. It is easy to understand a percentage rather than try to interpret the findings of a qualitative study. The findings of a quantitative research are always in the form of an explanation of the question and the results in a number form. It is not left up to the interpretation of the reader to figure out if the research finding was conclusive to the theory or not. The only problem with the quantitative research is that the population size is never big enough to justify that the entire population is in conclusion of the results. I find that this is a problem with any quantitative statistic. Not everyone was in the results and not everyone’s voice was heard.

     Another problem with quantitative research is that it is so simplistic; the results are always that it does or does not. It can't capture the voice of the people survived, it can only explain that some do it this way and others don't. This doesn't always pose a problem when trying to compare associations and trying analyze simple things, but if you are trying to see what people think, quantitative research doesn't have a voice.

     Overall quantitative research is my preferred way to analyze data. Quantitative research is easy to read, it is flowing, there is no interpretation of the data , and as long as the survey group was large enough you can have an accurate reflection on the population. It also has its downsides as well. The results don't have give the right voice to the issue, it only gives a comparison, and the survey size isn't always big enough.

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