Concepts in Quantitative Sociological Research

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Field, A. P. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage

**Brian**

Quantitative research or study refers to the systematic investigation of observable things through statistical, or computational methods. The main objective of a quantitative study is to develop and apply hypotheses, theories and mathematical models related to the phenomena(“Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Quantitative Methods”, 2020). While using quantitative research, it is important to have a good foundation in some essential concepts in order to make most out of it. I am going to use quantitative study in my research and discussed below are some of the concepts I will apply in my work.

Quantitative data refers to any data in numerical form. The researcher carries out data analysis through statistical methods in order to achieve an unbiased result that can be used to study a larger population. The first concept is reliability (“Qualitative and Quantitative Research – Concept”, 2020). This refers to a measure of consistency of a given metric or technique. Each metric or method we apply in quantitative research should be properly assessed for reliability. The major ways of measuring reliability for empirical methods and metrics include inter-rater, test-retest, parallel forms, and internal consistency reliability. The next important concept of quantitative research is validity. Validity refers to the degree to which what the researcher thinks they are measuring corresponds to the thing they are measuring. Therefore, data must be reliable in order to be considered valid (“MeasuringU: 5 Concepts to Master When Conducting Quantitative Research”, 2020). For instance, the study population can consistently respond to questions about a customer satisfaction, but if the questions do not correspond with the level that customers recommend, then the commodities have a poor validity. The importance of validity has raised many theories for determining it such as tripartite model.

Statistical significance is also an important concept in quantitative study. Most studies have sampling error. If the researcher relies on randomness, they will end up basing their conclusions on chance findings. Statistical significance is commonly applied in the p-value (Themes, 2020). This provides the numerical evidence for the statistical significance. It is important to understand the terms, and how to interpret a p-value. Statistical significance basically means that the difference observed is not likely as a result of sampling error alone.

Other concepts that are highly applied in quantitative research include explanation of data collected. This includes statistical treatment of data and the results obtained in relation to the problem of the study under investigation. It is also important to report the anticipated events experienced during data collection. This involves description of the difference between actual analysis and the planned analysis. The researcher should also explain how they treated any missing data, and the reason why the missing data does not lower the validity of the analysis. Correlation is a very important concept in quantitative study. It is easy to compute, and any researcher can interpret the strength of any relationship. Correlation is also the foundation for advanced statistical techniques (“Concepts in Quantitative Sociological Research”, 2020). It is used when the researcher needs to establish validity and reliability. It is important to know how a correlation for continuous and binary data is computed, and to understand how to define the correlation coefficient strength. The main thing to remember while using correlations is that correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

Concepts in Quantitative Sociological Research. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://revisesociology.com/2017/12/28/quantitative-sociological-research-concepts/

MeasuringU: 5 Concepts to Master When Conducting Quantitative Research. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://measuringu.com/five-quant-concepts/

Qualitative and Quantitative Research – Concept. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/qualitative-and-quantitative-research.htm

Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Quantitative Methods. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/quantitative

Themes, U. (2020). Key Concepts and Steps in Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://nursekey.com/key-concepts-and-steps-in-quantitative-and-qualitative-research/