Planning and organisationQuantitative information

Quantitative research concentrates on the analysis of:

• statistical data
• mathematical data
• numerical data

It is about quantities, or numbers, and is produced by taking measurements. In surveys, it is produced by asking multiple choice or closed questions.

This data is then dealt with using maths-based methods in order to draw conclusions.

Quantitative research will:

• be based on a larger sample of participants
• quantify data and generalise results
• measure the incidence of people's views or opinions
• use methods such as observation, questionnaires and structured interviews

Observations

This method may involve:

• counting the number of times a particular phenomenon occurs, such as how often a particular word is mentioned in an interview
• coding observational data to change it into numbers

Example

If a researcher is interested in children's favourite pastimes, they may choose to observe children playing in a park. Every time a child uses a swing, they might code this as S. Every time a child plays with a ball, they might code this as B. Playing with dolls might be coded as D.

At the end of the observation, the researcher will count up the number of letters. If the letter B appears most frequently, the researcher can conclude that young children prefer ball games. Researchers have made this conclusion by using the process of turning an observation into a code, and then a number.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires can be conducted online, by phone or in person. Quantitative questionnaires involve asking the same closed questions to a large number of people. Closed questions are also known as multiple choice formats, as respondents have to choose a response from a list of responses, eg:

Q1: How many hours a week do you spend on homework?

A1 options:

• None
• 1-3
• 4-6
• 7-10
• 11-14
• 15 or more

Or

Q2: On a scale of 1-10, how much of a problem do you think litter on the streets is?

A2 options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

When writing multiple choice questions, it's important not to overlap options, eg in age categories, don't use the same age in more than one category. So, options such as 11-14 and 15-18 work well, but 11-14 and 14-18 would not work, as the 14-year-old respondents could potentially tick either category, and this would produce an unreliable result.

Sometimes closed questions have a response box of ‘other’ or ‘don’t know’. This is because the respondent may not have an answer, so they will select the ‘don’t know’ box. If their answer doesn’t appear in the option given, they select ‘other’.