Quantitative Research, Purpose of

Different Forms of Inquiry

Quantitative research uses scientific inquiry to focus on a particular problem affecting the sample population. To understand the purpose of quantitative research, it is important to look at the philosophy behind its development. Social scientists differ in approaches to the study of the social world. As communication developed as a discipline, some researchers held that knowledge could be observed and objectively measured; others believed knowledge was more subjective, needing to be interpreted. Differences in the view of knowledge and its relation to the social world created different forms of study, or methodologies. A methodology describes how researchers study, collect, an analyze data, and how researchers provide answers to the questions they are investigating. Quantitative research was developed from a perspective known as positivism. The view of positivism was that researchers could objectively study a sample population and verify or refute claims. Through the analysis of data, the perspective of positivism held that research could create an unbiased understanding of the data and its universal impact. Today, the positivist position has expanded, with researchers conscious that data collection and analysis in the social sciences can never be completely objective or proven beyond a doubt. Still, quantitative research strives to minimize potential bias from the researcher or in the process of data collection itself to present a clearer understanding of a phenomenon.

In addition to quantitative research, three other methodological perspectives developed in communication research: qualitative, rhetorical, and critical. Quantitative and qualitative research are focused on participants or human subjects, whereas rhetorical and critical research are expert or text centered. For example, qualitative research uses data to more descriptively characterize the impact or reality of a focused sample population. Rhetorical research provides reflective understandings about culture through the analysis of text, images, and artifacts, rather than an analysis of human subjects. Critical research uses a similar form of data collection as rhetorical, but differs in how it describes the outcome of data analysis. Specifically, critical research describes the moral implications of findings, and argues for a universal ethical change in society by pointing out groups or practices that are disadvantaged or unfair.

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