Post blog theme 4

Quantitative research

During this week we have discussed mainly quantitative research methods, but also compared it to qualitative methods. I think these concepts are important to have grasped to be able to do research in our field of study. And especially how we can use them and what kind of data we get from it. Before the theme I read both an own article who used quantitative methods and the compulsory article about embodiment in VR. Even if both articles used quantitative methods they differed quite much. Before going into discuss the different methods we need to know what quantitative research is. Quantitative research is when we gather data in form of measurements, as an example temperatures, data traffic etcetera. The gathered data is then analyzed with statistics methods.

Often when we conduct an experiment or data gathering of some kind we have a complex situation with several variables (both dependent and independent) so we need to measure a lot of things and combine them in the analyzing to try to reach a conclusion. Often we need to try to limit the number of variables to be able to analyze it. This could be done through an attempt to conduct the experiment in a more controlled situation. I think this was exemplified in a good way in the article about embodiment in VR where they conducted the experiment in a controlled VR where conditions was the same for every participant as an example characters and basic rhythm. Their experiment resulted in data both from movement data, frequency analysis and data from the questionnaires. Which combined lead to their conclusion. They combined the measurements of the actual test together with the experienced level of embodiment. 

In the other study I read investigating if there exist a connection between UGC involvement and political engagement among Swedish adolescents aged 13-17 years they only used a questionnaire as a the method to gather their data. They did this because it is most appropriate for what they tried to answer. However we see that different methods even within quantitative methods gather different kinds of data even if they all is analyzed with statistics.

In conclusion I find it important to choice and design the methods used to gather data. Both to be sure that we get data that answers the what we tries to answer but also to ensure that we do not affect the results through posing leading questions or only measuring the single aspect that we think is important when other measurements could be needed to analyze the problem. We should also consider the character of the question posed and if usage of qualitative or quantitative methods should be used, or a mix of them. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have benefits and limitations. Quantitative methods is hard to use when it comes to investigate questions of why due to the fact that the possible answers are infinite. However we can use quantitative methods to answer a why question but it is possible not the best way to do it. However using quantitative methods gathers data that can be analyzed with statistics which can handle big amounts of data. Sometimes it might even be difficult to find variables to measure to get an answer of the question posed and then we might be forced to move away from the original question in lack of a method.