NATURE OF

INQUIRY
Introduction to Quantitative
Research

JOHN KYLE PEREZ

Faculty Member

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What is
Research?
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A Systematic inquiry that A process of steps used to
investigates hypothesis, collect and analyze
suggests new information to increase our
interpretations of data or understanding of the topic
texts, and poses new or issue.
questions for future SUBTITLE GOES HERE
research to explore.

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 Probes on the underlying causes and
meaning of observed phenomena and
in the sophistication with which it
demands that the collected data of
observation be interpreted.

BASIC RESEARCH
• Applied Research
• Action Research
• Developmental Research

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CHARACTERISTICS
1. Starts with a QUESTION.
2. Requires a PLAN.
3. Clear STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM.
4. Deals with main problems
through sub-problems
5. Appropriate HYPOTHESIS.
6. Deals with FACTS or MEANING.
7. Circular.

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 EMPIRICAL
Based on observations and experimentation on
theories

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 SYSTEMATIC
Follows orderly and sequential procedure

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 CONTROLLED
All variables except those that are tested/
experimented are kept constant.

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HYPOTHESIS
Guides the investigation process

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 ANALYTICAL
There is critical analysis of all data used.

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OBJECTIVE, UNBIASED, &
LOGICAL
All findings are logically based on empirical

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EMPLOYS STATISTICAL
METHODS
All findings are logically based on empirical

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QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
What is this?

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 LET’S COMPARE!
Quantitative Research
• Explain phenomena through
collecting numerical data.
• Quantify the problem by way of
generated numerical data.
• Uses measurable data to formulate
facts and generate patterns in
research.
• A type of empirical investigation.
Qualitative Research
• Seeks to answer questions about
why and how people in the way that
they do.
• Primarily an exploratory research.
Used to gain an understanding of
underlying reasons, opinions, and
motivations.
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 The Collection
Observing and
of Research in Usage of
Explaining
Quantitative Mathematics
Occurrences
Manner

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Types of
Research
Designs SUBTITLE GOES HERE

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SURVEY/ DESCRIPTIVE
DESIGN
• Seeks to describe the current
status of an identified variable or
phenomenon.
• Uses interviews, questionnaires,
and sampling polls to get sense
of behavior with intense
precision.
• It is important that the people
questioned are sampled at
random.
1. Naguenos Take on Same-Sex
Marriage.
2. Satisfaction Survey on
Environmental Programs in Naga
City
3. Poverty Alleviation in Naga City.
4. Shopping Characteristics of People
5. Status of Farming Practices in a
Particular Area.
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CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH DESIGN
• Tests for the relationships
between two (or more) variables.
• Performing correlational research
is done to establish what is the
effect of one on the other might
be and how that affects the
relationship.
• Survey is conducted on a • Relationship between intelligence and self-
minimum of two groups. esteem.
• Relationship between diet and anxiety
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CAUSAL-
COMPARATIVE DESIGN
• Looks to uncover a cause and effect
relationship.
• This research is not conducted between
two groups on each other. Rather than
look for a statistical relationship between
two variables it tries to identify,
specifically, how the different groups are
affected by the same circumstance.
• Establishes cause-effect relationships
among the variables.
1. Effect of an Aerobic Exercise
Program on Children’s Rate of
Obesity
2. Effect of Part-Time Employment
on the Achievement of High
School Students
3. Effect of Age on Lung Capacity
4. Effect of Glucose Solution to the
Growth of Ryza sativa
5. Effect of PRRD’s Rape Jokes on
Women
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EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGN
• Experimental research is guided by
a hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is a statement to be
proven of disproved.
• An independent variable is
manipulated to determine the
effects on the dependent variables.
• Subjects are randomly assigned to
experimental treatments rather
than identified in naturally
occurring groups.
1. The effect of a new treatment plan
on breast cancer.
2. The effect of systematic preparation
and support system on children who
were scheduled for surgery on the
amount of psychological upset and
cooperation.
3. Effects of Different Noise Source on
the Annoyance Level of Senior High
School Students.
4. Effects of Sleeping Patterns on
Students’ Classroom Performance.
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 Key Focus and Control of Intervention
Type of Design Examples Common Study Designs
Variables Applied?
Survey/ Observational; Describe “ No A description of Comparative- Descriptive
Descriptive What is?”; Variables not Teenagers’ attitude Design; Cross-Sectional
controlled. toward smoking Designs; Longitudinal Designs
Correlational Explores and observes No Relationship between Descriptive- Correlational
relationships among IQ and family’s financial Designs; Predictive Designs;
variables status and Model Testing Designs

Variables not controlled

Causal- Tests for causality with Yes Effect of an after-school Pre and Post Test Designs; Post-
Comparative/ suboptimal variable control physical activity Test Only Designs; Interrupted
Quasi- program on childhood times-series designs
Experimental Independent variable not obesity rates
manipulated
Experimental Optimal var. control Yes Effects of a new diet Classic experimental designs;
treatment plan on randomized designs; crossover
Ind. Var. is manipulated insulin levels on designs; nested designs.
diabetics

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 Is there a treatment? Yes
No

Is the primary purpose is Is the treatment tightly

examination of relationships? controlled by the researcher?

No Yes No Yes

Descriptive Design Will the sample be Will a randomly

Quasi- Experimental
(Factor- isolating) studied as a single assigned or selected
Design
group? control group be use?
No Yes Yes

Correlational Design
(Factor- relating) Experimental Design

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Unique Focus of Research in Specific Disciplines

Psychological
Increases knowledge of humans
Describe, understand, predict and control
(Clark-Carter, 2004)

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Unique Focus of Research in Specific Disciplines

Social Research
Growth
Equity
Justice

(Singh, 2007)

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SOCIAL SCIENCES
1. Politics and Governance of
Student Councils, LGUs,
Office.
2. Social Practices and
Sociology of Tribes, Urban
Cities, Rural Centers.
3. Local Migration and
Employment
4. Gender Studies
8. Teen’s Attitudes on Religious
Diversity; Effectivity of Religion
Formation Activities
9. Society and Environment
Relationship
10. Criminal Justice and Police
Surveillance.
11. Implementation of Traffic Policies
12. Effect of Tree Shades on Motorists
13. Association of Farming and
Poverty
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Unique Focus of Research in Specific Disciplines

Science
- discovery of new phenomena and their integration into
coherent conceptual models of major physical or biological
systems.

Engineering
- discovery and systematic conceptual structuring of knowledge to
develop, design, produce or construct, and operate devices,
structures, machines, and systems of economic and societal
value.

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SCIENCES 9. Ecosystem Management
1. Soil Science & Fertilizers 10. Waste Management
2. Insects Pests 11. Forestry/ Management
3. Water, Soil, Air Quality 12. Fisheries
4. Mangrove, Seagrass, and Coral 13. Forest Ecology
Ecology 14. Landscape Ecology / Urban
5. Habitat Studies Ecology
6. Plastics 15. Economic and Policy Aspects
7. Environmental Management 16. Biodiversity (Bats, Ants, Birds,
Systems etc.)
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VARIABLES

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A variable is a measurable A variable is something
characteristic that varies. that we can manipulate in
certain aspects.
It may change from group
to group, person to person, Example: Gender, Color,
or even within one person Time, Weight, Test scores,
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over time. etc.

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CLIMATE CHANGE
1. Sea level
2. Temperature
3. Amount of Carbon Emission
4. Amount of Rainfall

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CRIME AND
VIOLENCE IN THE
STREETS
1. Number of attempted murders
2. Number of car napping incidents
3. Number of convictions
4. Number of crime victims
5. Number of law enforcers
6. Number of prisoners
7. Number of robberies.

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FISH KILLS
1. Age of fish
2. Dissolved oxygen level
3. Presence or absence of heavy
metals
4. Presence or absence of parasites
5. Stocking density
6. Temperature
7. Water salinity.

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POOR CROP
GROWTH
1. Frequency of weeding
2. Temperature
3. Amount of nitrogen in soil
4. Amount of phosphorus in the soil
5. Amount of potassium in the
ground
6. Amount of rainfall
7. Type of soil

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WHAT IS A VARIABLE?
• Building blocks of quantitative
studies
• Anything that varies
• Examples: age, sex, educational
attainment, socio-economic
status and intelligent quotient

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Socio-Economic Benefits
of Seagrass Meadows

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CONTINUOUS VARIABLE 1
take on a wide range of values that are
not restricted to whole numbers and can
be represented in a continuum

• Age (0 – more than 100)

• Weight (1 & 2 lbs; 1.000… 1.333…)

(Polit and Beck, 2009)

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DISCRETE VARIABLE 2
has a finite number of values
between any two points,
representing discrete quantities

• How many cars?

(0, 1, 2,3)
2.5 is not meaningful

(Polit and Beck, 2009)

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Continuous Variable
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CATEGORICAL VARIABLES 3
take on a small range of non-
quantitative values that do not
inherently represent a quantity

• Gender (male or female)

• Blood type (A, B, AB, O)
(Polit and Beck, 2009)

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Independent Variables 4
considered to be the one that
affect another variable

• In a study comparing three

concentrations (25%, 50%, and 75%) of
extracts of a certain medicinal plant
which have wound-healing properties,
the researcher is interested in whether
concentration of plant extract has an
effect on the variable wound healing.

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5 DEPENDENT VARIABLE

a variable on which an independent

variable could have an effect
(Clark-Carter, 2004)

• In the study comparing three

concentrations (25%, 50%, and 75%) of
extracts of a certain medicinal plant
which have wound-healing properties,
the measure of wound healing would
be the dependent variable

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What is the Independent Variable?

Soap is the
independent
variable

Amount of
germs is the
dependent
variable

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What is the Dependent Variable?
happiness of the kid
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Predictor or Criterion Variables 6
In non-experimental research, wherein values of one
variable are being used to predict the values of another, EXAMPLE
the preferred terms are predictor or criterion variables
to emphasize the point that no intervention was
conducted (Clark-Carter, 2004).

• # of packs smoked per day from ages 20-50

• of health problems between ages 65 and 70

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Confounding Variables 7
Variables that could potentially affect the relationship between the independent
and dependent variables that are being sought are termed confounding
variables
(Clark-Carter, 2004)

• In the study on the wound healing properties of a medicinal plant, if the

experimental samples are mice with varied health conditions, then any
differences in the wound healing properties of plant extracts in three different
concentrations may be due to the heal conditions and not to the plant extract
concentration. The health condition of the mice is a confounding variable.

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Confounding Variables 7
Variables that could potentially affect
the relationship between the
independent and dependent
variables that are being sought are
termed confounding variables
(Clark-Carter, 2004)

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Irrelevant Variables 8
variables that even if present in a study, their effect on
the dependent variable is not relevant to the study and
do not have to be controlled for
(Clark-Carter, 2004)

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