Quantitative research

Quantitative research deals with numbers, aiming to quantify phenomena and establish patterns or relationships.

A quantitative researcher interested in baking might be interested to know how many chocolate chips are needed to make the most delicious chocolate chip cookie. They decide to make three batches of cookies: one where each cookie has five chocolate chips, one where each has ten chocolate chips and one where each has fifteen chocolate chips. They ask participants to eat one of each cookie type and rank each cookie type from 1 (worst cookie) to 3 (best cookie). In other words, the researcher uses numerical (quantitative) data to work out how to make the most delicious cookie.

When conducting quantitative research, researchers often try to remove themselves as much as possible from the research, aiming for objectivity (although there is considerable debate about whether this is possible!). As such, quantitative researchers believe that the replicability of a study is of the utmost importance for that study to be considered to have integrity. This means that when another researcher conducts the same study, they should get the same results.