Quantitative Research

As a well-practiced research paradigm, quantitative research has been discussed and employed across a range of scientific disciplines. Since at least 1954, when the psychologist Robert Sessions Woodworth published his influential text, Experimental Psychology, one type of quantitative research (experimental) has been a leading research methodology not only in the natural sciences but also in the psychological and social sciences. There have been many descriptions and definitions of quantitative research, and most of these definitions have focused on four features of quantitative research: quantification, control, comparison, and manipulation.

Based upon these features, quantitative research is defined as a set of procedures designed to investigate phenomena in controlled settings using numerical data and statistically based analyses. These research designs involve systematic manipulation of the targeted variables and ...