3 General Purpose Uses of Quantitative Data Analysis in Research
There are 3 general purpose uses of quantitative data analysis in research, namely;
Use #1: Firstly, quantitative data analysis assesses the relationships between variables. For example, a student can relate temperature to a certain product’s sales turnover. Challenge: Whereas quantitative data analysis can give a predictive perspective, its assumptions lack research validity and scores poorly on reliability.
Use #2: Secondly, quantitative data analyses measure the differences between grouped data. For example, a student may choose to research the popularity of different clothing colors using quantitative data analysis.
Challenge: A glaring hurdle in this usage has always been drawing reliable conclusions that a student can generalize to entire populations.
Use #3: And third, students use quantitative data analysis to test hypotheses in a scientifically rigorous way. For example, a CIPD student working under healthcare may hypothesize the impacts of a new vaccine on a specific community, and how it’ll affect organizational profits.
Challenge: Some obvious obstacles here will be:
- Can the student avoid bias (See Qualitative Data Analysis Challenges above)?
- Are the findings reliable?
