Questionnaires are tools used to collect information from people about their beliefs, experiences, and other characteristics. Questionnaires are used for many purposes, including consumer research, election polling, clinical diagnosis, and academic research.
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Research methods are the procedures followed to collect and analyze data. You can think of them as the series of steps you would provide someone who wanted to recreate your study.
Research methods refer to the specific processes taken when conducting research—they’re a series of instructions on how to collect and analyze your data.
Research methodology, on the other hand, is broader in scope. It concerns the research methods used but focuses on the theory and reasoning behind why these methods were chosen to address a research question.
In brief, research methods are what you’re doing, and research methodology is why you’ve chosen these methods.
Academic journal articles will generally include a Methods section; more involved documents, like a dissertation, may instead have a Methodology chapter. You can use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to make sure either type of section is perfectly polished.
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A case study is a detailed, in-depth exploration of a subject. This subject, or “case,” could be just about anything: an individual, a group, a historical event, and so on.
When writing up your case study, QuillBot’s Paraphraser can help you find just the right words and phrasing.
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A quasi-experimental design is used to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between independent and dependent variables. However, unlike in a true experiment, participants are not randomly assigned to experiment conditions.
Quasi-experimental designs still involve the manipulation of an independent variable but may lack control over extraneous variables that could impact a study’s outcomes.
| Characteristic | Experimental design | Quasi-experimental design |
|---|---|---|
| Random assignment of participants | ||
| Manipulation of an independent variable | ||
| Control of extraneous variables | ? |
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Qualitative and quantitative research use different methods to explore research questions. Qualitative research involves non-numerical data, such as interviews or participant observation. Quantitative research relies on numerical data gathered through surveys or experiments.
| Property | Qualitative Research | Quantitative Research |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Gaining deep insight into a new or nuanced topic | Testing hypotheses, exploring cause-and-effect relationships, exploring patterns |
| Type of data | Narrative (e.g., text, pictures, audio and video recordings) | Numerical |
| Data collection methods | Interviews, participant observation, focus groups, collection of documents | Questionnaires, surveys, experiments |
| Study location | Can take place in naturalistic settings | Generally takes place in controlled settings |
| Sample size | Small, targeted sample | Large, random sample |
| Data analysis | Thematic analysis, coding | Statistical analysis |
| Strengths | High validity | High reliability and generalizability |
| Weaknesses | Time-consuming, lacks generalizability, subjective | Cannot study phenomena that cannot be expressed numerically, lacks validity |
Continue reading: Qualitative vs Quantitative Research | Methods & Differences
Mixed methods research combines qualitative methods, which use nonnumerical data like text, transcripts, and images, with quantitative methods, which use numerical data.
A common misconception is that mixed methods studies simply include both qualitative and quantitative data. However, when adopting a mixed methods approach, you must carefully consider when and how to collect and integrate these different data sources. Mixed methods research can therefore be time consuming, but it offers the benefit of providing a more holistic answer to your research question.
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Quantitative research uses numerical data, such as measurements, survey responses, and experiment results, to explore a research question. Quantitative data are analyzed with statistics to test a theory or hypothesis.
Quantitative research methods can be applied to find patterns, identify causal relationships, and model real-world processes. Many fields, including biology, chemistry, economics, physics, and psychology, use quantitative methods.
Not all phenomena can be expressed using numbers—in such cases, qualitative research methods should be used instead. Qualitative and quantitative methods can also be combined in mixed methods research.
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Qualitative research uses narrative, nonnumerical data to explore research questions. Nonnumerical data may include text, photos, or videos. Qualitative research is useful for gaining deep insight into a topic or generating new ideas and theories.
Qualitative research can be conducted on its own or in combination with quantitative research methods (which use numerical data). The combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches is called mixed methods research.
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When conducting research, especially research that involves human participants, it’s important to adhere to research ethics. Research ethics are principles that provide a framework for researchers to distinguish “right” from “wrong.” They guide scientists throughout the research process to maximize the benefits of their work while minimizing the potential for harm.
Research ethics principles vary between countries and organizations but share common goals:
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A conceptual framework identifies different variables in a study and illustrates the relationship between them.
Variables are quantities, traits, or conditions that can take on different values. An experiment tests the cause-and-effect relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, but it may also contain control variables, mediator variables, moderator variables, and confounding variables.
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