To understand the value of quantitative research methods, it is important to think about the research process and what research is for. When we investigate some aspect of behaviour (e.g. depression) we could get insight into the issue by reading research papers and potentially conducting some qualitative analysis (e.g. on interviews). This might help us formulate a theory of depression or of how to treat depression. However, we will probably then want to examine and test the validity of this theory. The best way of doing this is by using quantitative methods.
Quantitative methods simply involve measuring something and then using this measurement to support or refute a research hypothesis using inferential statistics. In our example, we might want to test a new treatment for depression. To do this we could measure levels of depression in a sample of people (e.g. by using a depression scale) to see if this changes with treatment. Using reliable and valid measurements would allow us to objectively assess differences across conditions (e.g. pre- and post-treatment) or different groups (e.g. those who received or did not receive the treatment), which is essential in order to assess the impact of the treatment.
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