Quantitative research designs

Quantitative research designs
Research designs in quantitative approach refer to the researcher’s overall plan for answering the research questions and/or testing the research hypothesis. It guides the researcher to adopt well defined strategies based on the decisions. 

There are some areas the researcher has to look on it before reflecting research design;
-Need of implementing any interventions
-Need of compare groups
-Need of control factors extraneous to research
-Need of collecting data at different time periods
-The nature of setting, in which the study takes place.

The researcher has to select an appropriate design based on dimensions of research question.

• Dimension; Control over independent variables

Appropriate designs are;
Experimental–manipulation of independent variables, control group and randomization
Quasi experimental –manipulation of independent variables but no randomization or control group
Non experimental –no manipulation of independent variables

• Dimension –Type of group comparisons

Appropriate designs are;
Between subjects –participants in groups being compared are different people
Within subjects –participants in groups being compared are the same people

• Dimension –Number of data collection points

Appropriate designs are;
Cross sectional design- one time data collection
Longitudinal design- multiple points data collection

• Dimension –Occurrence of independent and dependent variables

Appropriate designs are;
Retrospective – a study begins with dependent variable and looks the past for a cause
Prospective –study begins with independent variables and looks forward to identify the effect

• Dimension –Setting

Appropriate designs are;
Naturalistic-data collected in real world setting
Laboratory – data collected in artificial setting