The Four Types Of Quantitative Research

The four types of quantitative research are: descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental and experimental. The key to understanding each is the level or degree of control involved in the study and its component. Groves, Gray & Burns (2015) define control as the imposing of rules to decrease the possibility of error, increasing the probability a study’s findings, which reveal an accurate reflection of reality. Groves, Gray and Burns (2015) went on to discuss the rules known as design, to achieve control in research, (pg. 36).
Descriptive and correlational studies while rigorously conducted, minimally controlled, and the subjects examined in a natural setting as they exist (pg. 36). Descriptive does not involve manipulation, it does not change the environment of those involved. Descriptive studies involve a large number of subjects, used when little knowledge is available in order to discover meaning. Results discovered provided new meaning, frequency of occurring or existing information that occurs in real-life. An example of descriptive research would be the dual diagnosis of diabetes and mental illness. Research for diabetes contributing to development of depression or other mental health diagnosis or diabetes contributing to the development of depression. What is known is certain antipsychotic medication lend themselves to the development of diabetes, the sedentary life of mental illness increases the risk for diabetes and the chronic nature of diabetes is draining