What type of quantitative research question is used to identify clear differences between two or more groups based on one or more variables?

What are the main types of qualitative approaches to research?

While there are many different investigations that can be done, a study with a qualitative approach generally can be described with the characteristics of one of the following three types:

Historical research describes past events, problems, issues and facts. Data are gathered from written or oral descriptions of past events, artifacts, etc. It describes “what was” in an attempt to recreate the past. It is different from a report in that it involves interpretation of events and its influence on the present. It answers the question: “What was the situation?”

Examples of Historical Research:

A study of the factors leading to the historical development and growth of cooperative learning
A study of the effects of the historical decisions of the United States Supreme Court on American prisons
A study of the evolution of print journalism in the United States through a study of collections of newspapers
A study of the historical trends in public laws by looking recorded at a local courthouse

Ethnographic research develops in-depth analytical descriptions of current systems, processes, and phenomena and/or understandings of the shared beliefs and practices of a particular group or culture. This type of design collects extensive narrative data (non-numerical data) based on many variables over an extended period of time in a natural setting within a specific context. The background, development, current conditions, and environmental interaction of one or more individuals, groups, communities, businesses or institutions is observed, recorded, and analyzed for patterns in relation to internal and external influences. It is a complete description of present phenomena.

One specific form of ethnographic research is called a case study. It is a detailed examination of a single group, individual, situation, or site.

A meta-analysis is another specific form. It is a statistical method which accumulates experimental and correlational results across independent studies. It is an analysis of analyses.

Examples of Ethnographic Research:

A case study of parental involvement at a specific magnet school
A multi-case study of children of drug addicts who excel despite early childhoods in poor environments
The study of the nature of problems teachers encounter when they begin to use a constructivist approach to instruction after having taught using a very traditional approach for ten years
A psychological case study with extensive notes based on observations of and interviews with immigrant workers
A study of primate behavior in the wild measuring the amount of time an animal engaged in a specific behavior

Narrative research focuses on studying a single person and gathering data through the collection of stories that are used to construct a narrative about the individual’s experience and the meanings he/she attributes to them.

Examples of Narrative Research:

A study of the experiences of an autistic student who has moved from a self-contained program to an inclusion setting
A study of the experiences of a high school track star who has been moved on to a championship-winning university track team

By Jennifer Gunner, M.Ed. Education , Staff Writer

Student doing research in library
Used under Getty Images license

Research papers are source-based explanations of a topic, event, or phenomenon. The two methodologies of research, known as qualitative and quantitative research, explore topics with different objectives. The methodology you choose will determine which types of questions you ask before, during, and after the research process.

When coming up with a question for your next research project, consider what you want to know. If you’re inquiring about meaning and experience, you’re using qualitative research.

If you want to use empirical evidence to explain an occurrence, quantitative research is your process. These types of research are useful in scientific, marketing, historical, and psychological studies.

Because qualitative research is more concerned with understanding an event or phenomenon, its open-ended research questions focus more on a group’s experience than on statistics or numbers.

Qualitative research is primarily used in social sciences and includes surveys, case studies, focus groups, and ethnography studies. Here are the three types of qualitative questions for both research topics and survey questions.

Questions that are designed to understand more about a topic are exploratory questions. The objective of asking an exploratory question is to learn more about a topic without attributing bias or preconceived notions to it.

Research Topic Example #1: What is the effect of personal technology on today’s youth?
Survey Question: Do you feel that personal technology has positively or negatively affected you?
Research Topic Example #2: How do students at our school spend their weekends?
Survey Question: What do you do on a typical weekend?

If you’re wondering about the future outcome of an action, you’ll use predictive questions. These types of questions use past information to predict reactions to hypothetical events.

Research Topic Example #1: Are people more likely to buy a product after a celebrity promotes it?
Survey Question: Would you ever try a new product because a celebrity you respect said that it worked for them?
Research Topic Example #2: Would people in our town enjoy an ice-skating rink?
Survey Question: How often would you visit a local ice-skating rink?

Interpretive research studies people in their natural settings. They interpret how a group makes sense of shared experiences and attributes meaning to various phenomena. These studies gather feedback on a group’s behavior without affecting the outcome.

Research Topic Example #1: How do preschoolers in a play-based program handle transitions between activities?

Survey Question: How do you feel when it’s time to put your toys away and start the next activity?
Research Topic Example #2: What is the historical significance of currency to the Lakota Nation?
Survey Question: How do you attribute value to a good or service?

Using measurable data answers a new set of research questions. These types of quantitative research questions prove or disprove a researcher’s hypothesis through descriptions, comparisons, and relationships. Quantitative research questions are beneficial when choosing a research topic or when posing follow-up questions that gather more information.

As the most basic type of quantitative research question, descriptive questions seek to explain when, where, why, or how something occurred. They use data and statistics to describe an event or phenomenon.

Research Topic Example #1: What percentage of college students have felt depressed in the last year?
Follow-Up Question: How often do students report their feelings of depression?
Research Topic Example #2: How likely is it for mice with dominant traits to have offspring with recessive traits?
Follow-Up Question: How many generations of genes influence a future generation?

Sometimes it’s beneficial to compare one occurrence with another. Comparative questions are especially helpful when studying groups with dependent variables.

Research Topic Example #1: Why is it easier for men to lose weight than it is for women?

Follow-Up Question: Do men and women have comparable metabolisms?
Research Topic Example #2: Which painkiller is more effective for headaches?
Follow-Up Question: Do Advil and Tylenol target pain in the same way?

If you’d like to know how one variable affects or influences another, use a relationship-based question. These questions are common in quasi-experimental and experimental studies.

Research Topic Example #1: How does the number of drought days in a year affect a region’s likelihood for wildfires?
Follow-Up Question: What conditions are needed for a wildfire to become uncontrollable?
Research Topic Example #2: Do high school grades have an impact on future success?
Follow-Up Question: What are the relevant factors that affect one’s grades in high school?