ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ

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As the title indicates it is essential to answer what quantitative methods refer to and to comprehend the underlying purpose of using them in research. Quantitative research, or also called scientific research method, is a way of obtaining information that provides the researcher with accurate and reliable data that is numeric in nature and has been obtained through testing or comparing ideas in the public arena.  Quantitative research is based on observation and the measurement of repeated incidences of a political phenomenon.

As its meaning may indicate, descriptive studies are about describing a particular situation or case as detailed and elaborated as possible, and it enables the classification and organization of taxonomic categories as in survey methods.

Correlational studies enable the researcher to identify how one or a set of variables are related to another or enable the researcher to make predictions.

Causal comparative research which is also called as ex post facto (after the fact for Latin) attempts to determine the cause or consequences of differences that already exist between identified set of subjects.

experimental research is unique yet not so common in political research as the nature of experimental research demands manupulating of the independent variable in the experiment. More explicitly, it is a research type that explicitly attempts to influence a particular variable. Second, it is considered to be the best method to test hypothesis related to cause-and-effect relationships

There is an increasing interest in utilizing survey research in the field of political sciences as it provides opportunities to build theory through empirical data via understanding the attitudes, behavior, and dynamics in the society (Butt, Widdop, & Winstone, 2016). It has become a common method of collecting descriptive data, and it also enables the social scientist to manipulate data and do more complex analysis to understand the relationship among variables through associational research.

A popular strategy for doing survey research is cross-sectional research, which means collecting data through a survey across a pretermined population at one point in time (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2010). Thus, the survey is administered to a representative sample at the same time.

The national time series surveys generally are data collected over the years that are in the interest of political scientists. Indicators may vary from economic to social indicators, such as income levels, education level, employment or unemployment figures by education level, in or out migration trends within a nation.

Political sciences, or international relations fields value policy decisions and the changing trends of individuals based on policy making decisions or applications, therefore through a panel study, the researcher can collect data from similar samples at different times.

Dillman, Smyth, and Christian (2014) underscore that the researcher needs to avoid four types of errors as cornerstones of good quality surveys:

Coverage error, Sampling error, Nonresponse error, Measurement error

Correlational studies enable the researcher to identify how one or a set of variables are related to another or enable the researcher to make predictions. Especially in the case where it is difficult to conduct an experimental study, the researcher can make use of the available data to analyze the relationships among different variables. Correlational research contradicts with experimental research in the sense that no variable is manipulated in this method. Thus, it is important to say that correlation should not be confused with causal relation, it only provides an existing or nonexisting relationship between variables.

Causal comparative research which is also called as ex post facto (after the fact for Latin) attempts to determine the cause or consequences of differences that already exist between identified set of subjects. An example research study could be that of Weinschenk and Dawes (2017). They were interested in examining the roots of individuals’ politial engagement and explored if biological and psychological factors play a role in the formation of politcal interest.

A popular strategy for doing survey research is cross-sectional research, which means collecting data through a survey across a pretermined population at one point in time. Thus, the survey is administered to a representative sample at the same time.

The researcher needs to avoid four types of errors as cornerstones of good quality surveys.

• Coverage error, which refers to drawing samples form a list of irrelevant samples to represent the population

• Sampling error, which exists any time when the researcher reaches some of the sample and not all members. For instance, instance, to understand the attitudes of political participation of university students the researcher only randomly selects students from one province as the available population rather than the whole country to generalize the findings to the target population;

• Nonresponse error, which occurs when some particular units of analysis tend to answer some particular items which are likely to influence the estimate of the findings;

• Measurement error is described as the difference between the estimate produced and the true value in case the respondents may answer inaccurately to the survey questions.

Response rate probability is the poorest when data is collected per mail whereas it is very high with telephone calls and face-to-face interviews.

Face-to-face data collection does not allow for group administration; however, it does allow for random sampling, its cost efficiency is high, and standardization of responses is very hard.