The quantitative research method is one of the two great families into which scientific techniques are divided. The other is the qualitative methodology.

The quantitative methodology is aimed at collecting facts and data in an objective, measurable and numerical way, so that they can be tabulated and compared with other similar data. These objectifiable facts are measured and collected from the outside, so for other types of issues, such as the interpretation of more complex social phenomena that may have to do with opinions, attitudes, values ​​or ideologies, qualitative methods are, in principle, more suitable. In any case, and that we are interested in emphasizing, these are not incompatible procedures. Nothing prevents, for example, that to solve certain research questions also on opinions and attitudes we go to a quantitative survey and a series of qualitative interviews. The triangulation of methods, or the use of techniques belonging to both the quantitative and qualitative style, can yield, in many investigations, very valuable results.

The quantitative method is, in origin, positivist: it looks for the data, and describes it in relation to other data so that it can determine patterns and formulate generalizations. In reality, the qualitative methodology can seek to obtain similar results, although in other ways. The quantitative method insists on relying on empirical evidence at all times, so it opts for techniques of massive application, to large population groups or universes or, when it comes to content analysis, to highly populated corpora. The quantitative method aims to be measurable and replicable.

We will explain three quantitative research methods: the survey, the experiment and the content analysis, although this can be of both types, quantitative and qualitative.