There are four main types of quantitative designs: descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental, and experimental.
| Descriptive Research |
- used to describe the characteristics of a population
- collects data that are used to answer a wide range of what, when, and how questions pertaining to a particular population or group
- e.g. Nurses' perceived knowledge and education needs in research
- does not answer questions about why a certain phenomenon occurs or what the causes are
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| Correlational Research |
- concerned with establishing relationships between two or more variables in the same population or between the same variables in two populations
- much of correlational research relevant to nursing explores whether a relationship exists between two patient characteristics
- e.g. During postpartum hospitalization, is maternal anxiety related to maternal age?
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| Quasi-experimental Research |
- research where an independent variable is manipulated, but the subjects of a study are not randomly assigned to an action (or a lack of action)
- Do not use randomized trials
- e.g. What is the effect of hand-washing posters in school bathrooms? (The study is quasi-experimental because the students are not randomly selected to participate in the study - they participate because they naturally interact with the intervention)
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| Experimental Research |
- often called true experimentation
- uses the scientific method to establish the cause-effect relationship among a group of variables that make up a study
- effort is made to identify and control all variables except one
- subjects are randomly assigned rather than identified in naturally occurring groups
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