Post Positivist Era

Post positivist era:

The positivist approach dominated in the most of 20th century but after 1920s and 30s social surveys conduction trend increased in most of the industrialized states like London, Tyneside, Sheffield etc. (Moser 1967: 18). In 1941 an organization named Government Social Survey established with the purpose of large scale surveys with in the state with the help of which many anthropological and ethnographic studies started to be conducted within the state. Serious challenges were now being offered to qualitative research paradigms. In the past 30 years many other approaches (like semiotics, feminist theory, post structural criticism and post colonialism) were introduced which replaced the ‘Post positivist’ era. Sociological methodology is now a diverse methodology with its own theoretical backgrounds and techniques. (Sarandakos 1993: 6)

Basis of QHR:

Quantitative Health research is originated from two different programs of sociological research:

a) Descriptive statistics and public health:

The word statistic came from the German word ‘Statistik’ meaning information about the people. The term was introduced by Sir John Sinclair in 1791 within his Statistical account of Scotland. The analysis of demographic and descriptive data became prominent in the earlier 20th century and was used for census, surveys and other demographic properties of the population. Descriptive statistics was helpful in knowing that if the sample is the representative of the population, degree of association in the group and making prediction from the sample to the population.

b) Inferential statistics and controlled experiments:

The second program leading to QHR was theory of experimental design. Medical treatments were already using Health quasi experiments leading to controlled experiment by James Lind in 1757. Later in 1870s and 1880s C.S. Peirce refined experimental designs and modernized them to the new idea of inferential quantitative research or Randomized controlled trial (RCT) which contributed to data modelling and regression analysis.

Experimental Design:

The term experiment is used for diversity of work, social scientists use this term more specifically for a research design in all variable except few are kept constant. They are also named as quasi experiments. In an experimental design the scientist develops a causal effect in which one variable affects one or more other variables. It may include one or more groups including the experimental and the control groups on the basis of which outcomes are measured.

What is QR?

The Quantitative research involves the collection of numerical data, its manipulation