Quantitative data analysis
1 Data analysis
Data analysis is anything that relates to analysing data, whether you collected it yourself or you used pre-existing data.
There are two main approaches to data analysis:
Quantitative data analysis is about learning from measured data. Data can be operationalised in many different ways and these determine the type of analyses you can apply.
Qualitative data analysis is about learning from the features and characteristics of the data.
Note that while it is common to talk about “quantitative vs qualitative data” in fact in most cases data can be conceived as both quantitative and qualitative. It is really how we approach the data that can be quantitative and/or qualitative.
2 Quantitative data analysis
Quantitative analyses are usually comprised of three parts (these are not strictly distinct and the boundaries are sometimes blurred):
Summarise data with summary measures.
Visualise data with plots.
Model data with statistical models.
3 Numbers have no meaning
Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are valid and necessary to improve our understanding of things. Moreover, even a very complex quantitative analysis will always contain some qualitative aspects.
There’s a lot of wisdom in that quote. Numbers do not mean anything by themselves. We need to interpret numbers, “imbue them with meaning”, based on many aspects of research and beyond, including our own identity and positionality.