Determining a Study’s Methodology – PSL7030
This paper will analyze two studies, one by Al-Rousan et al. (2014) and the other by Christensen and Castañeda (2014). The paper will first establish the type of methodology each study used, specifying whether qualitative or quantitative. The report will then describe the purpose of the authors in conducting each of the studies.
The study by Christensen and Castañeda (2014), whose purpose is to examine disaster preparedness as well as decision-making by caregivers of people diagnosed with ADRD dwelling within the community, used a qualitative methodology. According to McLeod (2008) purports that qualitative methods are applied when a researcher wants to understand a specified behavior from the perspective of the participants. This is indeed the nature of the study by Christensen and Castañeda (2014). As such, the researchers want to understand behavior (disaster preparedness and decision-making) from the perspective of caregivers of community-dwelling persons, who have been diagnosed with ADRD. Additionally, Aron, Aron, and Coups (2009) supposes that one of the most pertinent methods of collecting data in qualitative studies is usually interviews. Indeed, the study by Christensen and Castañeda (2014) uses interviews to collect the data from the participants.
The study by Al-Rousan et al. (2014), which seeks to establish the depth of natural crisis preparedness among the American adults and evaluating factors that have the potential to affect safety and health adversely during such incidents, uses quantitative research methods. According to Williams (2007), quantitative methods apply where the researcher wants to respond to question necessitating numerical data. The question that Al-Rousan et al. (2014) sought to address, as demonstrated by the purpose statement, is one that determines the level of natural disaster preparedness. The level of a phenomenon is best determined by assigning numerical values. The study by Al-Rousan et al. (2014) is based on quantitative methods because it uses a survey approach to collect data. In support of this claim, Gratton and Ian (2010) hold out that a survey, often in questionnaire form, is mostly associated with quantitative research methods and designs as they allow researchers to collect numerical information.
Conclusively, a reader can easily know the type of methods a study has used simply by assessing the abstract. Each type of study has distinguishing aspects as the inquiries by Al-Rousan et al. (2014), and Christensen and Castañeda (2014) have shown. Regardless of the methods selected, every study is meaningful to an area of interest, provided that it follows a scientific process.