Abstract

Over the last couple of centuries, quantitative methods have dominated both the natural and social sciences. Such methods became part of the methodological canon because they enable investigators to measure variables and test for relationships between and among variables that are consistent with theoretical predictions. More specifically, quantitative methods allow researchers to assign meaningful numerical values to variables and then to analyze those values using descriptive and inferential statistics to describe the data, infer population characteristics from sample attributes, and discover significant differences between groups/conditions and relationships between variables.