Quantitative is that which is linked to a quantity.
You have to go to Latin, symbolically speaking, to be able to find the etymological origin of the word quantitative that concerns us now. It is derived from the sum of two clearly differentiated parts:
• «Quantum», which means «how much».
• The suffix «-tive», which is used to indicate a passive or active relationship.
Quantitative is an adjective that is linked to quantity . This concept, for its part, refers to a quantity, a magnitude, a portion or a number of things.
Concept of quantitative
Quantitative, therefore, presents information about a certain quantity. For example: "The quantitative analysis of the medals obtained shows a poor performance of our athletes in the Olympic Games" , "The manager asked me for a quantitative report on the meetings we held with suppliers in the last year" , "I prefer to focus on other things beyond the quantitative, since the figures do not express all the complexity of the phenomenon .
We must highlight the existence of what has been called quantitative research . It aims to make a decision regarding certain alternatives, which have the particularity that there is a relationship between them that can be represented numerically.
The conclusions of a quantitative analysis can be expressed numerically.
A type of research
Within this type of quantitative methodology, various modalities are also included, such as descriptive, experimental, analytical or quasi-experimental.
All this without forgetting that this type of research is defined by the following characteristics:
• It is based on logical positivism.
• It has a marked particularistic character, since what it does is analyze the existing reality by decomposing it into different variables.
• It is also based on the stimulus-response binomial.
• It is responsible for generating numerical data to proceed to represent the social group.
• Offers a static reality.
• It is considered to be objective.
• To analyze the data in its possession, it uses both statistical methods and theories or statistical inference procedures.
• This type of research, also called quantitative methodology, is similarly defined by the fact that it carries out a controlled measurement of the situation and is clearly oriented towards achieving a specific result.
Quantitative analysis vs. qualitative analysis
It is common for quantitative analysis (oriented to study the quantities of something) to be opposed to qualitative analysis (focused on quality or quality ). Suppose a sports journalist analyzes the careers of two tennis players. One of them won four Challenger category tournaments, while the other won only one title, but that is part of the Masters . A quantitative analysis will leave the first tennis player better positioned (he won four tournaments compared to one of the other athlete), but a qualitative analysis will reveal that the Masters tournament is more important than the four Challenger tournaments.
The employee of a cookie factory, for his part, can present quantitative reports of his work when he communicates how many cookies he produced in a certain time (twenty kilograms in eight hours, to cite one possibility). If the worker, on the other hand, reports the composition of the cookies (chocolate, vanilla, etc.), he will have carried out a different analysis of his work.