This post seeks to shade more light on what research constitutes and how it's understood by different scholars. I attempt to define research in the subsequent theme.
What is research then? There are many schools of thought but generally, it's understood as a process of inquiry and discovery. Each time you seek an answer to a question you are doing some sort of research. In Geography, one would define research as a process of gaining a better understanding of the relationships between humans, space, place and environment.
Therefore, research in essence is not merely about generating data, analyzing and interpreting results, but it involves a philosophy, a debate of about what is known and how things are known.
What is the purpose of research? The main aim of conducting research is to contribute to world knowledge. Research is undertaken to provide us with a certain picture of specific aspects of the world.
Types of research
The type of research one chooses to follow reflects the purpose of inquiry. Your research can be exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, predictive, an evaluation or policy oriented. The next paragraphs will elaborate the different types of research listed above.
TYPES OF RESEARCH: AN INTRODUCTION
OK, you are in your first degree or a graduate and there seems to be a hard ceiling to your career that you can’t climb the staircase to the floor above you without showing a ticket to pass. That ticket could be published papers, a research degree, a master’s or a doctorate. Even if research doesn’t obsess you, you realize that a higher degree will be essential for any
promotion. You are aware that BSc or BA, an MSc or a PhD will enable you to climb to top management, greater responsibility, and wider opportunities. Research must be part of this process, for it is through doing research that you will learn to learn, observe, and to summon new knowledge to the greatest effect. Or: You are about to graduate. Your head is bursting with knowledge and ideas. The world, you hope, is waiting for you to make it a better place. How will you do this? You must be equipped with the basic skills of research required to take you there. So this article is for you, for University students whether undergraduate or graduate and generally for researchers in different portfolios. Research is a big subject and it would not be possible to write a single article about it in
any depth. This is intended to be a general reference on all aspects of research types and should be used as notes for guidance. The content is intended to be fairly simple and easily graspable by most readers.
The major types of research include explanatory research, exploratory, descriptive,predictive, policy-oriented, evaluative and historical research among others. These are discussed in details as follows:
1. Exploratory Research
This form of research design is best suited for projects where there is a lot of uncertainty around the subject and there is very limited knowledge about that particular subject of interest. It may involve a literature search or conducting focus group discussions. The interest is to identify key issues and variables which can inform subsequent studies.
2. Descriptive research, Ex post facto
As its name denotes, descriptive research seeks to describe observations of phenomena as they are. Its objective is to provide accurate presentation factors or variables that are relevant to the research question. For example, a population census. The researcher has no control of variables.
3. Explanatory research
In this form of research, the aim is to identify the causal relationships among variables. You want to look for explanations of the nature of particular relationships. Therefore, the hypothesis will help to determine the relationships among the variables in the study. sometimes this kind of research is referred to as analytical study.
4. Policy-oriented research/Decision-oriented/Applied
The interest here is to look at how a problem Y can be solved or either be prevented in the near future. For example, one may be interested in understanding how the high unemployment rate in Uganda can be reduced? Its interest is to solve a problem at hand. However, this design of research must be informed by a theory. It must have a firm theoretical foundation.
5. Historical research
This type of study utilizes historical sources of information such as documents, artifacts or remains to explain the present. For example, why do we have laterites in America?
6. Conceptual vs empirical research
Conceptual research involves some abstract ideas or theories. This type is usually common with philosophers to develop new concepts. Whereas empirical research or experimental is relies on experience and observations. It involves getting facts to disprove or prove the stated hypothesis. This form of research involves the manipulation of variables and also the control of variables.
7. Fundamental research
This form of research is concerned with generalization and the formulation of theories. It could be generalization concerning human behavior. These adds knowledge to already existing knowledge and it is called basic or pure research. Pauline V Young calls it “gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
8. Quantitative vs qualitative research
Quantitative research involves measurement of quantity. It is to do with numbers, whereas qualitative research is concerned with quality, narratives. This is popular in the behavioral sciences where one studies how people feel, what they think of something, or why people think the way they do.
TYPES OF RESEARCH: AN INTRODUCTION
OK, you are in your first degree or a graduate and there seems to be a hard ceiling to your career that you can’t climb the staircase to the floor above you without showing a ticket to pass. That ticket could be published papers, a research degree, a master’s or a doctorate. Even if research doesn’t obsess you, you realize that a higher degree will be essential for any
promotion. You are aware that BSc or BA, an MSc or a PhD will enable you to climb to top management, greater responsibility, and wider opportunities. Research must be part of this process, for it is through doing research that you will learn to learn, observe, and to summon new knowledge to the greatest effect. Or: You are about to graduate. Your head is bursting with knowledge and ideas. The world, you hope, is waiting for you to make it a better place. How will you do this? You must be equipped with the basic skills of research required to take you there. So this article is for you, for University students whether undergraduate or graduate and generally for researchers in different portfolios. Research is a big subject and it would not be possible to write a single article about it in
any depth. This is intended to be a general reference on all aspects of research types and should be used as notes for guidance. The content is intended to be fairly simple and easily graspable by most readers.
The major types of research include explanatory research, exploratory, descriptive,predictive, policy-oriented, evaluative and historical research among others. These are discussed in details as follows:
1. Exploratory Research
This form of research design is best suited for projects where there is a lot of uncertainty around the subject and there is very limited knowledge about that particular subject of interest. It may involve a literature search or conducting focus group discussions. The interest is to identify key issues and variables which can inform subsequent studies.
2. Descriptive research, Ex post facto
As its name denotes, descriptive research seeks to describe observations of phenomena as they are. Its objective is to provide accurate presentation factors or variables that are relevant to the research question. For example, a population census. The researcher has no control of variables.
3. Explanatory research
In this form of research, the aim is to identify the causal relationships among variables. You want to look for explanations of the nature of particular relationships. Therefore, the hypothesis will help to determine the relationships among the variables in the study. sometimes this kind of research is referred to as analytical study.
4. Policy-oriented research/Decision-oriented/Applied
The interest here is to look at how a problem Y can be solved or either be prevented in the near future. For example, one may be interested in understanding how the high unemployment rate in Uganda can be reduced? Its interest is to solve a problem at hand. However, this design of research must be informed by a theory. It must have a firm theoretical foundation.
5. Historical research
This type of study utilizes historical sources of information such as documents, artifacts or remains to explain the present. For example, why do we have laterites in America?
6. Conceptual vs empirical research
Conceptual research involves some abstract ideas or theories. This type is usually common with philosophers to develop new concepts. Whereas empirical research or experimental is relies on experience and observations. It involves getting facts to disprove or prove the stated hypothesis. This form of research involves the manipulation of variables and also the control of variables.
7. Fundamental research
This form of research is concerned with generalization and the formulation of theories. It could be generalization concerning human behavior. These adds knowledge to already existing knowledge and it is called basic or pure research. Pauline V Young calls it “gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
8. Quantitative vs qualitative research
Quantitative research involves measurement of quantity. It is to do with numbers, whereas qualitative research is concerned with quality, narratives. This is popular in the behavioral sciences where one studies how people feel, what they think of something, or why people think the way they do.
This is a good start, I hope to see elepujulius.com in the near future.
ReplyDeleteHello Polo, thanks. I look forward to meeting with you and future engagements.
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