Research & Types of Researches

What is a Research?

Research is defined as a group of methods used to create new knowledge or use the existing knowledge in newer creative ways in order to generate state-of-art concepts, methods, as well as understanding the existing theories in a new light. Research is also defined as a method of carefully considering studies regarding a specific concern or problems with the help of scientific methods. Research refers to the systematic inquiry for describing, explaining, predicting, as well as controlling an observable phenomenon. Research involves the use of both inductive as well as deductive methods.

What are the important characteristics of research?

· Good research is focused on accuracy. It is critical for the information collected for the research to be accurate and unbiased. To ensure accuracy, the tools used in the research, the calibrations of the same as well as the final results of the research all help in assessing the accuracy of the study.

· The analysis of the research should be based on logic and it must involve both inductive and deductive methods to have a balanced view on the issue being studied.

· Practical data and knowledge should be derived from the naturalistic observations made by the researchers.

· In order to make sure there are no anomalies or biases affecting the research, researchers should engage in an in depth analysis of the collected data.

Types of Research Objectives

1. General Objective.

2. Specific Objectives.

3. Immediate Objectives.

4. Ultimate Objective.

General Objective

The general objective of a study states what is expected to be achieved by the study in general terms.

For example, if the problem identified is the low utilization of Child Welfare Clinics (CWC), the general objective of the study could be:

· To identify the reasons for the low utilization of Child Welfare Clinics in order to find solutions.

Specific Objectives

Given that we have rightly stated the general objectives, it is advisable to break it down into several smaller, logically connected parts. These are normally referred to as specific objectives.

Immediate Objectives

In addition to general objective and specific objectives, a few studies, particularly evaluative studies, attempt to specify immediate objectives. Immediate objective serves to indicate the focus of the proposed research in behavioral terms.

Ultimate Objective

Most applied research studies have a statement of ultimate objective that focuses on how the results will be used to motivate the program managers and policymakers for implementing and executing the recommendations followed from the survey results.

Research Driven Energy

What motivates people to conduct research? This is an extremely important issue. One or more of the following reasons could motivate you to conduct research

1. Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential benefits.

2. Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates research.

3. Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work.

4. Desire to be of service to society

5. Desire to get respectability.

However, this is not an exhaustive list of the factors that motivate people to participate in research studies.
Many other factors, such as government directives, employment conditions, curiosity about new things, desire to understand causal relationships, social thinking and awakening, and so on, may also motivate (or compel) people to conduct research operations.

Types of Research

The basic types of research are as follows:

Application Perspective

It is based on the final result. From an application standpoint, there are two categories.

1. Pure Research

2. Applied research

Pure Research

Pure basic research is research conducted solely for the enhancement of science, with no consideration for long-term economic or social benefits, and with no positive efforts made to apply the outcomes to practical problems or transfer the results to sectors responsible for their application.

Applied Research

This research type is widely used in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medical) fields. This research type focuses on applying Pure Research outcomes (Theories) into the real world situations. In applied research, there are two further perspectives.

· Technological applied research (Use some technology to apply that pure research theory)

· Scientific applied research (Predicting future issues based on the data and the pure research theory)

Objective Perspective

An objective statement is one that is unbiased and balanced and reflects facts over something. The statement is not influenced by the speaker’s previous experiences, prejudices, expectations, desires, or knowledge. As a result, they are independent and physical to the specific person’s mind. there are four categories.

1. Exploratory Research

2. Descriptive Research

3. Correlation Research

4. Explanatory Research

Exploratory Research

Exploratory researches are focused on the areas that is not well understood or sufficiently done research. If some researcher starting to do a research on an area that is not yet discovered properly or not understood yet, that research is called as an Exploratory Research.

For example, Even if there are some theories that says there is water on other planets, there are no much researches or proofs on that theory. So, NASA has started a research on that topic for further proof and knowledge. Therefore, that research can be called as an Exploratory Research.

Descriptive Research

Descriptive research, as the names indicate, describes the characteristics of the problem, phenomenon, situation, or group under investigation.

As a result, the goal of all descriptive research design is to investigate the problem’s background, details, and conventional patterns in order to fully comprehend it. To put it another way, preliminary research.

Correlational Research

This is a non-experimental type of research method. Correlational researches can identify the relationship between two or more variables. Which means a researcher measures two variables, understands and assesses the statistical relationship between them with no influence from any extraneous variable. There are two types of Correlational Research.

Positive correlation — When an increase in one variable leads to a rise in the other variable and decrease in one variable will see a reduction in the other variable.

Negative correlation — If there is an increase in one variable, the second variable will show a decrease and vice versa.

Explanatory Research

Explanatory research is defined as a strategy for collecting information in order to describe a phenomenon. Because the tendency being studied began with a single piece of data, it is the researcher’s responsibility to collect additional data.

In other words, explanatory research is a method used to explore a phenomenon (a situation worth studying) that has not previously been studied or adequately explained. It is a process whose goal is to determine what might be a potential solution to the problem.

Enquiry Mode Perspective

For a research, it’s compulsory to collect data before begin. In Enquiry mode perspective, research types are determined based on the data type that collected for the research. Based on that data type, researches can be divided into three types.

· Quantitative Research

· Qualitative Research

· Mixed Method Research

Quantitative research

Quantitative research methods data analyzed and statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data gathered through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, as well as by attempting to manipulate which was before statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research is concerned with collecting numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or explaining a specific phenomenon. The final written report follows a predetermined structure that includes an introduction, literature and theory, methodologies, results, and discussion.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is the opposite of the Quantitative research method. Which means that Qualitative research requires non-numerical data. (e.g., text, video, or audio) With qualitative research method we can understand concepts, opinions or experiences. Qualitative research is widely used in the humanities and social sciences. (e.g., Education, Health sciences, History, etc.)

For example, “What factors influence employee retention in a large organization?” is a qualitative research because as it seems it require non-numerical data to process the final outcome.

Mixed Method Research

Mixed methods research is a research design wherein researchers collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data within a single study to answer their research question.

This type of research can help provide a more complete picture than a study that relies solely on quantitative or qualitative research. This is because it allows the researcher to gain a depth and breadth of understanding on a specific concept while offsetting the weaknesses that are inherent when using either approach alone.